Thomas J. McGean, P.E., M.ASCE

Tom McGean is a retired transportation engineer and executive who pioneered in the development of driverless, automated transit systems, now in common use at airports and other major activity centers.  He was a founding principal of Lea&Elliott, the leading international consulting firm in this area. He is the founder and current Chair of the American Society of Civil Engineers (ASCE) Automated People Mover Standards Committee which has developed four internationally recognized standards governing the performance of these systems. Mr. McGean has also been active in rail transit. He was awarded a contract by the National Academy of Science to establish consensus standards for rail transit vehicles. Under that project he founded and chaired the Institute of Electrical and Electronic Engineers (IEEE) Rail Transit Vehicle Interface Standards Committee and also founded the American Society of Mechanical Engineers (ASME) Rail Transit Standards Committee which he vice chaired. Mr. McGean has served on the IEEE Standards Board which approves all IEEE standards and on the nominating committee of the ASME for safety codes and standards. He is presently a Board member of the ASCE Transportation and Development Institute and a member of the ASCE Codes and Standards Committee. He is a fellow of the Institute of Transportation Engineers and an emeritus member of the Transportation Research Board. McGean has taught graduate transportation at George Washington and Howard Universities and is the author of the graduate textbook “Urban Transportation Technology” published by D.C. Heath. He has also served on the board of the Volunteers for International Technical Assistance and the Transportation Standards Consortium and holds three patents for the design and manufacture of broadband media.