Kome Ajise is the new executive director of the Southern California Association of Governments. He has three decades of experience in regional planning and transportation, most recently as the Director of Planning at SCAG. Prior to working at SCAG, Kome was the Chief Deputy Director at the California Department of Transportation (Caltrans), where he was responsible for internal operations, overseeing more than 18,000 employees and a budget in excess of $1.1 billion. Previously, he was Caltrans’ Deputy Director of Planning and Modal Programs and oversaw the Aeronautics, Mass Transportation, Rail, Transportation Planning, Local Assistance, and Research Innovation and System Information Divisions. Kome has a Bachelor of Science degree in Geography and Regional Planning from the University of Benin, Nigeria and a Master of City and Regional Planning degree from California State University, Fresno.
Frances Anderton is Host of DnA: Design and Architecture, a weekly radio show broadcast on KCRW NPR station in Los Angeles, and online at kcrw.com/dna. Previously she produced KCRW’s acclaimed current affairs shows, To The Point, and Which Way, LA?, hosted by Warren Olney. Anderton also curates events and exhibitions; these include Sink Or Swim: Designing For a Sea Change, about resilient architecture, at the Annenberg Space for Photography. Her books include Grand Illusion: A Story of Ambition, and its Limits, on LA’s Bunker Hill, based on a studio she co-taught with Frank Gehry and partners at USC School of Architecture. Her DnA series Bridges and Walls, about the infrastructure connecting and dividing communities in California, won the 2019 LA Press Club award for investigative reporting.
Christophe Arnaud is the CEO of Blue Systems, the Bolloré Smart Mobility Division. He is responsible for the development of Mobility and Infrastructure as a Service (MAAS & IAAS) solutions for cities around the world. In addition to that, he is the President of Blue Solutions smart charging and shared mobility operations in the UK and US since 2014.
In this role, Christophe developed and launched in Los Angeles the first in the world mobility platform that enables cities to monitor and regulate micro-mobility within their city limits.
He is also in charge of the company’s two US-based carsharing services, including BlueLA that provides low-income neighborhoods of Los Angeles with clean and affordable transportation options.
In London, Christophe has led the ground-breaking initiative focusing of deployment of a charging infrastructure and a single platform for all types of users of electric vehicles (individuals, private and public fleets – including London Metropolitan police and Electric Black Cabs). The service aggregates real time information from over 1200 charging stations and processes over 300,000 charging and parking sessions a year.
Previously, Christophe worked for IER (2007-2014) which is another division within the Bolloré Group, which designs and sells solutions to manage the flow of passengers and baggage in airports and railway stations.
Christophe began his career in the automotive industry as a product manager at Valeo and then joined Faurecia as a sales manager in the “Automotive Seating” division.
He graduated from Ecole Centrale Paris engineering school and SKEMA Business School.
Christophe enjoys mountaineering activities and has climbed several peaks over 5000 m of altitude. He also practices paragliding, cycling and running.
Baguio is an experienced leader that has managed large scale projects to on-time and on-budget success. He is experienced in managing cross-functional teams including operations, finance, real estate, legal, government relations, media relations and procurement. He has worked to develop consensus between multiple regulatory agencies, municipalities, counties and state government to achieve complex solutions that lead to project completion. His leadership and calm problem solving have helped bring projects ranging from school bus operations startup to the opening of major light rail systems to successful completion.
Sam Baker is the COO and co-founder of Wunder Mobility, helping cities and companies around the globe to plan, develop and deploy safer, more efficient transport solutions faster than ever before.
After graduating from Santa Clara University, Sam started his career at Ebay supporting executive decision-making for a complex network of international subsidiaries and strategic acquisitions. He lived in Central America where he led a project funded by the Mastercard Foundation to launch innovative financial products for youth.
When he returned to California, Sam joined the Just Business (JB) venture capital firm as a partner investing in socially impactful businesses. He also served on the board of directors for Squarebar, an organic protein bar company. Additionally, Sam is an active startup investor and nonprofit advisor.
Stephen is a former senior writer on technology at BusinessWeek and the author of influential books in the field, including The Numerati, the acclaimed study on the rise of the applied math gurus who use the explosion of digital data to model and predict human behavior. He also tracked the development of IBM’s Jeopardy computer, and later wrote Final Jeopardy: Man vs Machine and the Quest to Know Everything. He followed that with the dystopian novel, The Boost, which Kirkus Reviews called “a techno-thriller with deep, dark roots in the present.”
Chris Ballinger is the CEO and Co-founder of the Mobility Open Blockchain Initiative (MOBI), a consortium of government agencies, academic institutions, companies, and public organizations exploring blockchain and distributed ledger technology to improve mobility, transit, and logistics. Chris’ background spans from finance to mobility and innovation. After receiving a Master’s degree in Economics from the University of California, Berkeley, Chris served as Senior Vice President of Treasury at Bank of America and Staff Economist at the President’s Council of Economic Advisors under President Reagan. Chris then moved into the mobility sector, serving 14 years at Toyota Financial Services, where he served in various global leadership roles, as SVP, CFO, and Chief of Strategic Innovation. In April 2017, Chris joined the Toyota Research Institute as CFO and Director of Mobility and Blockchain Services. Since launching MOBI in May 2018, Chris and the MOBI community have been at the forefront of the new economy of movement.
Oliver Bishop is the General Manager for Shell’s global activities in hydrogen. His team runs Shell’s hydrogen stations in Germany, UK, the Netherlands and North America, and he is also responsible for product development as well as research and development.
He is responsible for Shell’s participation in the H2 Mobility Germany 400 Hydrogen station joint venture which was launched in 2015 and is now rolling out stations across Germany. In California, Shell won funding to build 7 stations and more recently to build 3 hydrogen heavy duty truck refuelling stations in the Ports of Long Beach and Los Angeles. More recently, his team won funding to build a bus refuelling station in Groningen, the Netherlands. Besides his hydrogen activities, Mr Bishop is a Director of several Royal Dutch Shell companies.
During his 21-year career at Shell, Mr Bishop was General Manager for Shell’s trading business in Switzerland, held a post as M&A Manager in Shell’s Mergers & Acquisitions team, and has had previous roles in Fuels Retailing, Finance, Strategy and Consulting.
He holds a degree in electronics engineering and is based in Switzerland with his wife and two children. He holds dual Swiss and British citizenship.
Dheeraj Bhardwaj is CEO of Arnab Mobility based in UAE. Unique blend of experience ranging from intense R&D, technology start-ups through to large corporates and Strategy Consulting. Advised and consulted for a number of Government departments and businesses in the UK, India and Middle East on Strategy, Innovation and Technology implementations. Dheeraj’s main areas of expertise are development and operationalization of strategies primarily for Real Estate, Retail, Oil & Gas and Transport sectors.
Played a major role in the development of India’s Supercomputer PARAM and it’s applications, instrumental in transforming construction industry in the UK and Middle East, developed Innovation Strategy for $25 bn Crossrail project in London and award winning “Dubai Innovation Index”. As a digital & innovation consulting lead of PwC, Dheeraj has developed a number of strategies for Road and Transport Authority in Middle East such as Innovation Strategy, Marine PPP, Automated Fare Collection (AFC) strategies.
Dheeraj holds a PhD in Computing Science from IIT Delhi and MBA from Imperial College London, UK. Published c.50 research papers in reputed journals. Recipient of two Young Scientist Awards from the Government of India for his innovations and was invited to present his Innovations at NASA, USA.
Johana Bhuiyan is a business reporter at the Los Angeles Times covering the technology industry with a focus on accountability. Bhuiyan, who previously covered the future of transportation for more than four years, is particularly interested in interrogating how tech impacts real people as well as civil liberties. Based in San Francisco, Bhuiyan most recently worked at Recode as a senior editor and prior to that worked at BuzzFeed News and Politico NY.
Audrey Brady is Vice President, Sikorsky Commercial Systems & Services.
She joined Sikorsky nearly 10 years ago and has held multiple roles of increasing responsibility including: Director for Sikorsky’s S-92® Helicopter Program, Operations Manager in Rotor Systems, Senior Operations Manager and Director in the Connecticut Assembly and Flight Operations for the production of Black Hawk and Naval Hawk aircraft.
Most recently, Audrey served as General Manager of Sikorsky’s Coatesville, Pennsylvania operations, where she was responsible for the assembly, production, completion and delivery of Sikorsky commercial helicopters, including the S-92 and S-76® programs. For three years, she led the site’s operations, business development and financial strategies.
Audrey began her career with Pratt & Whitney in 1996 as a Design Engineer and progressed quickly within the engineering organization. In 2002, she transferred to Operations where she held the positions of Business Center Manager, Manufacturing Engineering Manager and Commodity Manager within the Supply Chain group.
Audrey is a licensed private helicopter pilot and holds Bachelor of Science degrees in Mathematics & Mechanical Engineering from Trinity College, a Master of Science degree in Mechanical Engineering from Stanford University, and an MBA from Carnegie Mellon.
Richard is Director of Energy, Technology and Innovation (E.T.I) at the UK’s Department for Transport. He leads on policy to move the nation’s road transport onto more sustainable footing, whilst maximising the economic opportunities for the UK from the move into future mobility. His teams direct and deliver UK-wide policies and programmes worth around £1bn including on zero emission vehicles, low carbon fuels, improving air quality, and international negotiation of regulations on vehicle safety and emissions. Richard is the Department’s lead on policy on carbon, air quality and the future of mobility.
Andrew is highly experienced in a broad range of project scales and types. He is highly committed to active design leadership and has made telling contributions to several of the firm’s award-winning projects. He is a Registered Architect in the State of California and a member of the American Institute of Architects, as well as a member of the Royal Australian Institute of Architects and the Royal Institute of British Architects. He earned his Bachelor of Architecture with Honors from the University of Melbourne.
After more than twelve years of experience in London with Grimshaw, Andrew relocated to Los Angeles in 2017 to establish and lead a new studio for the practice. In 2019 Andrew joined the Grimshaw partnership. Andrew is currently the Design Partner for the LAX Airport Metro Connector and the Los Angeles Union Station Forecourt, a unique opportunity to transform an underutilized existing space into a civic plaza with improved pedestrian and cycling connections. Through this work Andrew has developed a strong and successful relationship with LA Metro, representing their design interests to diverse stakeholder groups including Mayor Garcetti and the Los Angeles World Airports authority. Andrew also leads the master plan for Sacramento Valley Station, an ongoing initiative which will accommodate the growing transportation needs of the city and set the stage for a vibrant, mixed-use district around the station.
Malcolm Cain is currently the director of the newly-created Office of Inclusion at New York City’s Taxi and Limousine Commission. The City Council and the TLC created the Office of Inclusion to examine, address, and end discriminatory service refusals in New York City. Malcolm has worked for the TLC since 2015, most recently as the Deputy Director of External Affairs. He began his career in public service in 2010 at the NYC Department of Health, before working at the Office of Administrative Trials and Hearings (OATH). Throughout his City service, he has had the privilege and responsibility of communicating vital city policies to diverse communities across the city. Malcolm has a deep passion for equitable transportation in the City of New York, and wishes to continue to find ways to address this issue at a systemic level.
Christina Calderato is the Head of Transport Strategy and Planning at Transport for London. For the last 12 years, she has worked across a diverse range of policy areas at TfL and led the team that developed the Mayor’s Transport Strategy. In her current role, Christina is responsible for developing strategic transport policy across the TfL network over the next 30 years. This includes working closely with the Mayor of London, GLA and other senior TfL Managers to set the direction of the Mayor’s transport strategy, develop policies to deliver strategic objectives and ensure delivery across TfL.
