- One word to describe yourself: Dedicated
- Alma Mater: Henley Business School, Oxford, England; Brunel University, London; Iowa State University
- Favorite book: “Harry Potter” series by J.K. Rowling – He’s reading them to his kids
- Favorite TV show: “Nova”
- Favorite movie: “Finding Nemo”
- Favorite hobby(ies): Technology and construction (home building)
- Fun fact about yourself: He likes to view complex systems and simplify them
- What is your favorite transit system (outside of the one you work for or have worked for!) and why?: The London Underground, “Of course!” London is where he was born and raised and has worked alongside (and for) many people that worked for London Underground. He has seen and grown with the world’s oldest transit system and has a clear vision of where the MBTA can be and surpass even London. The potential for what they can do at the MBTA is limitless, with the right investment and leadership (the right people in the right places with the right skills) – they can achieve great things which will benefit the people and guests of Massachusetts.
Patel holds an MBA from Henley Business School in Oxford, England, is a chartered engineer, and holds 2 degrees in Engineering (manufacturing and systems engineering), along with a number of certifications, such as asset management and Lean Six Sigma.
He used to work in the Ministry of Defence in England as a principle manufacturing engineer, systems engineer, working on the UK and U.S. defense systems. He met his wife while in Massachusetts and they kept in touch while he went to school and traveled. Eventually she came to the UK, they got married and then moved back to the United States to start a family.
Looking for a job during the economic downturn was extremely challenging, especially for someone not from the United States, he said. Eventually he was hired as deputy director of quality assurance and quality control at the Massachusetts Bay Transportation Authority. He was brought in to bring quality control and quality management to the maintenance area and from there was charged with overseeing the asset management program in its infancy and then was asked to lead that program.
As director of asset management within the MBTA Engineering and Maintenance Directorate (E&M), Patel continues to demonstrate a commitment to not only his assigned duties and responsibilities but to the overall departmental mission of providing safe and reliable service delivery to our internal and external customers alike.
Patel’s involvement in industry and the new asset management requirements has lead him to be invited to present at the National Academies of Science, Engineering and Medicines Transportation Research Board (TRB) Conference on behalf of the Transit Asset Management and Performance Committee (ABC 40) to participate in workshops and seminars on topics such as the MBTA’s Asset Management Implementation Program, MAP 21, Performance Management, Risk in Transportation, Asset Management Practices along with the International Standards Organization ISO-55000 Series Standards.
In June of 2015 on behalf of the MBTA, Patel also participated in an FTA-sponsored State of Good Repair (SGR) Roundtable held in Denver, Colorado. The topics of discussion for which Patel provided the authority’s position included performance measurement and data; establishing measures and targets, along with participating in a session to discuss the concept of applying a systems engineering approach to asset management and is presently an organizing committee member of the 2017 FTA SGR Roundtable scheduled for August 2017 in Massachusetts.
As a result of his commitment to asset management, Patel has been inducted by his peers across the United States to become a voting member in multiple industry standards bodies, including the Transit Research Board, the American National Standards Institute/American Society for Testing and Materials and the Institute of Asset Management.
Patel continues to progressively research and introduce to the MBTA, innovative approaches and leading-edge technologies to assist and augment the development of all E&M practices in the areas of, but not limited to, SGR database development, annual capital investment program prioritization, general engineering consultant (GEC) solicitation and award, enterprise asset management system development, procurement and implementation, along with station and facilities cleaning performance monitoring application development and implementation.
Patel is one of the youngest directors at the MBTA. He started working at the MBTA approximately six years ago and since then has become an integral leader on the operations team. Presently he is managing the implementation of the agency’s first infrastructure asset management system for the entire authority, as well as key strategic support systems for data analysis and predictive analytics. He has, along with the track department, instituted LiDAR detection of tunnel assets, coordinated inventory of all authority assets, and created an electronic system that will eventually manage daily maintenance operations as well as provide validated data for key strategic capital investment and federal compliance.
He has developed the world’s first transit-orientated cleaning management system that enables cleaning coordinators to digitally score sights and allows management to instantly see where there are deficiencies in the cleaning of multimodal stations and facilities. Building on an idea from the MBTA’s environmental sustainability specialist he worked with students from Wentworth Institute of Technology based in Massachusetts, to development a pilot system that could retrofit to any bus wash to use more than 50 percent less water to wash buses.
Patel is a member of the Institute of Asset Management and is hosting the regional conference in Boston this September. He has also recently presented at the National Transit Institute and is a member of the American National Standards Institute & American Society for Testing and Materials.
He has worked diligently to incorporate sustainability into his work, hired sustainability interns and installed energy-efficient equipment at a number of MBTA facilities. In addition, he works with other departments to achieve goals set out by the Massachusetts GreenDOT initiative.
Patel is married and has five beautiful children.
“I sought out and brought in formal training for asset management and certification at the formal level. Right now we’ve got people certified in asset management. I’ve worked closely with the agency of asset management in London to bring some of those qualifications to the MBTA.”
“I joined the MBTA and I made a commitment to get this done. I feel obligated that I want to do it. I serve the people and guests of Massachusetts … I’m trying to build a supportable program that eventually when I leave, we did the right thing for our customers. That’s really the focus of what I’m trying to do here; what’s right by our customers.”
“Our customers are a representation of us, our work in the communities we serve. If we don’t take that seriously and if we don’t understand that, and we don’t have an empathy of that, how are we ever going to get some good customer service? Transit is the lifeblood of this nation. A lot of industries and towns and cities rely upon getting people to and from work, as well as doctor’s visitors, going shopping, visiting friends, tourism … if we fail, we’re failing that state and the people we represent.”
“Having them [5 kids], when you come back and you see them, it puts things in perspective. No problem is too big. My youngest is 7 months; he’s got the big gummy smile going on, trying to learn to walk. I joke to my boss, I’m going to go home to my real job now.”
“Be open to learning new things.”
