John S. Niles is president of Global Telematics, a policy research and management
consulting firm based in Seattle. He works with innovators from business and government on
regional telecommunications strategy, public transportation revitalization, and economic
development planning.
He has led projects that linked telecommunications development to public policy in
Idaho, Washington, Oregon, Montana, California, Minnesota, and Kentucky, as well as in the
U.S. Government. He is the principal author of the landmark study for the U.S. Department
of Energy, Beyond Telecommuting: A New
Paradigm for the Effect of Telecommunications on Travel (1994).
As a management consultant, John Niles has been on the
development and start-up teams of eight successful business or community service
enterprises. He has provided advice and counsel to business and government leaders in
North America, Asia, Australia, and Europe. He is a leading interpreter of how advanced
telecommunications changes the way people live, work and move around. John Niles has
written 25 published articles and several books, including co-authorship of The New Management: Line Executive and
Staff Professional in Future Firm (McGraw Hill, 1976). His views have been quoted
in many publications, including the New York Times, Christian Science Monitor, Los
Angeles Times, and Washington Post. He has also appeared on the PBS TV show Nightly
BusinessReport and on National Public Radio's Morning Edition, and
spoken at such forums as the Annual Pacific Telecommunications Conference, and the
National League of Cities Annual Congress. (Click here for a
list of presentations.)
Mr. Niles is a member of the Telecommunications and Travel Behavior Committee of the
Transportation Research Board, Senior Fellow of Technology and Transportation at Discovery Institute, Senior Fellow for
Telecommunications and Land Use at Center for the New
West, and Research Associate at the Mineta Transportation Institute. He is also
co-editor of the web-based Public
Interest Transportation Forum.
He began his independent consulting career as a member of the start-up team of Control
Data Corporation's Local Government Information Network (LOGIN), 1979-1984, based originally on the
CYBERNET and TECHNOTEC mainframe computer technology of CDC, and lately migrated to the
World Wide Web.
Earlier in John Niles' career, he served as a project manager in the first District of Columbia home rule
government of Mayor Walter Washington (1974-78), and before that as a U.S. Naval
Officer in Patrol Squadron 26 (VP-26),
1971-74.
He earned his bachelors degree in mathematics at Massachusetts Institute of Technology
(1968), and a master of science in industrial administration at Carnegie Mellon University
(1970). John Niles grew up in Detroit, Michigan and attended Cass Technical High School,
graduating in 1964
