Milwaukee bikeshare organization Bublr Bikes has named Sally Sheperdson its new executive director.
The previous director, Kevin Hardman, stepped down in September to start his own business—a leadership coaching and urban development consulting firm. Operations director James Davies has been serving as interim executive director while Bublr conducted a national search. He will now serve as senior director of operations and planning.
Sheperdson will take on the new role next week. A Pewaukee native, she has 20 years of experience in nonprofit executive leadership, most recently as executive director of the central and south Jersey affiliate of Susan G. Komen in New Jersey. Sheperdson also has served as executive director of the American Diabetes Association for the Wisconsin market and as executive director of the southeastern Wisconsin affiliate of Susan G. Komen. She holds a bachelor’s in nonprofit management from the University of Massachusetts, Amherst.
“Sally has the deep experience Bublr needs now to go from the start-up phase to achieving sustainability and availability to all Milwaukeeans,” said Bruce Keyes, Bublr board president. “Sally is entrepreneurial, team-oriented and a collaborative leader – attributes needed for such an important public-private partnership.
“We thank Kevin Hardman for serving as the launch director. He and the growing Bublr Bikes staff should be commended for their work to grow the network from one demonstration site at Discovery World in 2013 to a system today of 57 stations with more than 140,000 trips annually. And we’ll be adding more stations and communities in 2017.”
The nonprofit has been growing quickly in southeastern Wisconsin, which was detailed in a recent BizTimes Milwaukee cover story. The company earlier this month announced it is relocating its headquarters to the Shops of Grand Avenue.
