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PEOPLE ON THE MOVE

Who's Doing What in the Industry

CHICAGO—Hanover Displays Inc. announced the appointment of Chad Huffman as technical sales manager for the U.S. public transit market. He has more than 18 years of industry experience in Intelligent Transportation Systems and joined the firm after working as director of business development for an ITS vendor.


BUFFALO, NY—Patricia Wiseman, superintendent of special services for the Niagara Frontier Transportation Authority (NFTA), has been nominated for the 2018 Buffalo Black Achiever’s Award.

Wiseman, a three-year NFTA employee, oversees the agency’s reservation-based service available to riders with disabilities, which serves more than 4,800 customers and provides more than 17,000 trips per month within two counties. She also represents the system at annual American Bus Benchmarking Group and APTA events.


SAN JOSE, CA—The Santa Clara Valley Transportation Authority (VTA) has named Evelynn Tran, its acting general counsel, to the position on a permanent basis. Since 2006, Tran has served VTA as a legal advisor, litigator and trial attorney in roles including senior assistant counsel and deputy general counsel.


SACRAMENTO, CA—The California High-Speed Rail Authority announced the appointment of Donald Odell as director of real property, a position he previously held on an acting basis. Earlier, he was an Attorney IV with the authority, working closely with the Right-of-Way Division. Prior to that, Odell worked at several private law firms.


AMBLER, PA—LTK Engineering Services announced the hiring of Sarah Wineman and Brian Leibowitz, previously president and vice president respectively of A Train Enterprises, an engineering services company that worked on public transit projects. They will be based in the firm’s San Francisco office.

Wineman is a professional engineer with more than 20 years of experience in the public transit industry. She joins LTK’s Vehicle Engineering Structural Group as a senior engineer.

Leibowitz has 30 years of experience in testing and development of processing equipment, including 19 years in public transit. He joins LTK’s Vehicle Engineering Structural Group as a senior consultant.


NEW YORK CITY—Robert ­Zmudzinski has been appointed vice president and national rail systems engineering manager in the New York City office of WSP USA, leading the firm’s transit and rail systems engineering team across the U.S.

Zmudzinski’s more than three decades of public transit and rail industry expertise includes work on projects for the New York Metropolitan Transportation Authority, Port Authority of New York and New Jersey, Los Angeles Metro, Chicago Transit Authority, Massachusetts Bay Transportation Authority, Amtrak and agencies outside the U.S.


OMAHA, NE—HDR announced the appointment of Mark Fuhrmann to its public transit practice, as a senior project manager based in the Minneapolis engineering office. He recently retired after 25 years with Minneapolis’ Metropolitan Council, serving most recently as deputy general manager of Metro Transit. Earlier he worked for Fairfax County, VA, as a transportation planner and head of the Metro Liaison and Technical Analysis Section.


CHICAGO—Mike Setzer has been named president of the Transit Business Unit for Transdev, overseeing contracts in bus and paratransit in 200 cities, communities, airports and universities. Since 2012, he has been chief executive officer of the company’s operation in Nassau County, NY.

Setzer earlier served as chief executive officer of the Southwest Ohio Regional Transit Authority in Cincinnati, St. Louis Metro and Metro Transit in Minneapolis-St. Paul and was a co-founder and partner of Professional Transit Management, which Transdev acquired in 2008.

For APTA, he serves on the Bus & Paratransit CEOs and Innovative Funding, Finance and P3 committees.


DENVER—Scott Reed has announced his retirement from the Regional Transportation District (RTD), where he was assistant general manager of communications, after 27 years with the agency.

Laurie Huff, who joined RTD in April 2017 as senior specialist in public affairs, will serve as the agency’s primary media contact. Before coming to RTD, she was a public relations practitioner for eight years in Colorado and, prior to that, a newspaper journalist in Northern and Coastal California.


OAKLAND, CA—William Knapp has joined STV as vice president and design-build director in the firm’s western region, based in the company’s Oakland office. He has more than 30 years experience in transportation planning, design and construction. Prior to joining STV, Knapp worked on major design-build initiatives for a multinational engineering firm.


PORTLAND, OR—Charlie Hales, who served 10 years as HDR’s senior vice president for transit planning before a four-year term as mayor of Portland, has rejoined the company as a senior vice president and the firm’s cross-sector director for urban planning and design. Hales is active in the United States Conference of Mayors and served as vice chair of its transportation committee.


DALLASTOWN, PA—Trans/Air Manufacturing Corporation has announced the retirement of Jeff Kochenour after 11 years as warranty manager and the promotion of Craig Smith, who has worked in many jobs during his more than 30 years with the company, to the position.


GERMANTOWN, WI—Laura ­Dickinson has joined the marketing and communications team at WAGO. As public relations coordinator, she will oversee the company’s publicity, editorial content, social media and other written material.

Also, WAGO announced that Evan Syens has joined the company to manage electrical splicing connector solutions. He has marketing and project management experience with Werner Electric Supply and HellermannTyton.


CANTON, OH—Chuck DeGraff recently retired from the Stark Area Regional Transit Authority (SARTA) Board of Directors, where he served as president. He joined the board in 2001, appointed by then-Canton Mayor ­Richard Watkins. He worked for the Hoover Company for more than 41 years, retiring as its vice president of engineering in 2001.


PHILADELPHIA—Transportation Resource Associates announced the appointment of Daniela Amores as director of systems engineering. She joins the company from Miami-Dade Transit, where she was chief of traction power and train control.


CHICAGO—Transdev has named W.C. Pihl senior vice president of business development for Transdev North America. Pihl has more than 25 years of public transit experience, most recently as vice president of business development for Ride Right. Earlier he worked for 14 years at MV Transportation, finishing his career there as executive vice president of business development.


NEW YORK CITY—The New York Metropolitan Transportation Authority (MTA) has named Arthur R. (Rob) Troup senior program executive of East Side Access, the project’s top ranking official. Troup most recently was deputy general manager of the Metropolitan Atlanta Rapid Transit Authority and earlier served in the same role for the Washington Metropolitan Area Transit Authority. He worked in Amtrak’s New York division from 1979-95.

Troup succeeds William Goodrich, who led East Side Access since 2014 and is retiring after 40 years in civil engineering and project management. He held leadership roles on historic projects including Boston’s Central Artery/Tunnel and New York City’s Second Avenue Subway, Phase 1.

MTA also announced the appointment of Patrick T. Warren as its chief safety officer. He comes to the authority from FRA, where he was deputy associate administrator for the Office of Railroad Safety and then executive director.


CINCINNATI—Michelle Jeng has joined Cincinnati Metro as senior director of treasury. She is a financial professional with 20 years of experience, most recently as treasury manager for Vertiv Co. and earlier with TimkenSteel Corporation and Fifth Third Bank.

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