Innovation BRT Innovation Summit: Innovation in Transportation and Infrastructure


Washington – As part of today’s Business Roundtable CEO Innovation Summit, top leaders from business and government participated in a panel discussion on “Innovation in Transportation and Infrastructure.” The conversation featured Jacobs Chairman and CEO Steve Demetriou, S&P Global President and CEO Doug Peterson, American Tower Chairman, President and CEO James Taiclet and National Governors Association Energy, Environment & Transportation Director Sue Gander. Kevin Cirilli, Chief Washington Correspondent for Bloomberg News, moderated the discussion.

Click the image above to watch the full “Transportation and Infrastructure” panel featuring Steve Demetriou, Doug Peterson, James Taiclet, Sue Gander and Bloomberg News’ Kevin Cirilli (moderator).

Highlights:

Steve Demetriou, Chairman and CEO of Jacobs Engineering Group Inc., on the importance of addressing cyber threats to accelerate infrastructure innovation:

“The more we push connectivity, the more people sort of put the blocks up and say ‘that's going to open up a threat of cyber security attacks.’ The technology is there now to proactively prevent it. There's predictive cyber security analysis that can avoid those issues. I think if we can overcome those fears, we'll accelerate innovation in infrastructure.”

Doug Peterson, President and CEO of S&P Global Inc., on the importance of long-term infrastructure investment and innovative financing:

“Really high-quality infrastructure, especially incorporating new technology, new materials, et cetera., needs to be thought about as a very long-term investment… You need to think differently if you’re building infrastructure, especially with new materials and new technologies, for a much longer period of time. And then what else does that require? Innovative financing.”

James Taiclet, Chairman, President and CEO of American Tower, on business, government and communities partnering together:

“Our costs need to be globally competitive in all kinds of industries...The transformation of our economy into a safer, more jobs-robust, higher opportunity, and more evenly-spread set of opportunities, is really part of this... This type of digital transformation takes a whole other level of cooperation between government, industry and communities.”

Sue Gander, Director of the National Governors Association’s Energy, Environment & Transportation Division, on state-led innovation in infrastructure development:

“We like to remind folks that governors are already getting things done. They’re already the ones that are providing infrastructure every day across the country. In terms of innovation, we just spent the last year talking to governors about being innovation governors, and they are ready for that job. And I think there's a lot of opportunity there.” 

More information about the Business Roundtable CEO Innovation Summit, including additional highlights and upcoming panels, can be found at BusinessRoundtable.org/InnovationSummit.

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