Harry Campbell is a former Boeing Aerospace Engineer and founder of TheRideshareGuy.com, a blog, podcast and Youtube channel for Uber and Lyft drivers and the author of a new book titled The Rideshare Guide: Everything you need to know about driving for Uber, Lyft and other ridesharing companies. Harry has quickly established himself as one of the top rideshare industry experts with appearances in hundreds of top media publications and his site is trafficked by hundreds of thousands of visitors every single month. He currently serves as an advisor to LA CoMotion.
Civil Engineer graduated in POLI – USP.
With more than 40 years in public administration, Mr. Caram has also worked in different areas of the public sector such as Health, Culture and Social Assistance.
Recently, he worked as Director at Traffic and Engineering Company, responsible for the all the roads in the city. Also, he worked as Coordinator in different areas at Traffic and Engineering Company.
Mr. Caram is also a construction entrepreneur.
Ellie Casson is the Head of Local Public Policy for Waymo (formerly the Google Self Driving Car Project). Prior to joining Waymo, Ellie served on the Public Policy Team at Airbnb, as Silicon Valley Congresswoman Anna Eshoo’s Campaign Manager, and as a Community Organizer for the Bay Area environmental organization Greenbelt Alliance.
Outside of work, Ellie serves as a Delegate to the California Democratic Party and is involved in affordable housing advocacy. Ellie holds a bachelor’s degree in Sustainable Urban Planning from Hampshire College.
She lives in Oakland with her husband and daughter.
Arnab’s focus is on the mobility and energy transition, working at the intersection of Markets, Technology and Policy. Over the last 5 years at Shell, Arnab has looked at improving mobility efficiency at a systems level, spinning up a freight optimization product in Manila, leading hydrogen strategy and building up the EV charging network in the US. Most recently, he has been looking at how Heavy Duty vehicles may transition to zero emission fleets and has been building 3 heavy duty hydrogen refueling stations in Los Angeles. Arnab is a member of the Leadership Council at Cyclotron Road (where he made investments in Treau and Opus 12) and an advisor to the MAN futures accelerator. Prior to joining Shell, Arnab worked at McKinsey & Co (Calgary) and at Sofinnova Partners (Paris/San Francisco) where he deployed $70m into industrial biotechnology/renewable companies at Series A/B level. He went on to work at two portfolio companies, notably BioAmber leading a major product development effort and was part of the team that took it to IPO. Arnab has a DPhil in Semiconductor Chemistry from Oxford University and an MBA from INSEAD.
Regina is the CEO and Co-founder of Populus, a data platform for cities to manage the future of mobility. Trusted by leading cities and the world’s largest mobility operators, the Populus platform securely ingests real-time data from shared electric scooters, bikes, and cars – helping operators and cities partner to deliver safe, equitable, and efficient streets through better data and analytics.
Regina has over a decade of experience in transportation, having served as a research scientist and lecturer at Stanford, UC Berkeley, and UC Davis. Prior to forming Populus, Regina was the Director of Business Development and Strategy at RideScout, an early mobility-as-a-service aggregator that was acquired by moovel, Daimler and BMW’s mobility services unit. Regina has been named a 40 Under 40 by Mass Transit magazine and the San Francisco Business Times. She has a Ph.D. in transportation and energy systems from MIT, and a bachelor’s in computer science from Cornell.
Alan Cohen is a senior marketing executive with extensive experience across e-commerce, digital marketing, advertising, branding and PR. He has led marketing for industry leaders including Westfield, OtterBox, Napster and Jim Beam. He currently is CMO and head of Communications for REEF Technology, leading all marketing as the company is transforming its industry leading 4500 parking lots across North America to last mile hubs for the on-demand economy.
Philippe Crist is Administrator and Advisor for Innovation and Foresight of the International Transport Forum (ITF) at the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD). He develops and implements innovation and foresight tasks at the ITF, plans and coordinates research of the ITF’s Corporate Partnership Board and manages international research projects for the ITF’s 59 Member countries. His current work focuses on disruptive urban mobility scenarios and examines how car-based and active mobility, public transport and taxis must adapt to these. He is also leading work on Data science and public policy within the ITF investigating new strategies to leverage knowledge derived from new and rapidly growing data sources to improve transport decision-making. He is a recognised world expert on transport disruption, cycling safety and urban mobility. In 2016 he won the Danish Cycling Embassy’s Leadership Award for Cycling Promotion. His other work currently looks at managing mobility in rapidly growing urban areas, assessing GHG emission strategies in the transport sector, as well as investigating national transport asset and network management strategies. A French-American dual national, he is an ex-competitive cyclist and avid mushroom hunter. He also does much of his best thinking on a bicycle.
Jordan Davis is the Director of Smart Columbus for the Columbus Partnership leading strategy and public-private partnerships for the Central Ohio region’s $550 million smart cities initiative. She was instrumental in Columbus becoming the sole winner of the U.S. Department of Transportation’s Smart Cities Challenge in 2016 and since has managed the upstart of a new joint venture for the region focused on realizing a connected, autonomous, shared, and electric transportation ecosystem that improves people’s lives. Jordan oversees an aggressive electric vehicle adoption program, shared mobility growth plan, autonomous vehicle deployment, and a dynamic corporate engagement portfolio.
Previously she led member and community affairs for the Columbus Partnership, CEO organization representing the largest employers in Central Ohio focused on improving the economic prosperity for the region. In that role she drove the thought leadership agenda for the region’s business community and advanced community impact initiatives. One of which was the formation of Columbus’ Student Engagement Strategy, a first of its kind initiative focused on retaining Ohio State students post-graduation with innovative programming and community engagement.
In the community, Jordan is Co-founder of the Central Ohio Leadership Academy and member of the board for Columbus School for Girls.
As a General Manager of Partner Cities at Via, Obinna oversees launches in new markets, developing the strategy and logistics behind our go-to market plan, setting growth goals, managing on-the-ground teams, and ensuring operational excellence and customer satisfaction.
Obinna joined Via in 2016 as an Operations Principal, primarily focusing on driver acquisition and vehicle supply, teaming with individuals and leasing partners to build, optimize, and maintain a base of vehicles best suited for Via’s technology. Obinna leads Via’s platform deployments in Arlington, TX and West Sacramento, CA, where he led the effort to create a first-of-its-kind shared Metris van fleet, powered by Daimler’s Van2Share technology.
Prior to Via, Obinna was a tech entrepreneur, consultant to Fortune 500 tech and financial companies, and an investor in transportation and building product companies.
Romain leads the Paris Region’s consulting practice for the urban mobility and new space sectors. He has 10+ years of experience advising companies looking to expand and plug into the regional ecosystem. He specializes in growth strategy, go-to-market, public-private partnerships.
Before joining Choose Paris Region, Romain worked for the economic development agency of Eastern France and the Ministry of Economy, Science and Innovation of Quebec, Canada.
Romain holds a master’s degree in marketing from Grenoble IAE Graduate School of Management.
He regularly participates in conferences about the future of transportation, the space industry, innovation, entrepreneurship and French business practices.
Nir Erez sees the future of urban mobility and in it, data is the determinant.
As Co-founder and CEO of Moovit, a leading Mobility as a Service (MaaS) provider and the world’s #1 urban mobility app, Nir Erez believes data companies will become the operating system – the brains and heart – of smart cities. Moovit, he says, is poised to be the leader. Indeed, Moovit is an early pioneer of MaaS, with its free transit app that currently has 500 million users and predicted to surge to one billion by 2021. Moovit owns and operates the world’s largest repository of urban mobility data, adding more than four billion anonymized data points a day from its users. Moovit’s community of 550,000 local editors who contribute hyper-local data to the app make Moovit the Wikipedia of Transit.
Claire Enslin is a Product Designer at WhereIsMyTransport specialising in using technology to create real world transport solutions for the global south. She has a Masters in City and Regional Planning from the University of Cape Town where she focussed on gender experiences of safety and freedom of movement within urban landscapes in emerging contexts. This informed her first role at WhereIsMyTransport where she managed the Data Collection team to map informally run transport systems in Africa.
Kevin leads Optibus’ North America operation, leveraging over 20 years of successful general management and strategic leadership in sales, marketing, product development and customer success. Kevin has extensive experience in the mobility and artificial intelligence spheres. He served as vice president and general manager of the enterprise division of Seattle-based INRIX, the leading provider of data and insight into how people move around the world, and in several executive roles at RealNetworks, which uses artificial intelligence and machine learning to develop applications for facial recognition and the real-time delivery and playback of audio, video and other media content. Kevin is the former CEO of Point Inside, a Seattle-area mobile application developer of indoor customer navigation for the retail sector, and of social merchandising service Bevy. He holds an MBA from Harvard Business School.
Jascha Franklin-Hodge is the Executive Director of the Open Mobility Foundation (OMF). This city-led foundation helps government and industry collaborate to develop open source tools and data standards that support adoption and regulation of emerging mobility technology.
He previously served in the cabinet of Mayor Martin J. Walsh as Boston’s Chief Information Officer, and lead the City’s Department of Innovation and Technology. He managed a team responsible for the City’s efforts to build exceptional, user-centered digital services, harness data to improve quality of life, empower City employees with effective technology, and improve access to the Internet and technical skills training for all Boston residents.
Previously, Franklin-Hodge co-founded Blue State Digital (BSD) where he oversaw the development and operation of the BSD Tools, an online fundraising, email, and CRM platform that raised over $1B and powered the digital presence of President Barack Obama’s 2008 and 2012 campaigns.
Franklin-Hodge has been a Visiting Fellow at the Harvard Kennedy School, working at the intersection of mobility, technology, and public policy, and a consultant to the private sector on new mobility and smart cities.
He serves on the boards of LivableStreets Alliance, Tech Goes Home, and MITX (Massachusetts Information Technology Exchange). He studied computer science at MIT.
Vignesh Ganapathy is Head of Government Relations at Postmates, an on-demand logistics and delivery company. He manages the company’s legislative and regulatory program, focused on the future of work, privacy, robotics, mobility, and how tech intersects with our communities. Through 2018, Vignesh headed policy for the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) of Kansas, building a community-focused civil rights agenda in the Midwest. Vignesh began his career with a deep passion for advocacy. After attending the University of California – Santa Cruz, he joined Kamala Harris’s 2010 campaign for California’s Attorney General and worked on the case that legalized same sex marriage in California in 2008. He is a graduate of the University of Pacific McGeorge School of Law, where he studied in a program with Supreme Court Justices Anthony Kennedy and Elena Kagan.
Eric Garcetti is the 42nd Mayor of Los Angeles. His “back to basics” agenda is focused on job creation and solving everyday problems for L.A. residents.
Garcetti was elected four times by his peers to serve as President of the Los Angeles City Council from 2006 to 2012. From 2001 until taking office as Mayor, he served as the Councilmember representing the 13th District which includes Hollywood, Echo Park, Silver Lake, and Atwater Village — all of which were dramatically revitalized under Garcetti’s leadership.
Garcetti was raised in the San Fernando Valley and earned his B.A. and M.A. from Columbia University. He studied as a Rhodes Scholar at Oxford and the London School of Economics and taught at Occidental College and USC. A fourth generation Angeleno, he and his wife, Amy Elaine Wakeland, have a young daughter. He is a Lieutenant in the U.S. Navy reserve and is an avid jazz pianist and photographer.
Between 2003 and 2015, he was a consultant in the area of transports with experience in planning and transports engineering. In urban mobility, he collaborated in different projects, with emphasis on the parking regulation and urban logistic. In terms of public transport, he has been involved in regulatory, contractual and procurement issues, including the development of innovative on-demand transport initiatives. More recently, he developed projects in the area of the development of Intelligent Transport Systems.
He was assistant of the Deputy Secretary of State and Environment of the XXI constitutional government until he was elected to a councilor of Municipality of Lisboa, where he participated actively in the development of sectorial regulation legislation, including innovative transport solutions and where he provided technical support for the Ministry of the Environment regarding its role as Transport Authority. He also actively participated in the process of the transference of Carris (Public Company of Lisbon Transports) to the Municipality of Lisboa and STCP management process, as well as in the design of public financing instruments for the transportation system.
