Former Maryland Governor, former Airbnb director and Transportation Commissioner of both Chicago and D.C. to join Spin’s newly formed Advisory Board
San Francisco, November 7, 2017 — Spin, the nation’s leading dockless bikeshare company, today announced the appointment of a new Board of Advisors, including former Maryland Governor Martin O’Malley, former Airbnb director Molly Turner, and former Chicago and Washington D.C. Transportation Commissioner, Gabe Klein. The three join the company’s newly formed Advisory Board.
“As Spin sharpens its focus on the development of smart cities and complementing existing transportation systems worldwide, we welcome the vision and guidance of these three outstanding new board members,” said Spin CEO Derrick Ko. “Each brings a rare blend of expertise in public affairs, tech policy and urban mobility that will strengthen Spin’s ability to bring affordable, equitable and eco-friendly dockless bikeshare to all of America’s urban centers.”
Governor O’Malley is a longtime advocate of investment in smart city technologies. “As a former mayor, I know all too well how smart innovation in an urban setting can drastically change and improve lives,” said former Maryland Governor Martin O’Malley. “Spin offers the ability to solve transportation and infrastructure problems in an equitable way that will drive sustainable change for cities large and small right away.”
Molly Turner teaches urban innovation at the Berkeley Haas School of Business, and has worked with cities around the world to create regulatory frameworks and public-private partnerships for Airbnb. “Helping cities harness new technologies and business models to improve civic life is at the core of what I do,” said Molly Turner, former Airbnb Director of Public Policy. “I’m excited to help Spin build collaborative partnerships with city agencies, and figure out how best to fit into cities’ quickly evolving mobility ecosystems.”
Gabe Klein has built a career bringing innovation that prizes people over machines to city streets in the public and private sectors. “Spin has shown that its dockless bikeshare model has the capacity to make mobility better for millions of urban residents across the nation,” said Gabe Klein, former Commissioner of the D.C. and Chicago Departments of Transportation. “By offering people an innovative, convenient, low-cost and clean transportation option, Spin is out to revolutionize mobility, mitigate transportation deserts and improve life for all Americans while complementing transit and even current, docked bikeshare systems. I’m thrilled to be a part of their new Advisory Board.”
Governor Martin O’Malley, spent over a decade of fighting for underserved and middle-class communities in Maryland. Besides serving as the Governor of Maryland, O’Malley has served as the Mayor of Baltimore, and a city councilor — earning a reputation as a bold, progressive, and pragmatic executive. Over his eight years as Mayor, O’Malley’s policies helped the people of Baltimore achieve the greatest crime reduction of America’s largest cities. In 2007, O’Malley was elected as Governor of Maryland. Under his leadership, Maryland made sweeping investments in public safety, college education, affordable healthcare, and economic growth.
Molly Turner, is a widely recognized urban planner, innovator and tech policy pioneer. She is one of the leading voices on urban innovation as a Lecturer at UC Berkeley Haas School of Business, a board member of urban impact accelerator Tumml as well as the urban policy think tank, SPUR. Turner was an early employee of Airbnb, where she built the company’s public policy team in 2011 and co-authored some of the world’s first “sharing economy” regulations. As Airbnb’s Global Head of Civic Partnerships, Turner directed the company’s partnerships with governments around the world, including its international disaster response program and its 2015 business launch in Cuba. Before Airbnb, Turner worked for the San Francisco Mayor’s Office of Economic Development, the UNESCO World Heritage Center, and a sustainable tourism consulting firm.
Gabe Klein, is the former Commissioner of the Chicago and Washington, D.C. Departments of Transportation. In both cities he revamped technology platforms and government processes while focusing on putting people first vs. automobiles on city streets. This included launching two of the first and largest bikeshare systems in the U.S. and building protected bike lanes and better pedestrian infrastructure for vulnerable citizens citywide, as well as facilitating private services like carshare and rideshare that could help each cities mobility goals. Prior to that, Klein he served as Vice President at ZipCar, worked as the national Director of Stores at Bikes USA, and co-founded the electric powered, organic food truck chain, On The Fly. In 2016 Klein co-founded CityFi to help city leaders, CEO’s and varied stakeholders to understand the complexity of 21st century challenges, facilitate people-centric solutions, utilize new models for delivery and technology-based tools to deliver triple-bottom line results. He also serves as Special Venture Partner at Fontinalis Partner’s a mobility focused venture capital firm.
