2019 Speakers
Keynote Speakers
Luis Montoya
Planning and Development Manager, Des Moines Area Regional Transit Authority (DART)
Luis Montoya is the Planning and Development Manager at the Des Moines Area Regional Transit Authority (DART), where he oversees route development, scheduling, and service planning. As a mid-sized transit agency operating urban, suburban, and commuter transit services, DART seeks to leverage technology and new mobility models to adapt to evolving customer preferences and meet the needs of a growing region. Prior to joining DART, Luis was the Director of Livable Streets at the SFMTA, and he holds a Master’s degree in City Planning from MIT.
Chris Pangilinan
Head of Global Policy, Public Transportation, Uber
Chris Pangilinan is the Head of Global Policy for Public Transportation at Uber. In this role, Chris works to help transit agencies and riders harness Uber's technology platform to make transit more convenient and easier to use. Prior to joining Uber, Chris was a program director at the non-profit research and advocacy organization TransitCenter, and served in various roles at New York City Transit, the San Francisco MTA, the Chicago Transit Authority, and the US Department of Transportation.
Session Speakers
Tim Ammon
Chief of Business Development, TransPar Group of Companies
Tim Ammon has supported the transportation industry as a consultant for more than 20 years. His work has focused on the impact of statutory, regulatory, and policy impacts on operations including the design of compliance and performance monitoring systems. He has worked extensively with operators to design management and training structures to support improved performance and safety. Tim has also focused on addressing management and leadership challenges associated with revenue maximization in times of increased regulatory expectations. Tim holds a Master of Public Administration degree (MPA) from American University.
Gary Blazinsky
Administrator, Harford Transit LINK
Gary is the Harford Transit LINK Administrator, a small-urban locally operated transit system in Maryland, and the current sitting president of the Transportation Association of Maryland (TAM), a non-profit organization that supports locally operated transit systems in Maryland. To better serve the TAM membership efforts were made to improve vendor participation and financial results. Gary has refocused the organization towards growth and training opportunities, relocated the TAM office into facilities which now host training for Maryland transit agencies, diversified fiscal management growing the reserves by 30% and has relocated the “Annual TAM Conference”. Additionally, Gary serves on the Baltimore Regional Transportation Board and the Harford County Accident Review Board. His career spans more than 30 years of management experience in distribution, transportation both private & public, and warehousing, twenty years managing single facilities, and ten years managing multiple facilities along with regional director responsibilities primarily in the food, MRO and third party distribution industry. He is a results oriented manager committed to improving bottom line performance along with team building, operation turnaround/revitalization and optimizing costs with controlled planning and strengthened operational procedures. He works to build long-term partnerships, build leaders and motivate organizations to higher levels of performance.
Stephen Brady
Lead Senior Engineer, Booz Allen Hamiton
Mr. Brady is a licensed Professional Engineer with more than 28 years of experience in vehicle engineering and testing and wind tunnel testing. Testing experience includes heavy duty trucks and buses, aircraft, fuel-cell, electric, hybrid, and solar-powered vehicles as well as rail vehicles. Mr. Brady has supported the FTA Bus Testing Program for more than 25 years as well as other Federal, State and commercial agencies and organizations.
Mike Brock
President and Technical Director, Immersed Technologies
Mike Brock is the President and Technical Director for Immersed Technologies, a technical training services and communications company. He is also the lead program manager for technical training courses and service publications for predominately automotive and transportation industry clients, including Audi of America, Los Angeles Metro, BYD Heavy Duty Industries, Kia Motors America, Karma Automotive, and the Southern California Regional Transit Training Consortium (SCRTTC). Immersed Technologies is a major industry partner with the SCRTTC. With more than 20 years of experience as a technical writer, technical trainer and project manager, Mike is equally business-minded and passionate about his work. He understands that clients’ objectives span departments, and he never loses sight of what it means to break new ground. Mr. Brock combines his experience and expertise to bring a level of understanding, problem solving, and insightful expertise to complex projects. He is a speaker at national learning and development conferences and his projects have earned numerous industry awards.
Jeff Cassell
President, Motorcoach Safety Training Company
For seven years, Jeff worked at a senior level of the AIG group. He led the Captive Insurance Group in Bermuda, working with some of the largest companies in North America. Ford, Texaco, Mobil, Pfizer were just a few of his clients. Jeff then became the V.P. Corporate Risk Manager for the Laidlaw group and held that position for almost 21 years. Laidlaw operated almost 45,000 buses. Included in Jeff’s responsibilities was identifying and reducing risks including the leadership of the safety practices. The safety team reduced the accident rate by almost 78% as a rate to miles driven and the cost of losses by almost 56% as a rate to revenue.
