As Executive Vice President, Chief Experience and Engagement Officer for CapMetro, Samantha leads the agency’s strategic initiatives and team members in Customer Service, Community Engagement, Communications, Marketing and Client/Business Development. These teams are unified in their effort to provide valuable experiences and meaningful engagements with our community, customers, partners and team members.

Samantha joined CapMetro in 2019 as its Director of Brand Communications and served as the Senior Director of Public Affairs and Engagement, leading the agency’s Community Engagement and Communications teams, prior to her current role.

Samantha began her career in public service at the City of Austin in 2010 in the Public Information Offices for City Hall and the Austin Transportation Department. Before joining CapMetro, she led large-scale communications efforts for Austin ISD, including the district's successful 2017 bond, as the Assistant Director of Public Affairs and Operations.

She is a volunteer for Seedling Mentor Program and an alumnus of the University of Missouri Journalism School and Texas State, where she earned her Master of Public Administration.

Raised in Austin, Heather is an active member of the business, arts, and volunteer community. Her career spans finance, civil and environmental engineering, health science, and education. She maintains a strong enthusiasm and curiosity about the world and our ability to foster positive change over time. Her current focus includes Placemaking, Mobility Hubs, and Pilot Programs for Austin Transportation & Public Works.

Heather is a longtime Texas musician and writer who has performed and recorded with local, regional, national and international acts often pseudonymously. She has appeared in stage and television productions and is the author/co-author of various short films, plays, essays, and books, similarly pseudonymously. Her music has been used in literature courses in several universities. She consults in music, film, and theatre with a focus on festival development.

In addition to overseeing a reorganization of the Austin Smart City Alliance (ASCA) and serving as Managing Director, Heather serves on the Board of Directors for ScriptWorks, a playwright-driven service organization and a theatrical production company that exists to support dramatic writers by providing opportunities at all stages in the writing process — from inception through production.

Brian Butterfield is a Senior Vice President focusing on Office Tenant Representation at Cushman & Wakefield | Oxford Commercial. A native of the Lone Star state, and an Austin resident for more than 15 years, Brian is both personally and professionally invested in the long-term economic health and vibrancy of Austin. To each of his clients he brings a keen understanding of the culture of city, the professionals that give it meaning to him, and the nuances of the submarkets and product types.

Brian is keenly aware of the transportation that Austin struggles with every day because of his clientele base being located downtown. He adores Austin and wants to promote other transportation options that will increase mobility in the urban core.

Blanca serves as the Director of Parking and Transportation Services at The University of Texas at Austin. She graduated with a degree from UT in Advertising, has received her Masters in Public Administration and Urban and Environmental Planning, and completed her doctorate in Adult, Professional, and Community Education. In her position, she oversees all day-to-day operations of alternative transportation on campus including: shuttles, carpools, vanpools, carshare, and Bike UT. Blanca is currently working on implementing other sustainable programs on campus that would benefit the UT community as well as the city.

Sarah Garza is the Director of Mobility Industry Partnerships for Workforce Solutions Capital Area (WFSCA), a private, publicly funded 501(c)(3) nonprofit responsible for the data-driven planning, oversight, and evaluation of workforce development activities in Austin-Travis County. In this role, Sarah is responsible for leading the industry sector partnership, which is a shared table of employers, educational providers, community-based organizations and project owners in the mobility and infrastructure industry.

Sarah is an alumnus of Occidental College, where she holds a BA in Theatre, and the Lyndon B. Johnson School of Public Affairs, where a large part of her focus was on transportation policy. During her time at LBJ Sarah merged her love of policy and the arts, creating a documentary exploring our state’s transportation infrastructure and the many steps our community can take to reduce traffic congestion.

Previous roles include serving as the Constituent Services Representative for Congressman Lloyd Doggett, a Legislative Fellow for Texas State Senator Kirk Watson, and a Legislative Intern for Capital Metro. Prior to working in policy, Sarah worked in tech and owned her own business.

