Bio – Jay H. Walder

Jay Walder has enjoyed a distinguished international career, which includes 40 years working in transport, property and infrastructure in the United States, the United Kingdom, Hong Kong and Singapore.

Mr. Walder is a Senior Advisor to McKinsey & Company, where he undertakes consulting projects on a global basis. He is also a Non-Executive Director on the Boards of Alstom, Boldyn Networks, OTG Experience, and The Community Builders.

Mr. Walder joined Virgin Hyperloop as Chief Executive Officer in November 2018. Under his leadership, the company had the first people to ever ride in a hyperloop pod.

Previously, he was the President and CEO of Motivate International, the largest bike sharing company in the United States. Mr. Walder joined Motivate as new investors took over the struggling company at the end of 2014 and led a dramatic turnaround before its sale to Lyft in 2018.

Immediately prior, Mr. Walder was the Chief Executive Officer of the MTR Corporation in Hong Kong. He led the company to build a portfolio of rail and property related operations in Hong Kong, the Mainland of China, Europe and Australia.

Before joining MTR, Mr. Walder was the Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of the New York Metropolitan Transportation Authority, where he led the company through the 2009 economic crisis. From 2007 to 2009, he was a Partner at McKinsey & Company London where he was the Global Leader of the firm’s Infrastructure Practice. Prior to that, he was Managing Director, Finance and Planning at Transport for London, Lecturer in Public Policy at the Harvard Kennedy School and a Visiting Professor at the National University of Singapore.

Previously, he was on the Executive Board of the International Association of Public Transport (UITP), the Executive Committee of the American Public Transit Association (APTA), the Board of Advisors of the Taubman Center at the Harvard Kennedy School, the Visiting Committee for the Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), a Fellow of the Hong Kong Management Association, a Governor of the American Chamber of Commerce in Hong Kong, an Advisor to Lyft and on the Board of Directors of startups Waltz, Inc and Citymapper.

Mr. Walder holds a Master in Public Policy from Harvard University and BS in Economics and Political Science from Binghamton University. He completed the Executive Programme in Strategic Leadership at Oxford University.

Mr. Walder has dual citizenship in the USA and the United Kingdom and currently resides in Brooklyn, NY.