This year's symposium brought together more than 600 technology experts, policy makers, urban planners, energy and utility representatives, academics, media members and citizens of San Francisco to discuss the key issues our cities need to address, and the need for extensive collaboration to make it all happen.
Topics included autonomous vehicles and how they will someday interact with the cities around them, how we can create more reliable methods for delivering goods in urban areas and even what our cities would look like if we completely reimagined our streets.
Panelists were asked thought-provoking questions about our future, including "How do we innovate our aging electrical grid to support a greener tomorrow?" and "What if we could use data to help people move more efficiently?"
These discussions all tied to a much larger trend — working together — that is necessary for us to realize the potential of the City of Tomorrow. We encourage you to relive the day through the stories below and share your own using #CityofTomorrow.
Most of the conversation about self-driving cars has been focused on the technology itself and not on how the vehicles will work in the city environment around them.
To help cities prepare for a world of self-driving vehicles, Bryan Salesky, CEO of Argo AI, Karina Ricks, director of mobility and infrastructure for the City of Pittsburgh, and Shin-Pei Tsay of the Gehl Institute offered perspectives from their respective areas of expertise.
What’s the No. 1 obstacle when it comes to enabling self-driving vehicles to operate in cities? Watch the video below to find out.
"Congestion costs the U.S. somewhere between 2 to 4 percent of our national gross domestic product, and that’s because we’re stuck doing nothing," says Jonathan Simkin, founder and CEO of Swiftly.
When we’re not working, we’re not producing anything for the economy. So what’s a solution to reduce our time stuck in gridlock? Connectivity.
"We all need to come together and share data so we can take a holistic view of who is using our streets and when," says Ali Vahabzadeh, CEO and founder of Chariot.
Under certain privacy circumstances, Chariot shares data with communities to help unclog streets and curb space. If everyone is on a uniform system, constantly pushing and pulling information, we can all have a smarter commute.
In urban communities, streets comprise 30 percent of all space. They are an economic generator, an area for social activity and a conduit for everything that moves. Shouldn't we design and manage our streets with these values in mind? In this session, participants got to play civil engineer, building their ideal "street."
Dr. Anne Goodchild of the University of Washington led a conversation on the growing challenge of package delivery and the innovations and inputs required to deliver goods in an efficient way.
"The epicenter of shopping is moving from the store to the home," says Daphne Carmeli, CEO of Deliv, a crowdsourced, same-day delivery startup.
And more and more people shopping from home means additional traffic from delivery vehicles. As demand for this service grows and congestion worsens, it's time we rethink the entire package delivery ecosystem — from the second you click "order" to the moment that item arrives at its final destination.
Take a look at how Ford and Domino’s Pizza are researching the future of food delivery.
Stanford’s James Ehrlich headed a diverse panel on America’s aging electrical grid and the risks and opportunities associated with innovating it.
Our renewable energy future is dependent on an electrical grid that can keep up with increasing demand. For example, for every two electric vehicles, the electricity needed to power them is like adding another house to the grid, says Steve Malnight, a senior vice president at PG&E Corp.
Since the Symposium, Ford released its 18th annual Sustainability Report that highlights the company’s journey over the past two decades and its steadfast commitment to doing what’s right for its customers, employees and communities. Click here for an overview on the report with a short film narrated by executive chairman Bill Ford.
Solutions to today’s mobility issues will never reach full potential unless they are done in a collaborative environment – a consensus reached by a panel of experts led by traffic and transportation maestro Sam Schwartz.
"Getting all the necessary parties to the table to discuss how to build the City of Tomorrow is a critical first step," says Mark de la Vergne, Detroit's mobility innovation chief. "Public engagement is not a San Francisco or Detroit challenge; it's a national challenge," he says.
Without the support of everyone — government, private sector, not-for-profits and the public — solutions to our urban mobility needs will become harder to reach.
The future of the City of Tomorrow depends on hearing all voices. Inspired by our day together, here are some perspectives on how we can plan for our transportation future:
The Rocky Mountain Institute takes a look at the potential market opportunity of electric automated mobility services.
Grayson Brulte, co-founder and president of Brulte & Company consulting firm, says autonomy will usher in the single greatest change in society since the Industrial Revolution.
Lauren Hepler at GreenBiz reports that building greener cities to boost social equity is a priority from coast to coast.
Streetsblog San Francisco writes that Ford could be the company to help create more livable cities.
The Verge takes a look at Argo AI – and why Argo is different than other artificial intelligence companies.
Scott Smith, founder and managing partner of Changeist, a consulting and creative group, asks whether dockless bikes are welcome new transport or mobility spam.
The New York Times documents a brutally long commute for Sheila James, who lives in Stockton, California, and commutes to San Francisco.
PSFK goes behind-the-scenes and provides insight on how Ford is reframing the future of mobility.
