Kris Wuestefeld to head design at WSA

Kris Wuestefeld, 40, a toll systems veteran has rejoined Wilbur Smith Assoc to head up their toll system design division. He was number two at TDC Inc/InTrans, the Long Island-based American branch of the French CS Route where he helped the company gain and implement major system integration jobs at the Ohio Turnpike, and Golden Gate bridge and other jobs. Last summer he left TDC and for a short while was part of Stan Weiss and Michael Kolb’s Traffic Technologies Inc. But at IBTTA in Madrid last September Wuestefeld was upbraided by WSA executives for not telling them he was on the job market, and the process of wooing him away from Weiss began. He worked at WSA’s New Haven CT office before joining TDC, so he’s ‘going home.’ His father Norman W. headed up the tolls group there (Transportation Finance & Technology) and rose to chairman of the board of this major employee-owned company before retiring last year.

We wondered if WSA wasn’t tempted to move into performing system integration work in competition with TransCore, Lockheed, TDC etc.

“No way,” says Wuestefeld. “We’re consultants offering our services to toll agencies to help them develop specifications for systems, and evaluate offerings from contractors and to monitor the work. Our objectivity is our stock in trade. If we got in there competing as a contractor, then people would question our objectivity on the consulting side.”