As VP of Public Affairs, Matt leads the Downtown Austin Alliance's advocacy and influence initiatives and serves as a key connector between policy leaders and the Downtown Austin Alliance leadership. Additionally, he leads the Alliance's Mobility objectives, which seek to make Downtown easier and more enjoyable to access and move within; enhance pedestrian and transportation facilities; and improve connections to neighboring communities.

Since joining the Downtown Austin Alliance in Spring 2023, Matt successfully led the organization’s Project Connect Preferred Alignment strategy, and is currently leading advocacy efforts on the Palm District Plan and state approval of the I-35 CapEx Central project.

Prior to joining the Downtown Austin Alliance, Matt worked at various local Chambers of Commerce for over 10 years and worked for a Texas State Representative. Throughout his work, Matt successfully led and planned numerous projects including bond campaigns, legislative campaigns, public policy initiatives, and stakeholder engagement.

Outside of work Matt spends time with his wife and son as well as vegetable gardening and trail running. His favorite downtown places include the Red River Cultural District, the greenbelt, and Houndstooth Coffee.

Derek serves as the Program Manager of Partnerships and Business Development at CapMetro. In his role, he oversees the CapMetro for Business program, transit pass agreements with local government organizations and universities, and non-fare revenue programs like transit advertising.

Prior to joining the agency, Derek contributed to reshaping how individuals navigate from point A to B at car2go and Spin. At car2go, he played a role in the marketing of the free-floating carshare service and encouraged employers to add carshare as a commuter benefit. Subsequently, at Spin, he collaborated closely with municipalities and community organizations to advance safety, equity, accessibility goals for shared scooter and bike systems.

Derek is an alumnus of Portland State University, where he holds a BA in Marketing.

Sandy Hentges Guzman is the Chief Executive Officer of the Austin Area Research Organization (AARO), a non-partisan nonprofit organization of 110 business and civic leaders from Travis, Williamson, Hays, Bastrop, Burnet and Caldwell counties that engages committed leaders in advancing regional solutions to benefit the long-term economic and social well-being of Central Texas.

Before her role at AARO, Sandy was the Legislative Director for Texas State Senator Kirk Watson. Initially focused solely on transportation policy for the senator, Sandy has also served as point on the senator’s 10 Goals in 10 Years since the initiative began in 2011. This led to the 2012 election to increase the Central Health tax rate to support a redesign of the community healthcare safety net system, the creation of the UT Dell Medical School and engage Seton’s commitment to build a new teaching hospital, the Dell Seton Medical Center at The University of Texas, Austin. The 10 in 10 effort is ongoing.

Sandy first moved to Austin in 2000. Later that year, she joined the campaign for light rail as Deputy Campaign Director. Though the effort was unsuccessful, it provided Sandy the opportunity to get to know Austin, its elected officials and business and community leaders. It was also the beginning of her work on local and regional transportation policy. She subsequently joined the Greater Austin Chamber of Commerce staff where she worked for eight years on local, state and federal policy issues, with a heavy emphasis on transportation issues/policy, on behalf of the business community as Senior Vice President for Public Policy.

Alex Houston has worked in TDM for several years, first at Movability as an intern, and currently with JLL, working for Meta. In her current role, she is Assistant Transportation Manager, and implements transportation programs in Central Texas and across the U.S. for one of the largest tech companies in the world.

Alex has direct experience with TDM programming and implementation strategies and has helped Meta adjust its transportation policies during and after the many changes that the COVID-19 pandemic brought to employers.

As an experienced CFO, Rey Madolora brings extensive experience in scaling and growing businesses, building passionate teams, fundraising (raising over $250M in capital), strategic planning, change management, and business transactions, with a focus on early-stage startup technology companies. He is a strategic thinker and has an innate ability to translate technical knowledge into practical financial guidance and creative business solutions. As a key business partner his strengths are engaging across the organization, understanding operations, and providing expert financial analysis to tackle complex operational challenges and driving strategic business initiatives.

Rey is currently the CFO/COO of UneeQ, a global leader in Digital Human experiences powered by generative AI, where he oversees accounting, finance, FP&A, Business Intelligence, professional services, and customer success.

Prior to joining UneeQ, Rey was the first CFO of Dropoff, Inc. he made considerable contributions to turnaround the Company and put it on a trajectory for success. In just under four years Rey’s efforts helped the Company grow over 500% and achieve profitability.

As director of Austin’s Transportation and Public Works Department (TPW), Richard Mendoza is responsible for providing safe, reliable and accessible mobility services for all Austinites – no matter how they choose to get around. Under Mendoza’s leadership, TPW builds and maintains our city’s roadways, bridges, sidewalks, and urban trails; designs and delivers our capital and neighborhood partnering improvement projects; and provides safe routes to school for our children.

Mendoza joined the City in January 2017 as the director of Public Works and served in that role until he was asked to lead Austin Transportation in 2022 as the interim director. Following the merger of Austin Transportation and Public Works in spring 2023, Mendoza has overseen the new, combined department of more than 1,000 employees.

As director of TPW, Mendoza oversees an annual operating budget of $140 million and a portfolio of $1.4 billion in capital improvement projects.

Mendoza is a member of the American Public Works Association, served on the board of the National Association of City Transportation Officials from 2012 to 2015, and a 2012 graduate of the Atlanta Regional Commission Executive Leadership Institute. Richard and his wife Martha have 5 children, 8 grandchildren, and one great-granddaughter, all in Texas, with whom they enjoy family barbecues and recreational road trips.

Jenell leads economic, demographic, geographic, and market research and analysis efforts to support the Downtown Alliance's strategic priorities.

She sets the annual research agenda and directs multiple research projects that support economic development, planning, and advocacy efforts. She serves as the staff lead for the Research Task Force and is the secondary staff lead for the Strategic Communication Committee. Prior to her work with the Downtown Alliance, Jenell worked for the City of Austin for more than 10 years.

Leigh joined Silicon Labs in 2016 and serves as Digital Marketing Manager. In this role, she manages digital programs including advertising, search engine optimization (SEO) and social media. She previously co-founded and ran Social Distillery, a local social media agency, for five years before finding the perfect B2B tech client to work for – Silicon Labs.

Leigh has a B.A. in Religion from Trinity University and an M.A. in Advertising from The University of Texas at Austin. She enjoys attending concerts, traveling, skiing, scuba diving, attending sporting events, hanging out with her dog, Birdie, and living simply.

Leigh is proud to be a native Austinite who remembers when there was an Austin City Limits sign on Loop 360. She is passionate about fixing the mobility problem in Austin. She functions efficiently in a single-car household, rides the bus often and encourages anyone who will listen to try public transportation.

Aneka develops, supports, and grows the Global Commute program, "Whole Commute", Global Campus TDM strategy, and corporate security operations program across Whole Foods Market's growing, urban campus in Austin, TX. She previously served as Movability’s Mobility Challenge Program Manager, working in collaboration with the City of Austin’s Transportation Department, Central Texas companies and other stakeholders to successfully manage and execute the goals of the Mayor’s Mobility Challenge.

Prior to moving to Austin in 2018, Aneka served as the Transportation Outreach Specialist at the Downtown Denver Partnership, playing a lead role in implementing transportation demand management programs that incentivize individuals to use sustainable modes of transportation, engaging private sector stakeholders, and developing partnerships and programs to improve access to/from/around Downtown Denver.

She previously worked for the Regional Air Quality Council and the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency Region 8. Aneka holds a Bachelor of Arts in Government and American Studies from the University of Texas at Austin and has a Master’s in Public Administration, Environmental Policy and Management from the University of Colorado Denver.

