Ryan Popple
CEO
Proterra
- Alma Mater: College of William & Mary and Harvard University
- Fun Fact: Popple loves video games, especially strategy and war games, which he regularly loses to his 10-year-old son
- Favorite TV shows: "The Wire" and "Band of Brothers"
- Favorite Movies: "Heat," "Layer Cake" and "The Godfather"
- Favorite Hobbies: Biking, triathlons, surfing, skiing, rock climbing and fishing
When Ryan Popple was earning his MBA at Harvard, he used transit to get around greater Boston. That experience, coupled with the concept transit can have on preserving the environment and open spaces by promoting density, was enough to push the outdoor enthusiast to bring his talents into the industry to promote green technology.
Popple is the CEO of Proterra, which produces pure electric buses. Popple has been CEO of the company for a year and spent the previous three years on its board of directors, but he got into the electric vehicle market as one of the original employees of Tesla Motors.
He served as director of finance for Tesla, when the company scaled from pre-revenues to more than $100 million. Popple worked with engineering teams to increase the company’s Roadster’s performance and developed Tesla’s consumer financing and leasing programs.
Popple also served as a partner with Kleiner Perkins, where he backed Chargepoint, in order to bring electric vehicles to the masses.
Since coming to Proterra, Popple helped push the company to produce a second-generation of its technology so buses can travel 180 miles and be coupled with fast-charge technology.
Proterra has also doubled manufacturing capacity under Popple’s watch, and is opening a second facility in the San Francisco Bay Area. The new facility was specifically located near the Millbrae stop on Bay Area Rapid Transit (BART) to encourage transit use among employees.
Popple serves on the EV Strategic Council, which is working on long-term strategic planning for the transition to clean vehicles. He also serves on the transportation committee of the Silicon Valley Leadership Group to enhance clean energy and other transportation technology.
“The thing that’s most exciting to me is the role technology is playing in public transit and how quickly technology is growing.”
“I think it’s the spirits of the executives and the teams in the transit industry. It’s very positive and it’s a community that values a mission bigger than oneself.”
“Over and over, I meet people in transit who really know who they are and why they’re there and why that sector matters to them. A lot of jobs are just that — jobs. You sell a product or you sell a piece of software, it’s just a box. In transit, you meet people who are thinking about more than just a bottom line.”
