Driving Mobility 5 – Sustain OC’s 5th Annual Advanced Transportation Symposium

Dr. Aravind Kailas manages innovation and R&D initiatives to create and commercialize sustainable transport solutions for the Volvo Group. By promoting the company’s creative assets and key technology positions in various fora, Dr. Kailas has been instrumental in establishing the Volvo Group as a trusted thought leader in California. He has spearheaded Volvo’s policy and outreach efforts in the connected and autonomous vehicles spaces, and also spearheaded all truck platooning activities in North America to shape the legislative and market landscapes. Dr. Kailas is also an Instructor at California State University Long Beach. He has previously held positions at University of North Carolina at Charlotte, QUALCOMM, Inc., DOCOMO Innovations, Inc., and General Electric. He is an award-winning and internationally-published subject-matter expert, and has earned degrees in Applied Mathematics and Electrical and Computer Engineering from the University of Wisconsin-Madison and Georgia Institute of Technology.

Arya Rohani, Chief Technology Strategist, has over 30 years of transportation and technology experience including: highway design, intelligent transportation systems, connected and automated vehicles, IoT, and smart cities. During this time Arya worked in a variety of positions at the Cities of Los Angeles and Irvine in charge of transportation management, and for over 11 years in the technology industry with Cisco Systems where he held increasingly responsible positions and managed a global team. Arya’s technology expertise spans across the networking, cloud and mobility spectrum including network design, cyber security, cloud services, mobile app development, data analytics, etc. Arya joined Stantec in 2014 as a Senior Principal and was instrumental in the company’s global success in connected and automated vehicles field (CAV) by establishing the largest, secure testbed in North America (GoMentum Station) and introducing the first shared autonomous vehicles (SAV) in the United States. Arya was responsible for evaluating and selecting the technology provider and managed the first SAV testing and deployment project in the United States. He is deeply familiar with all aspects of advanced technology implementation and is a global thought leader on the future of transportation. In May 2018 Arya was promoted to Chief Technology Strategist leading Stantec’s global transportation technology efforts with a keen focus on innovation and partnerships. Arya holds an MBA from the University of California, Irvine and a Bachelor’s Degree from the University of Florida in structural engineering. He is a registered professional engineer in California and holds a Smart City certificate degree from Harvard University.

Jim Edson is a versatile senior executive with extensive experience in both early stage technology ventures and large multinational corporations. He is a proven leader with a successful track record of sales, business development, and P&L management. Jim’s career arc spans the semiconductor, mobile / wireless and software industries with executive positions at ARM (where he led the company’s global IoT business development team), Qualcomm, Ericsson and Motorola plus several VC-funded tech startups. Jim has extensive global experience including long-term expatriate assignments in Japan, South Asia and Latin America. He is currently Entrepreneur in Residence at Itron Idea Labs; Senior Advisor and Executive in Residence at Arthur D. Little; and serves in a non-executive advisory capacity at three VC-funded IoT startups: Ekkono Solutions AB; TEGO, Inc. <tegoinc.com>; and, SHEnetics, Inc.. Jim is also an Advisor to the Open Mobile Alliance, a global wireless industry SDO. Edson earned an MBA from the Kellogg School of Management at Northwestern University and a BA from American University. Edson is a Fellow with the Aspen Institute’s Global Leadership Network and served as a Senior Fellow at the Institute of the Americas at the University of California San Diego (UCSD). He resides in Southern California.