Nowadays, is the Deputy Mayor for Mobility and Safety, responsible of the Municipal Police, Municipal Direction of Mobility, Carris and EMEL.
Alex Gibson is Director of Mobility Strategy at TransLoc. With his interest in solving meaningful problems, Alex is applying both his passion for transportation infrastructure and data and his understanding of how to leverage those assets to make public transportation and cities the best they can be. Through alignment and evangelism, Alex ensures that his team is able to combine data with the mission of TransLoc to become the most trusted provider of accessible and accurate transit data and information. Prior to joining TransLoc, Alex founded multiple companies, including third-party logistics firm Riley Life Logistics, and worked in Product Management at Rally Software to help build products to make engineering teams more successful.
Casey Gifford is a project manager for King County Metro’s Innovative Mobility program.
She is a leader in implementing public-private partnerships that leverage emerging mobility services and new technologies to improve regional mobility, advance equity, improve the environment, and support thriving communities. She has spearheaded partnership projects with Via, Lyft, Uber, Lime, Waze Carpool, Scoop, car2go, ReachNow, Zipcar, and others. Casey led the development, implementation, and evaluation of Metro’s Via to Transit first/last mile pilot, one of the top-performing services of its kind. She previously worked with large employers to deliver leading-edge commute trip reduction strategies.
Casey is a former Fulbright Fellow with a Masters in Urban Planning and Management from Aalborg University.
Raphaël is a cofounder of Bestmile and as CEO he is the executive leader of the company’s business and technical teams. He is a pioneer in the world of autonomous mobility, having led a project with Swiss Federal Institute of Technology (EPFL) in Lausanne with cofounder Anne Mellano to test and operate some of the first autonomous vehicle projects in Europe, after which organizers of autonomous mobility projects from throughout the world requested their expertise in defining and managing autonomous mobility trials. He is active in many global industry organizations including the World Economic Forum’s Tech Pioneers.
Pierre Gosset is the Chief Technical Officer of SYSTRA Group. He is a member of Systra’s Executive Committee. As part of his responsibilities, he oversees the Innovation and Digital development of SYSTRA Group in the new mobility field. Pierre has more than 20 years experience in the Railway business. He started his career as a Signalling engineer in RATP in Paris. He then moved to Alstom Transport where he spent 16 years and had various positions in projects, commercial, Product Management and transversal fields. He headed Alstom Transport Engineering department from 2012 to 2014 as Vice-President.
He has then been nominated Systra Group Chief Technical Officer early 2015. Pierre Gosset has a wealth of experience in railway and mass-transit projects covering Signalling, E&M, Infrastructures and Rolling Stocks. He had the opportunity to work in various context and has got a multi-cultural international background.
Mark Groden is the founder and CEO of Skyryse, a transportation company making urban air travel a viable option for more people. At 16, he joined the U.S. Air Force lab at Case Western as an aerospace engineer. There, he built the world’s first micro fixed-wing UAV (unmanned aerial vehicle) capable of vertical takeoff. He went on to earn a PhD in sensor data fusion from the University of Michigan and then started Skyryse. He is on the Forbes 30 Under 30 list.
Johannes is leading the German and Vancouver sales and business development teams at INVERS. He has a strong background in shared mobility starting to work in the industry at Daimler Rental Sales in Germany in 2012. With his 10+ years experience in sales, Johannes pushes his passionate teams to onboard innovative operators who are eager to make cities mobility rich. In 2014, Johannes pushed internally to adjust the sharing platform to work with electric mopeds. Today, INVERS has a 50% market share for moped sharing in Europe. He believes in greener and happier cities when congestion and exhausts are diminished. As a shared mobility enthusiast, Johannes is commuting actively multi-modal with moped-, scooter-, car- and bikesharing, public transit and his personal electric longboard.
In the past years, Johannes contracted major European players who have been growing ever since thanks to the most reliable platform in the world INVERS has to offer. Customers are Daimler Mobility, Renault, Volvo M and hundreds of startups such as Getaround Europe and Coup by Bosch.
Christine Harada is President of i(x) investments. Ms. Harada has over 20 years of success in leading government and management consulting organizations. She previously served as the Federal Chief Sustainability Officer for the United States during the Obama administration. In this role, she provided oversight for all sustainability-related initiatives across the federal government in energy, fleet, and acquisitions-game-changing improvements that added to our nation’s clean energy future.
Her successes include developing and implementing policies to reduce the Federal government’s carbon footprint that resulted in an 18% reduction in greenhouse gas emissions, a 23% reduction in energy use at Federal facilities and 177 billion gallons of drinkable water saved. She also was responsible for investing $4B in federal building to improve aging infrastructure and lower overall energy consumption that led to an estimated 33,700 private sector jobs and resulted in efficiency gains that will save 1.4 million tons of CO2 emissions annually.
Prior to her White House role, Ms. Harada was the Acting Chief of Staff and U.S. General Services Administration where she was responsible for the overall operations supporting 12,000 federal workers with an annual operating budget of $26B. While at the GSA, Ms. Harada also served as Associate Administrator, Government-wide Policy and Chief Acquisition Officer responsible for transforming a “business model” to provide more proactive, evidence-based policies, and increased transparency at the agency.
She has extensive expertise in business strategy and translating that into operational excellence. Concurrently, she is a Fellow with the Los Angeles CleanTech Incubator. In addition, she is a member of the board of directors of Novume Solutions and the Millennium Institute.
Sean Harrington has a successful history of building very early-stage operations into high-growth businesses. As vice president of City Solutions for Verizon, he is responsible for the company’s overall product strategy and roadmap for smart communities. He leads a 100-person team whose skills span device development, software development, computer vision and QA/test.
Sean joined Verizon in October 2016 through the acquisition of Sensity Systems, pioneer of light sensory networks. Sean was chief operating officer (COO) and part of the founding team at Sensity, building the company from the ground up to become a worldwide leader in smart-city technology. Verizon acquired Sensity as part of a broader investment to build out a robust set of products and solutions to help cities address their most pressing challenges.
Sean put his entrepreneurial skills to work as a case writer for the Center for Entrepreneurial Studies at the Stanford Graduate School of Business, where he had earlier earned his MBA. His technology expertise began with his bachelor’s degree in geomatics engineering from the University of Calgary (Canada).
Sean is a frequent speaker at industry events and is co-chair for the C100, a nonprofit that leverages a network of leading Canadian technologists, entrepreneurs and investors in Silicon Valley to help accelerate the innovation economy in Canada.
Sean is an avid ultramarathon runner who has completed numerous 50- and 100-mile trail running races plus the legendary 6-day Marathon des Sables across the Moroccan Sahara.
Chuck Harrington is the Chairman, Chief Executive Officer, and President of the Parsons Corporation, a digitally enabled solutions provider in the defense, intelligence and critical infrastructure markets with annual revenues exceeding $3.6 billion.
Chuck joined Parsons in 1982 as an engineer performing technical and later project management duties on classified projects for the U.S. Departments of Energy and Defense. He progressed into business development and sales to federal government organizations, later becoming Vice President and Program Manager of a multibillion-dollar engineering project with the U.S. Department of Energy’s Savannah River Site.
Before his appointment in 2006 to the position of Executive Vice President, Chief Financial Officer, and Treasurer, he was the founding President of Parsons Commercial Technology Group — one of Parsons’ global business units — and led Parsons into the biotechnology, semiconductor, and wireless communications markets. In 2008, Chuck became CEO and then Chairman. He was named President in 2009.
A native Californian, Chuck graduated with honors from California Polytechnic State University, San Luis Obispo with a bachelor’s degree in engineering. He later received a master’s degree in business administration with concentrations in finance and marketing from the Anderson School of Management at the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA).
David joined Covestro in 2004 when it was the chemical arm of Bayer. He is presently the Senior Vice President of the Polycarbonates business unit leading a broad portfolio of ventures and entrepreneurial activities from new mobility and energy storage to business model innovation, where Covestro projects significant growth.
During his career at Covestro David has spent time as futurist on the strategy team, run M&A projects and driven supply chain build-up in the Indian sub-continent. He also spent one and a half years on sabbatical, publishing “Complexity is Free”, a novel on the future of 3D-printing, and working on his start-up focusing on 3D-printed wearable devices.
Christopher Hawthorne is the Chief Design Officer for the city of Los Angeles, a position appointed by Mayor Eric Garcetti. Prior to joining City Hall, Hawthorne was architecture critic for the Los Angeles Times from 2004 to 2018. He is professor of the practice at Occidental College, where since 2015 he has directed the Third Los Angeles Project, a series of public conversations about architecture, urban planning, mobility, and demographic change in Southern California. A frequent collaborator with KCET-TV, the PBS affiliate in Los Angeles, he wrote and directed the hour-long 2018 documentary “That Far Corner: Frank Lloyd Wright in Los Angeles,” for which he received an L.A.-area Emmy Award. Hawthorne grew up in Berkeley, California and holds a bachelor’s degree from Yale, where he studied political science and architectural history.
Sampo Hietanen is the founding CEO of MaaS Global, a fast-growing mobility company from Finland that intends to lead the revolution to change the 10 000 billion euro transportation sector. He is also a recognized expert and a persuasive speaker on the future of mobility and on the power of open ecosystems.
Sampo’s vision for the future is partly technological but fundamentally human: “The technology is already here. All we need to do is figure out our customers’ dream, and build the services to match it.”
Elba Higueros also serves as the Chief Policy Officer for LA Metro, overseeing the Office of the CEO and Board Relations. Currently leading Metro’s Women and Girls Governing Council that examines how Metro’s policies, programs and services impact the lives of women and girls in LA County and provide recommendations to help advance and empower women and girls. She has over 16 years’ experience working in the transportation industry in various fields. She previously worked on the LA County Congestion Reduction Program for LA Metro focused on the implementation and operation activities of the ExpressLanes toll operations. She serves as a Director on the Latinos in Transit Board and has a BA from Mount St. Mary’s College
Dr. Bruce Holmes, a well-known and widely experienced senior executive and leader in aeronautics technologies, has worked more than 40 years in both industry and government. He joined Alaka’i Technologies Corporation as a member of the Board of Directors in 2018. In the 1990s during his NASA career, Dr. Holmes worked closely with senior executives of the Alaka’i team on a major NASA-industry partnership, the Advanced General Aviation Transport Experiments (AGATE) Alliance that in part inspired their present collaboration.
Dr. Holmes, who serves on boards of directors in industry and academia, also sits on advisory councils in government, including an FAA Administrator’s Advisory Committee and the U.S. National Academies Intelligence Science and Technology Experts Group for the Office of the Director for National Intelligence. He also serves as a Senior Advisor to a Washington DC-based investment banking firm, FOCUS Bankers.
In 2007, Dr. Holmes retired from public service of 33 years with the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) as a member of the federal Senior Executive Service. While at NASA, he directed a variety of technology advancement programs in civil aviation.
Dr. Holmes served in the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy during 2000 and 2001 in aviation and commercial space policy analysis. He was a founding contributor to the U.S. Joint Planning and Development Office (JPDO), leading the development of the strategies for the U.S. Next Generation Air Transportation System (NextGen).
His contributions to the creation of the emerging market for on-demand air mobility are chronicled in the books, Free Flight, by James Fallows, 2001, and The Great Eclipse, by Dennis Maxwell, 2011. Dr. Holmes holds six patents and is the author of more than 100 technical papers. He is a flight instructor, and commercial, jet- and seaplane-rated pilot of more than 50 years; Bruce is a recent recipient of the FAA Wright Brothers Master Pilot Award. He is a Fellow of the American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics and the Royal Aeronautical Establishment, plus the recipient of numerous industry and government awards. His academic background includes undergraduate, graduate, and Doctor of Engineering degrees from the University of Kansas and post-graduate work as a Senior Executive Fellow at Harvard in the Kennedy School of Government.