The speakers you heard from at the City of Tomorrow Symposium are on the cutting edge of making future transportation solutions a reality. But they can’t do it alone. How are you helping to design and build the City of Tomorrow? What should others start considering about how we move?
Continue the conversation on Slack and by using the #CityofTomorrow hashtag on LinkedIn and Twitter, and follow City of Tomorrow on Medium.
Jim Hackett, president and CEO, Ford Motor Company, also serves on Ford’s board of directors. Under Hackett’s leadership, together with Bill Ford, the company is strengthening its automotive business and accelerating a strategic shift to capitalize on opportunities in a transformative period for the auto industry and the broader mobility space.
Prior to this, Hackett was chairman, Ford Smart Mobility. Beginning in 2013, he served on the Ford board of director’s sustainability and innovation committee, and on the audit and nominating, and governance committees as well. Hackett was vice chairman of Steelcase from 2014 to 2015, retiring as CEO in February 2014 after 20 years there.
As a consumer-focused visionary in the office furniture industry, Hackett is credited with helping transform Steelcase from traditional manufacturer to industry innovator. He is recognized for predicting the office landscape would shift away from cubicles to an open environment – giving employees the flexibility to work where they want.
Through an equity investment in IDEO, Hackett forged a unique business relationship with the international consulting firm to foster design innovation at the office furniture company. Hackett was interim director of athletics at the University of Michigan from October 2014 to March 2016, where he led the search for a permanent director.
He played center on the University of Michigan football team prior to graduating with a bachelor’s degree in finance in 1977.
As executive vice president and president of mobility for Ford, Marcy Klevorn oversees Ford Smart Mobility, working to accelerate plans to design, build, grow and invest in emerging mobility services, information technology, and the global data, insight and analytics group. Previously, Klevorn was group vice president for information technology and chief information officer, leading transformation of Ford’s IT tools and talent to put the company at the forefront globally.
She joined Ford in 1983 in telecommunications services and worked in information technology and Ford Credit. She was appointed global director for product lifecycle management in 2005. In 2006, as enterprise defragmentation director, Klevorn led strategy and implementation of infrastructure defragmentation, data center consolidation and overall systems management.
Klevorn was also information technology director, Ford of Europe, and served on the operating committee. As director for the office of the CIO, she was responsible for managing Ford’s global information technology business applications, architecture, data centers, web-hosting requirements, engineering and infrastructure services. Klevorn is on the board of Lawrence Technological University and Pivotal.
She earned a bachelor’s degree in business from the University of Michigan, Stephen M. Ross School of Business.
Janette Sadik-Khan is internationally respected for her transformative redesigns of New York City streets and rapid-implementation strategies now being replicated around the world.
She served as commissioner of the New York City Department of Transportation from 2007 to 2013 – leading one of the most sweeping revitalizations of the city’s streets in a half-century. New York City added nearly 400 miles of bike lanes and the first parking-protected bike paths in North America under Sadik-Khan’s tenure.
She launched the city’s first rapid bus program with the Metropolitan Transportation Authority, and oversaw hundreds of intersection and street redesigns that contributed to record-low traffic fatalities. Sadik-Khan headed up the 2013 launch of Citi Bike, the nation’s largest bike-share system.
She advises mayors around the world as a principal at Bloomberg Associates, assisting teams in developing street redesigns.
As chair of NACTO, she led development and publication of global and urban street design guides, and the urban bikeway design guide, which have been adopted by more than 50 cities, counties, states and organizations worldwide.
Sadik-Khan was a senior vice president at Parsons Brinckerhoff, and worked as a deputy administrator for the United States Department of Transportation. She holds a bachelor’s degree in political science from Occidental College and a J.D. from Columbia University School of Law. Sadik-Khan is the author of “Streetfight: Handbook for an Urban Revolution.”
Alex McDowell, RDI, is a narrative designer working at the intersection of design, technology and storytelling. He is a renowned filmmaker, with the design of more than 20 films to his credit, including Steven Spielberg’s Minority Report, David Fincher’s Fight Club, and Tim Burton’s Charlie and the Chocolate Factory.
In 2012, he joined USC’s School of Cinematic Arts where he teaches world building as a twenty-first century media design and storytelling practice. He is Professor of Practice and director of the USC World Building Media Lab and the World Building Institute.
Alex is principal and creative director at experimental.design, a narrative design studio engaged in designing the future.
He and his collaborators have engaged in integrated world building projects that address the future of the Ocean, Autonomous Vehicles, Cities, Literacy, Education, Health, Medicine, Manufacturing and Storytelling. He works with a collaborative and cross-disciplinary network of domain experts, creators, world builders, artists, scientists, designers and engineers, students and teachers in every narrative media space, including those not yet imagined.
His awards include Royal Designer for Industry by the UK’s RSA (2006), the D&AD President's Award (2013), the Future Voice Award (Interaction Awards, 2014), the ADG Excellence in Production Design (2005), and SDFCS (2002); and nominations for BAFTA (2006), Saturn (2010), OFTA (2003, 2006), and VES (2003).
