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PEOPLE ON THE MOVE

Who's Doing What in the Industry

Tom Costello

He joined CUMTD in 1974 as a part-time driver and was promoted to director of public information and ultimately assistant managing director.

 For APTA, Costello is a past chair of the Marketing & Communications Steering Committee, a former vice chair-marketing and communications on the Executive Committee, and a member of the APTA Board of Directors from 2011-2014. He chaired the APTA Public Transportation Partnership for Tomorrow (PT2) and co-chaired the “Telling Our Story” initiative.

 
Scott Mahaffey, Andre McEwing, Carter Burdette, Jon Michael Franks
FORT WORTH, TX—The Fort Worth Transportation Authority Board of Directors recently re-elected its officers: Scott Mahaffey, president and chief executive officer of Cohn & Gregory Inc., chair; Andre McEwing, manager of supplier diversity, Tarrant County College District, vice chair; and Carter ­Burdette, attorney and former Fort Worth City Council member, secretary. Also, The T introduced new board member Jon Michael Franks, who was appointed by the ­Tarrant County Commissioners Court. Franks is an attorney with the Wynne Law Firm’s Grapevine office.

Neil S. Yellin, Robert M. Lavell, Dennis J. Martin
NEWARK, NJ—The New Jersey Transit Corporation (NJ Transit) Board of Directors has appointed Neil S. Yellin as the agency’s deputy executive director and Robert M. Lavell and Dennis J. ­Martin as vice president and general manager of NJ Transit rail operations and bus operations respectively.

Yellin has 27 years experience in ­public transit leadership, serving since 2008 as a senior vice president for administration/chief safety officer with MTA Long Island Rail Road. He also served MTA Long Island Bus as its president and vice president of policy and planning.

Lavell has served in his post on an acting basis since March 2014. He is a career railroad professional with more than 40 years of experience, and was NJ Transit’s deputy general manager of equipment from 2008-2013, following 30 years with Amtrak.

Martin has 30 years of transit industry experience, primarily with NJ Transit, and served in his job on an acting basis since June 2014. His other jobs with NJ Transit include senior director of customer resources and director of bus terminal operations.

Robert Puciloski, Mohsen Tabrizi, Neil Gutterman
NEW YORK CITY—SYSTRA announced the hiring of three members of its Systems Engineering and Design-Build Group: Robert ­Puciloski, director of the group; Mohsen Tabrizi, senior system safety designer; and Neil Gutterman, senior design-build manager.

Puciloski has more than 30 years of experience from his railroad career, serving most recently as assistant vice president of MTA Metro-North Railroad.

Tabrizi has worked in engineering for more than 23 years, entering the rail signaling field as a software engineer in 1999. Most recently, he was a senior engineer with GE Transportation.

Gutterman has extensive experience in design-build engineering, working with clients including FTA, the Maryland Transit Administration, and the San Francisco Bay Area Rapid Transit District.

Mark J. Dorsey
PHILADELPHIA—Mark J. Dorsey has joined the Southeastern Pennsylvania Transportation Authority as an inspector for the Transit Police Department.

Dorsey has 37 years of experience, serving most recently as chief of police at the University of Pennsylvania. He retired from the Philadelphia Police Department as an inspector in the Narcotics Bureau after a 27-year career, during which he received the Valor Award and more than 40 Merit Commendations.

Adrian Ruiz
PHOENIX—Valley Metro has hired Adrian Ruiz, a retired police lieutenant, as director of safety and security.

Ruiz was an officer with the Phoenix Police Department for 23 years, including seven years as a lieutenant with the Phoenix Police Transit Enforcement Unit. She retired from the Violent Crimes Bureau in 2014. During her tenure as an officer, she received two city of Phoenix Employee Excellence Awards in 2013 for her actions to mitigate issues during a transit strike and for her involvement with Operation STOP (Surface Transportation Top Offender Program).

Norma De La Garza-Navarro, Randy Altshuler, Carol A. Bellinger
ORLANDO, FL—HDR announced the following appointments:

Norma De La Garza-Navarro is the firm’s new Central Texas transit lead, based in San Antonio. She previously worked 24 years for Dallas Area Rapid Transit for 24 years, most recently as vice president of commuter rail and railroad management and director of the Trinity Railway Express. She also spent two years with VIA Metropolitan Transit in San Antonio.

