2023 40 Under 40: Andy Wakefield

One word to describe yourself: Problem solver

Alma Mater: Hamline University

Fast fact about yourself: I’m a licensed officiant and have performed more than 20 weddings for family and friends.

What’s your best experience on transit and what made it memorable?: Using MTR to navigate my way around Hong Kong. MTR is the most beautiful system that I’ve ever seen, and I had the pleasure of riding. It was fun, effortless to use and extremely quick and efficient. Every time I used the system, I couldn’t stop thinking about how well it was designed and how many great practices could be adopted from its design.

Andy Wakefield is the current director of the Transit Operations Management Consulting Practice at Intueor Consulting. Throughout his tenure with Intueor, spanning roughly a decade, Wakefield has assisted more than 50 different transit agencies, all of various size and complexity, with IT strategic planning and technology system selection and advisory services. His entire focus on any engagement is to truly help agencies leverage technology investments to modernize operations, achieve maximum Return on Investment, and successfully implement IT solutions that meet the current and evolving needs of an agency. His goal on any engagement is to fully understand the needs and requirements of an agency and help them to successfully select and implement effective solutions to support their operational and strategic growth initiatives.

According to colleagues, Wakefield understands all aspects of business operations within a transit agency, including daily operations, back office administration and support, as well as capital planning and development. While specializing in Intelligent Transportation System selection and engineering, Wakefield assists agencies with IT strategic planning, program management, process design, and the selection and implementation of CAD/AVL, daily operations, scheduling, vehicle health monitoring, Enterprise Asset Management, yard management, voice and data communications, Enterprise Resource Planning and Customer Relationship Management systems.

Wakefield has helped manage the selection and implementation of more than $150 million in transit technology systems and has saved agencies countless dollars through proper implementation planning, as well as procurement negotiations and advisory support with IT vendors and system implementers. Throughout his work, as an owner’s representative for transit agency clients, Wakefield has helped evolve the industry through the generation of new concepts related to procurement approaches, as well as through the creation of advanced system requirements that push the market forward and impact the development of different products and services from system providers, including his role in developing system specifications that have led CAD/AVL vendors to be more flexible and modular in the deployment of their systems, as well as enhanced two-way integrations between Scheduling and CAD/AVL systems. Wakefield was the architect of the vehicle system engineering design for one of the first 5G Mobile Gateway Router deployments in the industry and has been influential in the overall design of multiple Concept of Operations projects related to the consolidation and co-location of bus and rail operations control centers.

Beyond his direct impact being a strategic advisor to transit agency clients, Wakefield constantly gives back to the transit community. He is an alumnus of the American Public Transportation Association’s (APTA) Emerging Leaders Program (class of 2019) and is active on several APTA committees. Additionally, he has authored several white papers and research articles aimed at educating transit agencies on best practices related to zero-emission bus planning and rollout strategies, how agencies can leverage IT solutions to modernize business operations, and the benefits and impacts that fare free transit practices can have on riders, cities and regional economics. He is a recognized author and contributor to Mass Transit, Governing and APTA.

Colleagues say at his core, Wakefield cares about using his skills, experiences, and knowledge to help benefit the transit community and is selfless in his time and commitment to giving back to the industry. Wakefield recently spent time with APTA’s Emerging Leaders program by participating on an alumni panel related to giving attendees career advice and also developed and delivered a presentation on Organizational Change Management techniques and strategies for how to manage complex human factor impacts during transformational change initiatives within transit organizations. Additionally, he has presented at industry conferences, co-presenting alongside clients and shared case studies and advice on how to best manage major initiatives related to CAD/AVL system implementations and program governance/support best practices.

Is there a specific experience that led you to where you are today?

Not really. It’s been a lot of hard work, late nights, learning, personal application and passion for the industry that has helped me get to this point in my career. I wish I could trace things back to a single experience but, truthfully, it’s been a combination of collective experiences, challenges and motivation that has helped me along the way. I definitely haven’t done it myself; I’ve had a lot of support and help from several mentors, colleagues, clients, and a company that has given me opportunities to apply myself and to continue to grow both personally and professionally. I’m thankful for all of that support and for the opportunities I’ve been given, which is one major reason why I like to give back to the industry, share my experiences and provide coaching to younger industry professionals in order to help them along in their career paths.

 What do you enjoy most about your job?

The uniqueness of my clients and the projects that I work on. As a consultant, I’ve worked with many different transit agencies and clients across the county, all of which vary in size, organizational complexity, and that have different business challenges. This means that although some projects may have a similar scope, they all have different needs with different challenges to solve. I honestly love this about my role, as every project that I work on is different, and I get to work with my clients to find strategic, creative, and innovative ways to solve their specific business needs, manage organizational and business transformational change, and to help them make an impact to their staff, ridership, and communities. Every day I wake up and go to work brings exciting new challenges that always keep things fresh and allows me to apply myself in different ways.

What’s the most challenging part of your job?

Every project that I work on comes with its own set of challenges, which makes my job both exciting and difficult. Professionally, the most important thing that I care about is performing work at a high level and providing immense value to the clients that I work with. This usually means that to meet project quality and schedule demands, I spend a lot of time in the office and traveling to client sites. I have a beautiful family with a wife and two small children who are the most important thing in my life, and I have to remind myself that it’s healthy to keep a good balance between my professional and personal life. The most challenging part of my job is to not lose sight of that and to make sure that I’m present in all aspects of my life.

Accomplishment you’re most proud of and why?

 I have many different accomplishments that I’m very proud of for many different reasons. With that said, the most recent one that comes to mind is the completion of a project where I helped a transit agency completely redesign their CAD/AVL system and on-board vehicle architecture for both fixed route and paratransit services. I’m proud of this accomplishment because the advancements and beneficial impacts this had on the agency, from a technology and operations perspective, improved the daily quality of all divisions within the organization, as well as the entire community they serve.

The project had an extremely aggressive timeline and was completed on-schedule and under budget, the combination of which is a somewhat rarity in technology deployments. It also introduced some industry firsts by deploying the newest built for transit specific 5G mobile gateway router and combining the CAD/AVL project with the acquisition and implementation of multiple different operational support tools, business intelligence applications, and advanced system integrations. The project was so successful that it recently won a Metro Magazine Innovative Solution Award. This project was extremely fun to work on, and I’m very proud of it, not just from my personal involvement on the project, but also because I’m genuinely proud and happy for the agency itself and for all of the hard work and determination from their staff and team on the project.

Best advice/tip/best practice to share from your area of expertise?

The world of transit technology planning, acquisition, and implementation is complex and difficult to navigate. The best advice that I have to anyone along that journey is that the needs and the requirements of the business should drive the adoption of technology, not the other way around. Agencies can purchase the most advanced, feature rich, or expensive products on the market but that alone does not guarantee success. It’s more important to do proper planning and establish a strong governance framework with dedicated staff and personnel to help manage projects and support technology changes long-term. If you want to be as successful as possible and achieve the highest return on investment, while maximizing system adoption and utilization, the most important things are to take care of the end users, communicate well, train, and ensure that business needs are being met and supported by the technology being put in place.