In her current role with Mastercard, Leigh is leading a diverse set of enterprise partnerships including initiatives focused on urban mobility, remittances and the sharing economy. Prior to Mastercard, Leigh held various roles with Visa and TruAxis, a loyalty-based start-up in Silicon Valley. Leigh holds a Bachelor's degree in Science, Industrial and Labor Relations from Cornell University.
In 2015, Alex Blumberg took out his microphone and began documenting the process of launching a new media company from scratch. That was the start of podcast company Gimlet Media, and those recordings became the hit show “StartUp,” now being adapted into a sitcom for ABC titled “Alex, Inc.”
Blumberg is an award-winning radio journalist known for producing “This American Life” and “Planet Money,” which he co-founded at NPR. “The Giant Pool of Money,” his documentary on the housing crisis, was named a top 10 work of journalism by the Arthur L. Carter School of Journalism and New York University. Blumberg served as executive producer on the Showtime version of “This American Life,” which earned three Emmy Awards.
He has done radio documentaries covering life aboard a U.S. aircraft carrier, teenage Steve Forbes supporters, and prisoners staging a production of “Hamlet.” Blumberg has also been a featured guest on “Meet the Press,” “Bloomberg News” and “The Colbert Show.” He lives with his wife and two children in Brooklyn.
Justin Calmus is the VP of Hacker Success and Research at HackerOne, responsible for representing and cultivating HackerOne’s community of more than 70,000 hackers. Justin is an information security leader, researcher and hacker-turned CIO who previously served as the CIO and CSO at Zenefits. Prior to his tenure at Zenefits, Calmus was the director of enterprise security at Salesforce and manager of security engineering at LinkedIn.
A hacker himself, Calmus regularly participates in bug bounty programs and drives initiatives to foster the most successful global hacker community, ensuring HackerOne is the best place to become the best hacker, and bridge the gap between corporate security teams and hackers to facilitate the most rewarding bug bounty and vulnerability disclosure programs.
Anne Goodchild is the founding director of the Supply Chain Transportation and Logistics Center and Professor in the Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering at the University of Washington. As Director of the SCTL Center, she oversees the Urban Freight Lab; a living laboratory jointly funded by the public and private sector to address Urban Delivery Challenges. She joined the UW faculty in December 2005 after completing her PhD at UC at Berkeley. Dr. Goodchild’s research solves problems at the intersection of supply chain management and freight transportation.
Before attending Berkeley she worked in consulting for 5 years in Europe and North America, for PricewaterhouseCoopers LLP and Applied Decision Analysis Inc., designing efficient airline schedules and optimizing research portfolios. Dr. Goodchild serves as the Freight Systems Group Chair for the National Academy of Science’s Transportation Research Board.
John F. Kwant leads Ford’s global efforts to partner with municipalities to identify urban mobility needs that inform its development of new mobility services, while working to create, pilot and implement new mobility solutions.
Prior to this, Kwant served as director of global strategy focused on Ford Smart Mobility initiatives. He worked for the company’s Asia Pacific group for more than 10 years, as director of Asia Pacific integration, director of international government affairs, regional vice president for government affairs, and as director of the strategy and business development and planning group.
Kwant joined Ford in 1999 to assist in business development, mergers, acquisitions and strategic alliances surrounding internet distribution channel partners. He was founder and managing director of Ford Motor Company’s Venture Capital Group, serving on the boards of several of its holdings. Kwant was also director of business intelligence and corporate initiatives as part of automotive strategy.
Before that, he spent four years at Pitney Bowes, responsible for internet business development, strategic planning and M&A. Kwant worked as a consultant with Deloitte Consulting and held management positions with General Motors in manufacturing and operations.
He earned an MBA from Kellogg Graduate School of Management and an MSE in engineering management from McCormick Graduate School of Engineering, both part of Northwestern University. He also has a BSE in industrial and operations engineering from the University of Michigan.
Rebecca Lindland oversees creation and delivery of consultative, actionable and differentiated insights for automakers and ad agency clients, working with several departments within Cox Automotive Media Solutions Group, parent company of Kelley Blue Book. She frequently speaks with media on trends and automotive news topics.
Lindland spent more than two years as a senior research fellow for the King Abdullah Petroleum Studies and Research Center in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia. She developed the nonprofit’s transportation studies initiative, and spearheaded a research project analyzing the Saudi Arabian light-vehicle market to evaluate potential methodologies for applying fuel economy standards while minimizing market disruption. Lindland also led a market sizing project estimating adoption rates of alternative fuel vehicles in the U.S. market. She spent more than 10 years at IHS Automotive, and is frequently interviewed by Bloomberg, National Public Radio, CBS News, “The Wall Street Journal” and “WIRED.”