Jeff is now the president of three companies - The School Bus Safety Company (SBSC), The Transit & Paratransit Company (TAPTCO) and The Motorcoach Safety Training Company (MCSTCO). Jeff led the creation of comprehensive, systematic, integrated training courses for each of these operations. These training courses are used by more than 3,000 school districts, 450 transit agencies and almost every contractor.
Scott Conroy
Area Vice President, First Transit
Scott Conroy is the area vice president for First Transit’s East Region Campus Transit and Shuttle operations. Scott oversees 25 university and airport systems across a broad spectrum of service needs. Scott joined First Transit following the acquisition of Cognisa Transportation in January of 2007. With over 25 years of experience in contract management for public and private institutions, he has developed a team which brings together talented mobility specialists to meet unique customer needs.
Jodi Glock
Administrative Supervisor, Harford Transit LINK
Jodi Glock is the Administrative Supervisor for Harford Transit LINK, a small-urban locally operated transit system in Maryland and serves on the Transportation Association of Maryland’s Roadeo Committee. She has over 22 years in accounting, grant and federal funding experience with seven years in public transit, five of those years performing contract operations oversight, program administration, and contract management, 2 years in direct transit operations and fifteen years higher education, finance management and accounting. Supervising the transit accounting team, she is a transformation leader. She works with her team to identify opportunities for change, developing methods to implement in tandem with all areas of transit operations, the County impacted programs and services. Through her fiscal team oversight she develops and manages proposed budgets for operations and projects, grant reimbursements, identifies additional funding for growth opportunities and has streamlined financial processes.
Frances Grinstead
CEO, CURIS System
Frances Grinstead has been working in bio-decontamination for over a decade and has been at the forefront of innovation in high-level disinfection in high traffic facilities nationally and internationally. As the first to develop a truly portable decontamination device and the first to establish a bio-decontamination service for the purpose of outbreak control, she has created a market that others now emulate, all in an effort to improve innovation and understanding of infection prevention and control. Specializing in organizations with high traffic areas, she has personally worked with multiple facilities to develop and implement fact-based programs to minimize risks, helping prevent the spread of infectious disease.
Chelsey Hohensee
Manager of Operations, MetroLINK
Chelsey Hohensee is Manager of Operations at the Rock Island County Metropolitan Mass Transit District (MetroLINK), which is based in Moline, Illinois and provides fixed-route, paratransit, and passenger ferryboat services within the Illinois Quad Cities. Chelsey currently oversees MetroLINK’s operations, maintenance, and facilities departments. Prior to joining MetroLINK in 2011, Chelsey spent four years as Senior Planner with the Bi-State Regional Commission, which serves as the MPO in the Greater Quad Cities Area.
Thomas Holden
President, Managing Partner, Bus Advisors
Tom started his ground transportation career with Rose Chauffeured Transportation. He was the Director of Operations and General Manager. With his guidance Rose grew from 1.2 million to over 10 million in sales. Rose added Motor Coaches nearly nine years ago. Before taking the management position, he was a part-time driver just looking to make a little weekend money. After being interviewed by Charles Tenney the consultant at the time, he was brought into the office to help grow the company. For the last four years, he has had the opportunity to speak on panels and be the moderator of panels at the LCT Shows in Vegas and Atlantic City on Educational sessions directed by the NLA. He is also a contributing writer for LCT Magazine and on the magazine Board of Advisors. This is what brought him to want to help more business owners and operators in both industries (Limousine and Motor Coach), So he decided to form a consulting company called Bus Advisors.
Mark Kerstens
VP, Global Fleet Solutions, ChargePoint
Mark Kerstens leads ChargePoint’s Global Fleet Solutions team. Prior to this role he managed strategic sales throughout Europe for the company. Mark has more than 20 years in the energy industry across the U.S., U.K., France and Poland serving in senior roles at global energy companies including BP. In addition, he’s held positions as the Chief Sales & Marketing Officer and later the CEO of a Silicon Valley based solar technology startup. He currently resides in San Francisco.