Jim Misener is Senior Director, Technical Standards, leading automotive and transportation standards activities for Qualcomm, with expanded role to include development and executing strategies to establish cellular V2X ecosystems and foster global deployment. This ecosystem shift includes adaptation of ITS standards and application protocols, compliance and certification, trade association strategy and industry/government acceptance. In addition to his role with TSAG, Jim is a 5GAA Board member, an ITS California Board member, the SAE C-V2X Technical Committee Chair, an active member of IEEE 1609 Working Group, on the US TAG for ISO TC204 and active in TRB (ITS Committee member, Vehicle-Highway Automation Committee member, Automated Vehicle Symposium Enabling Technologies session organizer). Jim also serves as an Advisory Council member to the Carnegie Mellon University/University of Pennsylvania Transportation Center, Technologies for Safe and Efficient Transportation. Jim was early pioneer in vehicle-highway automation and vehicle safety communication at the California Partners for Advanced Transit and Highways (PATH) at UC Berkeley, beginning in the mid-1990s. He has served as the PATH Executive Director, Executive Advisor to Booz Allen Hamilton, and an independent consultant with clients ranging from Silicon Valley startups, the automotive industry and Federal and State government agencies. Jim holds BS and MS degrees from UCLA and USC.

Katie leads a team that develops and implements new products and services for customers. Her team focuses in areas of transportation electrification, customer energy solutions (including energy efficiency & demand response), and building electrification. Katie previously worked in Strategic Planning at Edison International where she developed innovative business opportunities for the company in areas including microgrids and transportation electrification. Prior to that, Katie led a regulatory and legislative policy team at SCE that worked on procurement of renewable, alternative, and conventional generation issues. Her team’s work resulted in approval of 1,000s of megawatts of solar and wind projects. She also worked to pass legislation that helps SCE’s customers save 100s of millions of dollars on clean energy.
Katie was also a Public Affairs manager at First Solar responsible for developing global policy positions for the company. In her early career, Katie took on increasing responsibilities at SCE, focusing on policy, strategic, and analytical issues relating to clean energy. Katie was in the 2016 class of Leadership California, a program with the mission of “Moving Women from Success to Significance.” Katie was named one of “40 under 40” young people to watch in Pasadena by Pasadena Magazine and a Woman of Achievement by the San Gabriel Valley YWCA for both her work at SCE and philanthropic activities. Katie holds a master’s degree in regulatory economics and bachelor’s degree in business administration from New Mexico State University.
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It’s fitting that Keith works for the California Fuel Cell Partnership, working with private industry, government and other stakeholders to bring hydrogen-powered vehicles to the California road. By helping prepare for the introduction of these zero-emission vehicles, he’s atoned for his own vehicular emission sins. For the past 30 years, he’s driven a 1964 Plymouth Valiant with an exceptionally large carbon footprint. Keith joined CaFCP in 2012, bringing 25 years of public relations and public affairs experience to the public-private partnership. Keith helped write and edit two of CaFCP’s strategic deployment plans: A California Road Map: Bringing Fuel Cell Electric Vehicles to the Golden State and A Road Map for Fuel Cell Electric Buses in California. In addition, he leads education and outreach efforts to state legislators and staff, and represents CaFCP with the press and at events. Prior to joining CaFCP, Keith helped multi-cultural nonprofit organizations, elected officials and political candidates communicate and build relationships with their stakeholders. A third-generation native of Los Angeles, Keith received his bachelor of arts degree from Occidental College and his master of arts from USC’s Annenberg School for Communication. When he’s not talking incessantly about hydrogen-powered vehicles, he’s talking incessantly about gardening with California native plants.

Kurt Brotcke has over 28 years of transportation planning and project funding experience in Orange County. Kurt’s responsibilities include creating freeway, street, transit, bikeway, and technology plans to address current and future Orange County transportation issues as well as developing and implementing funding programs. Kurt’s most recent efforts focus on evaluating infrastructure readiness for connected and autonomous vehicles.

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Ms. Ohlund has over thirty-six years of experience in the wastewater, water and recycled water fields, with over 22 years in the public sector and 14 years in the private sector. She has worked with over 40 water and wastewater agencies throughout California, working with both large and small cities and water districts. Since 2009, she has been the General Manager of the East Orange County Water District. The District provides wholesale water service to five area water agencies as well as retail water and sewer service to the East Orange/Tustin Foothill area of Orange County.