Danielle J. Harris is the Director of Mobility Innovation at Elemental Excelerator, where she works with portfolio companies, partners, and cities to catalyze collaboration within the mobility industry. As a thought leader in new mobility with 10 years of experience in transit planning, street design and transportation policy, Danielle provides a systems approach to help both startups and incumbents strategize and thrive within the ever-evolving mobility revolution. Prior to Elemental Excelerator, Danielle was the Innovation Strategist for San Francisco Municipal Transportation Agency’s (SFMTA) Office of Innovation, where she integrated her background in land use and transportation planning to create dynamic teams with both city departments and tech companies.
Eve joined TransLink’s New Mobility team last year as project manager. She is responsible for TransLink’s Open Innovation Call, which engages the private sector for new ideas and innovation, TransLink’s New Mobility Forum, an annual convening of industry and government on new mobility issues, and coordinating a regional response to the arrival of ride-hailing to Metro Vancouver. With an extensive background in electric vehicle policy and strategy, she now adds shared, connected and autonomous mobility to her portfolio.
Eve is a registered professional planner with a Master’s degree in Planning and a Bachelor’s’ degree in Economics.
Sarah Houde spent her early career as a communications and public relations director in the private and non‑profit sectors before becoming executive director of Youth Fusion, a pan‑Canadian charity that doubled in size in its three years under her leadership. She then joined private equity firm XPND Capital as vice president of public and government affairs, steering a number of transport electrification projects. In the fall of 2017 she was named CEO of Quebec’s new cluster for electric and smart transportation and was tasked with positioning the province as one of the sector’s global leaders.
Ms. Houde holds a bachelor’s and a master’s in political science and a graduate management diploma.
Ashley Horvat, formerly Oregon’s “Electric-Car Czar,” brings over a decade of electric vehicle industry expertise to Greenlots in her role as Vice President of Public & Private Partnerships. Ashley leads the development of a new infrastructure model for Greenlots, including overseeing smart communities and national strategic partnerships to help advance electric mobility globally.
Prior to Greenlots, Horvat served as PlugShare’s Vice President of Strategic Initiatives, where she founded the company’s consulting division and managed corporate strategic initiatives. In 2013, Governor John Kitzhaber appointed Ashley as the Chief EV Officer for the State of Oregon, where she advised the governor’s office, served as Oregon’s member of the National ZEV Task Force, co-chaired the Energy Oregon Coalition, and coordinated EV efforts across the state. Prior to that, Ashley led development of the West Coast Electric Highway, created the Oregon Electric Byways, and co-founded the “Plug & Pinot” initiative. She also co-founded the “Women of Electric Vehicles” organization, dedicated to elEVating women to leadership roles in the EV industry.
Ashley earned a bachelor’s degree in American public policy and environmental studies from Western Michigan University. She’s been driving EVs since 2011, including a Nissan Leaf, Chevy Volt, Kia Soul EV, and a Tesla Model S.
Michael Horvath is Co-Founder and Board Member of Strava, the social network for athletes, based in San Francisco, California.
Michael is currently Strava’s interim CFO and previously served as Chief Executive Officer of Strava 2010-2013 and President of Strava 2014-2017, leading Strava‘s growth from a handful of users to a brand that is loved by millions of athletes around the world.
Prior to Strava, Michael co-founded Kana Software, an enterprise software firm, and was the CFO and VP of Operations at GlycoFi, a biotech company. He holds a Ph.D. in economics from Northwestern University and an A.B. in economics from Harvard University where he was men’s lightweight crew team captain. In a former life, Michael was an economics professor at Stanford University and an entrepreneurship professor at the Tuck School of Business at Dartmouth College.
Future Mobility Pioneer
Michael Hurwitz is passionate about socially-positive technology. An internationally recognised pioneer in future mobility, he created the UK’s national programmes on electromobility and autonomy and is now responsible for making sure transport in London is ready for the future. His team seeks out market innovators, encourages the testing and implementation of new business models or services that could help address the challenges facing the city and sets the policy frameworks to ensure new innovations work for all. Michael has brought an entrepreneurial spirit to public service, working tirelessly to realize the potential of low-emission vehicles, connectivity and other technologically advanced transportation solutions for London and the UK.
Mr. Hutton provides leadership with respect to department-wide multimodal policy integration, including on issues related to technology innovation and in developing strategies that advance TC’s strategic objectives for Canada’s transportation system. With respect to Intelligent Transportation Systems (ITS), he oversees TC’s ITS policy research, analysis and advice, serving as the policy lead for key initiatives including:
Hassan Jameel is Deputy President and Vice Chairman, Saudi Arabia of Abdul Latif Jameel, an international, family-owned and diversified business, founded in 1945 by the late Abdul Latif Jameel in Saudi Arabia.
Mr. Jameel heads the domestic operations of Abdul Latif Jameel in Saudi Arabia, and is responsible for operations such as automotive, land and real estate, and machinery.
Hassan Jameel is also President of Community Jameel Saudi Arabia, which is dedicated to social and economic sustainability in the Middle East and beyond, through a wide range of initiatives, including job creation, poverty alleviation, and food and water security. Community Jameel also partners with the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) on a number of programs to address global challenges.
Mr. Jameel is heavily involved in Community Jameel’s road safety initiative, which aims to promote safe driving through education and awareness campaigns in Saudi Arabia. Hassan is also involved in a number of humanitarian initiatives. Prior to taking up his current role, Hassan Jameel worked at Toyota Motor Corporation in Japan.
Mr. Jameel sits on the UTokyo Global Advisory Board for the University of Tokyo and the MIT School of Engineering Dean’s Advisory Council. Alongside this, he is an advisor to CoMotion and a member of the Family Business Council – Gulf, which supports the growth and development on family businesses in the region.
Mr. Jameel holds a Bachelor of Arts in International Economics from Sophia University in Tokyo, Japan, and gained an MBA from the London Business School. He is fluent in English, Arabic, and Japanese.
what3words is the world’s first addressing system designed for voice – every 3m x 3m square in the world has been assigned an address made of just three words from the dictionary. These 3 word addresses can be used to route cars or drones, used as an address when ordering online, or simply given as a meeting point for a picnic in the park. what3words is used in 170 countries and is being adopted by governments all around the world as an official addressing system. Its investors include Daimler, Intel Capital, Aramex and Deutsche Bahn.
Clare is the CCO of what3words; prior to this, her background was in the development and growth of social enterprises, including in impact investing. She is interested in how innovative business models can tackle social and environmental challenges and is involved in social enterprises in the UK and abroad. Clare also volunteers with the Streetlink project, doing health outreach work with vulnerable women in South London.
Roland Kaeppner is leading the hydrogen and clean fuel activities within NEOM Energy Sector in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia since October 2019. He has been pioneering for a future hydrogen economy in various leadership positions for more than a decade. Before joining NEOM, he has been Executive Vice President for Energy Storage and Hydrogen within thyssenkrupp Industrial Solutions, starting and heading their business activities for electrochemical green hydrogen production and redox flow battery technology. Before that, Roland joined McPhy Energy S.A. as Executive Member of the Board and CEO for their operations in Germany and Asia Pacific, developing their innovative hydrogen portfolio and preparing the company for an IPO. Within 13 years in the industrial plant engineering business of Siemens Industrial Solutions, he embarked on the green molecules avenue by starting up their business and technology activities for Hydrogen PEM Electrolyzers. Roland holds engineering degrees from the Polytechnic Aalen, the University of Manchester and the Management Center St.Gallen.
Sarah M. Kaufman is the Associate Director at the NYU Rudin Center for Transportation, where she researches, advocates for and educates about cutting-edge technologies in transportation. She is also an Adjunct Professor of Planning, teaching Intelligent Cities and Advanced Projects in Urban Planning.
Ms. Kaufman leads several projects related to improving transportation through technology: Intelligent Paratransit, to rethink how we transport seniors and the disabled; Emerging Leaders in Transportation Fellowship, a program to enhance innovation at all levels of transportation planning and policymaking; and Job Access, a comparative study of how livelihoods are affected by level of access to mass transit in New York City.
Ms. Kaufman has been cited in The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, NBC Nightly News, CityLab and Urban Omnibus for her work on gender and biking, job access and intelligent transportation.
Eli Akira Kaufman has been a bike commuter since elementary school, and always prefers to get to know the place he lives on two wheels. He has over a decade of leadership experience with stints as a chief communicator and program lead at Film Independent, GOOD, and River LA. Most recently, he worked at Swell Creative Group where he helped produce a successful campaign to pass Measure W, LA County’s Safe, Clean Water Program. Eli earned his MFA at UCLA’s School of Film, Television and Digital Media with a concentration in Directing, and has a BA from Oberlin College where he played four years of Varsity Lacrosse. He is a founding parent of the IKAR Early Childhood Center Garden, and coaches his son’s AYSO soccer team – Go Silver Eagles! His ideal weekend in Los Angeles involves being outside as much as possible in a kayak, working in his garden, and of course on his bike with family and friends. Eli is excited to join the LACBC team to create a more bikeable and people-centric city.
David King researches the codependence of transportation and land use planning along with transportation finance and economics. Of particular interest are transportation policies such as parking management, taxi services and microtransit, all of which integrate with land use planning. His work on finance examines how existing and new finance tools can raise revenues for more effective and just transportation systems. His current research focuses on taxi and jitney services, informal transit, street design, and how new technologies affect transportation finance and local policy.
In addition to academic accomplishments, King is a member of the Transportation Research Board’s Paratransit Committee and frequently consults with private firms and public organizations about challenges and opportunities in passenger travel, especially with regard to demographic and technological change.
King completed his doctorate at the University of California Los Angeles and a master’s in urban and regional planning at the Humphrey Institute at the University of Minnesota.
Derrick is the co-founder and CEO of Spin. He was most recently a Product Manager on the Growth team at Lyft. Prior to that, he was the first employee at a Y Combinator and True Ventures backed startup (acquired by Lyft), a Team Lead at Pivotal Labs, and started a company right after graduating from Purdue University with a degree in computer engineering.
Ms. Kruger is Sr Director for Strategic Initiatives at the LAEDC. In this capacity she drives forward a Southern California electric vehicle/mobility agenda that includes policy advocacy and convening the dynamic and robust e4 Mobility Alliance. She was formerly working with the advanced transportation/mobility industry in Michigan under the Michigan Economic Development Corp and has extensive experience assisting companies expand nationally and internationally. She holds a J.D. from Western Michigan College of Law.
Mr. Laferriere is an Associate Economist at the Institute for Applied Economics at LAEDC. His work portfolio at IAE includes data management and analysis; model building and forecasting; and economic consulting. His research focuses include data management, economic forecasting, economic policy studies, foreign direct investment and trade, and labor and occupational research. He joined LAEDC in December of 2017. Before joining LAEDC, Mr. Laferriere was a graduate student at Washington State University pursing joint master’s degrees in applied economics and statistics. His graduate education also included internships with the Federal Reserve Board and USDA Economic Research Service in Washington, D.C. In addition to his role at the LAEDC, Mr. Laferriere is also the vice president of the Los Angeles Chapter of the National Association for Business Economics (NABE).
Mr. Roald P. Lapperre is Vice Minister for the Environment at the Netherlands Ministry of Infrastructure and Water Management. His responsibilities include circular economy, waste management, environmental protection, air quality, climate adaptation policies, as well as bilateral, multilateral and EU affairs within the scope of the Ministry.
Mr. Lapperre has served as Deputy Director General for Water Affairs and Spatial Planning from 2015-2017 and as Deputy Director General for Agriculture and Nature Management from 2011-2015.