David Klinikowski
Assistant Research Professor, Penn State University, Larson Institute
David Klinikowski serves as director of the Bus Research and Testing Center operated by the Larson Institute at Penn State. The Bus Research and Testing Center, sponsored by the U.S. Department of Transportation, Federal Transit Administration, employs a staff of approximately 30 engineers, technicians, mechanics and administrative support staff. The testing program is actively researching and testing new transit technologies, vehicle emissions, test methods, advanced materials and propulsion systems, vehicle durability, reliability, safety and performance. Mr. Klinikowski's responsibilities also include the direction of the test track operations at the Larson Institute's Research and Testing Facility, located in State College, Pa.
Mike McDonal
Director, Regulatory Compliance and Industry Relations, Saucon Technologies
Mike has been involved in the transportation industry 35 years. He began his career in the truck rental and leasing business serving in sales and operational capacities as well as Director of Safety roles for many of the company’s leasing clients. Mike also served as Director of Human Resources and Safety for a large hazardous materials carrier serving the east coast with 250 vehicles and 325 drivers. In 2005, Mike joined the motor coach industry and served as General Manager for a large motor coach operation in the Baltimore Washington corridor. Mike was responsible for the day to day operation of a 70 bus fleet to include drivers, training, dispatch, operations, vehicle maintenance and cleaning crew. As Director of Regulatory Compliance for Saucon Technologies, Mike is responsible for working with companies to implement and coordinate not only the hours of service regulations but all appropriate FMCA and OSHA regulations. Mike has presented at over 50 passenger carrier events in the last 2 years. Mike was awarded the Safety Professional of the Year by the Maryland Motor Truck Association in 2004. Mike has served as the Chairman of the Safety Management Council in Maryland. He has also served in leadership positions to include Chairman of the Bus Industry Safety Council as well as the International Motor Coach Group Safety Council and Driver Training Committees. Mike currently serves as past Chair of the Bus Industry Safety Council and is Chairing the Bus MARC, the Bus Maintenance and Repair Council.
Kyle McDonald
Regional Support Manager, Cummins Inc.
Regional Support Manager for the NA Bus market located in Columbus, Indiana. Kyle has been with Cummins for 5 years, 4 of which were spent in Powertrain Integration Engineering working on vehicle performance features for On-Highway HD Trucks.
Warren Perry
Senior Director Business Development, North America, Bestmile
As Senior Director of Business Development for North America, Warren is responsible for business alliances and partnerships in the eastern United States and for helping public and private mobility service providers plan, deploy, and manage new mobility services. Warren brings 30+ years of successful software sales and business development experience in the fields of fleet management, route optimization, geospatial platforms, and more. Prior to joining Bestmile, Warren was Vice President of Sales at fleet management software company Telogis (acquired by Verizon), and at mapping software maker deCarta (acquired by Uber).
Jeff Peterson
Director of Business Development - Autonomous Technology, First Transit
Mr. Jeff Peterson has more than 20 years of sales experience, including nearly a decade of experience in technology-focused roles. He joined First Transit in 2016 and leads the company’s pursuit and development of shared autonomous vehicle opportunities. Throughout his career, Jeff has fostered relationships with potential clients to fully understand their needs and develop strategies to achieve their goals. To this end, he works with operations teams and senior leadership to identify the best solutions for its clients’ mobility needs. Jeff has been instrumental in First Transit’s growth and leadership in the automated vehicle space, and plays a vital role in the company’s strategic direction in this emerging market.
Robin Phillips
Executive Director, National RTAP
Robin Phillips joined National RTAP as Executive Director in 2014. She now has four and half years of experience with National RTAP and more than 20 years of experience working with transit and FTA programs. Ms. Phillips began working with transportation at Oregon DOT in 1997 to write a multimodal intercity policy and implement a program - the Oregon and Washington Intercity Networks were the first of many results. She worked with Greyhound to implement private match for FTA grants and other private operators to build strong connections with intercity, local and regional services. Ms. Phillips went to law school at Willamette University and has a BA in History from Reed College in Portland, OR. Robin practiced law for five years, including four years with US DOJ.
G Satish
CEO, Connixt, Inc.
G Satish is the co-founder and CEO of Connixt, a cloud-mobile solutions provider focused on Asset Integrity and Force Efficiency for the transit, OEM and utility industries. Satish is a serial entrepreneur with a successful international track record in complex, enterprise, mobile and big data / analytics solutions for asset-intensive industries. Connixt’s pre-built cloud-based mobile apps digitize maintenance, inspection and workshop processes and workflows within days. Connixt implementations integrate with multiple back-end systems with minimal IT impact to deliver process efficiencies, out-of-the-box reporting and automated condition-based workflows. Transit customers have used Connixt to digitize processes related to SGR, MAP21, safety and compliance, Daily inspection reports, condition assessment and maintenance planning.