Lindland recently served on two National Academies of Sciences committees – Overcoming Barriers to Electric Vehicle Deployment, and Cost, Effectiveness and Deployment of Fuel Economy Technologies for Light-Duty Vehicles. She holds a bachelor’s degree in business administration and accounting from Gordon College in Wenham, Massachusetts.
Greg Lindsay is a senior fellow at NewCities, where he leads the Connected Mobility Initiative, and the director of strategy for LACoMotion, a new mobility festival in Los Angeles. He is also a non-resident senior fellow of the Atlantic Council’s Strategic Foresight Initiative, a visiting scholar at New York University’s Rudin Center for Transportation Policy & Management, a contributing writer for Fast Company, and co-author of Aerotropolis: The Way We’ll Live Next.
Steven (Steve) E. Malnight is Senior Vice President, Strategy and Policy for PG&E Corporation and Pacific Gas and Electric Company. In this role, Malnight leads a team of dynamic and experienced professionals who develop and implement the company's energy strategy and policy through innovative
solutions, partnership integration and public advocacy at the national, state and local level.
In developing and implementing the company's strategy and policy, Malnight oversees Federal, State and Local Government affairs, Corporate Sustainability, and Community Relations, along with PG&E's Energy Procurement organization that provides energy service to the 16 million Californians PG&E serves.
Malnight held several key executive positions at Pacific Gas and Electric Company before accepting his current assignment. Most recently, he served as Senior Vice President, Regulatory Affairs, where he oversaw PG&E's regulatory policy efforts at the national and state levels, including interaction with the California Public Utilities Commission (CPUC), the California Energy Commission (CEC) and the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC). Malnight also served as Vice President, Customer Energy Solutions, Vice President, Integrated Demand Side Management and Vice President, Renewable Energy.
Before being named an officer at Pacific Gas and Electric Company, Malnight served in the PG&E Corporation Chairman's office as Special Assistant to the Chairman, and he held management positions in Customer Strategy and Corporate Finance, where he led the company's budgeting and planning process.
Malnight holds a bachelor's degree in chemical engineering from the University of Notre Dame and a master's degree in business administration from the Tuck School of Business at Dartmouth. Malnight is also active in national policy and community engagement, where he serves as Chairman of the Board of the Solar Electric Power Alliance, a nationwide organization that supports utility participation in solar activities.
Kelly Peters is the CEO and Co-Founder of BEworks. She is passionate about bringing scientific thinking to business strategy, marketing, and operations. Kelly has overseen the launch of several new business ventures that capitalized on insights into consumer behavior. Her interest in behavioral science stems back to the late 90s when working on behavioral scoring models in credit risk and online distribution models, evolved through behavioral finance, and finally culminated in 2008 when she embraced behavioral economics as the most reliable approach to executing strategy.
She launched what might be the world’s first commercial application of behavioral field experiments while at RBC to help drive adoption of online service channels. Among the first to see the commercial potential of the Web in 1993, Kelly spent several years in the dot-com industry before focusing on financial services, where she spent 12 years leading complex innovation projects providing her with a rich background in innovation, technology, and human behavior.
Kelly is a Faculty Lecturer of Applied Behavioral Science at the University of Toronto’s Rotman School of Management, and regularly lectures at Cornell, Harvard, and other academies. She is a sought-after keynote speaker, has conducted three TEDx talks, and has been featured in the New York Times & Forbes. After studying philosophy and technology, Kelly earned an MBA from Dalhousie University and is a Fellow of the Institute of Canadian Bankers.
In her role as director, City Solutions, Ford Smart Mobility, Jessica Robinson works with cities to understand local priorities and identify new mobility solutions to meet current and future transportation needs. Prior to this, Robinson launched new startup accelerator programs at Techstars with industry-leading partners like Virgin Media and Cox Enterprises to further a global ecosystem focused on empowering entrepreneurs.
Before Techstars, Robinson scaled Zipcar’s innovative car-sharing model as Seattle marketing manager, San Francisco Bay Area locations manager, and in new cities and airports in North America as market launch manager. Robinson’s work as project manager for Zipcar’s Detroit expansion in 2013 is what initially brought her to Michigan, and she is now proud to call the Motor City her home.
Bryan Salesky is passionate about delivering promising robotics technology into products and systems that will enhance safety and productivity to ultimately improve people’s lives. At Carnegie Mellon University’s National Robotics Engineering Center, Salesky managed a portfolio of the largest commercial programs including autonomous mining trucks for Caterpillar, a robotic paint removal system for aircraft, and autonomous driving systems for the military.
In 2007, he led software engineering for Tartan Racing – Carnegie Mellon’s winning entry in the DARPA Urban Challenge. Salesky then joined the Google self-driving car team in 2011 to continue the push toward making autonomous vehicles a reality. At Google, Salesky served as director of hardware engineering responsible for development and manufacture of a portfolio of hardware including self-driving sensors, computers and numerous vehicle development programs.