Ms. Laurin became a consultant in smart mobility, autonomous vehicles, new mobility solutions and smart cities in October 2017. Prior to that, she was working for an international operator as the Director Public Affairs, Communication and Strategic Development, where she was responsible of the autonomous vehicle and demonstrations in Canada. She also worked with major telecommunication companies where she introduced new technologies to consumers (Apps, smart phones in 2008 and IoT technology in 2015).
As a specialist in strategic development, marketing and business opportunities for more than 15 years, Marie-France Laurin’s has steadfastly focused on achieving objectives in an efficient and cost-effective manner. With in-depth field experience in strategic planning, project and team management, Ms. Laurin leverages her skills and expertise to ensure the development of her clients.
Marie-France Laurin holds a bachelor’s degree in integrated communication as well as an MBA in international management, both from HEC Montréal.
Adrienne Lindgren leads the Aerial Innovation and Urban Aviation practice for WSP USA, a leading engineering and professional services firm. She helps public- and private-sector clients address questions and find solutions related to aerial mobility technology and is actively engaged in research and development that advances the state of the practice. A planner by training with a background in public policy, Adrienne focuses on the integration of new aerial mobility technology into legacy infrastructure assets, transportation networks, and regulatory frameworks. Prior to joining WSP, Adrienne represented the drone/UAM, aerospace, and manufacturing industries for Mayor Eric Garcetti’s Office of Economic Development; in this capacity, she advised on local and national policy through forums like the FAA’s Drone Advisory Committee. She holds a B.A. from Scripps College, a Master of Planning from the University of Southern California, and an executive diploma in Project and Infrastructure Finance from the London Business School.
Andrew Liu is a Senior Vice President at Parsons Corporation leading the company’s Smart Cities sector and its suite of related digital solutions. In this role, Mr. Liu is responsible for development of the Smart Cities strategy, the product portfolio, and leading go to market of new and innovative solutions to support cities across the world. Mr. Liu has over 20 years of experience delivering infrastructure projects as a civil engineering and technology professional and has held senior leadership roles at other Fortune 200 companies leading strategy, transportation, ventures, advanced mobility, and Smart Cities. Andrew also comes from an entrepreneurial background and has held leadership roles in multiple transportation related startups. Mr. Liu is a licensed civil and geotechnical engineer in the State of California and also holds a BS and MS in Civil and Environmental Engineering from UCLA, and a MBA from the Wharton School of Business.
Nadine Lee is the Chief of Staff for Los Angeles County Metropolitan Transportation Authority. Previously, she was the Deputy Chief Innovation Officer for Metro’s Office of Extraordinary Innovation. In this role, Nadine launched innovative concepts in planning, project delivery, and operations, all in the interest of providing an accessible, convenient and reliable mobility system for the citizens of Los Angeles County. She also led the development of Vision 2028, Metro’s 10-year strategic plan to increase prosperity for L.A. County through improved mobility.
Prior to her tenure in L.A., Nadine led the development and implementation of the Flatiron Flyer Bus Rapid Transit for Denver’s Regional Transportation District (RTD), a project that produced a 40% growth in corridor bus ridership in its first few months of revenue service. Nadine also served as the Engineering Project Manager for the Northwest Rail and Commuter Rail Maintenance Facility projects in the FasTracks Program.
Nadine is a graduate of Leadership APTA and past Director on the WTS International Board. She was awarded 2019 WTS International Woman of the Year. She also studied the role of performance management in improving service delivery in four Southeast Asia cities as part of the TCRP International Transit Studies Program. A registered Professional Engineer in Colorado and Kansas, Nadine received her B.S. in Civil Engineering from the University of Missouri-Columbia.
Despite being an engineer by education, Nadine flexes her creative muscles in Adult Beginning Ballet several times a week and just completed her third performance in May.
Julie is a co-founder and Managing Partner of the Urban Innovation Fund, a venture capital firm that invests in the future of cities. The fund provides seed capital and regulatory support to entrepreneurs solving our toughest urban challenges – helping them grow into tomorrow’s most valued companies.
Previously, she co-founded Tumml, a startup hub for urban tech. The organization has provided 38 startups with seed funding and mentorship, and hosts thought leadership events around urban innovation. In 2016, Living Cities named her as one of its “25 Disruptive Leaders.” Julie’s work energizing urban-focused entrepreneurship has been featured in numerous press outlets, including CNN and The San Francisco Chronicle, among others. She serves on the Boards of Tumml and Empower Work. Julie earned her MBA from MIT Sloan and BA from Stanford.
Greg Lindsay joined NewCities in June 2015 as Senior Fellow to lead our Connected Mobility Initiative. Greg is a journalist, urbanist, futurist, and speaker. He is a non-resident senior fellow of The Atlantic Council in their Strategic Foresight Initiative. He is also a contributing writer for Fast Company, co-author of Aerotropolis: The Way We’ll Live Next, a visiting scholar at New York University’s Rudin Center for Transportation Policy & Management, and a research affiliate of the New England Complex Systems Institute (NECSI). His writing has appeared in The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, Bloomberg BusinessWeek, and Fortune, among many other publications. He graduated from the University of Illinois with a degree in journalism.
Alisyn Malek is the COO and Co-Founder of May Mobility, Inc. May Mobility’s vision is to transform cities through autonomous technology, creating a safer, greener, more accessible world.They have made it their mission to reimagine transportation by developing and deploying autonomous shuttles that get people to their destinations safely and easliy. Service has launched in Detroit, Columbus, Ohio, Providence, Road Island as well as Grand Rapids, Michigan.
Alisyn was formerly the head of the innovation pipeline at General Motors. Prior to that role she was an investment manager at GM Ventures. During her tenure there, she led investment in the autonomous space, including the early negotiations with Cruise Automation, helping to cement GM’s autonomous strategy. As an automotive engineer,she led a global team to develop SAE Level 3 charging technology for GM’s Spark and Bolt EV Products. As well as supporting release of electrical components for the first generation Chevy Volt.
Alisyn holds two bachelor’s degrees from the University of Michigan , Mechanical Engineering and German Language. Malek was recognized as a top ten female innovator to watch by Smithsonian in 2018, named a top automotive professional under 35 to watch by LinkedIn in 2015 for her work in cutting-edge product development and corporate venture, and identified as a Crain’s Detroit 20 in their 20’s awardee for her work in engineering and deployment of advanced charging systems.
Michael Manville is Associate Professor of Urban Planning at the UCLA Luskin School of Public Affairs. Both his research and teaching focus on the relationships between transportation and land use, and on local public finance. Much of his research concerns the tendency of local governments to hide the costs of driving in the property market, through land use restrictions intended to fight traffic congestion. These land use laws only sometimes reduce congestion, and can profoundly influence the supply and price of housing.
Dr. Manville’s research has been published in journals of planning, economics, urban studies, and sociology. He has received research funding from University Transportation Centers, from the John Randolph Haynes Foundation, and the TransitCenter, among others. He has consulted for developers, environmental groups, local governments, and the United Nations.
Dr. Manville has an MA and PhD in Urban Planning, both from UCLA Luskin. Prior to joining Luskin as a faculty member, he was Assistant Professor of City and Regional Planning at Cornell University.
Jeff Marootian is the Director of the District Department of Transportation where he has served since March 2017. Jeff leads the agency in its mission to create a safe and sustainable transportation system for the District of Columbia and is responsible for delivering on Mayor Muriel Bowser’s priorities to rebuild and modernize the city’s public infrastructure; embrace innovation and technology to generate mobility options; and reduce traffic fatalities and serious injuries through a concerted Vision Zero strategy.
Prior to joining DDOT he served as the White House Liaison and Assistant Secretary for Administration at the United States Department of Transportation. Jeff was a member of the leadership team whose achievements include launching the nationwide Smart Cities Challenge; advocating for and helping to secure passage of the FAST Act; and creating economic opportunity through transit and mobility initiatives in communities across the country. Jeff oversaw the 55,000-employee agency’s business and management operations, including workforce development and human resources, diversity, facilities, procurement and security. He was also the Department’s Chief Sustainability Officer and directed the implementation of President Obama’s Executive Order on Climate Change and Sustainability and contributed to the Department’s strategy on electric and autonomous vehicles. He also played a key role in standing up the Build America Bureau to advance the use of public-private partnerships for infrastructure projects across the country.
Jeff is an alumnus of the George Washington University where he also serves as an Adjunct Faculty member in the Trachtenberg School of Public Policy and Administration.
Travis G. Mason is a Vice President of Policy and Head of Regulatory and Certification at Airbus where he leads the company’s regulatory strategy for new business and emerging technology investments in urban air mobility (UAM), unmanned aircraft systems and unmanned traffic management (UTM) and much more. Having joined the company in March 2017, he previously managed public policy across project teams for A³, Airbus’ Silicon Valley outpost for advanced projects, Airbus’ new commercial UAS business, and the Airbus Corporate Technology Office.
Travis joined Airbus after 6 years at Alphabet and Google, where he focused on public policy issues facing the company’s advanced technology efforts in aviation, renewable energy and life sciences. Travis also worked at Booz Allen Hamilton designing collaborative technology solutions across the Departments of Homeland Security, Defense and State. He earned his undergraduate degree at Syracuse University, his Master’s Degree at the University of Michigan, and also studied at Princeton University’s Woodrow Wilson School of Public Policy and Harvard University’s Kennedy School of Government as a Galbraith Scholar. He is a founding board member of the Aspen Institute’s Vanguard Leadership Board and serves on the board of the Maxwell School of Citizenship and Public Policy at Syracuse.
Juan researches innovation in public transit, parking, and mobility services in response to climate change, congestion, and urban market dynamics. He led UCLA’s work on two strategic transit plans for the State of California and long-range climate action plans for Southern California communities. Juan has worked with research teams to quantify the number of parking spaces in Los Angeles County, assess life-cycle environmental impacts of the Los Angeles Metro system, and examine the cost-effectiveness of GHG reductions from California’s High Speed Rail.
As Deputy Director of the UCLA Institute of Transportation Studies, Juan manages the Center’s operations, external relations, research, and student programs. As a Lecturer in Urban Planning, Juan teaches graduate classes Policy and Planning for the Mobility Revolution and Environmental Assessment for Urban Systems.
CEO of Tembici, the leading bicycle sharing company in Latin America, Tomás Martins is the responsible executive for the company’s growth, with recent entry into the shared electric bikes market as well. As leader of the company, Tomás supervises all the main activities such as planning, implementation and logistic operation of systems of shared bicycles and parking lots. Present in 15 Brazilian cities, and in countries such as Chile and Argentina, Tembici counts 34 projects since its foundation in 2010. Graduated in International Relations from Fundação Álvares Penteado (FAAP), in São Paulo, Tomás is a member of the board of the Institute for Leadership Training since 2014.
Virginio Merola graduated from the University of Bologna majoring in Philosophy.
In 1989 he was appointed regional secretary of the Local Governments’ League, the Italian association of Municipalities, Provinces and Regions.
His political commitment in the city government started in 1995, when he was elected President of the Savena District of Bologna for two subsequent terms.
In June 2004 he was elected member of Bologna City Council and soon afterwards he was appointed Deputy Mayor in charge of Urban Planning and Housing.
From July 2009 until February 2011 Virginio Merola was President of the Provincial Council of Bologna and in May 2011, having run as the candidate of the Italian Democratic Party, he was elected Mayor of Bologna, with more than 50% of votes at the first ballot.
Since January 2015 he is also Mayor of Bologna Metropolitan City.
In June 2016 he was re-elected Mayor of Bologna for a second 5-year mandate.
Russ Mitchell covers the rapidly changing global auto industry, with special emphasis on California, including Tesla, electric vehicles and driverless cars. The Times’ former technology editor, he’s worked on staff at publications ranging from Business Week to Wired. A graduate of the University of Illinois, he also studied at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology as a Vannevar Bush Fellow. Mitchell still drives his black 2000 Audi TT, the rare smooth-backed version manufactured before lawyers made the company attach a spoiler.
