Committee Member

As a member of AIAI’s Government Affairs Committee, Lee Ann Alexander brings a tremendous amount of successful experience and leadership to the AIAI team.

Lee Ann received her undergraduate degree in accounting and a minor in German from the University of Oklahoma and her law degree from the University of Texas at Austin. Before joining Liberty Mutual as an Assistant Vice President and State Affairs Officer, she practiced insurance regulatory law with Akin, Gump, Strauss, Hauer & Feld in Austin, Texas. Prior to moving to Austin, she was a management consultant with McKinsey and Company in Atlanta, Georgia, and prior to that practiced international trade law with Powell, Goldstein, Frazer & Murphy in Washington, D.C.

She was a Cabinet scheduler in the 1996 Clinton/Gore Presidential campaign and was a legislative assistant for U.S. Representative Dave McCurdy (Okla.) in 1988-89 and the campaign scheduler and opposition researcher for his 1994 U.S. Senate campaign. She currently sits on the boards of the Oklahoma Property & Casualty Insurance Guaranty Association, Louisiana Property and Casualty Insurance Commission and Arkansas Earthquake Authority.

Catherine (Cathy) Connor is the Senior Vice President, Director of Federal Government Affairs for Parsons Brinckerhoff, located in the Washington, DC office. Founded in 1885, Parsons Brinckerhoff is one of the largest civil engineering firms in the U.S. Ms. Connor was previously with the American Council of Engineering Companies (ACEC), where she was Deputy Director of Government Affairs. Prior to that, she was a political appointee at the US Department of Transportation where she served as Special Assistant to the Assistant Secretary for Governmental Affairs.

Parsons Brinckerhoff is a leader in developing and operating infrastructure around the world, with 14,000 employees dedicated to meeting the needs of clients and communities in the Americas, Europe, Africa, the Middle East, Asia and Australia-Pacific regions. The firm offers skills and resources in strategic consulting, planning, engineering, program/construction management, and operations for transportation, power, mining, water/wastewater, and community development projects. Parsons Brinckerhoff is part of Balfour Beatty, an international infrastructure business operating in professional services, construction, support services and infrastructure investments.

Linda Bohlinger, nationally recognized in the transportation industry for her project development, funding and policy expertise, is a Principal Consultant in the strategic consulting group of Parsons Brinckerhoff. Ms. Bohlinger advises the firm’s transportation clients, drawing on her expertise in the areas of funding strategies, grants, financial planning, alternative project delivery, value capture, congestion pricing, and public-private partnerships. She is based in the firm’s downtown Los Angeles office.

Ms. Bohlinger joins Parsons Brinckerhoff following a 36-year career during which she held executive positions in both the public and private sectors. Most recently she was a Vice President with an international engineering firm, leading its national management consulting practice.  Prior to that position she served as Executive Director of South Florida’s Tri-County Commuter Rail Authority (Tri-Rail) securing a $327 million Federal Full Funding Grant Agreement for Tri-Rail’s Double Track program.

In her fifteen-year tenure with the Los Angeles County Metropolitan Transportation Authority (Metro), Ms. Bohlinger rose to become Metro’s interim Chief Executive holding operational, construction, planning and fiscal responsibility for a $3.0 billion budget, 8,000 employees, 13 member board transportation authority and securing more than $2.4 billion in Federal Full Funding Grant Agreements for the Metro Red Line Subway Segments 2 and 3.

Ms. Bohlinger’s earlier public service career influenced major infrastructure programs across the state of California. As the Deputy Director for Transit Development for the California Transportation Commission, she started the Commission’s first five-year program of rail transit guideway projects and assisted in increasing state legislative support from $10 million to $100 million per year. As the Manager of Highway and Transportation Systems Management Programs for the Los Angeles County Transportation Commission, she directed the development of the Commission’s $2.2 billion capital improvement programs for state highways, rail transit and local roadways. She also held key management roles for the Sacramento Area Council of Governments and for the Southern California Association of Governments in systems planning and programming of regional and local projects.

Ms. Bohlinger received a master of public administration degree from the University of Southern California and a B.A. from the University of California, Santa Barbara. She serves as Chair of the North American Transit Services Association and is a former executive committee member of the American Public Transportation Association (APTA), and immediate past chair of the APTA Foundation. She is a member of the California Transit Association and the Women’s Transportation Seminar. She has garnered leadership awards for her contributions to the industry including the Book of Leaders Award, Miami Today; Woman of the Year Award, Los Angeles Chapter of the Women’s Transportation Seminar; Outstanding Leadership Award, California Transit Association; and Woman of the Year Award, Sacramento Chapter of the Women’s Transportation Seminar.

Patrick Rhode is United States Vice President, Corporate Affairs for Cintra US. He is a senior executive manager recognized through U.S. presidential appointments with over two decades of government and private industry experience conceptualizing, developing and implementing strategies that strengthened the performance of high-profile organizations and improved stability during unprecedented times of national crisis.

Professional experiences include service for the White House, Fortune 500 companies, federal agencies, state agencies and a successful U.S. presidential campaign.

Experiences include service as Special Assistant to the President of the United States, NASA Senior Advisor, Associate Administrator of the U.S. Small Business Administration, and Chief of Staff for two FEMA management administrations within the then-newly created United States Department of Homeland Security in the aftermath of 9/11, which included the awarding of high-level national security clearances.

Tim Rutten serves as Senior Director in the Government Relations office of Fluor Corporation in Washington, DC. Fluor is a FORTUNE 500 company that is ranked #1 in FORTUNE magazine’s “Engineering, Construction” category of America’s largest corporations. Fluor Corporation is one of the largest publicly owned engineering, procurement, construction, and maintenance services companies. Fluor serves clients in a wide variety of traditional and evolving industries worldwide, including chemicals and petrochemicals; commercial and institutional; government projects; manufacturing; microelectronics; mining; oil and gas; power; telecommunications; and transportation and infrastructure. In his capacity, Rutten mainly supports Fluor’s transportation and infrastructure business.

Mr. Rutten is an attorney, licensed to practice law in Oregon and the District of Columbia. Prior to joining Fluor he served on the staff of U.S. Senator Mark O. Hatfield (R-OR) as legal counsel, legislative aide and field representative. After leaving Capitol Hill and before joining Fluor, he practiced law with a specialty in transportation, appropriations, local governments, the environment, Native Americans, and natural resource issues.

Tim received his J.D. from Willamette University College of Law in Salem, Oregon. He also received a Certificate of Alternative Dispute Resolution Processes. He received his B.S. degree from Oregon State University in Political Science.

Rutten lives with his wife and daughter on Capitol Hill in Washington, DC. In his free time, he enjoys fishing, biking, sailing and traveling.

Andres C. Vidal is Counsel with ACS Infrastructure Development where he focuses on the development of P3 projects in the United States and Canada. ACS is a concessionaire focused on developing and operating transportation and social infrastructure in North America via public-private partnerships. ACS has financed six P3s in North America to date, totaling more than $9 Billion in value, including Florida’s I-595 managed lanes project. Prior to joining ACS, Andres was an attorney with two leading international law firms focusing on project and corporate finance and project development, representing private developers and lenders (including leading investment banks and investment funds) in the transportation, energy, renewables, oil and gas and petrochemicals sectors, both domestically and abroad (including in Latin America, Europe, Asia and the Middle East). Andres earned two bachelor of arts degrees with honors from the University of Pennsylvania and his juris doctorate from the University of Chicago Law School.