Jim Pledger has lived in the Austin area for 30 years and is a partner at Jackson Walker LLP. He specializes in representation of financial institutions, including bank mergers and acquisitions, charters and charter conversions, public equity and debt offerings for financial institutions and the resolution of regulatory enforcement matters. Prior to joining Jackson Walker, he served as the Texas Savings and Loan Commissioner for 15 years.

Jim has served on the West Lake Hills City Council and its Zoning and Planning Commission and understands that traffic and transportation are among the most serious issues we face today. They affect our citizens on a daily basis and can have an enormous effect on our economic development. Jim believes that Movability has the opportunity to significantly impact these issues and is pleased to serve and assist Movability Austin to help make these opportunities a reality.

Bryan's accounting background has led him to a career in public service. He has worked for the City of Austin Treasury Department, and is currently the Chief Financial Officer for Austin Transit Partnership, the the independent local government corporation tasked with implementing Project Connect.

During his time working for the City of Austin he administered the financing portion of the various bond programs that support transportation throughout the City.

He is interested in the exploration of different funding initiatives to advance multi-modal transportation throughout the region.

Danielle Skidmore is the President and Owner of Danielle Skidmore Consulting. She has 24 years of planning, design and construction experience on transportation projects throughout Texas. She has extensive experience with both roadway and drainage design for schematic and final design projects for counties, municipalities, and TxDOT.

A civil engineer with more than two decades of experience planning and designing public infrastructure, she has a deep appreciation for how our built environment impacts the way communities grow and how we move within them. As a downtown resident and a small business owner, Danielle thinks about her mobility and how it impacts her business nearly every day. She is excited about being part of Movability to help the region develop more and better tools for getting around our region.

Rob leads STV’s new multidisciplinary smart cities practice, which includes a fully integrated suite of thinkers, planners, finance experts, designers, procurement and grant consultants, digital technologists and program managers, bolstering our advisory services offerings. Under Rob’s direction, the smart cities practice advises public and private clients on urban strategies, including long-range budget development and cost/revenue options, as they consider different approaches in mobility, social infrastructure, urban solutions, decarbonization and public resources management.

Prior to working at STV, Rob was the founding Director of the Austin Transportation Department (ATD), formed in 2008. ATD has grown from a single employee to approximately 450 FTE today and is responsible for Transportation Program Development, Right-of-way Permitting, Traffic Engineering, Special Event Management, Traffic Signals and Arterial Management, Signing and Street Markings, Parking Management, Transit Facilitation, Active Transportation, Vision Zero, Smart Mobility, and right of way and development permitting.

Major accomplishments include establishment of the parking management program and full modernization of the City's on-street parking meter system; $1 Billion+ in successfully approved mobility bonds; adoption of the Austin Strategic Mobility Plan; full modernization of the municipal signal system and development of a state-of-the-art mobility management center (MMC). Robert has also been responsible for multi-modal planning, the City's bike program, micro-mobility program, mobility as a service program, and Smart City initiatives.

With 30 years of experience in the transportation industry, Mia Zmud leverages the power of scientific research to guide emerging technology and innovation business strategies and market plans within the transportation industry. Holding C-level, senior advisor, and management roles spanning both the public and private sectors, Mia offers a unique perspective to guide strategic direction, partnership and alliance building, and market strategy. She is passionate about driving innovation solutions within the public sector to speed the adoption of emerging technologies, meet customer expectations, and deliver results.

Mia brings considerable experience in establishing programs and processes to support mobility management and technology innovation, including frameworks for identifying, testing, evaluating, and deploying technology that matches strategic priority and operational need. Currently, she is advising a business unit of the Florida Department of Transportation, the Florida Turnpike Enterprise, in their efforts to establish an innovation program to support research and development activities and to develop a framework to strategically guide and manage technology investments and new ideas. She is also leading the Houston market deployment of one of the nation’s first comprehensive Mobility as a Service platforms, Houston ConnectSmart, with the developer (Metropia) and for the Texas Department of Transportation.