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PEOPLE ON THE MOVE

Who's Doing What in the Industry

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JTA’s Ford Inducted into First Coast Business Hall of Fame
JACKSONVILLE, FL—Nathaniel P. Ford Sr., chief executive officer of the Jacksonville Transportation Authority and APTA immediate past chair, has been inducted into the First Coast Business Hall of Fame by the Florida Council on Economic Education.

Ford’s more than 30 years in public transit include tenures as chief executive officer of the San Francisco Municipal Transportation Agency and the Metropolitan Atlanta Rapid Transit Authority. For APTA, he chairs the Diversity and Inclusion Council and is a member of numerous other committees.

The First Coast Business Hall of Fame program was created 20 years ago to recognize exceptional business and civic champions. Ford was one of four honorees this year.


ANAHEIM, CA—Econolite has announced the appointment of Kirk Steudle as senior vice president, leading the company’s Transportation Systems Group and its subsidiary CAVita.

Steudle joins the company following decades with Michigan DOT, most recently as its director for 13 years.

Douglas Wiersig joined the company as vice president. He has more than 30 years of transportation and infrastructure engineering and management experience, including serving as director of transportation and public works for the city of Fort Worth, TX, and director of Cobb County (GA) DOT.

Also, Barry Einsig has joined CAVita as a principal. Most recently he spent six years as an executive with Cisco Systems Inc., responsible for global automotive and transportation solution development, and before that he was director of transportation/strategic development for Harris Corp. in Washington, DC.


MONTREAL, QUEBEC—Bombardier announced the appointment of Sam Abdelmalek as chief transformation and supply chain officer. He has almost 30 years of aerospace and industrial experience, serving most recently as vice president, global supply chain, with Pratt & Whitney.


CINCINNATI—Daniel Feldman recently joined Cincinnati Metro as director of accounting and financial planning and analysis. He has been an active CPA since 2007 and previously served as global finance manager for Clopay Plastic Products Co.


LOS ANGELES—The Metrolink Board of Directors announced the appointment of Santa Monica City Councilmember Pam O’Connor as an alternate director, representing the Los Angeles County Metropolitan Transportation Authority (Metro) board.

O’Connor served on the Metro board for 13 years and as its chair in 2007. She is chair of the Transportation and Infrastructure Committee of the National League of Cities and serves on its board. She served as a regional councilmember of the Southern California Association of Governments, the nation’s largest metropolitan planning organization, for 20 years.


CLEVELAND—Cuyahoga County has appointed two members to the Greater Cleveland Regional Transit Authority Board of Trustees, Justin M. Bibb and Terence P. Joyce.

Bibb, a senior consultant at Gallup, succeeds former East Cleveland Mayor Gary A. Norton Jr. and will serve until 2021. Joyce, business manager of Building Laborers’ Local 310 and president of the Cleveland Building Trades Council, will serve until 2020 and succeeds Nick Nardi, president of Teamsters Local 416, who resigned earlier this year.


SEATTLE—Tracy Butler, a Sound Transit employee since 2007 who has been serving as interim chief financial officer, has been named to the post on a permanent basis. She has 20 years of experience in progressively expansive roles as a senior financial leader; before coming to Sound Transit, she worked for a regional health care system in Oregon and for organizations in Switzerland.


WASHINGTON, DC—Jessica Puchala has joined Operation Lifesaver Inc. as director of communications and marketing. She has 20 years of experience in communications and project management and has been recognized for her work in corporate communications, state government, nonprofit management and television news.


WASHINGTON, DC—The District of Columbia DOT (DDOT) has named Stacey Collins chief inspections and enforcement officer in the Public Space Inspections Branch, Public Space Regulation Division. She is the first African-American woman to serve in this post and joined DDOT in 2001, following 15 years with the Maryland-National Capital Park and Planning Commission.


NEW YORK CITY—WSP USA has named two regional transit and rail market leads: Lindsay Wood for its Texas-Mountain region, based in the firm’s Austin office, and Chris Ferguson for the central region, based in Chicago.

Wood has considerable experience in transit and rail, most recently serving as transit and rail manager for WSP in Texas and providing project and technical leadership roles for clients including Texas DOT. Ferguson has more than a decade of public transit and rail industry expertise, including with Class One freight railroads and projects for public transportation agencies.


NEW YORK CITY—STV has promoted Martin Boyle, previously deputy division manager for the firm’s Transportation & Infrastructure Division (T&I), to executive vice president of T&I. Boyle held leadership roles at public transit agencies in Missouri and Florida before joining STV in 2000. He succeeds William Matts, who is retiring at the end of the year after a 40-year career with STV.


COLUMBIA, SC—The Central Midlands Regional Transit Authority (The COMET) Board of Directors elected Ron Anderson, vice president of administration for Collier International, its chairman. Anderson represents the city of Columbia, which reappointed him to a three-year term on the board; all officers serve for two years. John Furgess was elected vice chair, Dr. Robert Morris treasurer and Andy Smith secretary.


ST. PAUL, MN—Alene Tchourumoff has stepped down as chair of the Metropolitan Council to pursue a new professional opportunity. She has served in this post since 2017.

Per council bylaws, Vice Chair Harry Melander assumed the duties of the chair in the chair’s absence and will discharge them until the end of the governor’s term; the incoming governor will appoint a new chair following the election.


MONTREAL, QUEBEC—Bombardier Transportation has named Elliot G. (Lee) Sander president of its Americas Region. He succeeds Benoit Brossoit, who will remain with the company in an advisory capacity.

Sander is a former executive director and chief executive officer of the New York Metropolitan Transportation Authority and former commissioner of New York City DOT. More recently he was managing director, global transportation and US infrastructure, at Hatch Ltd. and held leadership roles at AECOM, notably as group chief executive, global transportation.


COLUMBUS, OH—The Central Ohio Transit Authority announced the promotion of Charles Edwards to director of transportation. Edwards joined the agency as an operator in 1998 and also has served as a transportation services supervisor and, most recently, as superintendent of transportation.


ELYRIA, OH—Bendix Commercial Vehicle Systems LLC has named Christopher Camp as plant manager of its Huntington, IN, manufacturing campus. Camp has worked at the Huntington facility since 1992 and as its interim plant manager since May 2018, when Mike Pogorelc became a company vice president.


DALLAS—The Dallas Area Rapid Transit (DART) Board of Directors has re-elected Sue S. Bauman as its chair for Fiscal Year 2019. Bauman, who retired from DART in 2011 as vice president of marketing and communication, joined the board in 2016 and was elected its chair in 2017.

The board also elected Plano representative Paul N. Wageman, a board member since 2012, vice chair; Dallas representative Michele Wong Krause, who joined the board in 2014, secretary; and Garland representative Jonathan R. Kelly, a board member since 2016, assistant secretary.


ST. LOUIS—Missouri Gov. Mike Parson has appointed Fred P. Pestello, president of Saint Louis University, to the Bi-State Development Board of Commissioners. He succeeds Vincent Schoemehl, who joined the board in 2007 and served as its chair from 2010-2012.

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