Speakers

David Damus serves as the Chief Executive Officer and Chairman of the Board of Directors of System Property Development Company, Inc. (“System Property”) and its subsidiaries based in Pasadena, California. System Property owns a national commercial real estate portfolio in major markets from Los Angeles to New York. Mr. Damus’ unique blend of experience encompasses real estate transactions, mergers and acquisitions, labor law, all aspects of parking and construction projects. Mr. Damus has completed more than one billion dollars in real estate transactions and is a member of both the California and Pennsylvania State Bars.

He received his undergraduate and MBA degrees from the University of Southern California and his law degree from Vanderbilt University.

David serves on several Board of Directors, including The National Parking Association, Vanderbilt University Law School, Board of Advisors, Campbell Hall School (Studio City, CA) and Notre Dame High School.

He has over 24 years of parking management, transit and economic development experience. He managed economic development projects for the City of Durham; parking and transit operations at American University and served as the Deputy General Manager of MetroAccess by Murray’s Transportation. As Manager of the Parking Systems Division, he provides leadership, expertise, and management for parking operations, services, facilities, and programs. He has presented at conferences, including NPA and CTAA, regarding the successful implementation of municipal parking and transit regulations.

Thomas is was a recipient of the National Parking Association Innovator of the Year Award in 2017. He was elected president of the Carolinas Parking Association for 2019.

Brandon Mason serves as the Americas leader of PwC’s Autofacts group in Detroit, Michigan. He is responsible for maintaining the current and future outlook for North and South America, as well the development of research and analysis on a variety of topics and trends affecting the industry. Brandon also leads the group’s global powertrain forecast.

Brandon joined PwC in 2004. Since his time at the firm, he has authored numerous thought leadership pieces on automotive megatrends, including vehicle electrification, the implications of oil price fluctuation, import/export trends for North America and the growing importance of the global luxury vehicle segment, among others.

He has been quoted in numerous publications and media outlets, including The Detroit Free Press, The Detroiter Magazine, Michigan Radio, Automobile Magazine, Greentech Media, Automotive News, Consumers Digest, The Huffington Post and Automotive Logistics Magazine.

Brandon is a 2002 graduate of Michigan State University.

James is the foremost analyst tracking and defining the power and impact of digital disruption on traditional businesses. His consumer models identify the ways consumers have embraced digital experiences and platforms, and his strategy models help companies prepare to serve those consumers. He applies this knowledge to a wide variety of industries, from consumer media to consumer technology, from financial services to retail and consumer products. James is the author of the book Digital Disruption: Unleashing the Next Wave of Innovation.

In addition to keynoting at industry events and Forrester Forums, James is routinely sought after for comment by such publications as The New York Times and The Wall Street Journal. He also appears frequently on NPR and CNBC.

Mary Smith is a Senior Vice President and Senior Director of Parking Consulting for Walker. She is widely acknowledged as one of the leading parking planners and functional designers in the world and is generally considered the parking industry’s “go to” person on vehicle sizes and parking dimensions, parking under the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA), and more recently compliance with the Manual On Uniform Traffic Control Devices (MUTCD).

She recently celebrated her 40th anniversary with Walker, and has been actively involved in all phases of parking planning and design for parking projects throughout the world. She has consulted on projects in Abu Dhabi, China, Dubai, Egypt, Indonesia, Korea, Kuwait, Malaysia, Qatar, Russia, and Turkey. Her particular areas of expertise are pedestrian and vehicular circulation, wayfinding and flow capacity in mega-structures, and the integration of parking management, operations and functional design.

She is a member of NPA’s Parking Consultants Council.

Stephen Smyth is the CEO and co-Founder of Coord. Coord makes it easy for software developers to add transport options to their applications. He previously led the investor product team at Prosper, a consumer financial technology company.

Prior to Prosper, Stephen was President of Amplify Access, where he built and led a team of more than 120 people that developed and shipped the first tablet-based learning platform designed specifically for K-12 education.

Previously, he was CEO and head of product at Twigmore, the social travel startup he co-founded. Before Twigmore, Stephen worked at Reuters for more than five years in strategy, product, and general management roles to build that company’s multinational digital media business.

He started his career at BMW in Munich, Germany, writing software for virtual reality visualization of crash simulations, and worked subsequently at the Boston Consulting Group and Bertelsmann.