Joshua L. Schank will serve as first-ever chief innovation officer of the Los Angeles County Metropolitan Transportation Authority’s newly created “Office of Extraordinary Innovation.”
Schank currently is the president and CEO of the Eno Center for Transportation in Washington, D.C., a nonpartisan transportation policy think tank. Schank started his career at the New York Metropolitan Transportation Authority as a transportation planner and went on to work as a congressional transportation fellow and legislative assistant in the United States Senate.
According to Metro, Schank “directed a large panel of former elected officials, policy experts, business executives and civic leaders overseeing a national study of federal transportation policy that resulted in recommendations for accountable, performance-based transportation programs.
The new Office of Extraordinary Innovation was announced in July.
Metro CEO Phillip Washington said Monday: “This office will be responsible for mining and implementing the most out-of-the-box and innovative strategies the transportation industry has ever seen in this country. This will be our Innovative Strike Force Team in areas such as public-private partnerships, value capture opportunities, high technology and autonomous vehicle impact on transit, as well as leading the agency’s strategic planning efforts.”
