Search Summary
Metropolis is a company of transformation in a number of ways: their CV/AI-based tech disrupts the entire transportation experience, they’d just completed a growth buyout of a large, well-respected legacy parking operations company SP+, and they were bringing together these two different companies and cultures to collectively rethink how that advanced tech would transform their 19K+ field operations org and processes.
To find the SVP CoE that would lead the charge of this transformation, we needed a unique combination of strategic thinking, field ops cred, best-in-class customer experience, and a blend of startup agility + scaled frontline teams. This was a blend of integrating hardware, software, and frontline services, while defining what it means to be a “center of excellence” and how to effectively influence and demonstrate value across the company.
Swing Search Insights
- Trust was already established as Metropolis was a repeat Swing partner.
- We explored a wide diversity of personas, from more frontline retail operators to more corporate business systems leaders, from big F100 companies to growth-stage startup builders.
- The hiring team acknowledged that each candidate would have a unique set of skills and tradeoffs vs. expecting one person to bring every element of the scorecard.
- Metropolis kept the process tight and decisive and the interview team limited to a core set of executives, all with clear alignment on the importance and expectations for the role.
Our pipeline was so strong that Metropolis ended up hiring 2 candidates, one to come in as SVP, Center of Excellence, and another for an SVP, Operations role.
Placed Candidate: SVP, Center of Excellence
Charles Stephens
Charles is the unicorn we needed: strategic and smart, with the field leadership cred from building/running markets himself at high-growth companies like Zipcar and Lyft (in transportation, no less). His time at Lyft was particularly relevant, having scaled teams and revenue, including a $1 billion+ business and 1,100-person team, and acting as CEO/COO right-hand for strategic business opportunities as the company scaled to and through IPO. On top of his experience, Charles’s genuine enthusiasm for the business and as a person was a great complement to the ambitious-yet- humble Metropolis team.
Placed Candidate: SVP, Operations
Jeff Shields
Jeff brought deep experience at the intersection of transportation, tech, and field operations, spanning Zipcar, Maven, and OnStar. A former Marine who worked his way up through frontline and logistics leadership roles, he combines executive presence with operational empathy, having led everything from campus parking overhauls to national mobility rollouts. He helped reimagine the OnStar field sales org, overseeing a 150-person team and supporting 4,000 dealers while navigating a complex, siloed enterprise to drive influence, operational clarity, and cultural change within a legacy auto giant shifting toward tech-driven services.
Total Days in Market: 84
Candidates Swing Interviewed: 36
Candidates Metropolis Interviewed: 10
Finalists: 2