Mandar Padhye is a graduate in mechanical Engineering with a Bachelor of Science Degree. He has over 20 years of cumulative experience in Automotive Product development. His breadth of experience includes jobs at Detroit’s Big 3 automakers, being very early stage employee at a start-up PHEV (Plug In Hybrid Electric Vehicle) car company in California and Entrepreneurship in automotive product creation to address issues of congested roads and pollution. Mandar believes that “Clean” vehicles need not be “boring”. Mandar was born and grew up in India before immigrating to United States in 1997 for Master’s Degree at University Of Michigan-Dearborn campus. Mandar’s “Driving” principal for life is, “Change is inevitable. Get adjusted quickly to a rapidly changing environment and thrive.”
Mandar’s first job as an engineer included responsibilities in product development of Engine Components. After university studies at Michigan, since 1999 , Mandar has worked as consultant engineer for various Ford Motor Company projects in automotive product development and digital innovation. 2006 Ford Fusion program on which Mandar was assigned to became first ever program in Ford North America to achieve 100% green status for Package and Geometric compliance which meant the vehicle had least build issues resulting to a successful launch. After working at Ford, in April 2008, Mandar decided to take a plunge in PHEV start-up company Fisker Automotive in California to assist in Creating a totally new company with cutting edge Electric Vehicle technology product from scratch. Mandar was lead engineer with oversight of a team of dozen skilled designers to architect and package the vehicle. In a start-up environment Mandar’s Coordination, Chaos Management and problem-solving skills were tested. With contribution of Mandar and team members alike, the car rolled out of the assembly line in record development time. After Fisker, In October 2013, Mandar Co-Founded 3 Wheeler vehicle project at Robertsham LLC to create concept prototype of Single Seater Car based on a Motorcycle platform . It was a 50% partnership venture where the vehicle’s initial Design and Development took place. After the dissolution of the partnership venture in Feb 2015 , Mandar Founded EMC Squared Vehicles LLC where he continues technical & commercial development of the vehicle to make EMC Squared Vehicle a successful enterprise. Mandar believes that such compact vehicle which combines benefits of car and motorcycle could be future of inner city commute to address congested roads and pollution. The 3-Wheeler vehicle is available for test ride and for technical study upon request.

Mark Linsenmayer is the Director of Transportation for the City of Irvine overseeing all aspects of transportation, including traffic management, transit planning, and alternative transportation. He also serves as the staff liaison to the City Transportation Commission. He is responsible for the development and implementation of the City’s transportation initiatives, as defined by the City Council. Mr. Linsenmayer possesses a Master of Urban and Regional Planning from the University of California, Irvine; a Master of Public Administration degree from the University of Colorado; and a Bachelor of Arts Degree in Political Science from the University of Washington. Prior to joining The City of Irvine he was the Deputy Executive Officer, Countywide Planning for the Los Angeles County Metropolitan Transportation Authority (LA-Metro) overseeing the $515 billion long range transportation plan and financial model.

Dr. Matt Miyasato is responsible for the SCAQMD’s Technology Advancement Office, Mobile Source Division, and Monitoring and Laboratory Analysis Division. Dr. Miyasato’s principal charges are to identify, evaluate and stimulate development and commercialization of clean air technologies, develop and coordinate mobile source regulations, and to conduct ambient monitoring, source testing and laboratory analysis. Dr. Miyasato received his undergraduate degree in Mechanical Engineering, and his Masters and Ph.D. in Engineering, specializing in combustion technologies and air pollution control – all from the University of California, Irvine. Dr. Miyasato has worked at Southern California Edison in the Nuclear Engineering Department and at General Electric, where he designed burners and combustion modifications for utility boilers. He was also a research scientist at UCI, where he managed the industrial burner research program and has publications on combustion phenomena, active control, and laser diagnostics. Dr. Miyasato has also been a lecturer at UCI for the undergraduate air pollution control course.

Leveraging over two decades of international business experience as a technology entrepreneur, Michael applies his start up and technology skills to cleantech startups, policy, research and education, with a concentration on e-mobility and the new energy economy. He has experience in EV charging solutions, electric vehicles, autonomous vehicles and microgrids. He also runs the Industry Partners Program at SMERC, UCLA’s Smartgrid Research Center, responsibilities include technology commercialization, and serves SMERC’s spin out MOEV, Inc. as Vice President of Business. As funder of the Advanced Sustainability Institute he has been working on Port of Long Beach electrification issues focusing on adoption of technology and workforce development. Educated at Northwestern University and the Stanford Graduate School of Business, Michael combines an understanding of the behavior of organizations and the individuals who make them up and the technical systems they use to deliver service and value.