Naheed Nenshi, A’paistootsiipsii, was sworn in as Calgary’s 36th mayor on October 25, 2010 and was re-elected in 2013 and 2017.
Prior to being elected, Mayor Nenshi was with McKinsey and Company, later forming his own business to help public, private and non-profit organizations grow. He designed policy for the Government of Alberta, helped create a Canadian strategy for The Gap, Banana Republic and Old Navy, and worked with the United Nations to determine how business can help the poorest people on the planet. He then entered academia, where he was Canada’s first tenured professor in the field of nonprofit management, at Mount Royal University’s Bissett School of Business.
For his work, Mayor Nenshi was named a Young Global Leader of the World Economic Forum, was awarded the President’s Award from the Canadian Institute of Planners, and received the Humanitarian Award from the Canadian Psychological Association for his contributions to community mental health. In 2013, after his stewardship of the community during devastating flooding, Maclean’s magazine called him the second-most influential person in Canada, after the Prime Minister. He was also awarded the 2014 World Mayor Prize by the UK-based City Mayor’s Foundation as the best mayor in the world.
In 2014, he was also honoured by Elder Pete Standing Alone with the Blackfoot name A’paistootsiipsii, which means “Clan Leader” or “He who moves camp and the others follow”. In 2016, Elder Bruce Starlight of the Tsuu T’ina First Nation honoured him with the name Iitiya: “Always Ready”.
Mayor Nenshi holds a Bachelor of Commerce (with distinction) from the University of Calgary, where he was President of the Students’ Union, and a Master in Public Policy from the John F. Kennedy School of Government at Harvard University, where he studied as a Kennedy Fellow.
Tham Nguyen serves as Senior Director in LA Metro’s Office of Extraordinary Innovation. Her professional work has focused on the intersection of improving mobility, livability, and environmental outcomes. She managed the development of Metro’s 10-year strategic plan, Vision 2028, which is the agency’s big picture plan to improve mobility in LA County. She is responsible for facilitating the implementation of Vision 2028 and monitoring progress to ensure alignment with the agency’s strategic vision and goals. Her work in transportation has spanned over 16 years and includes leadership roles in multimodal planning, transportation policy development, and infrastructure funding. She currently oversees Metro’s transformational initiatives, including studying the feasibility of testing and implementing pricing strategies to reduce traffic congestion and exploring opportunities for expanding access to shared, demand-responsive transportation options.
Benjie currently serves as the Chief of Strategy and Innovation for the Seattle Department of Transportation (SDOT). He is working to prepare the agency and the city for institutional and technological change.
Benjie and his team drafted the first SDOT Transportation Information Infrastructure Plan. He also leads the department’s Lean Transformation. The goal is to make innovation—the drive for continuous improvement—part of the organization’s DNA.
He initiated the first ever city-wide Public Life Study to measure vibrancy and to understand how people use the right-of-way as public space. He also led the development of Seattle’s New Mobility Playbook.
Benjie’s worked on urban development issues that cover technology, transportation, and informality. His ideas have been featured in Citylab, Atlantic Cities, Next City, FutureEverything, and TED City 2.0. He is the principal author of “Catalyzing the New Mobility in Cities: A Primer on Innovative Business and Service Models” (a 2013 monograph on innovations in informal transportation).
Benjie serves on the boards of Project for Public Spaces and of Gehl Institute. He served on the advisory committees for L.A.’s Transportation Technology Strategy, the MobiPrize, and the Cooper Hewitt Museum’s The Road Ahead: Reimagining Mobility and Design with the Other 90%: Cities.
Lena Pereira is the Deputy General Manager for Metro Bike Share in Los Angeles, California and is employed by operator, Bicycle Transit Systems. Previously Marketing Manager, Lena has a background in marketing and sales and has worked for Whole Foods Market, the Los Angeles Clippers and Nike. Lena is originally from Sacramento, California. She has a Master of Arts in Sport Management from the University of San Francisco and a Bachelor of Science in Business from San Diego State University.
Prior to joining LACI, he was appointed by Mayor Eric Garcetti as the first ever Chief Sustainability Officer for the City of Los Angeles. Serving as CSO for four years, Petersen was the chief architect of the groundbreaking Sustainable City pLAn, led efforts to make LA a global leader in EVs, and helped create the Climate Mayors.
Petersen co-founded Global Green USA and led the organization for 19 years as President and CEO. The organization was a pioneer in greening of affordable housing, schools, and cities as well as helping grow the solar sector. In the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina, Petersen put forth a vision and mobilized resources to green the rebuilding of New Orleans, including schools, the Lower 9th Ward, and more.
Petersen is chair of the Climate Mayors board, and a board member of Global Green USA, Habitat for Humanity of Greater Los Angeles, Center for Environmental Health, and the Sir Edmund Hilary Institute for International Leadership. Petersen is a member of the Council on Foreign Relations, the LA Sustainability Leadership Council, and served as an advisor to the Clinton Global Initiative on energy and the environment while a CGI member for 10 years. He has a son, and is a retired AYSO coach.
As founding director of the Transit Tech Lab, Natalia works with technology innovators and leaders at the Metropolitan Transportation Authority to help shape the future of transit in New York City. Previously, she built and ran the Parity Professional Program, now Declare, a community of 500+ women in venture capital, private equity and technology across London, New York and San Francisco. She is a graduate of Columbia University.
Daniel Ramot is the co-founder and CEO of Via. Prior to Via, Daniel built supercomputers designed to discover new pharmaceutical drugs at D. E. Shaw Research, and developed avionic systems for F-15s and F-16s for the Israeli Air Force. He has a PhD in neuroscience from Stanford University and is a graduate of the Israel Defense Forces’ elite Talpiot program.
Seleta Reynolds has over 17 years of transportation experience throughout the United States in both the public and private sectors. Prior to her current position, Seleta was a leader in the San Francisco Municipal Transportation Agency’s Livable Streets section, coordinating streets projects citywide.
B.A. American History, Brown University.
Karina Ricks is the inaugural director of the new Department of Mobility and Infrastructure for the City of Pittsburgh moving to the city in March 2017 after two decades in Washington, DC. In this role, Karina oversees transportation investments and policies that support the physical mobility needed for the people of Pittsburgh to pursue the economic mobility they aspire to. Karina is passionate about transportation and mobility as the foundation of inclusive, equitable, safe and thriving communities. Prior to that, Karina was in the private sector as a Principal and East Coast Multimodal Lead for Nelson/Nygaard Consulting Associates and served for years as Director of Transportation Planning for the District of Columbia She is a graduate of Cornell University, Michigan State University and a Fulbright Scholar.
John Rossant personally leads the CoMotion team. He is the Founder and Chairman of the NewCities Foundation, a major global non-profit institution dedicated to improving the quality of life and work in cities. He previously led the team producing the famous World Economic Forum Annual Meeting in Davos, Switzerland every January and has been been the producer of major World Economic Forum conferences in China, Latin America, Southeast Asia and Africa. He has also played key roles in Monaco, with the Monaco Media Forum and the ongoing Prince’s Roundtable on Philanthropy. In 2010, French President Nicolas Sarkozy asked John to organize the first global summit on the future of the Internet, the e-G8. John has worked with heads of state and government and leading CEOs from around the world.
Kelly is currently working at the Seattle Department of Transportation at the intersect between new mobility services, urban freight, and technology to help test and develop policy for the future of transportation in Seattle. She previously worked at Amazon Prime Now, the ultra-fast 1 and 2 hour delivery service, leading US expansion and delivery optimization product efforts. Before that, Kelly worked as an environmental consultant, advising public and private sector clients on waste and energy efficiency analysis and behavior change programs. She holds a BA in Biochemistry and Environmental Studies from Bowdoin College.
Saskia Sassen is the Robert S. Lynd Professor of Sociology and Member, The Committee on Global Thought, Columbia University (www.saskiasassen.com). Her latest books are the 5th fully updated edition of Cities in a World Economy (Sage 2018) and Expulsions: Brutality and Complexity in the Global Economy (Harvard University Press 2014, now out in 18 languages.) She is the recipient of diverse awards, including multiple doctor honoris causa, the Principe de Asturias 2013 Prize in the Social Sciences, and made a Foreign Member of the Royal Academy of the Sciences of Netherland.
Joshua L. Schank is the first ever Chief Innovation Officer at the Los Angeles County Metropolitan Transportation Authority (LA Metro), where he leads the Office of Extraordinary Innovation (OEI). The role of this office is to champion new ideas to improve mobility in LA County by informing the high-level vision for LA Metro, piloting and implementing new and experimental programs and policy, and serving as the primary liaison relevant to LA Metro coming from entrepreneurs, established private sector entities, academia, or individual residents. The office is also responsible for LA Metro’s Public Private Partnership (P3), and strategic planning functions.
Prior to joining LA Metro, Dr. Schank was President and CEO of the Eno Center for Transportation, a national non-profit think-tank. Dr. Schank’s extensive work in transportation policy and planning is well documented in his publications, including “All Roads Lead to Congress: The $300 Billion Fight Over Highway Funding,” co-authored with Costas Panagopoulos and published by CQ Press in 2007. He holds a Ph.D. in urban planning from Columbia University, a Master of City Planning from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, and a B.A. in urban studies from Columbia University.
Dr. Emmanuel Serunjoji is the Mayor of Kampala Capital City Authority, Kawempe Division Urban Council, His Worship the Mayor is the Chairman of Network of Kampala Metropolitan Mayors, and he is the Chairman of Alliance of Kampala City Urban Division Mayors. Kawempe Division which is headed by His Worship the Mayor is territorial political boundary of Kampala Capital City Authority (KCCA). Previously, he was the Chief advisor to the His Worship the Mayor of the same Division for a period of five years (2011-2016). Before becoming the Mayor of Kawempe Division and an advisor to the then Mayor of the same Division, Dr. Emmanuel
Serunjoji was a Deputy Mayor of the same Division between 2006-2011. He was the Youth Councillor of Kampala City, under the then Kampala City Council, between 1998-2002. He has over 22 years of political experience, and has travelled to many countries in Africa, America, Europe and other continents where he has presented a number of papers in conferences pertaining to the development of Cities and their communities.
Avital is a Senior Manager in OEI where she focuses on shaping policies and implementing projects that work to nudge LA County towards more sustainable modes of transportation instead of driving alone. She previously worked in Metro’s Planning department launching and managing the Metro Bike Share program. A daily transit and bike rider with a flair for “cycle chic” fashion, Avital holds a Master’s degree in Urban Planning from UCLA.
Yuan Shi is the Global Solutions Leader for New Mobility at Arcadis with the background of urban data science in transportation. Her work focuses on the nexus of transportation and smart city technology, with analytics and consulting experience for cities provided on a wide variety of topics, including new mobility blueprint development, congestion pricing study, transportation equity evaluation, micro-mobility pilot, mobility hubs siting, biking network evaluation, EVSE analytics, MaaS study, transportation networks vulnerability assessment, and autonomous vehicles impact studies. Transportation research focuses on analyzing existing behavior patterns, trends assessments, projecting future usage and suggesting solutions for planners and policymakers.
Sophie Shulman is the Chief of Innovative Mobility at the Colorado Department of Transportation. Sophie most recently led partnerships and business development at Electrify America, an electric vehicle charging company. Before joining Electrify America, Sophie served as the acting Assistant Secretary for Research and Technology at the U.S. Department of Transportation, focusing on energy, environment, and innovative transportation technologies. During her time at USDOT, Sophie worked extensively on the $40 million Smart City Challenge grant. She had several other roles across the federal government, including the White House Domestic Policy Council, the Office of Management and Budget and the U.S. Department of Energy. She received her B.A. and M.A. from Johns Hopkins University.
