Florian Fessel, PhD
Florian specializes in market research for transit agencies with expertise in behavioral research of transit customers. He has conducted dozens of research projects related to attitudinal surveys, customer satisfaction studies, origin-destination studies, stated preference studies, focus groups, and qualitative research. In his role, he manages these projects from start to finish, including designing and developing methodologically sound surveys and experimental research, supervising the fielding effort, conducting statistical analyses, and communicating the results and implications. He has managed such projects for the Port Authority of New York & New Jersey, NY MTA, Chicago's RTA, Chicago Transit Authority, Pace Bus, Utah Transit Authority, Triangle Transit Authority, and Charlotte Area Transit System.
Outside of RSG, Florian enjoys exploring cities, eating out, and brushing up on his rudimentary French. He lives with his husband, Luke, and English Bulldog, Fritzi, in Washington State.
Colin Smith
Colin leads RSG’s freight model development projects. He has worked in transportation planning since 1999, with an emphasis on using survey data, discrete choice models, and network modeling tools to understand aspects of travel behavior such as freight movement, long distance passenger travel, airport choice, and airport ground access; to model the greenhouse gas emissions from transportation; and to forecast demand for new transit services and highway capacity. Colin is currently engaged on projects for the Transportation Research Board, Federal Highway Administration, and various state departments of transportation and metropolitan planning organizations.
Prior to joining RSG in 2003, Colin worked for Symonds Group, Ltd. in London in the Transport Planning team, where he consulted on demand forecasting and transportation planning projects in the UK and Europe.
Colin lives in New Hampshire with his family and enjoys spending time with his kids, hiking, trail running, cycling, gardening, and gradually renovating his old house.
Thomas Adler, PhD
Thomas Adler is a founding leader of the RSG team and continues to guide the company through influential project work, innovative research and strategic direction. He has personally directed over 250 major projects and has more than 40 years of experience in developing and applying advanced models to client challenges. His project work ranges from feasibility studies for large infrastructure development, to marketing strategy studies for Global 100 companies, to detailed planning studies for both public and private sector initiatives.
Before cofounding RSG in 1986, Tom was a professor at Dartmouth College, teaching courses in consumer choice modeling, operations research, computer science, and engineering. He also served as director of the graduate program in resource policy at Dartmouth, and was the principal investigator for several large, federally-sponsored research projects. He continues this research today as principal investigator and task leader for six National Academies studies.
Tom enjoys skiing, skating, bicycling and hiking in Vermont and, with his wife of 40 years, visiting his three daughters (all management consultants, in London, New York, and Cambridge) and grandchildren.