Theme: Who's In the Driver's Seat: The Transformation of Transportation

These talks will cover a wide variety of topics, from technology many of us couldn’t imagine a generation ago to new ways of thinking about paying for infrastructure. Advances in transportation have driven the growth of our society for the past century, at this event we’re going to hear about the impact of the technology that is being developed now and how it will change our lives for decades to come. From "Driverless Ride-Sharing" to "Local Hyperloops" these ideas worth spreading will engage a world-wide audience in a conversation about the future of transportation.

The World Cafe Live at the Queen
500 N. Market Street
Wilmington, Delaware, 19801
United States

Andreas Mai

Executive Vice President at Keolis North America

Andreas Mai leads innovation to deliver sustainable transportation solutions to public agencies and communities at Keolis North America. Before joining Keolis, Andreas led Cisco’s connected vehicle business and founded the technology startup ecomo.world. He is an angel investor and served on the boards of the Connected Vehicle Trade Association, the Connected Car Council, Octo Telematics, Cohda Wireless, and Covisint. As expert in business and technology architectures for everything related to the future transportation, he has published a number of seminal papers and is frequently invited to speak at conferences worldwide.

Anya Babbitt

Founder and CEO of SPLT

Anya Babbitt is the Founder & CEO. She has started multiple businesses and exited one. Anya is resilient, resourceful and a quick decision maker. Having written her thesis on the Kyoto Protocol, Anya is driven to work with cities, corporations and universities to align integrated services thereby reformatting cities of the future. Under Anya's leadership, SPLT has been recognized for 40+ awards and prizes such as the Hult Prize, Google Demo Day, Clean Energy Trust, and Accelerate Michigan as well as press in Huffington Post, Forbes and TechCrunch. SPLT has expanded to serve organizations in the United States, Latin America, and now Europe. Anya is passionate about social responsibility and environmental impact to create a more livable and breathable world with mobility access for all.

David Silver

Leader of Self-Driving Car Program at Udacity

David Silver leads the Self-Driving Car Team at Udacity, where he teaches a nine-month program that trains engineers to work in the autonomous vehicle industry. Prior to Udacity, David was a Research Engineer at Ford Motor Company. Before Ford, David worked in engineering and product roles at Candidate Metrics, mSpot, and AOL. He has an MBA from Stanford University, and a BSE in computer science from Princeton University.

David Woessner

General Manager of Local Motors

David C. Woessner is a trusted leader and expert in the automotive, transportation, and mobility industries as well as a thought leader in emerging technologies. He has written articles on mobility, connectivity, and automotive technology hubs. David has over 15 years of executive leadership and management experience, having worked in and with Fortune 500 companies as well as startup, private equity, venture capital, non-profit, academic, and government entities. He currently serves as the first General Manager of Local Motors in Washington DC. David earned his MBA and MS in Mechanical Engineering from Georgia Institute of Technology. He received his BA in Physics and German from Wabash College in Crawfordsville.

Elan Nyer

Director of Business Development at Nexar

Elan is responsible for identifying and securing strategic partnerships to drive long term growth and expand Nexar's cellular vehicle-to-vehicle (C-V2V) network across numerous industries including, government, insurance, telecom, and automotive. Prior to joining Nexar, Elan worked at Mobileye as the Shield+ Business Development Manager responsible for initiating strategic public and private partnerships to promote transportation safety, drafting government regulation relating to vehicle safety, training sales team and distributors, and Smart City data analysis. Prior to Mobileye, Elan served as a NCO in the IDF foreign relations and intelligence unit, holds a Bachelor's Degree cum laude from Queens College and Master's Degree cum laude from the Lauder School of Government, Diplomacy and Strategy, Herzliya, where he simultaneously worked as a Research Assistant and Teaching Assistant and published three papers on U.S. - Israel relations.

James Koenig

Attorney at Fenwick and West LLP

Jim Koenig co-chairs the privacy & cybersecurity practice at Fenwick & West. Leading a unique group of lawyers and former industry chief privacy and security officers, he advises a variety of clients from emerging startups to Fortune 100 companies on a range of issues connected to innovative data uses, global privacy compliance and major breaches and cyber-attacks. Jim, who has acted as expert to regulators in high-profile cases, also assists businesses with regulatory investigations and enforcement actions or class-action litigations relating to privacy and cybersecurity practices. His specialties include artificial intelligence, machine learning, IoT, autonomous vehicles and connected cars, genetics and smart cities. He is a named inventor or co-inventor on six patent applications relating to security and privacy-enhancing technologies.