Peder is a native San Diegan and 36 year resident of Carlsbad, California. Regionally, Peder served as a San Diego County Planning Commissioner for eight years. In 2007, Peder and his wife Julie, received the “Energy Excellence Award” given to one residential project a year, from the Center for Sustainable Energy, for the construction of Herons’ House, their Net Zero Energy home in Carlsbad. The Norby’s have reduced their carbon footprint by 85% and generate 100% of the net electricity required for their home and their two electric BMW i3’s via rooftop Solar PV. Peder served as a field trial driver with BMW North America, from 2008 to 2014, driving the BMW Mini-E and BMW ActiveE prototypes, logging a total of 130,000 miles in various electric vehicles. These vehicles were the development platforms for the BMWi brand. Peder is a consultant for clients in land use, transportation and energy; he is the Co-Founder of Hula Car.

Ramin Massoumi is senior vice president and general manager of the Transportation Systems business unit of Iteris, Inc. In this role, Ramin oversees the company’s consulting and software practices with the primary goal of helping build smarter communities across the globe by promoting sustainable transportation choices and making real-time information actionable and easily accessible to everyone. Throughout his career, his focus has been on the application of advanced technologies in the traffic management market to improve mobility and safety of transportation networks. Ramin has helped shape policy and led the application of advanced technologies in the traffic management market to improve mobility and safety throughout the United States and the Middle East. Ramin is a frequent speaker at conferences and universities around the topics of transportation technology, smart cities, and sustainable transportation. In addition, Ramin serves as a lecturer of upper level courses on transportation engineering, ITS and multimodal operation at University of California, Irvine. Ramin holds a B.S. degree in Civil Engineering from the University of California, Irvine, an M.S. degree in Engineering from the University of California, Berkeley, and an M.B.A. from the University of Southern California. Ramin has served on the ITS-California Board of Directors since 2015 and was recently elected to the ITS America Board of Directors.

After starting the Dutch Organization for Electric Transport and spending three years within the EV industry in The Netherlands, Tim saw the opportunity for Dutch clean-tech solutions on the US East Coast. In 2013, Tim moved to New York and started East Coast Electric to promote and create business for Dutch clean-tech companies and organizations, in cooperation with the ECE program EV-Box started in the US market. Since 2015, Tim leads EV-Box North America to deliver high quality and state-of-the-art EV charging products to the US market. “We did not stop using CDs because they didn’t work anymore, we just found a better way to listen to music. The same is happening to cars today.”

An electrical engineer at heart, Tim Sasseen has been deploying fuel cell electric buses since 2000, when he lead the engine control development team for the deployment the largest public fuel cell bus deployment to date. Tim followed these buses to Europe in 2003 to coordinate the operation and service of this fleet across 7 countries from the Daimler factory in Germany. Upon the successful completion of this monumental program, Tim lead the Ballard engineering team to create the HD6, one of the highest mileage heavy duty fuel cell modules in the industry. Since that time Tim has earned his MBA at UCSD, and has lead start-up developments in microgrids, wind power and stationary energy storage here in California. Tim is now responsible for business development for all of California for Ballard Power System’s medium and heavy duty fuel cell products.

Scott Tapia has been in the lighting & electrical industry for 19 years and currently is the Sales Manager for ABM Electrical & Lighting. His focus has been on leveraging the latest in lighting technologies and strong customer service skills to work with our customers in reducing their owning and operating costs. This is balanced with providing the right fit with our turnkey solutions so we can work within budget parameters while providing improved lighting quality, safety and overall customer satisfaction. At ABM we are continually working at building value for our customers and have had great success with small to large projects as well as our planned lighting maintenance for over 30 years now.