2024 ANNUAL CONFERENCE SPEAKERS
REBECCA BREWSTER
President and Chief Operating Officer of the American Transportation Research Institute (ATRI)
Rebecca is the recipient of several awards including Fleet Owner magazine’s 2016 Dozen Outstanding Women in Trucking, the 2013 Influential Woman in Trucking award from the Women in Trucking Association, and the 2010 J.R. Bob Halladay award given by the 50 state trucking associations. Rebecca has been with ATRI for 30 years. Prior to that, she was the Public and Governmental Affairs Director for the Cary, North Carolina Chamber of Commerce and a Fleet Analyst with Moen, Inc. She has a B.A. in English from Wofford College and is a Fellow of the North Carolina Institute of Political Leadership.
DON BURNETTE
Founder and CEO of Kodiak Robotics
Don Burnette is the Founder & CEO of Kodiak Robotics. Don is one of the autonomous vehicle industry’s true pioneers, with more than ten years experience working on self-driving software development. He began his career as a software tech lead for the Google self-driving car project, the predecessor to Waymo. After over five years at Google, Don left the company to co-found Otto, the first self-driving truck startup, which was acquired by Uber. After nearly two years as Software Technical Lead at Uber, Don left to found Kodiak
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Don earned a BS in Electrical Engineering and Mathematics and a Master’s degree in Physics from the University of Florida. He also earned a Master’s degree in Robotics from Carnegie Mellon University.
DALE CALHOUN
Executive Director, Florida Natural Gas Association
CHRIS DUDLEY
Partner, The Southern Group
Chris Dudley joined The Southern Group’s Tallahassee office in 2000 after serving for seven years at the highest levels of Florida government. Since that time, Chris has developed extensive expertise in numerous policy areas, including appropriations, campaigns, education, economic and business development, energy, gaming, pharmacy, land use and development, sports and entertainment, technology, transportation, and utilities.
Chris started his career in government working as a legislative aide in the Florida House of Representatives. In 1995, Chris began work in the Florida Department of Education as a special assistant, deputy legislative director, and deputy chief of staff to Education Commissioner Frank Brogan. In 1998, Chris joined the Bush-Brogan campaign for governor and ultimately rose to become deputy chief of staff to Governor Jeb Bush.
In his professional role, Chris has been widely recognized for his skills and expertise. Chris was a founding member of the Florida Association of Professional Lobbyists and in 2016 was named Lobbyist of the Year by Influence Magazine.
BOB COSTELLO
Chief Economist and Senior Vice President, American Trucking Associations
Bob Costello is the Chief Economist and Senior Vice President for the American Trucking Associations (ATA), the national trade association for the trucking industry. As Chief Economist, he manages all of ATA's collection, analysis and dissemination of trucking economic information. This includes several monthly trucking economic indicators, motor carrier financial and operating data, an annual freight transportation forecast, driver wage studies, weekly diesel fuel price and economic reports, and a yearly trucking almanac. Bob also conducts economic analyses of proposed regulations and legislation affecting the trucking industry.
DOUG MARCELLO
Shareholder, Saxton & Stump; Chief Legal Advisor, Bluewire
Doug is a shareholder with the law firm of Saxton & Stump and Chief Legal Officer of Bluewire, is a trucking defense attorney with a CDL. He had represented trucking clients across the country, having been specially admitted for cases in 35 states. Doug received the 2018 Leadership Award of the ATA Safety Council. He has served on the advisory board of the American Trucking Research Institute. Doug is a member of numerous trucking organizations, including a board member of the PA Motor Truck Association and member of the American Trucking Association Safety Council as well as trucking law organizations including TIDA and Transportation Lawyers.
MICHAEL "MIKE" PLASENCIA
Managing Director, RyderVentures and New Product Strategy, Ryder System, Inc.
Michael “Mike” Plasencia is Managing Director of RyderVentures and New Product Strategy at Ryder System, Inc. He is responsible for coordinating the ideation and development of new products in the Ryder pipeline, along with Ryder’s Autonomous Vehicles partnerships and product strategy. Mike also leads operations for RyderVentures, a $50M Corporate Venture Capital fund focused on investing in startups who are driving and tackling disruptions across the supply chain.
Most recently, Mike was Senior Finance Director of the Center of Excellence within the Maintenance organization, where he and his team of data scientists were responsible for advanced financial and data analytics for a nearly $1B cost center. He also held successive roles in Operations within Ryder’s Dedicated Transportation Solutions segment, where he led the ground-up development of a Common Carrier Trucking operation in the Oil & Gas industry and managed several key account operations. Mike began his career with Ryder in 2010 as a Manager within the Corporate Strategy and Development group. Before Ryder, Mike held various roles within the Industrial Engineering function at UPS and several startup ventures.
Mike has an MBA from Harvard Business School and a Bachelor of Science degree in Computer Engineering, cum laude, from the University of Miami.
LEE WHITE
President, LM White Consulting
Lee White- Lee White is an Autonomous Trucking & Logistics expert with deep strategy and operations expertise in the AV trucking space. With four decades of experience, he works at the forefront of the autonomous trucking industry to position stakeholders in the AV ecosystem for long-term success.
More recently, as the Vice President of Strategy for TuSimple, he built the autonomous freight network business model, partnerships, operations, and ecosystem, enabling multiple customers to test autonomous trucking for hundreds of thousands of miles with real freight on real lanes. His mandate spanned all aspects of the network—from defining the business model to engaging and onboarding partners—resulting in a $9 million network with 15+ customers across 11 states.
Today, as the President of LM White Consulting, Lee works with fleets, OEMs, and carriers in developing forward-looking strategies, business models, and roadmaps for AV operations. His unique background allows him to bring all systems, planning, operations, and structures together to allow his clients to rapidly adopt, integrate, and scale the technology. Lee earned a bachelor’s degree in economics at the University of Georgia.
RAKEAN ZAKIR
Senior Business Development Manager- Data, Analytics & AI Sales, GEOTAB
Rakean is a Fleet Management and Field Operations Technology expert. Rakean is currently working as a Sr. Business Development Manager for GEOTAB's Data and Analytics team leading the growth and adoption of Data, Analytics and AI products and services. Prior to GEOTAB, Rakean led multiple telematics and IoT businesses' client facing (Sales, Strategy, Consulting, Business Development, Operations) teams to deliver digital transformations in fleets, field operations and smart cities globally. Rakean held leadership roles at Pitstop, goFleet, ZenduIT, Fleet Complete, & Bell Canada.
Rakean has a background in Electrical Engineering from McGill University and has taken post graduate management courses at UPenn(Wharton) and University of Toronto (Rotman Business School).