Robin Stevens brings a unique blend of experience to her clients: A specialty in organizational development and change; Extensive experience working as a manager and a lawyer in a complex environment; and Expertise in developing courses for and teaching professionals and graduate students.

Robin founded her consulting firm in 2001 with the goal of helping clients navigate the complexity of organizational life.

Robin has extensive supply chain management experience. As Vice President of New York City Transit’s Materiel Division, she managed the purchase of over $1B in services, capital projects, rolling stock, parts, and supplies annually and an inventory of $125M for the city’s subway and bus operation. Robin developed staff capacity to manage work and improve processes with particular attention to developing shared understanding of goals, roles, and responsibilities. She led the division in:

	Revamping vendor management to assure that low bid vendors were not high cost suppliers, achieving significant improvements in on-time parts' deliveries. This effort enabled more cost-effective maintenance, fewer vehicles out of service, and better use of staff resources.
	Working with bus maintenance to redefine forecasting processes and change a sequential “do and review” method to collaborative work between maintenance and logistics staff resulting in better parts availability.
	Revising stocking strategies enabling a 17% cut in distribution staff.
	Implementing new contracting strategies to assure operations of ready availability of parts.
	Centralizing contract administration to facilitate better pricing and vendor performance.
	Creating new ground rules for performance evaluations to motivate staff to take on more challenging work.

As Deputy Vice President of NYCT’s Contracts Department, Robin worked with a team of lawyers and engineers to revise the agency’s standard construction contract to encourage greater competition and better pricing. She co-chaired an industry task force to develop a standard contract for bus purchases. Robin practiced law in the General Counsel’s Office at NYCT for seven years, with a specialty in contract negotiation and development.

She co-developed and taught “Reflective Practice: Learning from Work” at New York University’s Wagner School of Public Service, a course designed to help graduate students understand individual, interpersonal, small group, and organizational dynamics and improve their personal and organizational effectiveness.

She directed the Applied Research Center of the William Alanson White Institute's Organization Program and taught a course on organizational dynamics.

Robin is a member of two panels overseeing research funding through the Transit Cooperative Research Program of the National Academies: one panel’s work is aimed at facilitating the adoption of electronic business strategies by public transit agencies and the other oversees research regarding the selection and use of alternative project delivery methods

She is a member of the American Public Transportation Association, the Advanced Organizational Consultation Society, and the International Society for the Psychoanalytic Study of Organizations.

Robin Stevens enjoyed working at New York City Transit - in large measure because it is an ethnically and professionally diverse, complex organization that delivers a critical service for New Yorkers. She keeps up with the arts. She has travelled extensively in the US and Europe and in 2001, spent seven fascinating months backpacking in Africa and Asia.

Education
M.A., Advanced Organizational Consultation, City University, London.
Special focus: Management of large-scale engineering projects.
Qualification, Advanced Organizational Consultancy, The Tavistock Institute, London, UK. Program focus: change management, organizational dynamics and theory, and consultancy skills.
Certificate, Organizational Development and Consultation, William Alanson White Institute, New York, New York.
J.D., Hofstra University School of Law, Hempstead, New York.
B.A., History, University of Maryland, Heidelberg, Germany.