Doug Hooker

Executive Director, ARC

Doug Hooker leads the Atlanta Regional Commission (ARC), the agency which coordinates local government policy and planning for metro Atlanta, to enhance the region’s economic competitiveness. ARC brings best practices and fosters innovation in challenges to community development, transportation and mobility, water and natural resources, arts and culture, aging and independence resources, workforce development, homeland security, and community-oriented research and analytics.

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Jeffrey A. Parker

General Manager and CEO, MARTA

As a national leader in transportation and transit, Jeffrey A. Parker has more than 30 years of experience in both the private and public sectors of the industry, heading operations and expansion programs in several multimodal transit agencies.  Parker was named General Manager/CEO of the Metropolitan Atlanta Rapid Transit Authority (MARTA) in March 2018, joining the organization after serving as the vice president of the Georgia/Alabama/Tennessee District of HNTB Corporation, one of the country’s leading architecture and engineering consulting firms.

Parker has previously served as the Commissioner of the Connecticut Department of Transportation as well as MARTA’s Senior Director, Transportation Operations, where he was the Senior Manager for Rail Bus and Paratransit Operations. Parker has served on the Board of Directors for the American Association of State Highway and Transportation Officials, the Bradley International Airport, and the I-95 Coalition.  In Georgia, Parker has been a member of the board of directors of the Georgia Chamber of Commerce, the Georgia Transportation Alliance, Central Atlanta Progress and the Greater North Fulton Chamber of Commerce.

Eric Tanenblatt

Global Chair of Public Policy and Regulation, Dentons

Eric Tanenblatt is the Global Chair of Public Policy and Regulation of Dentons, the world’s largest law firm. He also leads the firm’s US Public Policy Practice, leveraging his three decades of experience at the very highest levels of the federal and state governments. Mr. Tanenblatt, a renowned lecturer and political counselor who’s widely regarded as one of the nation’s preeminent public policy thought leaders, has served in the administrations of the three US presidents and as a senior advisor to a US senator and governor, and held a US Senate-confirmable post governing a federal agency.

He leads Dentons’ global autonomous vehicles team and authors a popular weekly digest tracking the most consequential regulatory, political, and technical developments in the world of automotive autonomy.

Debra Lam

Managing Director of Smart Cities and Inclusive Innovation, GA Tech

Debra Lam is the Managing Director of Smart Cities and Inclusive innovation for Georgia Tech, and has a mandate to drive smart communities and urban innovation work across the university and beyond. Prior to this, she served as Pittsburgh’s first ever Chief of Innovation & Performance where she oversaw all technology, sustainability, performance and innovation functions of city government. She crafted the city’s first strategic plan for innovation, Inclusive Innovation Roadmap. Prior to that, she was a management consultant at a global engineering and design firm. She has been the recipient of various awards, including one of the top 50 Women in Technology nationally. She has worked and lived in New York, the United Kingdom, China, Taiwan, and Hong Kong. She is a graduate of Georgetown University and University of California, Berkeley.

Paul Brubaker

President and CEO, ATI21

Paul Brubaker is known for envisioning and executing digital transformation strategies in complex environments.  Paul is currently CEO of the Alliance for Transportation Innovation (ATI21) and has formerly served as: Research and Innovative Technology Administrator at the US DoT; Chairman of the Virginia Center for Innovative Technology; Deputy Assistant Secretary of Defense (Deputy CIO); Minority Staff Director of the Senate Subcommittee on Oversight; and a senior executive at several start ups and larger technology firms such as Litton PRC, Cisco Systems and SI International.  He was awarded the DoD Distinguished Public Service Medal (DoD’s highest civilian honor); the U.S. DoT Gold Medal; AFFIRM’s Government Executive of the Year; and twice named to the Federal 100.  Paul holds a BA from Youngstown State and an MPA from Kent State University and resides in Washington, D.C..

Russell R. McMurry

P.E., Commissioner, GDOT

On Jan. 20, 2015, Commissioner Russell R. McMurry, P.E. was appointed by the State Transportation Board to lead the Georgia Department of Transportation – the $3.5 billion, nearly 4000-employee state agency responsible for building, maintaining and operating the 10th largest transportation system in the country.

McMurry began his career with the Department in 1990 as an engineering trainee and has served in a variety of roles that include Construction Project Manager, District Engineer, Director of Engineering and Chief Engineer.  

McMurry currently serves as board member for Metropolitan Atlanta Rapid Transit Authority (MARTA), State Road and Tollway Authority (SRTA) and the State Depository Board. He also chairs the American Association of State Highway and Transportation Officials’ (AASHTO) Standing Committee on Performance Management and serves as vice president of the Southern Association of State Highway and Transportation Officials (SASHTO).

Commissioner McMurry has been recognized nationally for his leadership during the I-85 Bridge Rebuild. Most recently, McMurry was named Georgian of the Year for 2018 by Georgia Trend magazine. He also received the Inaugural Engineering Influence Award from the American Council of Engineering Companies of Georgia.

Ashley Z. Hand

Co-founder, CityFi

Ashley Z. Hand, AIA, LEED AP BD+C is co-founder of the urban change management network CityFi, advising both public and private sectors on a more human-centered approach to smart cities. Previously, Ashley served as the Transportation Technology Strategist for the City of Los Angeles Department of Transportation where she recommended policies, strategic actions, and pilot initiatives to shape a future vision that works for all Angelenos in an era of shared mobility and autonomous vehicle technologies. Prior to her work in LA, Ashley served as the first Chief Innovation Officer for the City of Kansas City, Missouri, creating the most comprehensive smart city in North America. Ashley is a registered architect and green building professional. She currently serves on the Advisory Council for the Carnegie Mellon University Traffic21/T-SET University Transportation Center and Open Architecture Collaborative and was recognized as a national change maker by 2018 Grist 50.

Latanza Adjei

Vice President of Sales, Georgia Power Company

Latanza Adjei is vice president of sales & marketing for Georgia Power. In this role, she leads the implementation of the company’s top line revenue growth strat­egy. She is responsible for new product development, product distribution, e-commerce, sales management and energy efficiency.

Adjei began her career with Georgia Power as a co-op student in 1994 and joined the company full time in 1998. Throughout her career, she has served in positions of increasing responsibility in pricing, marketing, sales and customer service, including key account manager, Business Call Center supervi­sor, lighting services sales manager and assistant to the execu­tive vice president of Customer Service and Operations. Prior to her current role, Adjei served as director of Georgia Power’s Customer Care Center, where she was responsible for delivering a customer experience through the call center and its digital channels. During her leader­ship, the center handled about 11 million customer telephone calls annually with a team of nearly 500 agents, and customer transactions on georgiapower.com grew to 1 million monthly.

A native of Atlanta, Adjei earned a bachelor’s degree in industrial engineering from the Georgia Institute of Technology. She graduated from Leadership Rockdale and Leadership DeKalb, served on the board of the Rockdale Chamber of Commerce and the foundation board of Georgia Piedmont Technical College, and was a loaned executive for United Way of Metropolitan Atlanta. Adjei serves as a board member for the American Cancer Society and has been selected to the Leadership Atlanta class of 2019.