Patrick Marnell is Q-Free America's Vice President of Product. He focuses on bringing innovative ITS and traffic signals solutions from concept to market. Patrick works with a talented team of designers, software developers, professional engineers, and technicians to drive strategic development in Q-Free America's products. Patrick also oversees Q-Free's factory in Tucson, AZ where all Q-Free traffics signal controllers are manufactured. Further, Patrick manages Q-Free's software Quality Assurance team. Patrick is the 2025 ITE Western District President. He is past chair of the Oregon Traffic Control Device Committee and a former City of Hubbard Oregon Planning Commissioner. Patrick has 15 years of experience as a Consultant, Vendor, Researcher, and Transportation Specialist. He has a master's and bachelor's degrees in civil and transportation engineering from Oregon State University. Patrick is a registered professional engineer in Oregon, and Montana.

Spanning over three decades, my experience in Intelligent Transportation Systems (ITS) - dating back to the early days when it was known as IVHS - spans a broad range of ITS projects, with a focus on outside plant design. Throughout my career, I've contributed to several high-profile projects, including: I-66 Outside the Beltway; I-15 Reconstruction in Salt Lake City, Utah; I-95 Camera Installations South of the James River; I-95 over the Rappahannock River; ATSPM deployment along Route 1 in the Fredericksburg District; and a Real-Time Parking System for Washington Metro

Kevin began his VDOT career in the Lynchburg District on the survey party while attending Community College. He spent five years as a Bridge Safety Inspector before leaving the district for the Engineer Training Program.

Kevin has over 40 years of international, domestic and state surface transportation expertise from both the public and private sectors, including 29 years with VDOT in residencies, districts and Central Office. He took a short 15 year break in the middle working as a contractor and consultant.

Among his chief positions, he has served as resident engineer, deputy district administrator for both the Richmond and Hampton Roads districts, and has also served as the state maintenance administrator in Central Office. He took over as the Chief of Maintenance and Operations in the fall of 2019.

Kevin holds a bachelor's degree and master's degree. He is a graduate of the Virginia Executive Institute, the Commonwealth Management Institute and the Transportation Construction Management Institute.

Zach Trogdon has over two decades of government service at the local and state level. Mr. Trogdon has worked for the last seven years in the public transit field. During his career, Mr. Trogdon has seen IT projects, when designed and implemented well, greatly enhance the efficiency and effectiveness of public organizations. While a transit agency head, he worked on projects involving real-time vehicle location and arrival information, mobile surveillance on transit vehicles, on-demand scheduling, and mobile electronic payment functionality.

Mike Fontaine is the Associate Director for the Safety, Operations, and Traffic Engineering team at the Virginia Transportation Research Council (VTRC), which is the research division of VDOT. In that role, Dr. Fontaine manages VDOT's research program in the areas of highway safety, traffic engineering, operations, intelligent transportation systems, and connected and automated vehicles. Dr. Fontaine has also previously worked for the University of Virginia, Old Dominion University, the Texas A&M Transportation Institute, and the City of Charlottesville.

Dr. Matthew Nice received a M.Eng. in cyber-physical systems, and a Ph.D. in civil and environmental engineering from Vanderbilt University. He is a research faculty at the Virginia Tech Transportation Institute and is based in Alexandria, VA. He leads experimental research on the impact of technology in connected and automated vehicles on transportation systems, and on technology's role in urban mobility though the Smart Mobility Lab with the City of Alexandria.