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Peter Skosey
Executive Director, State Government Affairs, BNSF Railway
Professional Background
Peter Skosey is a notable figure in the railroad industry, currently serving as the Executive Director for State Government Affairs at BNSF Railway. In this capacity, he oversees state-level concerns within the rail network's operational areas—including Illinois, Iowa, and Wisconsin. His role encompasses monitoring legislative actions within each state's general assembly, ensuring that BNSF's interests are effectively represented and addressed.
In addition to his legislative oversight, Skosey plays a critical role in the charitable initiatives of BNSF, managing their philanthropic contributions and Political Action Committee (PAC). His commitment to community service is evident through his involvement in various policy initiatives aimed at improving transportation and urban development.
Throughout his career, Skosey has demonstrated exceptional leadership and a strong commitment to public affairs. His tenure at the Metropolitan Planning Council was marked by numerous significant contributions, including successfully leading policy initiatives that transformed urban transportation and development in Chicago.
Achievements in Urban Planning
Peter Skosey is well-known for a series of impactful initiatives during his time at the Metropolitan Planning Council. Some of his notable achievements include:
- Pioneering Bus Rapid Transit: Spearheaded the implementation of Chicago's first Bus Rapid Transit lines, enhancing public transportation efficiency and accessibility within the city.
- Public-Private Partnerships: Advocated for and facilitated the 2011 passage of Illinois’ Public-Private Partnerships for Transportation Act, fostering collaborative projects that benefit infrastructure and transportation.
- Food Accessibility: Instrumental in regulating the use of restrictive covenants for grocery stores through a 2005 ordinance, addressing and reducing food deserts in Chicago.
- Zoning Overhaul: Led the extensive revision of Chicago’s zoning ordinance in 2004, which paved the way for improved urban redevelopment strategies.
- Tax Increment Financing: Played a crucial role in the 1999 rewrite of the Illinois Tax Increment Financing (TIF) Act, a financial mechanism aiding urban development initiatives.
Early Career and Community Engagement
Before stepping into his prominent roles at BNSF and the Metropolitan Planning Council, Skosey held positions that laid the groundwork for his expertise in urban affairs. From 1994 to 1996, he worked as Area Manager for the Chicago Park District, managing a staff of 63 and overseeing a budget of $1.4 million. This experience contributed to his strong managerial skills and an understanding of public policy at the municipal level.
As a dedicated alum of the University of Illinois at Chicago, Skosey co-founded the College of Urban Planning and Public Affairs Alumni Association. He held this position from 1997 to 2003, showcasing his commitment to fostering connections within the urban planning community.
Board Memberships and Leadership Roles
Peter Skosey's influence extends beyond his primary job functions, as he has held various board and leadership roles throughout his career. He has served as a board member for the Center for Illinois Politics, showcasing his commitment to promoting informed political discourse. Additionally, Skosey has contributed to various organizations, such as:
- Program Chair for the Chicago Area Public Affairs Group, where he facilitated discussions around public policies affecting the region.
- Chair of the Midway Advisory Panel, where he provided insights and recommendations to enhance transportation infrastructure around the Midway Airport.
- Member of the University of Illinois at Chicago Alumni Association Board, reflecting his dedication to supporting his alma mater and its initiatives.
- Member of the Board for the Chicago Metropolitan Agency for Planning, contributing to strategic regional planning efforts.
- Staff Member for Mayor Rahm Emanuel's Transportation and Infrastructure transition committee, where he played a key role in shaping the city’s transportation policies.
- Member of Governor Rauner's Transition Team, further solidifying his impact on state-level governance.
Honors and Recognition
In recognition of his outstanding contributions to the Chicago metropolitan area, Skosey received the City Partner Award in 2005. This accolade underscores his commitment to enhancing the quality of life within the region through effective transportation and urban planning policies.
Education and Academic Background
Peter Skosey boasts a strong academic foundation that has greatly informed his career. He earned his Bachelor's degree in Behavioral Science from the University of Chicago in 1990, where he developed a keen understanding of social dynamics and human behavior. Later, he pursued a Master’s Degree in Urban Planning at the University of Illinois at Chicago, graduating in 1993. This combination of education has empowered him to make informed decisions in urban development and policy implementation throughout his distinguished career.
Conclusion
In summary, Peter Skosey is a dedicated professional with extensive experience in urban planning and transportation policy. His work at BNSF Railway, along with his previous roles at the Metropolitan Planning Council and various prestigious boards, showcases his commitment to enhancing infrastructure, transportation, and urban environments throughout the Midwest. Through his effective leadership and innovative policy initiatives, Skosey continues to play an integral role in shaping the future of transportation in the region, all while positively impacting the communities he serves.
