Robin Chase
Founder and Former CEO, Zipcar, Buzzcar and GoLoco; Executive Chairman, Veniam Works
SPEAKER FEE RANGE: $18,000–$30,000 [FEE NOTE]
TRAVELS FROM: Massachusetts
Since their inception, Zipcar, GoLoco and Buzzcar have been seen as disruptive and innovative: they used technology and marketing to change the way people own and use cars; they changed the ways cities are lived in and built; they changed prejudices about the incompatibility of environmentalism and capitalism. Innovator Robin Chase helps individuals, companies and government understand where to look for innovation and how to enable it. She explores how rethinking “excess capacity” can be combined with technology and platforms for participation to unlock innovation, new profit centers and ultimately lead us to a sustainable planet. In 2009, Robin was honored by TIME magazine as one of the year's 100 Most Influential People. She has been frequently featured in the major media including Today, The New York Times, National Public Radio, Newsweek and TIME magazines, as well as several books on entrepreneurship.
Robin Chase is a transportation entrepreneur. She is co-founder and former CEO of Zipcar, the largest carsharing company in the world; as well as co-founder and board member of Veniam, a vehicle communications company building the networking fabric for the Internet of Moving Things. Her recent book is Peers Inc: How People and Platforms are Inventing the Collaborative Economy and Reinventing Capitalism. Her current passion is working with cities to maximize the transformation possible with the introduction of self driving cars.
She sits on the Boards of Veniam, the World Resources Institute, and Tucows, and serves on the USDOT’s Advisory Committee on Automated Transportation, the Dutch multinational DSM’s Sustainability Advisory Board, as well as advisor to the French National Digital Agency. In the past, she served on the board of the Massachusetts Department of Transportation, the National Advisory Council for Innovation & Entrepreneurship for the US Department of Commerce, the Intelligent Transportations Systems Program Advisory Committee for the US Department of Transportation, the OECD’s International Transport Forum Advisory Board, the Massachusetts Governor’s Transportation Transition Working Group, and Boston Mayor’s Wireless Task Force.
Robin lectures widely, has been frequently featured in the major media, and has received many awards in the areas of innovation, design, and environment, including Time 100 Most Influential People, Fast Company Fast 50 Innovators, and BusinessWeek Top 10 Designers. Robin graduated from Wellesley College and MIT's Sloan School of Management, was a Harvard University Loeb Fellow, and received an honorary Doctorate of Design from the Illinois Institute of Technology.
She sits on the Boards of Veniam, the World Resources Institute, and Tucows, and serves on the USDOT’s Advisory Committee on Automated Transportation, the Dutch multinational DSM’s Sustainability Advisory Board, as well as advisor to the French National Digital Agency. In the past, she served on the board of the Massachusetts Department of Transportation, the National Advisory Council for Innovation & Entrepreneurship for the US Department of Commerce, the Intelligent Transportations Systems Program Advisory Committee for the US Department of Transportation, the OECD’s International Transport Forum Advisory Board, the Massachusetts Governor’s Transportation Transition Working Group, and Boston Mayor’s Wireless Task Force.
Robin lectures widely, has been frequently featured in the major media, and has received many awards in the areas of innovation, design, and environment, including Time 100 Most Influential People, Fast Company Fast 50 Innovators, and BusinessWeek Top 10 Designers. Robin graduated from Wellesley College and MIT's Sloan School of Management, was a Harvard University Loeb Fellow, and received an honorary Doctorate of Design from the Illinois Institute of Technology.
- Collaborative Economy
Sharing is good! An unlikely partnership is creating the smartest, biggest and strongest companies. People working on platforms mean efficiently used resources, co-investment from others, low-cost innovation and very fast learning. - People-Powered Innovation
As the rates of innovation and disruption increase, a new organizational framework, Peers Inc., provides a way of reducing innovation risk, and increasing confidence in decision making. By enabling innovation—1) creating a culture of innovation and entrepreneurship; 2) reducing barriers and costs to experimentation; and 3) reducing the costs of the innovation inputs—government and big companies can make it possible for people to do the changing themselves. In this talk, Robin Chase—founder of car-sharing service Zipcar—discusses people-powered innovation. - The Future of Transportation
Technology is transforming the ease and convenience of accessing a car instead of owning it, and cities are getting fed up with valuable city streets being clogged with idle parked cars and vehicles in motion holding just one person. Zipcar, Uber and Lyft, transit apps, and autonomous vehicle pilots are all signs of the incredible disruption that is upon us.The future is going to be multi-modal, shared, and ultimately automated. What will this future look like? How soon is it coming? What are the implications for cities and the 20% of the economy that is driven by the automotive sector?
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