Eran Shir is the Co-Founder and CEO of Nexar, the world’s first vision-based connected vehicle network to promote safer driving by delivering critical safety alerts in real-time, improve roadway efficiency, and bring innovative tools to drivers. Nexar has more than 500 million miles of anonymized network data that help cities, transit authorities, and mobility companies make our roads safer and smoother. Eran is a physicist by training, and has spent much of his career building complex networks. Prior to Nexar, Eran served as the Entrepreneur in Residence for Israeli VC Aleph. He also co-founded an advertising startup that was acquired by Yahoo, where he went on to serve as the Creative Innovation Officer.
Lilly Shoup is Senior Director of Policy and Partnerships at Lyft. With a background in multimodal planning, performance management, and transit operations, she focuses on national transportation policy to re-connect communities with the world’s best transportation. Prior to joining Lyft, Lilly was a Principal at Nelson\Nygaard Consulting and served in the Office of Transportation Policy at the US Department of Transportation in Washington, DC where she managed the Partnership for Sustainable Communities. She is author of national publications and holds a Master in City and Regional Planning from the University of Maryland at College Park and a Bachelor of Arts in Economics and Public Policy from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.
Donald Shoup is Distinguished Research Professor in the Department of Urban Planning at UCLA Angeles. His research has focused on how parking policies affect cities, the economy, and the environment. In The High Cost of Free Parking, published in 2005 and updated in 2011, Shoup recommended that cities should (1) charge fair market prices for on-street parking, (2) spend the meter revenue to finance added public services in the metered neighborhoods, and (3) remove off-street parking requirements. In Parking and the City, published in 2018, Shoup and his co-authors report on the subsequent flowering of research and action on these three reforms. Shoup is a Fellow of the American Institute of Certified Planners and an Honorary Professor at the Beijing Transportation Research Center.
Phil Silver leads Amazon Web Services’ transportation vertical, focused on public sector agencies and authorities who are responsible for moving people and goods over land, sea, and in the air.
He works with airports, seaports, transit, tolling, traffic, parking, DOTs, MPOs, and COGs – enabling them to deploy sustainable, efficient and economic IT infrastructures that make transportation safer, faster, greener, and cost effective. His working career has been focused on the technology challenges and opportunities faced by public sector agencies and authorities engaged in transportation technology initiatives. He has held sales and strategy leadership roles in global systems integration firms who are specialists in advanced analytics, IoT, payments, logistics, and traveler information, working hand-in-hand with customers, technology providers, and consultants on these projects. He also served in the U.S. Navy, retiring as a Captain.
Phil earned a Masters in Executive Leadership from University of San Diego, an MBA from Fordham University, and Bachelor degrees in Chemistry and History from the University of Florida.
Katie Sloan is director of eMobility and Building Electrification at SCE, one of the nation’s largest electric utilities. Katie is responsible for SCE’s vehicle and building electrification programs and services, with a planned budget of over $1 Billion. The team’s mission is to help California get 7 million EVs on the road and convert one-third of space and water heating in buildings by 2030. Her team includes three groups: strategy & program development, business development & partnerships, & operations.
Previously, Katie held roles of increasing responsibility at SCE & Edison International focusing on clean energy policy, strategy, and analysis. She has also worked at First Solar, a large solar panel manufacturer, developing global public policy.
Katie was named one of “40 under 40” people to watch by Pasadena Magazine and a Woman of Achievement by the San Gabriel Valley YWCA her work at SCE and non-profits. Katie currently serves on the board of CALSTART, with the mission to build a high-tech clean-transportation industry that creates jobs, cuts air pollution and oil imports and curbs climate change. She also serves on the board of Beyond the Block, a non-profit focused on expanding global awareness and increasing intellectual curiosity of at-risk youth.
Katie holds a master’s degree in regulatory economics and bachelor’s degree in business administration from New Mexico State University.
When it comes to delivering with flawless execution in the digital age, it’s no secret that planning is key. In today’s ever-evolving world, strategies need to be developed five, ten, or even twenty years in advance. This statement rings true at Otis, where customer satisfaction, growth and success are always top of mind.
Chris is tasked with building marketing strategies multiple steps ahead. He leads all marketing activities for Otis’ three major lines of business, which include new construction, service and modernization. He and his team are also transforming how Otis improves the customer journey as B2B customer behaviors continue to evolve.
Chris first joined Otis in 1992 as a maintenance supervisor in the Chicago area. To call his career diverse would be an understatement—he has held roles in corporate banking, operations, sales, product marketing and digital business disciplines. He has also led a global IT transformation program.
In 2006, Chris left the elevator industry to work in the fire protection and security industry. He rejoined it in 2012, working for Schindler Elevator Corp. and then for its parent, Schindler Group. There, he held positions of increasing responsibility in the marketing, customer experience and business disciplines.
Chris rejoined Otis in 2016 to develop the company’s Internet of Things strategy and spearhead efforts surrounding service innovation. Drawing inspiration from his accomplished past, Chris continues to foster Otis’ innovative culture and facilitate process improvements.
Chris holds a bachelor’s degree in science, economics and computers from Trinity College and an MBA from Northwestern University’s Kellogg School of Management.
Chloe Spano’s work as a lead innovator in the transportation industry has helped deliver technology that cohesively leverages MicroTransit, Autonomous Vehicles, Integrated Mobility technology to help Transit Agencies and Governments build their transportation ecosystem and shape their Mobility as a Service strategy. As Vice President of Development and Innovation for Cityway, a global innovation technology arm of Transdev, she designs, develops and deploys key projects in the new mobility transportation space. As an interface between Cityway and Transdev innovation, she is continuously evolving the search for new innovative technologies and ways to streamline transportation solutions by leveraging today’s available technologies and driving the vision of what the future will create.
Uri Tamir focuses on the technology, data, business, and regulations related to Advanced Driver Assistance Systems (ADAS). In his role, Uri leads the development of new markets for Mobileye’s latest advancements in collision avoidance technology, including tailored ADAS for law enforcement, public transportation, refuse vehicles, and specialized vehicle manufacturers.
Uri also oversees Mobileye’s push for smarter and safer cities and roads in North America, through vision sensors, data, research, and regulation. He regularly advises cities on best practices to achieve Vision Zero, and participates in numerous research projects with US DOT, Transport Canada, and universities.
Prior to Mobileye, Uri served as chief investment officer for Dash-Apex funds, an Israeli based investment firm with over 35 billion dollars in assets under management. He holds an MBA in finance and accounting, and a BA in economics from Tel Aviv University.
Peter Terium serves as the head of the energy sector for NEOM, one of Saudi Arabia’s gigaprojects to realise Vision 2030. Peter has set an ambitious agenda to make NEOM the world’s most advanced renewable energy hub and first at-scale fully renewable energy system.
A Dutch top executive with over 15 years of industry experience, Peter’s career embodies the transition within the energy sector. From 2009 to 2011, he served as CEO of Essent, the leading Dutch energy utility before taking over the helm of its parent company, RWE AG, from 2012 to 2016. As the CEO of RWE, he moved its business model away from capital intensive energy generation by creating a new company, innogy SE, operating in the uncharted world of energy management. He then served as CEO of innogy SE until 2017.
Peter lives and works in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, but plans to relocate to NEOM once ready for move-in.
Chris Thomas is a Co-Founder of the Detroit Mobility Lab, an entity dedicated to helping Detroit become one of the world’s foremost future mobility ecosystems. Prior to the Detroit Mobility Lab he co-founded Fontinalis Partners and worked to build it into one of the premier investment firms in next-generation mobility. While at Fontinalis Chris served as a Board Member for nuTonomy (acquired by Aptiv in October 2017) and Karamba Security and as a Board Observer at Parkmobile (acquired by BMW in January 2018), Life360 (IPO in May 2019), Ouster and SmartKargo. Prior to Fontinalis Chris served in the U.S. Army as a Communications Officer in the U.S. and Iraq. Before joining the military, Chris worked as an Investment Banker at UBS within its Technology and Energy groups in New York and San Francisco.
Additionally, Chris advises a number of mobility startups around the globe, acts as a Senior Advisor to the COMMIT Foundation, and is a member of the Global Cleantech 100 expert panel. He is also a Co-Owner of Buddy’s Pizza, the birthplace of original Detroit-style pizza, and an avid angel investor. Chris has previously served as the Chairman of Read to a Child, a national children’s literacy and mentoring nonprofit, and as a member of the World Economic Forum’s Global Agenda Council on Personal Transportation Systems.
Chris earned his Master’s degree in Business Administration from the Yale School of Management. While at Yale he served on the Honor Committee and graduated with distinction in former Prime Minister Tony Blair’s seminar on Faith and Globalization. He holds a Bachelor of Arts degree in both Economics and International Relations from Michigan State University. Chris is a resident of the City of Detroit where he lives with his wife and sons. He is a staunch advocate of connected communities, early childhood literacy, and the doctrine of the strenuous life.
Mark Thomas is the VP of Marketing and Alliances at Ridecell and is responsible for marketing Ridecell, the world’s leading platform to launch, operate and scale new car and ride sharing mobility services. Prior to joining Ridecell, Thomas headed the connected car marketing team at Cisco Jasper, where he developed the product and go-to-market strategies for automotive OEMs. Prior to Cisco, Mark led product marketing at HERE, a leading automotive maps company. In addition, Mark served in marketing, strategy, and business development roles at Apple and Nokia. Mark holds a B.A. from University of California, Berkeley, and an M.B.A. from the University of Pennsylvania Wharton School of Business.
Ms. Thompson joined ITDP as CEO in late 2018. Prior to that, she was involved with ITDP for many years as a board member, including as board chair for the last two years.
Ms. Thompson has nearly two decades of experience in the environmental non-profit sector. She co-founded ClimateWorks Foundation, a network of 13 regional foundations and expert teams which promote sectoral policies to mitigate climate change. Previously Ms. Thompson helped establish the philanthropic strategy practice at California Environmental Associates. She has helped clients including the Asian Development Bank, David and Lucile Packard Foundation, and Environmental Defense Fund design and implement strategies that resulted in large-scale benefits for the environment.
She holds an MSc in environmental economics from the University of York, UK, and a bachelor’s degree in biological sciences from the University of California, San Diego.
Harriet is the Director of NUMO, the New Urban Mobility alliance, hosted by WRI Ross Center for Sustainable Cities. NUMO is a new collaborative effort that aims to guide policymakers, the private sector and people toward a shared vision of cities and urban mobility.
Harriet has been deeply engaged on planning, smart mobility, disaster resilience, housing and community development issues for the past 2 decades. She has been working with organizations around the country to help states and localities prepare for a range of future challenges, including smart mobility; climate change; disaster recovery and resilience; housing affordability; and community development. She served in the Obama Administration as Principal Deputy Assistant Secretary of the Office of Community Planning and Development at the U.S Department of Housing and Urban Development. She initiated the first ever $1 billion National Disaster Resilience Competition. Her work encompassed helping states, regions, cities, counties and towns across the country build a strong foundation for resilience in the face of a changing climate, and for a diverse and prosperous economy based on enhancing community quality of place, economic opportunity, fiscal stability, transportation choice, and affordability. She was the Director of the District of Columbia Office of Planning under the past 2 Mayors, where she worked to make DC a walkable, bikeable, eminently livable, globally competitive and thriving city.
Louis Tremblay is President and CEO of AddEnergie and its subsidiary company FLO. A pioneer in the field of electric mobility in Canada, he cofounded AddEnergie in 2009 while he was still a student at Laval University (Quebec). Over the years, Mr. Tremblay established himself as an influential and respected figure in the electric vehicle (EV) industry, as he guided his company to become a North American leader in EV charging solutions and the operator of Canada’s largest charging network. Today, he leads an organization that employs more than 150 people in 7 business places. Louis Tremblay graduated from Laval University with a Bachelor’s degree in Electrical Engineering and pursued graduate-level studies in Power Electronics. He is Chairman of the Board of Propulsion Québec, Quebec’s Industrial Cluster for Electric and Smart Transportation, and a member of the Generation Energy Council, a 14-member committee set up by Natural Resources Canada to provide recommendations on how Canada can transition to a reliable, affordable, low-carbon economy in the future.