Randy Altshuler has joined HDR as the firm’s West Region transportation director, based in Oakland, CA. He joins the company after serving as west transportation business line leader with AECOM. His 35 years of experience also include employment with Parsons Brinckerhoff, Parsons Corporation, MTA New York City Transit, and Massachusetts Bay Transportation Authority.

Carol A. Bellinger has been promoted to transportation real estate services director, based in HDR’s Plymouth Meeting, PA, office. She joined the firm in 2009, serving as north central real estate services lead and Illinois section manager. She has more than 30 years of experience.

David L. Mayer
NEW YORK CITY—David L. Mayer has been named chief safety officer of the New York Metropolitan Transportation Authority (MTA), a new position created to reinforce safety as the top priority for all MTA agencies.

Mayer began his career at the National Transportation Safety Board in 1991 in the Office of Research and Engineering. He was named assistant managing director in 2001 and promoted to managing ­director, the highest career-level position at the agency, in 2009.

Raj Srinath, David C. Hill, Inez Evans
SAN JOSE, CA—The Santa Clara Valley Transportation Authority (VTA) announced the appointments of Raj ­Srinath as chief financial officer, David C. Hill as deputy director of transit operations, and Inez Evans as chief of staff.

Srinath comes to VTA from the Washington Metropolitan Area Transit Authority, where he served as treasurer since 2008. He has more than 20 years of experience in financial operations.

Hill previously was deputy director, transit management, with the San Francisco Municipal Transportation Agency. He has worked more than 20 years with public transit agencies in cities including Birmingham, AL, Dallas, and Detroit.

Evans was chief operations officer with Cincinnati Metro before joining VTA. She is a graduate of the Leadership APTA Class of 2011 with more than 20 years of transit experience in Atlanta, San Jose, and Austin, TX.

Periklis Papadopoulos, Matthew G. Verhoff
NEW YORK CITY—Parsons Brinckerhoff (PB) announces the appointments of Periklis Papadopoulos as a supervising communications systems engineer in the New York City office and Matthew G. Verhoff as a principal technical specialist for rail operations and planning, based in Austin, TX.

Papadopoulos has more than 20 years of security systems design and engineering experience. Prior to joining PB, he held senior positions with global communications consulting firms.

Verhoff served most recently as director of rail operations for the Capital Metropolitan Transportation Authority in Austin. His more than 20 years of railroad industry experience includes working for the Canadian National Railroad and MTA Long Island Rail Road, as well as a previous tenure with PB from 2010-2012.

Terry Nash, Jaidev Sankar
KANSAS CITY, MO—Terry Nash has joined HNTB Corporation as senior project manager for transit and rail and associate vice president, based in the firm’s Bellevue, WA, office. He has 18 years of project management experience, specializing in rail transit for the past 13 years.

Prior to joining HNTB, Nash served as associate vice president at another consulting firm.

Also, Jaidev Sankar, P.E., has joined the New York City office of HNTB as a project director and vice president. He has extensive rail transit construction experience with major projects throughout the northeastern U.S.

Dan Ifrim, Ray Akkawi, Vince Alvino
ISELIN, NJ—Hatch Mott McDonald announced the hiring of Dan Ifrim and Ray Akkawi as senior project managers and Vince Alvino as senior project controls and technology services manager.

Ifrim, based in Mississauga, ON, has 30 years of tunneling experience in the U.S., Canada, and overseas.

Akkawi, who will work in Pleasanton, CA, has 17 years of experience with Caltrans, five years with the Alameda County Transportation Commission, and three years as a consulting engineer.

Alvino has 20 years of experience as a project controls and technology management consultant and five years working with the Santa Clara Valley Transportation Authority and the San Francisco Bay Area Rapid Transit District. He will also be based in the Pleasanton office.

John Milano
MARLTON, NJ—Hill International has promoted John Milano, P.E., to senior vice president and manager of the Northeast Region for the Project Management Group. He succeeds D. Clarke Pile, P.E., who served in that post for 12 years and will continue working with Hill as an executive consultant.

Milano has served as the Northeast Region’s deputy regional manager since 2003 and has more than 30 years of experience in the construction management industry.

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