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Session 9: CAFE versus Taxes: Impacts on Autos & Other Industries
As we think about using CAFE standards versus taxes to reduce energy consumption and emissions, the policy decisions will have impacts on the automobile industry and all other industries. What is possible? What will be the implications of these potential policy decisions? Is there a preferred approach?
Sponsor: NABE Corporate Planning Roundtable
Presentations
Speakers
Sydney Smith Hicks
NABE Corporate Planning Roundtable Chair
Sydney Smith Hicks is currently a professional director and consultant. She serves on the board of Smart Start, Inc, an ignition interlock company. Smart Start produces ignition interlock devices, franchises nationally, currently in over 25 states, and is the largest company in its industry. Prior to her current focus, she was CEO of VECTORsgi, Inc. and Senior Vice President, Corporate Strategy, for Metavante Corporation. VECTORsgi is a financial technology software and services company which Hicks sold to Metavante in November 2004. Its products and services are sold primarily to the top 125 banks in the U.S. Metavante is a $1.5B company delivering banking and payments technologies to financial services firms and businesses worldwide.
Hicks was CEO of VECTORsgi, Inc., from 2003 to 2006, where she was responsible for maximizing business performance and strategically guiding the growth and expansion of VECTORsgi. Under Hicks’ leadership VECTORsgi expanded product lines, increased sales, and generated increasing levels of profits. Prior to the acquisition by Metavante, VECTORsgi was owned by management and Thoma Cressey Equity Partners; Hicks was also a Board Member. Investors tripled their investment over 15 months.
Before VECTORsgi became private, Hicks was senior vice president of Sterling Commerce and CEO of the Banking Systems Division of Sterling Commerce, the predecessor of VECTORsgi. During Hicks’ tenure, she set the strategy to transform the company from mainframe technologies to distributed technologies. With the advent of Check 21, her company was positioned with new products, allowing the company to capture the market for image exchange. For more than six years prior to being CEO, she was vice president of Operations and Business Development where she led new business development, supervised product acquisitions and was responsible for managing the strategy, design, development, maintenance, installation services, training services, and customized consulting for 11 product solutions, containing over 50 products. Hicks joined Banking Systems as Director of Marketing for Item Processing Solutions in 1996.
Prior to Sterling Commerce, Hicks gained an extensive knowledge of banking and electronic transactions at NationsBank, a predecessor of Bank of America, where she served as senior vice president of Transaction Solutions and Image Initiatives. Hicks was chief economist for NCNB (and First Republic and InterFirst), financial economist for the Federal Reserve Bank of Dallas and a visiting scholar for the Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis. During her career, she was on the board of the Electronic Check Clearing House Organization (ECCHO), was the founding chairman of the board of Payment Systems Network (PSN), now owned by The Clearing House Payments Company, and held various academic positions.
Hicks is currently on two not-for-profit boards in Dallas, is a Mentor/Advisor for STARTech Early Ventures, and is Chair of the Corporate Planning Committee of the National Association of Business Economists. Locally she has led several boards and organizations over the last 25 years, including IWFDallas.
Hicks earned both a master’s degree and a doctorate in Economics from Washington University (St. Louis). She also has a bachelor’s degree in Economics from Cornell College (Iowa), where she graduated with distinction in economics. She currently serves on the Advisory Board of Cornell College’s Berry Center for Economics, Business, and Public Policy.
K. G. Duleep
Energy and Environmental Analysis, Inc
Mr. Duleep has been involved with automotive fuel economy issues for over twenty-five years. He has extensive experience with issues surrounding manufacturing cost analysis and is an internationally known expert on automobile fuel economy technology. Mr. Duleep has directed several studies evaluating new technologies for vehicular engine and fuel combinations (including methanol, natural gas and other alternative fueled vehicles) in the US. These studies have compared technical feasibility, economics, performance, maintenance, and air emissions impacts. His work on fuel economy and GHG reduction technology for light-duty vehicles has been cited extensively around the world, and he has been retained by the International Energy Agency and the European Council of Ministers for Transport to develop strategies for improving the fuel economy of on-road vehicles in the EC
Mr. Duleep has testified on transportation technology issues for the U.S. Congress during debates on the Clean Air Act and CAFE (fuel economy) standards, and was the expert witness for the State of California in their defense of the technical feasibility of attaining the 2016 automotive GHG standards.
Mr. Duleep has several advanced degrees in Engineering and also has an MBA in Finance from the Wharton School.
Russell O. Jones
American Petroleum Institute
Dr. Russell Jones is a Senior Economic Advisor at API (American Petroleum Institute) with a focus on the economic aspects of global climate change research and policy assessment. Dr. Jones has been involved in numerous other environmental issues including the Clean Air Act Amendments of 1990, Resource Conservation and Recovery Act, Superfund, and multi-emission legislation.
Prior to joining API in 1989, he was an Economist and Manager of the Corporate Planning & Economics Department of Pennzoil Company in Houston, Texas. His responsibilities included development, oversight, and publication of economic, energy and industry forecasts as well as strategic planning guidelines for Pennzoil Company and its subsidiaries.
Dr. Jones also was an International Economist (1979-1982) with the U.S. Department of Commerce in Washington, D.C. At the Commerce Department, he was responsible for economic research and policy analysis for industrial and critical commodities as well as for international commodity organizations. In this capacity, he represented the U.S. Department of Commerce at interagency meetings and the U.S. Government at U.N. sponsored negotiations on commodities in Geneva, Switzerland.
Dr. Jones has a Ph.D. in Economics from the University of California at Santa Barbara, a M.A. in Economics from the University of Illinois at Urbana, and a B.A. in Economics from Claremont McKenna College, Claremont, California.
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