transportation
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Walter J. Zable and the scholarship that kept paying forward
A football scholarship took Walter J. Zable to William & Mary. After six decades building Cubic, he left money for the students, laboratories and playing fields that might give someone else a start.
Doug Waggoner and the eight-minute experiment
Echo’s CEO has spent four decades bringing software into the freight business. An eight-minute coding experiment offers a window into what still keeps him curious.
Sara Costin Mockus and the question of who gets heard
She left Washington on April Fool’s Day and built a second career around public participation. At Costin Public Outreach Group, Sara Costin Mockus brings campaign experience to the places where construction plans meet everyday life.
Frank Lonegro and the view from the passenger seat
A lawyer turned railroad executive, Frank Lonegro arrived at Landstar with a career spent crossing departments. Leading a network of independent business owners has given him another place to learn: beside the driver.
James P. Smith and the Business of Staying Useful
He founded a Washington government affairs firm in 1981. Four decades later, James P. Smith made room for a new name on the door while keeping a seat at the table.
Jesús M. Vargas and the education of a small fish
A factory worker’s son took a structural engineering degree west, then built an Oakland consulting firm. Along the way, Jesús M. Vargas learned that a career depends on who helps you find your footing - and who you help next.
Tutor Perini builds big. Getting paid is the plot twist.
Tunnels, hospitals, casinos. Tutor Perini takes on construction at a scale few firms pursue. Its recent turnaround reveals the less visible job: turning complicated contracts into cash.
Lyft sells the next five minutes.
A pink mustache got strangers into cars. Keeping them coming back takes something harder: a ride they can plan a life around.
AECOM and the price of certainty
Cities hire AECOM to make complicated things work together. A $337 million construction charge shows why knowing who carries the risk matters as much as knowing how to build.
Genoveva Arellano and the power of staying in the room
A Rolodex helped her start a business. Three decades of public meetings, freeway construction and rail projects reveal what Genoveva Arellano built from those first introductions.
Sybil Hatch and the engineering of being understood
She worked on foundations and soil stability before founding Convey. Sybil Hatch’s second career puts an engineer’s attention to work on the space between a public project and the people it affects.
Jim Filter and the education of a freight CEO
He joined Schneider in a Green Bay maintenance shop in 1998. Twenty-eight years later, Jim Filter took the top job with a working knowledge of the places where a delivery promise can come apart.
Shelley Simpson and the summer job that lasted 30 years
She joined J.B. Hunt for a summer and stayed to build a freight brokerage, help launch a digital marketplace and become CEO. Shelley Simpson’s career has involved learning the business from more than one end of the desk.
Robert Isom and the trouble with getting everything to work
He studied mechanical engineering and English, then spent three decades learning how airlines fit together. At American, Robert Isom faces a harder assignment: making the operation, the customers and the economics agree.
Mario Harik and the art of moving the pieces
XPO’s chairman and CEO began by building software. His education in freight has taken him from Brad Jacobs’s living room to the loading dock, where a good idea still has to survive the next shipment.
Hitachi Digital knows which valve to check.
Industrial AI has a homework problem: it needs to understand the machinery. Hitachi Digital brings the factory knowledge, the software teams, and a very large testing ground.
Nicholas D'Andre and the second life of a traffic camera
Before co-founding GridMatrix, Nicholas D'Andre managed sensor supply chains at Apple. Now he works with transportation agencies to turn equipment they already own into information they can use.
Thomas Lefebvre and the business of keeping things moving
Before Tallvine Partners, Thomas Lefebvre ran a software company and served in the French Navy Commandos. His next chapter runs through airport ramps, working harbors, and the companies that keep commerce moving.
Manuel Rodríguez Arregui and the work after the ribbon is cut
From Mexico’s transport ministry to AINDA, Manuel Rodríguez Arregui has built a career around the systems people use every day. His argument for responsible investment begins with what happens after the opening ceremony.
Varun Tandon and the work before the road
Before a city can change a street, someone has to make a plan. Varun Tandon, co-founder and CEO of Waypoint Transit, is bringing his Microsoft AI experience to that long, consequential prelude.
Audrey Zagazeta and the work before the groundbreaking
Before a project becomes a place, someone has to examine its consequences. Circlepoint’s president and CEO has built a career in that demanding space between California’s ambitions and the communities that live with them.
Drive Sally and the price of staying on the road
A rideshare app can find you a passenger. Sally supplies the car, the maintenance and a wager that professional drivers will pay for fewer interruptions.
Saddle Creek Logistics Services and the art of moving less
The company behind other companies’ deliveries has learned an expensive lesson: a warehouse gets better when you remove the right work. Its robots, customer systems and million-dollar investments reveal how.
Zetron and the art of changing everything without hanging up
A control room cannot close for renovation. Zetron’s business is built around that awkward fact: connecting old radios, new networks and the people who must keep answering.
The People Who Bring Pizza to a Pipe Meeting
MurphyEpson sells something stranger than publicity: the informed consent a city needs before it digs up a street, redraws a bus route or asks a neighborhood to trust the future.
The $175-an-Hour Work of Getting Everyone in the Room
Endicott Communications sells something harder to photograph than a bridge and almost as necessary: the patient coordination that helps public projects survive contact with the public.
Celtis puts an orca on the bus. The destination is a new habit.
The agency behind Santa Cruz’s wildlife-wrapped buses sells public transportation through the things people already care about: their coast, their language, their next semester.
Arellano Associates and the business of being heard
A railway needs engineering. Its public meetings need engineering, too. Arellano Associates turns maps, text messages and neighborhood conversations into the working machinery of community engagement.
Before the concrete: VSCE’s other construction work
A bus depot needs somewhere to park the buses. It also needs a closed street, a public hearing, and people who can keep the paperwork moving. Oakland’s VSCE has made a business of connecting those jobs.
CPOG and the business of explaining the detour
A road project has two schedules: the one engineers draw and the one people live through. Costin Public Outreach Group works where they collide.