NJ Transit names deputy executive director; acting VP/GM of rail operations

Written by Jenifer Nunez, assistant editor

The New Jersey Transit Board of Directors has appointed Neil Yellin as the agency's new deputy executive director and Robert Lavell as vice president and general manager of NJ Transit Rail Operations.

 

Neil Yellin has nearly 35 years of public sector leadership experience, 27 of those years in the public transit industry. Yellin is a leader in policy administration and administrative functions, including human resources, training, contracts, and procurement.

Since 2008, Yellin has served as a senior vice president for administration/chief safety officer at the Long Island Rail Road where he developed a system of merged procurement and contracting initiatives that resulted in significant cost savings, facilitated the agency’s migration of all human resources and procurement systems from a legacy system to a technology platform and also developed an inventory management program that reduced inventory platforms.

Lavell has more than 40 years of industry experience and served as acting vice president and general manager of NJ Trasnit Rail Operations since March 2014. Lavell is a career railroad professional with broad experience in operations, equipment, infrastructure and safety.

For the past six years, he has served as deputy general manager of equipment for NJ Transit, where he has provided leadership for all aspects of maintenance of equipment, including safety, budget and planning of rail facilities and equipment modifications. Lavell previously served 30 years with Amtrak, including as regional vice president of equipment maintenance.

As NJ Transit’s deputy general manager of equipment from 2008 to 2013, Lavell established the agency’s first E-Learning program, which has enhanced the formal training programs for more than 1,400 employees. Lavell also implemented a component-based maintenance program, which has increased reliability of NJ Transit’s rolling stock by approximately 10 percent, which is reflected in increased on-time performance.

 

Tags: