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PEOPLE ON THE MOVE

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Keolis President, CEO Announces Retirement ROCKVILLE, MD—Steve Townsend, president and chief executive officer of Keolis America since 2007, has announced his plans to retire. Townsend’s 43-year career spans multiple industries including oil and gas, environmental services, facilities management and transportation. He was an 18-year employee of Veolia Environment/Transportation in posts including executive vice president-operations and chief operating officer-transit division.

Yasminka Nemet, Bob Pagorek, John Michel, Ray Lowrey, Jacqueline (Jackie) Nguyen, Megan Smale DALLAS--MV Transportation announced the following appointments: Yasminka Nemet has been named the firm’s chief marketing and customer experience officer. She joins MV from Pearson, a worldwide learning company, where she was senior vice president, marketing, of the Higher Education Division. Bob Pagorek is MV’s new executive vice president and chief financial officer. He has spent a decade in senior finance roles, serving most recently as vice president of operations finance at Navistar International Corporation. Former Air Force Brig. Gen. John Michel joined the company as its chief strategy and innovation officer and president of MV International. His 26 years with the Air Force include ­leading NATO’s 14-nation effort in Afghanistan to build the $6.7 billion Afghan Air Force. Ray Lowrey has been named chief technology officer. He previously served as chief information officer of McGraw-Hill Education and chief technology officer for both Archipelago Learning and Cengage Learning. Jacqueline (Jackie) Nguyen, the new vice president and chief compliance officer, comes to MV after being general counsel for Regus Management Group and associate general counsel for ­STMicroelectronics Inc. Megan Smale joined MV as vice president and associate general counsel for labor, employment and litigation. She has worked in private law firms and in-house legal departments and, most recently, was associate general counsel with Sabre.

Marcus Peoples
SAN ANTONIO—The United Way of San Antonio and Bexar County recently honored Marcus ­Peoples, vice president of human resources, VIA Metropolitan Transit, with its Corporate-Individual Volunteer of the Year Award. Peoples serves as the executive management representative for VIA’s United Way charitable campaign; under his leadership, VIA had both the highest level of contributions and the largest number of donors in its history.






Sandy Draggoo
LANSING, MI—Sandy Draggoo, chief executive officer/executive director of the Capital Area Transportation Authority (CATA), recently received the Leadership in Individual and Social Responsibility Award from Olivet College. Draggoo began her career at CATA in 1974 as executive secretary and has served in the top post since 1985. APTA honored her as its Outstanding Public Transit System General Manager in 2003.

Colin Lawrence
ISELIN, NJ—Colin Lawrence, Hatch Mott MacDonald’s practice leader for tunnels, has been elected to The Moles, a fraternal organization of the heavy construction industry founded in 1936. Lawrence is a senior vice president of the company, working on projects including the New York Metropolitan Transportation Authority’s East Side Access.

Philip Stephens
CHICAGO—Philip Stephens has been appointed a senior principal ­technical specialist in the ­Chicago office of ­Parsons Brinckerhoff, serving as quality task lead for Illinois DOT’s ­Chicago-St. Louis high-speed rail program. Stephens has more than 20 years of experience in the application of quality standards for major transportation infrastructure projects, most recently with a Chicago construction engineering firm.

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