AAM/ITF - AUVSI New England

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UNMANNED INSIGHT: Laying a Foundation for Advanced Air Mobility in New England - MassAutonomy's AAM Integration Task Force

	Thursday, 5 May 2022 at 12:00 PM
	Free Zoom Event
	Register on Eventbrite!

MassAutonomy is bringing together industry, academia, and government to position Massachusetts as a leader in Advanced Air Mobility. Paige Scott Reed and Jonathan Songer (MassAutonomy), Molly Binder Dadouris (Boston Consulting Group), and Peter Schmidt (Transcend Air) will discuss how industry, academia, and government leaders participating in the AAM Integration Task Force are:

Building a roadmap for Massachusetts
Defining a foundation of basic facts about the AAM market opportunity
Organizing to run AAM challenges
Planning for the pilot implementation of AAM infrastructure

	PAIGE SCOTT REED Partner, Prince Lobel Paige Scott Reed is an experienced transportation and employment attorney whose transactional, litigation, regulatory, administrative, and procurement work has served her clients well for over 20 years. She has worked as general counsel for the Mass. Department of Transportation and the MBTA and also served as Corporate Secretary and General Counsel to the Boston 2024 Partnership for the city’s Olympic bid. Paige has assisted government and private organizations, CEOs, and Boards of Directors with commercial contracts, development transactions, and public projects. She was instrumental in procuring a new operator for the MBTA’s commuter rail, forming a public-private partnership to redevelop Back Bay Station, implementing the MBTA’s Construction Manager/General Contractor project delivery approach, and in securing $1 billion in federal funding for the Green Line Extension project. Paige has also defended government organizations against class actions charging racial discrimination in hiring practices. Paige leads the firm’s unmanned and autonomous systems practice. She is a strategic advisor to the Commonwealth UAS Integration Program and guides MassDOT’s efforts to utilize drones to advance its transportation mission. Paige is active in the community, serving as the President of the Massachusetts Black Lawyers Association and Vice-President for the Harvard Law School Association of Massachusetts. Paige also serves on the Executive Council of the Boston Bar Association, the Board of the Boston Bar Foundation, and the Board of Boston Harbor Now. Paige recently chaired the finance committee for Rachael Rollins historic campaign, helping to elect the first black woman to serve as District Attorney for Suffolk County. She received her A.B. from Harvard College and her J.D. from Harvard Law School, where she was an Executive Editor of the Harvard Law Review.
	JONATHAN SONGER Senior Program Manager, Advanced Air Mobility, MassAutonomy Jonathan Songer is an unmanned systems subject matter expert and leader who works with industry partners to integrate advanced air mobility (AAM) concepts into the NextGen airspace in the skies above Massachusetts. Jonathan understands how building a coalition of government, academic, and industry partners are essential to helping Massachusetts lead at the technology forefront of AAM. Jonathan has worked in the defense industry with medium-altitude long endurance unmanned aircraft for the past four years as an instructor, evaluator, and lead pilot. He also served in the United States Air Force as an Air Mobility pilot and MQ-1/MQ-9 RPA squadron commander, instructor, and evaluator pilot. During his time in the USAF, he was the Chief of Unmanned ISR at US Air Forces Central Command and helped the USAF write the UAS Flight Plan 2009-2047, a roadmap for unmanned systems. Jonathan is a certified single/multi-engine commercial pilot and also holds an FAA Part 107 Remote Pilot Certificate. Jonathan holds a B.S in Physics from The Citadel and an M.S. in Military Operations from Air University.
	MOLLY BINDER DADOURIS Boston Consulting Group Molly is a Project Leader at Boston Consulting Group where she is an active member of the public sector practice area. Her recent work includes state and local government response in a variety of projects including advanced air mobility and economic development in relation to the COVID-19 crisis. She currently represents BCG as a member of the Massachusetts Integrated Task Force (ITF), a coalition of government, academic, and industry partners focused on advancing AAM in the Commonwealth. Molly holds a B.S. in Biophysics from Wake Forest University and an MBA from MIT.
	PETER SCHMIDT COO & Co-Founder, Transcend Air Massachusetts Institute of Technology Peter Schmidt, Co-Founder, and COO of Transcend Air is an entrepreneur and executive with startup, turn-around, and large enterprise experience. Transcend Air is a group of experienced aerospace executives, engineers, and entrepreneurs who have designed a tilt-wing VTOL aircraft, the Vy 400. Three times faster than helicopters, with half the operating costs, and enhanced safety, they expect it to grow to dominate the VIP transport helicopter segment. It will also enable a new city-center to city-center airline service, cheaper than current air travel options and three to five times faster door to door. Schmidt’s aviation roles have included sUAS test pilot, with two first flights; president & COO of Linear Air, Eclipse 500 operator and Part 135 online charter marketplace; COO of Jet Advisors, a business aviation consultancy; and SVP of National Aviation Academy, the second largest Part 147 aviation mechanic school in the U.S. In his pre-aviation career, Schmidt led several networking and embedded systems companies, including as CTO North America for Ipanema Technologies, CEO of Echo Engineering, division manager of Teradyne, and co-founder and president of Midnight Networks. He currently serves as Chair of the Electric Flight Test Committee of the E-VTOL Flight Test Council. An aerobatic pilot, Schmidt did his undergrad in computer science and his master’s in management, both at MIT.