He graduated from the University of Pittsburgh with a bachelor’s degree in computer engineering in 2002.
Jonny Simkin is the co-founder and CEO of Swiftly, a San Francisco-based technology company that has created an industry-leading big data platform to help public transit agencies improve their operational performance, service reliability, and real-time passenger information.
Living in San Francisco and having experienced the challenges of urban mobility first hand, Jonny is on a mission to reduce urban congestion and carbon emissions in cities across the world.
Prior to founding Swiftly, Jonny was the Director of Product at Rafter Inc., where he helped nearly 3 million students save over $700 million on college textbooks. Before Rafter, Jonny was the co-founder and CEO of SwoopThat and HubEdu (acquired in 2012), where he built a leading online textbook comparison engine.
Jonny holds a Bachelor of Science in Engineering with an Economics Concentration from Harvey Mudd College. In his spare time, he enjoys hockey, ping pong, tennis, and coffee.
Shin-pei’s diverse experience in practice, design, and policy converges on transforming the built environment so that it is more accessible, equitable, and sustainable for people. As the executive director of Gehl Institute, she is charged with the strategic and organizational development of a research and advocacy organization that aims to put public life at the center of policy, design, and governance of the public realm.
Prior to joining Gehl Institute in July 2016, Shin-pei was the deputy executive director of TransitCenter, a national foundation focused on improving urban transportation. As the second person hired, she contributed to growing the organization, led initiatives in strategic, research, and program development, managed transportation and technology program activities, and provided program, operational, and staff oversight. Her work resulted in the creation of Live.Ride.Share, one of the first public discussions on shared mobility and the publications “A People’s History of Urban Transportation Innovation” and "Private Mobility, Public Interest,” a report that analyzed how public agencies and private transportation companies could contribute to the greater good in the public realm. Today TransitCenter is a leading voice for transportation issues in cities with programs carried out by a 15-person staff.
Shin-pei founded and directed the Cities and Transportation Program under the Energy and Climate Program at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, where she explored demand-side policies to mitigate climate change, and led a project with Senator Bill Bradley and Secretary Tom Ridge to reform and fund the federal transportation program. As Deputy Director of Transportation Alternatives, Shin-pei developed programs that expanded community participation in bicycle and pedestrian advocacy and forged connections with professionals in the public health and design fields. Her efforts led to New York City adopting the Safe Streets for Seniors program, a Play Streets program, as well as recognition by Active Living Research and the Centers for Disease Control. Shin-pei also served as the Chief Operating Officer of Project for Public Spaces, and was a founding member of the New York City office for ZGF Architects.
In 2010, she co-founded and directed Planning Corps, an organization that matches urban planners with neighborhood-based projects, whose work was selected for the U.S. Pavilion at the 2012 Venice Biennale for Architecture.
Shin-pei is currently a Commissioner for the City of New York Public Design Commission and serves on the Board of Directors for Transportation Alternatives and In Our Backyard. She received a Bachelor of Arts with distinction from Cornell University and a Master of Science in City, Space and Society from the London School of Economics and Political Science.
Ali Vahabzadeh is CEO and cofounder of Chariot, a crowd-sourced network of commuter shuttles serving thousands of riders a day with a mass transit solution that is fast, reliable and affordable. The company participated in Y Combinator’s Winter 2015 batch, and was acquired in September 2016 by Ford Smart Mobility to serve as the cornerstone for its new global shuttle services business.
Chariot is available in San Francisco and Austin, and is expanding service to new markets in the coming year, including New York City. Vahabzadeh has long been focused on the future of cities, first moving to San Francisco in 2010 to lead the business side of Neighborcity.com, a real estate tech startup that was first to rank real estate agents based on their actual performance data. He began his career in banking and finance, serving as a vice president for Bank of America Securities in New York and London for nine years.
Vahabzadeh holds a bachelor of arts with honors in economics from Vanderbilt University.
Adam Conner is a senior account executive with Slack, based in Washington, D.C. He works to expand the use of Slack with federal, state and local governments, as well as with political, advocacy, media and other customers in Washington, D.C. Previously, Conner served as vice president of politics and head of the Washington, D.C. office for Brigade, a civic engagement platform.
He founded Facebook’s Washington, D.C. office in 2007, having spent seven years on the company’s public policy team managing government and political outreach, and directing U.S. election efforts. Conner was director for online communication for the House committee on rules, and deputy director of online communications for Forward Together, the federal leadership PAC of former Virginia governor, now U.S. Sen. Mark Warner.
Conner is a 2006 graduate of George Washington University School of Media and Public Affairs, with a bachelor of arts in political communications. He serves on the SMPA National Council for Media and Public Affairs. Conner is from Los Alamos, New Mexico.
