Locomation

Çetin Meriçli, Ph.D. is a co-founder and the CEO of Locomation. Formerly a Special Faculty – Commercialization Specialist at the National Robotics Engineering Center (NREC) of Carnegie Mellon’s Robotics Institute, Dr. Meriçli has over 15 years of experience in developing and deploying complex robotic systems for real-world applications – and he has played key roles in over a dozen high profile applied robotics projects.

Tekin Meriçli, Ph.D. is a co-founder and the CTO of Locomation. Prior to Locomation, he was a Special Faculty – Commercialization Specialist at the National Robotics Engineering Center (NREC) of Carnegie Mellon’s Robotics Institute where he was also a Senior Robotics Engineer. Since 2003, Dr. Meriçli has been practicing systems engineering across a wide variety of robots and systems including autonomous and semi-autonomous ground vehicles, mapping, state estimation, and operator assist systems, perception and motion planning for ground and aerial robots, industrial automation and process improvement, wheeled tour guide and service robots, intelligent assistive robotic manipulators and search and rescue robots, and various legged robots. He also has over 40 publications in the areas of robotics and computer sciences, including best paper award recipients.

Phil Compton is the Chief Financial Officer of Locomation. Formerly the CFO of SingleSource Property Solutions, Phil has significant financial and operational experience in building the team, infrastructure and profitability of rapidly expanding companies. He has helped raise over $110M in venture capital financing, leading to the acquisition of four of his former companies. He was also the co-founder and CFO of Malcovery Security, a cyber security firm he helped launch in 2012 and sold in 2015, as well as the CFO for Netronome, CoManage and WiseWire. Phil began his career with the Big Four public accounting firm of PricewaterhouseCoopers as a Certified Public Accountant and holds a BS in Accounting from West Virginia University’s Chambers College of Business & Economics, where he serves on the board. He is also an ongoing guest lecturer / mentor at Carnegie Mellon University’s Swartz Center for Entrepreneurship and an advisor within the Pittsburgh startup community.

Glynn Spangenberg officially entered the trucking industry in 1973 when he earned the Truck Transportation Merit Badge as a Boy Scout, interning at Matlack Trucking, and later working his way through college as a lumper, hand-loading trailers with cases of manufactured wine bottles. Today, Glynn is an active member of the American Trucking Associations and the Truckload Carriers Association where he serves on numerous boards and committees that are helping to define the future of trucking. Glynn has been on the tip of the spear in launching some of the most revolutionary new trucking technology with companies like Comdata Corporation, which successfully leapfrogged Western Union in the cash advance and fuel payments market; EDS Corporation, where he introduced the first commercial pay-at-the-pump fuel card technology; QUALCOMM, which revolutionized the trucking industry by delivering real-time two-way tracking and communications; Trimble, where as President of Transportation & Logistics Innovations he copyrighted the first mirrorless truck concept termed “Smart Mirror“, and is the principle architect of the nation’s first successful FMCSA mirrorless truck regulatory exemption request, which was granted December 27, 2018.

Tom Kroswek is a logistics and engineering professional with 30+ years of experience in supply chain engineering, transportation analysis, inbound manufacturing support and distribution/fulfillment operations - 27 of those years spent with Ryder Global Supply Chain Solutions in Supply Chain Excellence and Product Development, culminating in the role of Group Director of Product Development and Innovation. Tom’s unique blend of experience across engineering, operations and analytics allows him to develop optimizations and recommendations for operational improvement which result in equipment, labor, sustainability and cost efficiencies. He was the lead inventor and co-awarded a patent for Ryder’s Logistics Release, a proprietary process and technology to control material flow to line-side. Tom holds a BS in Industrial Engineering from Wayne State University and a BBA from Saginaw Valley State University with a major in Accounting and minors in Finance, Economics and General Business.

Steve Kenner serves as the Vice President of Safety for Locomation. In this role, Steve is responsible for Locomation’s overall product and organizational safety. Prior to Locomation, Steve has spent the last six years in leadership positions working on the safety of autonomous technologies at Aurora, Uber Advanced Technologies Group, and Apple’s Special Project Group. Prior to that, Steve was the Global Director of the Automotive Safety Office at Ford Motor Company. Steve has over three decades of experience in automotive engineering at Ford, Chrysler, and General Motors, and has served on the boards of the Intelligent Transportation Society of America and the Transportation Improvement Association of Michigan. Additionally, Steve was appointed to two terms on the Intelligent Transportation Systems Program Advisory Committee by the U.S. Secretary of Transportation. Steve holds a Bachelor’s Degree in Mechanical Engineering from Kettering University and a Master’s Degree in Business Administration from Stanford University Graduate School of Business.

Prior to joining Locomation, Finch previously served at the US Department of Transportation from 2017-2021, was the Deputy Assistant Secretary for Transportation Policy and also the nominee to be Assistant Secretary for Transportation Policy. At the USDOT, he led efforts around the safe integration of transportation technologies into the US transportation system. This included the development of key policies and initiatives around automated vehicles, commercial space operations, data, machine learning and artificial intelligence efforts, hyperloop systems, unmanned aerial systems (UAS) and more. He helped develop the President’s UAS Integration Pilot Program and Automated Driving System Demonstration Grants, managed the Non-Traditional and Emerging Transportation Technology (NETT) Council and served on key transportation-related White House working groups. He is a native of Mobile, Alabama, a graduate of the University of Alabama, received his MBA from Johns Hopkins University, and has been involved in trucking and logistics through his family’s business his entire life.

James Murphy has been involved in the trucking sector for nearly two decades. He received his Class A Commercial Driver’s License (CDL) at the age of 17 and still maintains it today. James also brings over a decade of government affairs experience gained from his time in the public and private sectors. He started his career on Capitol Hill as a staffer for the U.S. Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee (HSGAC) before taking on senior positions in the U.S. House of Representatives. In these roles, James contributed to many pieces of legislation and helped enact numerous laws. After leaving the public sector, James worked as an in-house lobbyist for Motorola Solutions. James was responsible for advancing the company’s priorities at the federal, state, and local level. It was also in this role that James was able to hone his skills as a government affairs professional, with an emphasis on federal funding and legislative policy. Prior to Locomation, James worked for Motorola Solutions, then founded Daybreak Strategies, a D.C.-based government affairs firm.