People News: Mullins Law Group, HNTB, STV, TransCore

Pictured, left to right: Ray Verrelle, HNTB; Scot Sibert, STV; Tracy Marks, TransCore; and Whitt Hall, TransCore.

Transportation industry attorney William “Bill” Mullins launches Mullins Law Group PLLC, based in Washington, D.C. Also, Ray Verrelle joins HNTB as Senior Project Director and Vice President, supporting the firm’s transit and rail practice; STV appoints Scot Sibert as Vice President, South/Central Transit Director; and TransCore, a subsidiary of ST Engineering, elevates Whitt Hall to President and CEO and Clint Holley to Chief Operating Officer.

Mullins Law Group

William “Bill” Mullins, who has spent decades representing clients in legal cases involving the railroad industry, opened Mullins Law Group PLLC on Jan. 1 with a team of five attorneys. The firm represents railroads and governmental entities who own or manage railroads at the Surface Transportation Board, Federal Railroad Administration, U.S. Department of Transportation, U.S. Department of Justice, and in state and federal courts, as well as trucking companies on tax issues and before federal agencies. It also handles negotiations, contracts, regulatory compliance, and federal and state grant writing for the transportation industry.

Mullins was previously the Transportation Practice Group Leader at Troutman Sanders (now Troutman Pepper) and continued this role at Baker & Miller PLLC in Washington, D.C., for two decades. U.S. News and World Report has selected him as one of the Best Lawyers in Transportation Law since 2015. Among his career highlights: serving as the lead legal counsel bringing the largest railroad in Mexico (Transportacion Ferroviaria Mexicana, S.A. de C.V.) and Kansas City Southern (KCS) under common control to create the first U.S./Mexico private rail system, and later representing KCS and its Mexican subsidiary (Kansas City Southern de Mexico) in the creation of the first transcontinental railroad between Canada and Mexico, when KCS was sold to Canadian Pacific in 2023, forming Canadian Pacific Kansas City. Mullins has also been involved in other rail mergers, rail line acquisitions, and the purchase of railroad companies and assets by private equity firms.

Mullins earned his law degree from the University of Colorado Law in 1987. He is a member of the Association of Transportation Law Professionals, American Short Line and Regional Railroad Association, Colorado Bar Association, District of Columbia Bar, and Federalist Society.

Transitioning to the new firm are Baker & Miller PLLC transportation practice attorneys Rose-Michele Nardi, John Edwards, Crystal Zorbaugh, Spencer Naake, and Lauren Edwards.

“We look forward to continuing to utilize our legal expertise in the railroad and trucking industry to assist our clients,” Mullins said.

HNTB

HNTB has hired Ray Verrelle as Senior Project Director and Vice President to support its transit and rail practice. He will work on rail infrastructure improvement projects, from scope development to cost and quality control and project management.

Verrelle spent the past 18 years at Amtrak, where he was responsible for all engineering design, standards, safety protocols, operating procedures, and construction support for track, structures, major stations, electric traction, and communications and signals. He also served as the assets owner; led the development of programs that focused on restoring aging assets to a state of good repair; and was responsible for the creation of the railroad’s first dedicated research, data, and analytics engineering team to develop new technologies to improve infrastructure reliability. Most recently, he was Vice President of Engineering Services.

Verrelle has 30 years of experience in the railroad industry in the areas of design and construction, project and program management, operations, and railroad infrastructure maintenance. This includes an extensive background in safety, civil and electrical engineering on a variety of railroad projects, according to HNTB. He also serves as President of the American Railway Engineering and Maintenance-of-Way Association.

“With historic levels of investment going into modernizing our nation’s railroad infrastructure and increasing service frequency and speed, Ray’s expertise, understanding all aspects of large-scale rail capital programs, railroad operations and leadership within the railroad industry, will play a vital role in HNTB continuing to provide exceptional service to our clients to help them achieve success on their highest priority and most complex projects,” said Greg May, HNTB’s Eastern U.S. Transit and Rail Leader and Senior Vice President.

In other HNTB news, Stephen Knobbe was recently named President of the Northwest Division. 

STV

Scot Sibert is the new Vice President, South/Central Transit Director at STV, a professional services firm that plans, designs, and manages infrastructure projects across North America. He will not only work closely with STV’s transportation clients in the Midwest and southeast, but also spearhead the firm’s transportation expansion in the Carolinas, including client services and project oversight in the two states.

Sibert served previously as Senior Rail and Transit Planner at WSP USA. Throughout his career, he has been responsible for building transit and rail practices, client and stakeholder engagement, as well as managing teams of more than 20 transit and rail experts, according to STV.

“With over two decades of work in multi-modal transportation planning and design, Scot brings extremely valuable experience to our team,” said Jerry Stump, President of Transportation South/Central at STV. “We’re excited about how his expertise will contribute to our team’s efforts in shaping the future of transportation.”

TransCore

Nashville, Tenn.-based TransCore has promoted Whitt Hall to President and CEO, succeeding Tracy Marks, who is leaving the company March 31, 2024, after 30 years of service. TransCore provides technical solutions and engineering services for traffic management and open road tolling systems; operates tolling customer service centers for departments of transportation throughout the U.S. and internationally; and provides automatic vehicle identification and secure access for airports, hospitals, parking facilities, trucking fleets, ports, and the rail industry.

According to TransCore, Marks led the company through significant growth, almost doubling its size during his 11 years as CEO, and leaves the role following “a record-breaking year with the highest project backlog in the company’s history.”

Hall will take over TransCore leadership April 1, 2024. A nearly 20-year company veteran, he is currently Chief Operating Officer and has also served as Business Segment Manager for the Tolling Division, Regional Manager for the Southwest Region, and Project Manager for numerous U.S-based projects.

Clint Holley will become Chief Operating Officer on April 1, 2024. He has been Regional Manager, leading the growth for TransCore’s U.S. Southwest and Northeast Regions, for the past 15 years. Most recently, he has been serving as Program Director for the New York City Central Business District Congestion Pricing program.

“We have always emphasized the importance of putting the customer first and this is something that is engrained in the culture of TransCore,” Tracy Marks said. “Because this value is such a part of our company culture, and because I know and have worked so closely with Whitt and the rest of the management team for so many years, I have no doubt that this is the right time to depart and I am confident they will continue delivering the best products and services available in the industry.”

“I am honored to have this opportunity to lead TransCore and look forward to working with our team and building on the strong legacy of customer service and project delivery excellence,” Whitt Hall said. “We are fortunate to have a tremendous team throughout the organization and I am confident we will continue seamlessly serving our customers and providing the most innovative solutions and services in the industry.”