James Ehrlich is an Entrepreneur in Residence at Stanford University and is the Founder of ReGen Villages, a spin-off company inspired in part by Stanford research during the Solar Decathlon, and a UN Sustainability Brief co-authored by James Ehrlich, Professor Larry Leifer, Chris Ford (AIA) from the Stanford Center for Design Research on the future of tech-integrated real estate development in the built environment that power and feed self-reliant families.
James Ehrlich is also a Senior Technologist at Stanford University, Senior Fellow at Opus Novum consortium at NASA Ames, a Resiliency Design team member at the Center for Design Research at Stanford University and an Appointee to a White House / U.S. State Department Joint Task Force on the Nexus of Food, Water, Energy and Waste.
A serial entrepreneur in Silicon Valley for over 25-years, James successfully founded and managed technology and media companies with successful exits. For nearly a decade, Mr. Ehrlich executive produced an award-winning national public broadcasting series based on his case studies of organic and bio-dynamic family farms, that at its apex reached over 35-million homes each week, and is also the co-author of a best-selling companion book on Hachette, Organic Living THG (2007).
The first pilot community of ReGen Villages will break ground in Q4 2017 in Almere, Netherlands (25-minutes by train from Amsterdam), with a pipeline of ReGen Villages off-grid neighborhood developments planned across Northern Europe, before scaling to the global south backed by sovereign wealth funds. ReGen Villages has gone viral around the world since the press conference and announcement at the Venice Biennale for architecture at the end of May, 2016.
Laura Richards is a Transportation Planner with experience in freight planning, zoning and transportation policy, permit review, urban design, and regional and urban transportation planning. Laura is currently working on a freight trip generation study and the launch of an off-hour delivery pilot in Washington, DC at the District Department of Transportation.
She is responsible for managing freight transportation in the District and handling issues related to truck travel within the District including truck routing, the freight loading zone program, off-street loading facilities and access, policy related to freight, freight signage, and design guidelines and standards for streets on the truck network.
Since joining the District in 2013 she has assisted with the completion of the District’s first District Freight Plan, implemented the Pay-to-Load Commercial Vehicle Loading Zone program, created the interactive truck and bus map, introduced process efficiency in the truck restriction request process, and coordinated with District staff and consultants to roll-out the Oversize/Overweight Commercial Vehicle Routing Tool.
She continues to work to further goods movement safety and efficiency while maintaining and improving quality of life in the District through planning and implementing a variety of goods movement projects in the District. Laura earned a master in community planning degree with a focus on transportation from University of Maryland.
Mr. Schwartz is CEO of Sam Schwartz Transportation Consultants, a firm that specializes in transportation planning and engineering. He also writes a column on traffic for The New York Daily News. Previously Mr. Schwartz was New York City’s Traffic Commissioner. He started his transportation career in the late 1960’s as a NYC cabbie and joined the Traffic Department, as a junior engineer, in 1971.
Mr. Schwartz’s most recent book, Street Smart: The Rise of Cities and The Fall of Cars received critical acclaim. His next book, Driverless Cars: The Good, The Bad and The Ugly will be released in 2018.
Mr. Schwartz specializes in creative problem-solving for seemingly intractable situations. He is expert at getting people out of their cars and into other forms of transportation. He is also proficient at moving those people who remain in their cars more swiftly and safely. Mr. Schwartz, often referred to by his nom de plume “Gridlock Sam,” released the word “Gridlock” into the lexicon during the 1980 NYC Transit strike.
He obtained his Bachelor of Science degree in Physics at Brooklyn College and received a Master of Science degree in Civil Engineering at the University of Pennsylvania.
Before joining Domino’s Pizza in 2011, Kevin worked at Stanley Black & Decker – Stanley Security Solutions in Indianapolis, where he was chief information officer and vice president of engineering.
Prior to his role at Stanley Security Solutions, which designs security products for home and business, he spent eight years at R.L. Polk & Co., a premier provider of automotive information and marketing solutions, as senior vice president and chief information officer of Polk Global Automotive.
Kevin spent much of his early technology career in the automotive industry - from 2000-2003, he was senior vice president and chief technology officer at Covisint LLC, at the time a joint venture between Ford, General Motors, Daimler Chrysler, Renault Nissan, Oracle and Commerce One.
From 1988-2000, he worked in progressively responsible technology roles at Ford Motor Company in Dearborn, Mich., including as chief technology officer of auto-xchange, a joint venture between Ford Motor Company and Oracle Corporation.
Kevin received his B.S. in technology from Purdue University. He and his wife, Lisa, have four children, and reside in Ann Arbor, Michigan.
Jonah Houston works to help automakers think beyond the design, manufacture and selling of cars to embrace the humanity of mobility. Since joining IDEO in 2000, he has partnered with leading global automakers on launching new products and services, helping organizations be creatively competitive. Houston helps to lead IDEO’s collaboration with Ford Motor Company in the design of future urban transportation systems.
His passion lies in deepening the relationships we share with mobility machines – cars, bikes and trains – and making them feel authentic and connected. Prior to IDEO, Houston cofounded American Suspension, the only domestic manufacturer of suspension forks for motorcycles. He served as team manager for Russell Racing School at Laguna Seca, responsible for keeping 40 race cars on the track 150 days a year.
Houston was also a member of Team USA in the 1995 Camel Trophy – one of the world’s most rigorous off-road races. He earned his master’s degree in economics from San Jose State University and a bachelor’s degree in philosophy from the University of Vermont.
As a project producer at IDEO, a global design company, Gabrielle Fulco explores ways to use human-centered design to help organizations create effective systems and processes to deliver on their goals and generate impact. She works in collaboration with Greenfield Labs, a research and innovation team within Ford Smart Mobility.
Fulco joined IDEO after earning a master’s degree from the Center for Latin American Studies at Stanford. Prior to moving to the San Francisco Bay Area, she taught in Guatemala on a Fulbright Scholarship, and worked for a private foundation in New York City on education and community services initiatives. Fulco also holds a bachelor’s degree in international relations from St. Joseph's University in Philadelphia.
Selina Pan is a research scientist at Ford Research & Innovation Center in Palo Alto, where she works on control algorithms for autonomous vehicles. Prior to joining Ford, Pan was a postdoctoral researcher at Stanford University in mechanical engineering, focusing on ethics, driver adaptation, and integrated path planning and tracking in autonomous vehicles.
Pan earned her master’s degree and Ph.D. from the University of California Berkeley in mechanical engineering, researching automotive engine control and unmanned aircraft. While at Berkeley, she also taught as an adjunct lecturer in mechanical engineering at California Maritime Academy. Pan earned her bachelor’s degree in aerospace engineering from the University of Michigan.
Austin Ashe is the Co-Founder and General Manager of GE Intelligent Cities. In this role, he leads the sales, marketing, alliances, and engineering teams required to deliver the world’s most advanced IoT sensor platform for cities, CityIQ. This open, cutting edge IoT technology enables scalable smart city applications that address a multitude of existing challenges and prepare cities for future growth.
Prior to being appointed General Manager, Austin led global product management and sales, where his team sold the World’s largest IoT sensor platform to the City of San Diego. Austin has held multiple roles within the past 10 years at GE, including LED Driver Global Product Manager, Regional Sales Manager, Government Relations Operations Manager, Cross-GE Business sales leader, Area Sales Manager (GE Water), and Regional Environmental, Health, & Safety leader (GE Water)
Before joining GE, Austin held manufacturing and engineering roles at The Boeing Company, Haliburton Energy Services , Hewlett-Packard (HP), Lynntech’s Fuel Cell division, and NASA. He is an Eagle Scout and enjoys playing ice hockey, skydiving, drumming, and is an amateur magician.
Mark de la Vergne is the Chief of Mobility Innovation for the City of Detroit. The challenge of mobility in Detroit extends far beyond traffic congestion. Recognizing the impact this issue has on the lives of Detroiters, Mayor Mike Duggan established the Office of Mobility Innovation to develop innovative solutions to addressing the issues of transit, street safety, parking and traffic operations.
Mark is charged with leading the development of a new mobility system in Detroit that combines the City’s fixed route bus network with new mobility services and technologies, integrating connected and autonomous vehicles into the City’s street network, developing new policies to better manage curbside use now and in the future, and implementing a vision for the payment of mobility services.
Prior to joining Mayor Duggan’s team, Mark worked in the private sector where he led city building efforts for cities across North America, including Chicago, Los Angeles, Seattle, Toronto, and Pittsburgh. He has a Bachelor's of Science in Engineering from the University of Pennsylvania.
Daphne Carmeli has over 25 years of experience leading teams in high growth, category defining, entrepreneurial environments. Prior to her role as CEO and founder of Deliv, Daphne was the CEO of Metreo, a pricing optimization software company, from its inception in 2000 through its acquisition in 2006.
Prior to Metreo, Daphne was the Vice President of the eCommerce group at Netscape / America Online (AOL), and on the founding team and head of Marketing at WebMD. Additionally, she keeps connected to all the latest disruptive technologies as she serves on the Boards of several companies in software, mobile, health, logistics and crowdsourcing spaces.
Gillian Gillett advises San Francisco Mayor Edwin M. Lee on Transportation policy matters, with a focus on California High Speed Rail, BART, Caltrain, Bike Share, Autonomous Vehicles and Smart City issues.
Gillian came to City Hall from the private sector, where she ran a custom software consulting company specializing in systematic redesign of business processes and workflow for large organizations.
She is a member of the Board of Directors of the Caltrain Joint Powers Authority, and has previously served as Chair of the Transportation Committee of San Francisco Bay Area Planning and Urban Research Association (SPUR).
