Experts

Sandra Watson is an economic development professional with 33 years of leadership experience in business attraction and expansion, innovation, entrepreneurship, economic policy and workforce development. Since 2011, Ms. Watson has served as President & CEO of the Arizona Commerce Authority (ACA), a public-private partnership that leads statewide economic development. The ACA has successfully landed 1,291 companies that have committed to creating more than 291,000 quality jobs and investing more than $166 billion in new capital in the state.

Ms. Watson is a collaborative leader who excels in strategic thinking and relationship building. She worked tirelessly to implement the new vision for the ACA, providing invaluable leadership and stability during its transition from the Department of Commerce into one of the nation’s first public-private partnerships focused on economic development. Under her leadership, she has achieved record results against two of the ACA’s five-year plans and is currently on track to exceed the goals of the organization’s third ambitious five-year business plan. From 2016-2023, Ms. Watson oversaw the Arizona Workforce Council and was the Director of the Arizona Office of Economic Opportunity, a data-driven team focused on economic and labor market analysis.

During her tenure as an economic development professional, Ms. Watson has had the privilege of serving six Arizona Governors and is currently a member of Governor Katie Hobbs’ cabinet. In 2022, Ms. Watson was selected to advise the U.S. Secretary of Commerce, Gina Raimondo, as a member of the U.S. Investment Advisory Council (IAC). The 20-member council is charged with identifying strategies for increasing foreign direct investment. In addition to her role as a member of the council, Ms. Watson is the Co- Chair of the IAC’s Workforce Subcommittee, and is responsible for leading the committees’ strategic recommendations for strengthening domestic talent. She is also a founding member and Chair of the State Economic Development Executives (SEDE) Network board, a nationwide forum for top state economic development and commerce officials.

With a penchant for science and emerging technologies, Ms. Watson holds several leadership positions across organizations that advance innovation. She is the Chair of Science Foundation Arizona, a founding partner on the Institute for Automated Mobility Board of Directors and a member of the National State Science and Technology Institute Board of Trustees. 

Ms. Watson began her career in Canada and earned an Honors Bachelor of Commerce degree from Laurentian University. She also completed the Global Leadership Certification program at the Thunderbird School of Global Management in Arizona. In addition to serving on numerous regional, statewide and national Boards of Directors and councils, Ms. Watson is passionate about her role as board member of the Make-A-Wish Foundation of Arizona.

She earned an Honors Bachelor of Commerce degree from Laurentian University, and has completed the Global Leadership Certification program at the Thunderbird School of Global Management. In addition to serving on numerous regional and statewide Boards of Directors, Ms. Watson serves on the Board of Trustees for the State Science and Technology Institute, a national organization focused on promoting technology-based economic development, and is a board member of the Make-A-Wish Foundation of Arizona.

Heston Silbert was confirmed as Director of the Arizona Department of Public Safety in March 2020, after serving as the Deputy Director since February 2015. Previous service by Colonel Silbert includes four years with the Mesa Police Department, where he served as an Assistant Chief, Executive Officer and Commander. Before the Mesa Police Department, Director Silbert retired from the Phoenix Police Department after 22 years of service. 

Colonel Silbert is a strategic and adaptive leader. He has ten years of command-level law enforcement leadership experience. Director Silbert began as a patrol officer in South Phoenix and rose through the ranks, spending much of his career in an operational capacity. He is deeply committed to diversity in the workplace, community engagement, and ethical leadership that inspires, motivates, and raises the bar in public safety. 

Colonel Silbert holds a bachelor’s degree in education and obtained a Master of Public Administration from Arizona State University. He is a graduate of the Northwestern University School of Police Staff and Command, the FBI National Academy and the FBI National Executive Institute. He has also completed the Senior Executives in State and Local Government from Harvard University, as well as the Police Executive Leadership Institute.

John S. Halikowski was appointed director of the Arizona Department of Transportation in February 2009 to lead the agency responsible for planning, building and maintaining the state’s multimodal transportation system, managing transportation revenue, and providing motor vehicle title, registration and driver license services.

Prior to his appointment, Mr. Halikowski cultivated his transportation policy expertise during 12 years as the director of research at the Arizona House of Representatives, where he made his mark researching, presenting and drafting major transportation-related legislation in collaboration with constituencies most affected by policy changes. Mr. Halikowski put this experience to work for the state through an additional six years of leadership with the Arizona Department of Transportation Motor Vehicle Division, driving executive team decision-making as deputy director and operations chief to achieve top-notch customer service.

As a co-chair of the Arizona Transportation and Trade Corridor Alliance, Mr. Halikowski is currently working with Arizona’s business community to fully utilize the state’s transportation system to connect Arizona’s thriving export economy with regional and global markets. He directs a similar passion toward the development of a sustainable national transportation plan as the chair of the American Association of State Highway and Transportation Officials (AASHTO) Standing Committee on Research, and a member of the TRB Executive Committee and the advisory board of the Eno Center for Transportation. Mr. Halikowski is a respected leader among his state transportation department CEO peers, having served as the president of the Western Association of State Highway and Transportation Officials.