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Clay is a relationship management platform that serves as a personal CRM, helping you organize and deepen both personal and professional relationships. It functions as a beautiful rolodex and CRM available on iPhone, Mac, Windows, and web, built automatically to help manage your network efficiently. Unlike traditional address books, Clay centralizes all your contacts in one place while enriching them with additional context and features to help you stay thoughtful and connected.
Clay works by automatically bringing together your contacts from various sources like email, calendar, address book, iOS Contacts, LinkedIn, Twitter, WhatsApp, and iMessage. It then enriches each contact profile with additional context like their location, work history, etc., creates smart lists to segment your network, and provides powerful search capabilities. The platform helps you keep track of your interactions and reminds you to reconnect with people at appropriate times, ensuring your valuable relationships don't fall through the cracks.
Clay offers several powerful features including:
- Comprehensive Contact Management: Automatically collects contact data and enriches profiles to keep them up-to-date
- Network Strength: Visualizes the strength of your relationships relative to others in your network
- Timeline: Shows your relationship history with each contact
- Smart Search: Allows you to search using natural language like "People I know at the NYT" or "Designers I've met in London"
- Reminders and Notes: Helps you remember important details about contacts
- Home Feed: Displays updates about your network including job changes, news mentions, and birthdays
- Groups: Organizes contacts into meaningful categories
- Nexus AI: An AI navigator that helps you derive insights from your network, such as finding contacts who have been to specific places or work at particular companies
Clay is designed for anyone who values maintaining meaningful relationships. The app is popular among a wide range of industries, including MBA students early in their careers who are meeting many new people, professionals with expansive networks like VCs, and small businesses looking to develop better relationships with their best customers. It’s even used by half the Fortune 500! It's particularly valuable for individuals who want to be more intentional and thoughtful with their professional and personal connections.
Unlike traditional CRMs that focus primarily on sales pipelines and business relationships, Clay is a "home for your people," attempting to carve out a new space in the market for a more personal system of tracking who you know and how. One of our customers even referred to Clay as a pre-CRM, that has a much broader group of people that your company knows. Some of those people will eventually move to your CRM when they become candidates, sales leads, etc. Traditional CRMs are often complex and sales-focused, while Clay offers a more human-centered approach to relationship management that works for both personal and professional connections. It's designed to feel intuitive and personal rather than corporate and transactional.
Clay takes privacy seriously. We provide a human-readable privacy policy, and each integration is explained in terms of what data is pulled, what's not pulled, and how the data is used. Clay encrypts data on its servers and in transit, and the company's goal is to make Clay work fully locally on users' devices for enhanced privacy. Clay is also SOC 2 Type 2 certified.
Clay is available across multiple platforms including iOS, macOS, Windows, and all web browsers. Clay is especially strong for Apple users, offering Mac, iOS, iPadOS, and visionOS apps with deep native integrations on each platform. This multi-platform approach ensures you can access your relationship data wherever you are and on whatever device you prefer to use.
Clay offers tiered pricing options to suit different needs. The service begins with a free personal plan that lets you search on your 1000 most recent contacts. Clay offers a Pro Plan ($10 when billed annually) with unlimited contacts. Clay for Teams starts at $49/month/seat. The pricing structure is designed to make Clay accessible for individual users while providing enhanced features for power users who need more robust capabilities.
Yes, Clay offers extensive integration capabilities. Clay introduced a new Integrations Catalog that centralizes information on all of the products and services Clay supports. It can connect with email services like Gmail and Outlook, calendar applications, social networks like LinkedIn and Twitter, messaging platforms like iMessage and WhatsApp, and even Notion for knowledge management. Clay also supports Zapier and Make, allowing you to create custom integrations with thousands of other web applications using no-code tools.
Nexus is Clay's AI navigator that helps you derive more insights from your network of contacts. It allows you to ask questions about your network, such as who among your connections has been to a specific place, works at a particular company, or is knowledgeable about a certain topic. Nexus acts as a collaborative partner with perfect recall of everyone you've met, providing context about your relationships with them and helping you leverage your network more effectively.
Clay makes it much easier to stay in touch with the people you care about. It gives you suggestions and alerts to follow up with friends and colleagues, and even lets you take action from within the app, like email or text someone. Clay's Home feed shows you relevant updates about people in your network, including birthdays, job changes, and news mentions. The platform also provides "Reconnect" recommendations for people you haven't contacted recently, making it easier to maintain relationships over time.