Heidi has led technology and innovation teams within large corporations and startups her entire career. From CNN to Samsung, her experience has given her insights into many industries while always delivering on transformation. Her last role was as Advisor on Product and Growth for the Samsung Next portfolio of startups focusing on emerging tech companies - spanning VR, AR, AI to IOT.
She helped companies understand and gain user traction in emerging tech markets. She recently left her role to finish her Masters in Artificial Intelligence and to start a product and services company, FUTURE | FUTURE, to look at the impacts of AI.
Initially looking at autonomous mobility, she has focused her efforts on building trust and safety within the field. Her first product recently spun out into it’s own company, Alpha Drive. Alpha Drive is building a training and testing platform based on real world data for the autonomous mobility era.
Derek Koehler is Professor of Psychology at the University of Waterloo, Ontario, Canada. Prof. Koehler studies how people make judgments and decisions, with an emphasis on how the use of intuitive (or “heuristic”) mental processes in the assessment of uncertainty.
His research has investigated how people draw inferences, make plans, generate predictions, and pursue goals under conditions of uncertainty, which he studies from the vantage of both psychological and economic models of decision making. He holds a Ph.D. in psychology from Stanford University.
In June, 2017, Matt Petersen became President and CEO of the Los Angeles CleanTech Incubator (LACI) where he leads the organization and focuses his work on helping innovative green businesses grow into thriving companies that can create the jobs of the 21st Century clean energy economy.
From August, 2013 to June, 2017, Petersen served as LA’s first ever Chief Sustainability Officer to develop environmental initiatives across all city departments to create healthier neighborhoods with cleaner air and water, and to play a key role in achieving Mayor Garcetti's goal of creating 20,000 new green jobs in L.A. and reducing energy use and related costs in city government.
Upon his departure as CSO, Garcetti shared, “Matt Petersen has brought every ounce of his vision, passion, and experience as a national environmental leader to his role as our Chief Sustainability Officer,” said Mayor Garcetti. “Matt’s work on my Sustainable City pLAn has helped us show the world the limitless power that cities can wield to combat climate change, advance clean technology, and create a more sustainable world. I know his creativity and entrepreneurial spirit will take LACI to new heights, and make its efforts more important than ever to the future of our economy."
In addition to being the architect of L.A.’s Sustainable City pLAn, Petersen helped create Climate Mayors — which recently organized a response to President Trump by mayors adopting the Paris Agreement. Over 250 mayors have signed on so far, giving cities a powerful voice and bringing additional leadership in the fight against climate change.
Prior to his CSO role, Petersen was President and CEO of Global Green USA for 19 years, where he built one of the country’s leading environmental organizations. Petersen has pioneered the greening of schools, affordable housing, and cities, while advancing the market for solar energy, green buildings, and fuel efficient cars. In 2008, TIME recognized Petersen and Global Green's leadership in helping New Orleans rebuild a more resilient and greener community after Hurricane Katrina. Petersen has been touted a "green all star" by Outside Magazine, has served as an advisor on energy and the environment to the Clinton Global Initiative, and in 2008 was appointed by the Sir Edmund Hillary Institute in New Zealand as the Inaugural Hillary Fellow.
"Cities are on the front lines of solutions to climate change and creating a clean energy economy...My central focus is inspiring people to become citizen entrepreneurs – people who are part of the solution, take leadership, and join with others in making their neighborhood, school, or city a better place to live. We can all become a living, breathing solution to the environmental crises we are facing.”
Jesse is a community builder with a passion for creating experiences that deepen human connection. He's the founder of The Big Quiet, a mass meditation series that hosts large-scale moments of culture and wellbeing at landmarks like Central Park and at the top of World Trade Center.
He’s also the creator of Medi Club, a purpose-driven community of thousands of people that come together to meditate and have meaningful conversations. Jesse speaks at Fortune 500 companies and has brought The Big Quiet to corporations like Google and Marriott.
From 2005-2014, Jesse was a co-founder at Cantora, a record label turned venture fund responsible for signing the band MGMT, working alongside The Wu-Tang Clan’s GZA and developing businesses with Frank Sinatra Enterprises.
Lauren Bille has a brave heart, relentless work ethic and gift of bringing people together. She's passionate about equality, social impact, building meaningful communities and shifting cultural paradigms. She does this by facilitating experiences for people to connect more deeply with themselves and others and then get into action.
Donald W. Comer is Staff Vice President, Operations Analysis, FedEx Corporation. In this role Comer’s charter is to solve complex business problems, exploit credible options for innovation and drive operational change that supports near term and strategic business goals
Prior to his current role Comer was Director, Digital Access Marketing with responsibility for a portfolio of solutions that provides global customer access to FedEx transportation services impacting nearly $28 billion in revenue.
Over his career he has assumed increasing levels of responsibility in varying business disciplines including finance, marketing, project management, strategic planning, and leadership.
Comer holds a bachelor degree from the University of Tennessee at Martin in accounting and a MBA from the University of Memphis’ Executive MBA program.