Bikeshare Hawaii hires new executive director

Bikeshare Hawaii, the non-profit manager of Biki, announced on Monday that Todd Boulanger has joined the non-profit organization as its executive director.

Boulanger replaces Lori McCarney, who joined Bikeshare Hawaii in late 2014 when Bikeshare Hawaii was incorporated with the objective of launching a bikeshare program. Biki began a search for a new director in the summer after announcing that McCarney would be leaving in October.

“I am very excited to return to the islands to renew my work on transforming Honolulu from just an urban place to urbane spaces with more active transportation choices, such as Biki,” said Boulanger in a news release. “Furthermore, I am looking forward to renewing my connection with the UH Manoa campus community during Biki’s upcoming expansion which will help address its student, faculty and staff mobility needs.”

Boulanger most recently served as the vice president of operations and facility design for Bikestation and its facilities nationwide.

As executive director, he will oversee Bikeshare Hawaii’s Biki operation, which launched in mid-2017 with about 1,000 rental bikes at 100 stations from downtown Honolulu to Diamond Head, and its continued expansion.

Boulanger, who declined to give his age, has more than 20 years of experience in transportation planning and mobility consultation. He has worked as a deputy project manager at Alta Planning and Design for the Abu Dabhi Pedestrian Safety Action Plan as well as a senior transportation planner for the City of Vancouver.

In Hawaii, he was a planner for the state Health Department, and a University of Hawaii research assistant who studied operations and light rail guideway technology choices for the HART 2 Project in 1992. He also volunteered as the Hawaii Bicycling League’s Community Affairs Committee leader during Honolulu’s 1999 Bike Plan.

Boulanger holds a masters of urban and regional planning from the University of Hawaii Manoa and a bachelor’s degree in political science and Asian business from Southern Methodist University in Dallas, Texas.

“We are pleased to have Todd join Bikeshare Hawaii in this important leadership position after his time away from Hawaii,” said Greg Gaug, chair of Bikeshare Hawaii’s board of directors in a statement. “We are confident that Todd’s extensive background with managing complex urban transportation systems will help lead Biki through its post-launch phase to achieve financial self-sustaining growth and expansion. We look forward to working with Todd to ensure that Biki remains an integral part of Hawaii’s transportation network.”