Larry Burns

Larry Burns advises organizations on the future of mobility, logistics, manufacturing, energy and innovation. His current clients include Waymo (previously Google Self-Driving Cars), Peloton Technology, Kitson & Partners, and sfara.

Between 2010 and 2016, Burns was also Professor of Engineering Practice at the University of Michigan, Director of the Program for Sustainable Mobility at Columbia University, Senior Advisor to the Chairman of Hess Corporation, Consultant to Allstate, Consultant to a major U.S. shipping company and on the Advisory Boards of Greentech Capital Advisors and VantagePoint Capital Partners.

Burns served as General Motors Corporate Vice President of Research & Development and Planning from 1998-2009. He was a member of GM’s top decision board and was responsible for advanced technology development, product portfolio planning, capacity planning and strategic planning.   Burns is a major voice for the “reinvention of the automobile” and the diversification of transportation energy. He has championed driverless and connected vehicles, vehicle electrification, fuel cells, advanced batteries, bio-fuels, and innovative concept vehicles.
  Burns is a member of the U.S. National Academy of Engineering and the ITS America Hall of Fame, is co-author of Reinventing the Automobile: Personal Urban Mobility for the 21st Century (MIT Press, January, 2010) and is a frequent keynote speaker at conferences and leadership meetings.   Burns has a Ph.D. in Civil Engineering, University of California, Berkeley, a M.S. in Engineering / Public Policy, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, and a B.S. in Mechanical Engineering, from the General Motors Institute (now Kettering University).