Mitch Skyer
President & Co-Founder, Passio Technologies
Mitch Skyer began his transit career in 2002, founded Solstice Transportation Group in 2007, and co-founded Passio Technologies in 2010. He currently serves as president of both organizations, providing universities, corporations, airports, healthcare facilities and municipalities with technology and consulting for transportation and parking operations. Mitch serves in leadership roles for the Georgia Transit Association, the Parking and Transportation Association of Georgia, and is on the board of directors for the Mid South Parking and Transportation Association. He earned an MBA from the University at Buffalo and has lived in suburban Atlanta for more than 25 years.
Mark Szyperski
President/CEO, On Your Mark Transportation, LLC
Mark L. Szyperski is President/CEO of On Your Mark Transportation, LLC, a Consulting Firm for the Bus, Motorcoach, and Luxury Ground Transportation Industry. He has over 30 years public and private sector experience in the Bus, Motorcoach, and Limousine industry, working with over 100 companies in the United States, Canada, and Ireland. He has expertise in Section 5311(f), program review and guidance, operation implementation and grant preparation. He provides technical assistance in federal regulation compliance, operations staff training and development (including bus operator recruiting, hiring and training), marketing, route scheduling and dispatching, transportation management reviews, best practices and peer research, service planning, performance and financial analysis and sustainable funding, and public-private partnerships. Mark played a key role in transportation planning and execution for the 2010 Winter Olympics and the 2012 Democratic Convention. Mark learned the industry at an early age from his father a 33-year Greyhound bus operator. Prior to founding On Your Mark Transportation, LLC, Mark served as Corporate Vice President of National Trailways Transportation System, He has developed, and implemented 5311(f) supported scheduled route service in Tennessee, Kentucky, and Alabama. His work has expanded to help Intercity Bus Companies in the United States on route development and program management for 5311(f) programs.
Michael Taylor
Director of Autogas Business Development, PERC
Michael Taylor joined PERC in March 2012 as the Director of Autogas Business Development. Michael’s primary role focuses on maintaining the growth of propane autogas vehicles in the U.S. through the sustainable development of state-of-the-art certified fuel system technologies and the creation of key strategic partnerships that will successfully commercialize and support the propane powered vehicles. Michael began his career in manufacturing and transportation with Blue Bird, a major North American school bus manufacturer. During his 20-year tenure, he served in numerous roles which included positions in manufacturing, logistics, quality control, sales and marketing from 1985-2005. From 2005-2008, Michael was appointed dealer principal and general manager of the Blue Bird dealership for the state of in Indiana. As a member of a partnership with 2 colleagues, this team successfully created a start-up full-service bus dealership that sold and serviced buses for school, non-school and export markets. Prior to assuming his role with PERC, Michael served as Director of Fleet Management for Heritage Propane from 2008 – 2012. Recognized as one of the top 50 U. S. fleets with almost 6,000 vehicles deployed in 44 states, he was responsible for defining, establishing and incorporating corporate policies and processes for vehicle specifications, procurement, operations, warranty and support and vehicle retirement and replacement practices. As a propane industry volunteer, Michael served as chairman of the PERC Engine Fuel Advisory Committee from 2008-2011 and co-chairman of the Research and Technology Development Working Group from 2011-2012. Both groups played key roles in funding the development of the certified propane autogas fuel systems available in the market today.
Ryan Vaughn
Customer Support Manager, Cummins Inc
Ryan is the Customer Support Manager for the NA Bus and Off-Highway markets located in Columbus, Indiana. He has been with Cummins for 11 years in various service engineering and customer support roles, with 9 years focused on bus. Prior to Cummins he worked on heavy equipment in a Southern Indiana coal mine for 3 years. He has spent his entire life to date working on various junk machines on a family farm, also in Southern Indiana.
Sherry Wu
Product Marketing Manager, Samsara
Sherry is a product marketing manager at Samsara, an advanced fleet management platform that helps fleets improve the efficiency, quality, and safety of their operations. Throughout her career, Sherry has worked with customers of all sizes -- from small businesses to the federal government -- to leverage technology to improve business outcomes. Sherry holds a BA and MBA from the University of California, Berkeley.
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