A resident of Arizona for more than 32 years, Mr. Halikowski received his communications degree summa cum laude from Arizona State University, and advanced his leadership abilities by engagement in the Wharton Transportation Executive Program and the AASHTO National Transportation Leadership Institute.

Michael M. Crow is an academic leader and educator, designer of knowledge enterprises, and science and technology policy scholar.  He has been the sixteenth president of Arizona State University since July 2002.  He is guiding the transformation of ASU into one of the nation’s leading public metropolitan research universities, an institution combining academic excellence, inclusiveness, and societal impact—a model he terms the “New American University.”  During his tenure ASU has developed a new era academic design built around innovation, established more than 15 transdisciplinary schools and research initiatives and witnessed an unprecedented academic and learning technology infrastructure expansion, quadrupling of research expenditures, and attainment of record levels of diversity.  He was previously executive vice provost and professor of science and technology policy at Columbia University. 

A fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS) and the National Academy of Public Administration, he is the author of books, articles and designs for new knowledge enterprises, new science and technology policies, new highly adaptive higher education institutions and new transdisciplinary concepts for enhanced human welfare.

Jim Heffner is a product leader for Cox Automotive Mobility, with an emphasis on emerging technology and mobility services, such as electric vehicle battery, powertrain and charging, as well as, ADAS sensor and calibration capabilities for fleet and retail clients.

Dr. John Pye is Group Vice President in charge of Exponent's Transportation group of practices. With a background in mechanical and aerospace engineering, Dr. Pye has expertise in issues pertaining to rapid prototyping, product design, instrumentation, fluid mechanics, structural analysis, and mil-standard testing. Dr. Pye has been the program manager for numerous rapid development efforts focused on adapting and integrating a range of high technology commercial components to the unique operational environment of the military customer as well as to extreme environment or high reliability commercial applications. Some of the programs he has led include the MARCbot IED inspection robot that was deployed in Iraq and Afghanistan, the RDISS networked surveillance system, and the Duracrete/Panama Ground Penetrating Radar system used in the hunt for buried explosive devices by various US and International customers. He has worked within the U.S. Army soldier system community as the test and evaluation lead during the development of the Land Warrior future soldier program, and as the lead engineer during the first phase of Objective Force Warrior. Dr. Pye is also the Office Director for Exponent’s 150 acre Test and Engineering Center located in Phoenix, AZ.

Brian is a Co-founder and the current Executive Director for the non-profit community organization the Institute for Digital Progress and serves as the Program Manager for the Connective at the Partnership for Economic Innovation. With 10+ years of experience in strategic planning and operationalizing high level strategic ideas into actionable and manageable tactical plans and frameworks, Brian has a passion for creating the processes and plans which enable a collaborative approach to solving seemingly unsolvable challenges. Brian currently leads the team responsible for carrying out the day-to-day operational tasks for the Connective and the associated regional innovation programs. With his experiences as a contractor and consultant across multiple levels of government (Federal, State, and Local), Brian has developed a deep level of understanding for the unique landscape governments operate in and is able to apply that expertise into the planning and management techniques employed during public-private project initiatives.

Jack Weast is a senior principal engineer at Intel and Vice President for Automated Vehicle Standards at Mobileye. In this role, Jack leads a global team working on AV safety technology and the standards that will be needed to ensure AVs can earn a license to drive.

In more than 20 years at Intel, Jack has built a reputation as a change agent in new industries with significant technical contributions to a wide range of industry-first products and standards in industries that are embracing complex, high-performance heterogeneous computing for the first time. With an end-to-end systems perspective, Jack combines a unique blend of embedded product experience with a knack for elegant system and software design that will accelerate the adoption of autonomous driving. 

Jack is the co-author of “UPnP: Design By Example”, and is the holder of 29 issued patents with dozens pending. Jack is an Adjunct Professor at Portland State University where he was recently inducted into the Portland State Maseeh College Academy of Distinguished Alumni in recognition of Jack’s achievements, leadership and service to society and the engineering and computer science profession. Outside of work he is a classical pianist and never turns down an opportunity to take the karaoke stage.

Eric Anderson is the Executive Director for the Maricopa Association of Governments (MAG), the regional planning agency for the region. One of the major activities of MAG is to the long-range transportation plan for the region and oversee the implementation of Proposition 400, the region’s dedicated transportation sales tax. Over his career, Mr. Anderson’s work has focused on regional and urban growth, economic development, finance, and economic impact analysis. Mr. Anderson is member of the Urban Land Institute Arizona Advisory Board, Lambda Alpha International, and the board of directors of the Arizona Transit Association. Mr. Anderson holds a M.S. in Economics from Arizona State University.