Jennifer Cohan

Secretary of Delaware Department of Transportation

Jennifer Cohan was appointed in January 2015. Her state public service career has spanned over 27 years. Jennifer has worked at the Department of Natural Resources and Environmental managing the Clean Water Program. Jennifer has also worked with the Delaware State Legislature and has also held an array of leadership positions within the Delaware Department of Transportation. Secretary Cohan currently serves as a member of the board for the American Association of State Highway Transportation Officials, the Diamond State Port Corporation, the Northeast Corridor Commission, and serves as the Chair of the I-95 Corridor Coalition's Executive Board, and is an executive member of the National Transportation Research Board.

John Ellis

Founder of Ellis and Associates

John Ellis is an expert in Big Data and how it will change the business models of the world’s leading sectors like transportation, insurance, telecommunications, government, and home building. From 2012 to 2014, he was Ford Motor Company’s global technologist and head of the Ford Developer Program. Prior to that, John was an executive at Motorola Inc., where he delivered wireless software products and services to the mobile industry.

John Nielsen

Managing Director of AAA Automotive Engineering Team

John Nielsen is a Managing Director of AAA and responsible for Automotive Engineering and Repair. He was appointed to this position in 2013 and tasked to develop an automotive engineering group that provides assessments of emerging automotive technology and trends important to motorists, legislators and the repair industry Nielsen has more than 30 years of experience in the automotive industry. He has held an ASE Master Automotive Technician certification, authored the book “Making Sense of Car Care”, and participates with numerous industry projects and government initiatives. John is a frequent speaker at industry events and guest on radio and TV shows throughout the country.

Lauren Smith

Policy Counsel of Future of Privacy Forum

Lauren Smith is Policy Counsel at the Future of Privacy Forum, where she focuses on big data and the Internet of Things as related to connected cars, data ethics, and algorithmic decision-making. Lauren runs the FPF Connected Cars Project, where she leads FPF’s interaction with companies across the connected car ecosystem, along with strategic communication and media, and interaction with federal and state regulators. Previously, Lauren was a Policy Advisor in the White House Office of Science and Technology and a Research Associate for Economic Policy at the Center for American Progress. Lauren is a graduate of Wesleyan University and the UC Berkeley School of Law, where she earned a Certificate in Law and Technology.

Maureen Ohlhausen

Acting Chair, Federal Trade Commission

Maureen K. Ohlhausen was sworn in as a Commissioner of the Federal Trade Commission on April 4, 2012, and was designated to serve as Acting FTC Chairman by President Donald Trump in January 2017. Prior to joining the Commission, she was a partner at Wilkinson Barker Knauer, LLP, where she focused on FTC issues, including competition law, privacy, and technology policy. Before coming to the FTC, she spent five years at the US Court of Appeals for the DC Circuit, serving as a law clerk for Judge David B. Sentelle and as a staff attorney. Commissioner Ohlhausen graduated with distinction from Antonin Scalia Law School, George Mason University School of Law and with honors from the University of Virginia.

Tom Dingus

Director of Virginia Tech Transportation Institute

Dr. Dingus has performed cutting-edge transportation safety and human factors research for more than 30 years. In collaboration with industry leaders, he performs work focused on the disruptive potential of automated and connected vehicles, driver distraction and attention, and the safety and usability of advanced in-vehicle devices. He also pioneered the naturalistic driving study research method, which involves instrumenting vehicles with unobtrusive video cameras and sophisticated instrumentation to assess real-world driver behavior and performance. The naturalistic driving study method is now being employed at VTTI to study driver behavior/performance in advanced vehicles, including automated vehicles, thus providing a realistic understanding of human-machine interactions in such vehicles.

Yale Zhang

Co-Founder of SPLT

Yale Zhang, Co-Founder, comes from a background in transportation and logistics, focusing on the warehousing and distribution of physical goods around the United States. He exited a multimillion dollar healthcare products distribution company. In his capacity as Vice President of Wintao Global, they secured multi-year software development contracts with major transportation companies including Dynamex, Datatrac, Marc Global (now a subsidiary of RedPrairie).