Jason Lauffer
Director, Business Development & Customer Services
Thales Transport & Security Inc.
- Almat Mater: Penn State and Point Park University
- Favorite Book: "1984" by George Orwell
- Favorite Hobby: Boating
Jason Lauffer first got into public transportation as a senior in high school when he started an internship with Bombardier. Bombardier was creating a new train at the time, the Innovia, and he was doing the test track layout.
He interned there through college while getting an associate’s degree in electrical engineering technology and continued to work through his bachelor’s degree in electrical engineering and his MBA.
For a period of time he worked at Alstom Transport, at the Hornell, New York, factory. He got hired as a draftsman to do drafting work and within a short time was a line manager for the Washington Metropolitan Area Transit Authority (Metro) and Maryland Transit Administration (MTA) cars. It afforded a wide experience from traction motors to HVACs, running procurement aspects, and working with suppliers.
After completing his MBA, he went on as a hardware engineer for wayside and got interested in taking on a project role. He went to Mitsubishi where he had the opportunity to be a project engineer in Pittsburgh, and then moved to Thales about 8-1/2 years ago.
Lauffer came to Thales as a project engineer, hardware engineer person and it was a purchase order sitting on a desk that led him to where he is today. It was a purchase order for a central control upgrade project. He went into CEO John Brohm’s office and asked to manage the program. This was the beginning of their customer care service department in Pittsburgh, eventually 10 sites in the United States.
Lauffer leads the business development and customer services department at Thales. During his tenure with Thales, he has founded and started the services group for the U.S. servicing 11 different customer signalling sites, providing 24/7, on-call support and deployment of system upgrade projects for lifecycle extensions. He has grown the business from zero to a $15 million a year recurring business. On the overall project wins, he has grown the business to more than $100 million business in a 4-year period.
In his two decades in the business, Lauffer has demonstrated a keen commitment to transit safety and a dedication to his customers, and has risen to the top of the industry as an expert on communication-based train control and rail signalling systems.
In addition to signalling jobs, Lauffer is responsible for the business development of the other business lines within Thales Ground Transport, including Urban Rail Signalling (CBTC); Revenue Collection Systems (Fare Collection); Integrated Communications systems; and Mine Line Rail Solutions.
During his prolific career, Lauffer has been involved in the deployment of several worldwide train control projects, including in Taipei, Taiwan; New York City; Heathrow Airport (London); Dulles Airport (Washington); Washington, D.C.; Baltimore, Maryland; Busan, South Korea; Dallas Texas; Atlanta, Georgia; and San Francisco, California. Additionally, Lauffer has overseen train signalling bid proposals for some of the largest and most complicated transit networks in the country, including New York and San Francisco, and for people mover and airport systems in Newark, New Jersey, West Virginia, Orlando, Florida, Houston Texas, and Washington, D.C.
Lauffer is named on 4 engineering patents, three trainborne-related and one for a cable-driven train inspection system, and holds several awards for design engineering during his work at Bombardier.
Throughout the industry, Lauffer is well regarded as an expert in communications-based train control and rail signalling systems and has spoken at a number of key industry events, including several American Public Transportation Association conferences, the Next-Gen Train Control conference and ITS Americas conference.
“What I like most of all is that I have a pretty good technical background. In some cases that’s hard to find in sales folks. What I like to do, even though you look like the sales guy, you can ‘talk the talk’ and ‘walk the walk.’”
“I enjoy being able to get a little bit technical but then enjoying the development aspect of it.”
“The industry is slow to adapt to new technology. I think adaptation to new technology and being a little more open to new ways of operating would be the thing that I would like to see in public transportation.”
“The thing I like to do outside of work most of all is boating. I like working on engines and doing a lot of mechanical things, so it appeals to me there; there’s some electrical work required. It’s a fun hobby, I like the outdoors and it gets me outdoors.”