Jennifer Toth brings more than 20 years of experience in transportation engineering to her role as MCDOT Director and County Engineer, one of the largest counties in the United States. Before joining MCDOT in 2014, Jennifer served as State Engineer and Deputy Director of the Arizona Department of Transportation. She has also worked in the private sector as a transportation consultant. Jennifer holds a Bachelor of Science degree in Civil Engineering from the University of Houston and a Master of Science degree in Civil Engineering from the University of New Mexico. She brings to MCDOT a passion for public service and meeting the transportation needs of the residents of Maricopa County.

Farhad Moghimi is the Executive Director of the Pima Association of Governments/Regional Transportation Authority. He has a diverse background that encompasses executive level management experience both in private sector and public administration. 

Farhad has extensive experience collaborating with federal, state and local agencies on all aspects of multi-disciplined project delivery and is very familiar with the Federal Highway Administration and Arizona Department of Transportation‘s funding policies and procedures. He has implemented several noteworthy capital improvement projects in the region including major roadways and oversaw several large commercial and master-planned residential projects that marked the explosive growth of the Town of Marana in the late 1990’s and Sahuarita in the mid 2000’s. 

Farhad promotes open dialogue and holds frequent meetings with stakeholders and engages in active outreach programs to solicit input. His experience includes significant interaction and maintaining solid relationships with business representatives, non-profits, private citizens, local governments and elected officials throughout the country, state and region.

Mike Fields is an Innovation Executive for State Farm Mutual Automobile Insurance Companies in Bloomington, Illinois. Within the innovation department, Labs @ State Farm, Mike is building and sustaining an environment to deliver business outcomes. Mike’s career is in an exciting and diverse time with State Farm’s renewed organizational focus and investment in innovation. RED Labs is an internal incubator, embracing small focused teams with a passion for the outcomes and a demonstrated ability to pivot along the journey. 

With this focus and passion, Mike has led teams to introduce several first-of-a-kind products. One is Sundial Labs, a new affiliate with a mission to keep older adults in their homes longer and more confidently. The Ting fire sensor is another first for Mike and the teams. Ting is a simple device that can detect electrical fires in the home. Working on these products enables State Farm to serve more customers in more ways. Mike and the teams also work on Aerial Data Insights, which is a product underpinned by the highest fidelity drone imagery and machine learning. These examples represent a subset of portfolio initiatives supported by great talent with an agile approach to everything.  

In more than 25 years of IT and product delivery experience, Mike continues to embrace emerging technology, incremental steps and a clear mission to deliver measurable business outcomes.  

Mike enjoys spending time with his family, bicycling and is an avid golfer in his spare time.

Dr. Robert C. Robbins assumed his position as the 22nd president of the University of Arizona on June 1, 2017. Previously, he served as president and CEO of the Texas Medical Center (TMC) in Houston from 2012 to 2017. In this role, he significantly enhanced TMC’s commitment to collaboration, introducing five cross-institutional research initiatives centered on innovation, genomics, regenerative medicine, health policy and clinical research.

Prior to his time in Houston, Dr. Robbins served as professor and chairman of the Department of Cardiothoracic Surgery at Stanford University School of Medicine, founding director of the Stanford Cardiovascular Institute, president of the International Society of Heart and Lung Transplantation, president of the Western Thoracic Surgical Association, president of the American Heart Association Western States Affiliate, president of the Bay Area Society of Thoracic Surgeons, and chair of the American Heart Association Cardiovascular Surgery and Anesthesia Council, among other roles. In 2016 he served as president of the American Heart Association Southwest Affiliate.

An internationally recognized cardiac surgeon, Robbins has focused his clinical efforts on acquired cardiac diseases with a special expertise in the surgical treatment of congestive heart failure and cardiothoracic transplantation. His research work includes the investigation of stem cells for cardiac regeneration, cardiac transplant allograft vasculopathy, bioengineered blood vessels, and automated vascular anastomotic devices. Robbins is the author of more than 300 peer-reviewed articles and a former guest editor of the Circulation Surgical Supplement.

While at TMC, Robbins also served on the Houston branch of the Dallas Federal Reserve board, the board of directors of the Welch Foundation, and the American Heart Association Southwest Affiliate in 2016. He served on an independent blue ribbon committee to evaluate the Veterans Affairs health system, and the World Affairs Council of Greater Houston honored him as the 2016 International Citizen of the Year.

His educational background includes a B.S. in chemistry from Millsaps College, medical degree from the University of Mississippi, general surgical training at the University of Mississippi, cardiothoracic training at Stanford University, postdoctoral research at Columbia University and the National Institutes of Health, and congenital heart surgical fellowships at Emory University and Royal Children’s Hospital.