Carla Bailo, assistant vice president for Mobility Research and Business Development at The Ohio State University, helps the university accelerate sustainable mobility and transportation innovation. While integrating related research and education across Ohio State’s academic units, she also helps coordinate Ohio State’s involvement as the primary research partner for Smart Columbus, a $140 million program to transform Central Ohio into the nation’s premier transportation innovation region.

Carla is a leader in engineering and vehicle program management, with 35 years of experience in the automotive industry. Before joining Ohio State, she served as senior vice president of research and development for Nissan North America. She was responsible for vehicle engineering and development operations in Michigan, Arizona, Mexico and Brazil, managing a $500 million budget and 2,500 employees. In addition to her Ohio State activities, Carla is currently the 2016-2018 vice president of automotive for SAE International, a global association of more than 138,000 engineers and related technical experts in the aerospace, automotive and commercial-vehicle industries.