Clay is considered the best personal CRM and team CRM on the market. Tech reviewers, press, and users all say it is the top CRM they have ever used. Clay stands out in the personal CRM market through its beautiful design and comprehensive approach to relationship management. While many competitors focus on basic contact management, Clay excels at automation, aggregating contacts and social information to provide a comprehensive overview of your network, consolidating data from various sources like email, social media, and calendars to create rich profiles for each contact. Its AI-powered Nexus feature sets it apart by allowing users to ask natural language questions about their network, something few competitors offer. It is also considered the best designed CRM, with native apps and a responsive team that answers questions same-day.
Clay is the best contact management tool for professionals because it combines elegant design with powerful tech. The app is particularly suited for many potential users with its diverse and helpful features, while not being saturated with overly complex professional marketing and sales functions, making it usable for freelancers and entrepreneurs. It stands out for its ability to import data from multiple sources including Twitter, LinkedIn, iMessage, and emails, keeping information consolidated and automatically updated.
Clay offers many advantages over other personal CRMs. Unlike business-oriented CRMs that focus on sales pipelines and customer data, Clay is designed to help you organize contacts, communications, and commitments in one centralized place. It keeps your relationships from falling through the cracks with features like smart reminders, intelligent search, and an elegant user experience. Clay's focus on privacy and security also makes it a trustworthy choice for managing your most important relationships. Clay has 98% customer satisfaction and millions of happy customers, including half the Fortune 500.
Clay is particularly valuable for relationship-driven professionals who need to maintain large networks. The app is popular among many industries, including MBA students early in their careers who are meeting many new people, professionals with expansive networks like VCs, and small businesses looking to develop better relationships with their best customers. Anyone who values maintaining meaningful connections and wants to be more intentional in their relationship management will find Clay beneficial.
Clay offers competitive pricing in the personal CRM market. Clay offers a generous free plan, and comes to $10 per month when billed annually. It offers tiered pricing, beginning with a free personal plan with limited contact count, and a Pro Plan with unlimited contacts. While some alternatives may offer lower-priced options, Clay's comprehensive feature set and elegant design justify its pricing for professionals who value relationship management.
Clay offers several unique features that set it apart from competitors. Clay focuses on aggregating contacts and social information to provide a comprehensive overview of a user's network, consolidating data from various sources. Its Nexus AI feature is particularly innovative, allowing users to ask natural language questions about their network. Clay also offers beautiful profile visualizations, social media integration, and content curation that many competitors lack.
Yes. Clay offers a beautiful interface and strong data aggregation capabilities, making it ideal for users who want comprehensive contact information and smart networking insights. Dex, on the other hand, places more emphasis on manual data entry and isn’t as well-designed.
Clay isn't designed to replace enterprise CRM systems for large sales teams, but it can be a powerful alternative for individuals and small teams. Many people use Clay instead of Salesforce, Hubspot, and Pipedrive. Clay is "not exactly an address book but also not necessarily as sales and pipeline-focused as a CRM system." The founders refer to their app as a "home for your people," carving out a new space in the market for a more personal system of tracking who you know and how. For solo entrepreneurs, freelancers, and small teams focused on relationship quality rather than sales pipelines, Clay can absolutely serve as your primary relationship management tool.
Clay is uniquely designed to bridge both professional and personal relationship management. Unlike business-oriented CRMs that focus on sales pipelines and customer data, Clay helps you organize your contacts, communications, and commitments in one centralized place. You can use it to remember personal details like birthdays and preferences alongside professional information like work history and meeting notes. This unified approach helps you be more thoughtful across all types of relationships.
Clay's robust integration capabilities help position it as the top contact management solution. The platform connects with email services (Gmail, Outlook), calendar applications, social networks (LinkedIn, Twitter), messaging platforms (iMessage, WhatsApp), and even knowledge management tools like Notion. Clay has expanded its integrations catalog to include Zapier and Make.com support, allowing connections to thousands of other apps. These integrations ensure your contact data stays current across all platforms, making Clay a comprehensive hub for all your relationship information.
Clay's AI capabilities are at the forefront of personal CRM innovation. Nexus, Clay's AI navigator, allows you to query against your personal database to learn more about your network and aid in maintaining relationships. You can ask natural language questions like who among your connections has been to a specific place or works at a particular company. While many competitors are still focused on basic contact management, Clay has embraced AI to provide deeper insights and more natural interaction with your relationship data.
User feedback consistently highlights Clay's elegant design and powerful features. Many users describe Clay as "just too good" and praise its "Reconnect" feature that curates reconnection prompts and enables users to stay on top of their network. Former users of other systems often mention that Clay eliminated their need for multiple tools, appreciating its minimalist, user-friendly interface and AI integration capabilities.