Karen Vancluysen was appointed as Secretary General of the Polis network in September 2014, after having been the network’s Research Director for 8 years. Polis is the leading European network of cities and regions on urban transport innovation. Since 1989, members have been working together to develop sustainable and innovative urban mobility solutions for the city of today and tomorrow. The network also engages in debates around topical issues such as active travel, shared mobility services, MaaS, automated transport, electromobility and innovative governance approaches. Prior to joining Polis in 2004, Karen was Network Manager at ACCESS-EUROCITIES for a New Mobility Culture and project manager at Langzaam Verkeer, a Belgian centre for mobility management. Since 1998, she has been involved in European urban transport networking and policy activities and many EU research and innovation projects covering a wide range of urban mobility topics.
Stientje van Veldhoven began her career in 1997 as personal assistant to Elly Plooij van Gorsel, a member of the European Parliament for the People’s Party for Freedom and Democracy (VVD). From 1999 to 2003 she served as an innovation policy officer at the Ministry of Economic Affairs. From 2003 she worked at the Permanent Representation of the Netherlands to the European Union as first secretary for research policy and as scientific and technological attaché. In 2007 Ms Van Veldhoven became a policy advisor at the European Commission, focusing on the coordination of intergovernmental initiatives. From 2009 to 2010 she was unit coordinator for the Zuidvleugel Randstad region at the Ministry of Economic Affairs.
On 17 June 2010 Ms Van Veldhoven became a member of the House of Representatives for Democrats ’66 (D66), with policy responsibility for issues including sustainability, mobility, climate and energy, development cooperation, and agriculture, nature and food quality. From 2012 to 2017 she served as a member of the presidium and secretary to the D66 parliamentary party.
On 26 October 2017 Stientje van Veldhoven was appointed State Secretary for Infrastructure and Water Management in the third Rutte government.
Mark de la Vergne serves as the Chief of Mobility Innovation for Mayor Mike Duggan and has been in the role for two years. He is tasked with bringing new mobility services and technologies to Detroit residents. In 2018, this included a first/last mile pilot with Lyft, expanding car share to the neighborhoods of Detroit, overseeing the deployment of 1200 e-scooters and an autonomous shuttle service for the largest employer in Downtown. Over the next year, his office will explore connected technology at signalized intersections, launch a new microtransit service, and implement mobile payment for all transit in the Detroit region. Prior to joining the City, Mark worked with cities across North America on transportation projects as a consultant. He is a graduate of the University of Pennsylvania.
Devin de Vries is a social entrepreneur dedicated to fostering technological innovation to solve emerging market challenges. Beginning in Africa, he’s spent the last decade leading a growing team inspired by a shared vision to bring technological solutions to the challenge of public transport in the ‘majority world’—a truly wicked problem. Focused on the ground-truth, the WhereIsMyTransport team have developed the most comprehensive view of the ubiquitous yet digitally invisible public transport networks spanning emerging market cities; the informally run mobility networks responsible for moving billions of people daily. For the WhereIsMyTransport team making the invisible visible is simply a stepping stone in their collective pursuit to ‘empower people everywhere to get where they want to go’.
Mr. Walder has led the biggest and most complex transportation systems in the world, previously serving as Chairman and CEO of the Metropolitan Transportation Authority in New York, CEO of the MTR Corporation in Hong Kong, and Managing Director of Transport for London. Most recently he ran Motivate, the global leader in bike share, before its sale to Lyft. Mr. Walder was also a Partner at McKinsey, where he led the Global Infrastructure Practice for the well-known consulting firm, and a Professor of Public Policy at the John F. Kennedy School of Government at Harvard University.
Currently, Mr. Walder is on the Board of Advisors of the Taubman Center at the Harvard Kennedy School and is an Advisor to Lyft. Previously, he was a member of the Executive Board of the International Association of Public Transport (UITP) and was on the Board of Advisors at the Eno Transportation Foundation.
He has a BS in Economics from Harpur College at the State University of New York at Binghamton and holds a Master’s in Public Policy from the John F. Kennedy School of Government at Harvard University.
Alissa Walker connects people with where they live through writing, speaking, and walking. As the urbanism editor at Curbed, she authors the column Word on the Street, highlighting the pioneering transit, clever civic design, and game-changing policy affecting our cities.
For her writing on design and urbanism, Alissa has been named a USC Annenberg/Getty Arts Journalism Fellow and Journalist of the Year by Streetsblog Los Angeles. In 2012 her project Good Ideas for Cities was selected for inclusion in the U.S. Pavilion at the Venice Architecture Biennale. In 2015 she received the Design Advocate award from the LA chapter of the American Institute of Architects. She is also the co-founder of design east of La Brea, a nonprofit that has received two National Endowment for the Arts grants supporting its LA design events.
Alissa lives in Los Angeles, where she is a mom to the city’s two most enthusiastic public transit riders.
Janelle is Cofounder and CEO of ACTON. ACTON, Leading The Way. ACTON offers MaaS packages from connected multimodal vehicles to software solutions. ACTON clients are leading ride share operators, automakers and cities globally. ACTON leads and innovates with focus in micromobility space. Together, we make our cities better place to live.
Janelle is a Designer turned Entrepreneur. Janelle is an Innovative Leader with over 10 years of Brand Building, New Category Creation & Design Thinking for Fortune 500s to Start Ups, bringing breakthrough Products and Sustainability to reality. She was selected as one of 19 Influential Women In Mobility in 2019; awarded Female CEO of the Year in 2016; she was featured in WSJ, FastCompany, CNN, VOGUE, BBC etc. She also holds over 30 utility & design patents.
Chris Warner was appointed Director of the Portland Bureau of Transportation (PBOT) in June 2019 after serving as Deputy Director and Interim Director. He oversees 900 employees and a half a billion-dollar capital and operating budget and is responsible for $13 billion in assets. The agency manages and maintains Portland’s transportation system and helps Portlanders get from place to place safely, easily and sustainably. Under Warner’s leadership, PBOT is dedicated to efficiently maintaining Portland’s transportation infrastructure, achieving the Vision Zero goal of eliminating traffic fatalities, and enhancing Portland’s high quality of life as the city continues to grow and prosper.
Warner brings over twenty years of public sector management and transportation policy expertise to his position. As a policy and legislative expert, he has served at the local, state and federal levels and has played a leading role in many of Oregon and Portland’s most consequential transportation policy initiatives.
A native Oregonian, Warner graduated from the University of Oregon with a degree in Journalism. When not working, Warner enjoys spending time with his wife State Representative Barbara Smith Warner and their two children, exploring the natural beauty and cultural treasures of Oregon.
In his position as LA Metro CEO, Washington manages an annual operating budget of $1.6 billion and is responsible for overseeing $15 billion in capital projects and providing oversight of an agency that transports 1.4 million boarding passengers on an average weekday, riding on a fleet of 2,000 clean- air buses and six rail lines. LA Metro also is the lead transportation planning and programming agency for LA County. As such, it is a major construction agency that oversees bus, rail, highway and other mobility-related building projects – together representing the largest modern public works program in North America.
Washington was a leader in the successful effort to pass a new half-cent sales tax in LA County, which garnered 71.15% voter approval. Measure M will build 40 major highway and transit projects in the first 40 years, create 778,000 jobs through construction and various programs, and provide $133.3 billion in economic impact.
Washington came to Los Angeles from Denver, where he was Assistant General Manager for nearly 10 years, prior to being named CEO in 2009.
Elected in November 2016, Senator Scott Wiener represents District 11 in the California State Senate. District 11 includes all of San Francisco, Broadmoor, Colma, and Daly City, as well as portions of South San Francisco.
In the Senate, Senator Wiener works to make housing more affordable, invest in our transportation systems, increase access to healthcare, support working families, meaningfully address climate change and the impacts of drought, reform our criminal justice system, reduce gun violence, reduce California’s alarmingly high poverty rate, and safeguard and expand the rights of all communities, including immigrants and the LGBT community.
During his term in the Senate to date, Senator Wiener has passed 26 bills that were signed into law. Among those bills are SB 35, a landmark bill to streamline housing approvals in cities not meeting their housing goals; SB 822, which enacts the strongest net neutrality protections in the nation; SB 1045, which expands and strengthens California’s conservatorship laws to help individuals who are living on our streets with severe mental health and substance use disorders; SB 700, which significantly expands access to renewable energy; and SB 923, which modernizes California’s eyewitness identification standards to ensure innocent people are not sent to prison.
Stephanie Wiggins was named chief executive officer of Metrolink by a unanimous vote of the board of directors in December 2018. Wiggins assumed leadership in January 2019 and leads the 275-employee strong commuter railroad with a budget of $793 million.
As CEO, Wiggins directs an agency that operates a commuter rail network on seven routes across a six-county, 538 route-mile system. Wiggins has held high-level positions at three of the five-member agencies that comprise Metrolink and is well-known as a customer -focused leader who finds solutions from a regional perspective.
Wiggins’ vision for the agency is to create value and exceed expectations by prioritizing a customer-first orientation with three pillars to provide an outstanding customer experience: safety and security, an integrated system, and modernizing business practices.
Prior to leading Metrolink, Wiggins was Deputy CEO of the Los Angeles County Metropolitan Transportation Authority (LA Metro) where she assisted the CEO in providing leadership and formulating and achieving strategic public transportation objectives, including the passage of Measure M, a half-cent sales tax approved by 71 percent of voters in LA County. During her tenure at LA Metro, Stephanie also served as the Executive Director of Vendor/Contract Management, where she implemented procurement streamlining initiatives and greatly expanded Metro’s utilization of small and historically underutilized businesses. Prior to that role, Stephanie was the Executive Officer and Project Director of the Congestion Reduction/ExpressLanes Program where she launched the first high occupancy toll lanes in LA County, the I-10 and I-110 Express Lanes, which improved travel times and travel reliability on two of the County’s most congested freeway corridors.
Prior to Metro, she served as Regional Programs Director for the Riverside County Transportation Commission (RCTC) and oversaw transit, commuter rail, rideshare, goods movement and rail capital projects.
Wiggins began her career in transportation when she accepted a temporary assignment at the San Bernardino County Transportation Authority and fell in love with the mission of the agency. The six-month temporary assignment turned into more than four years. She then accepted a policy analyst position with the RCTC where she worked for an additional nine and a half years in management and senior management roles.
Feeling the need for personal and academic growth, Wiggins earned a Master of Business Administration from the USC Marshall School of Business in 2007. She received her Bachelor of Arts degree in Business Administration from Whittier College in 1992.
Wiggins is a self-proclaimed “military brat” whose father made his career in the Air Force. She credits her experience moving from base to base and country to country as a child for teaching her the importance of diversity.
Wiggins is the founding president of the Inland Empire Chapter of Women’s Transportation Seminar. She is the recipient of many awards including the Conference of Minority Transportation Officials 2018 Women Who Move the Nation Award. She is a Board Member of the Los Angeles Chapter of Friends of the Children, the LA Division of the American Heart Association, and an Advisory Board Member for the UCLA Lewis Center.
Azmat is the Founder/CEO of Citymapper, the multimodal urban transport app, one of Apple and Google’s apps of the year, which helps commuters get around in 40 of the world’s most complex cities. Citymapper has the most comprehensive mobility integrations, including buses, metros, trains, cabs, and all the emerging floating transport players – cycles, scooters and carshares. It has also recently launched Pass, a subscription to all mobility. Citymapper has raised $50m in venture capital funding from Index Ventures, Benchmark, Balderton Capital, Connect Ventures and others. Azmat previously worked at Google, the World Bank, and investment firms, and has degrees in engineering and business.
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