Nava appoints Kelly Feeney as VP of operations & automation. Photo: Kelly Feeney/LinkedIn Nava announced Tuesday that it has appointed Kelly Feeney to the newly established executive role of vice president of operations and automation. What will Feeney do in her new role? Feeney is tasked with leading core operations to implement scalable processes that ensure consistent, long-term delivery. According to Sha Hwang, co-founder and chief operating officer of Nava, Feeney's experience in rapidly scaling environments will help the firm build operations that match the "ambition, pace and complexity" of its delivery. Who is Kelly Feeney? Feeney is an operations leader specializing in the integration of people, processes and systems. She brings extensive experience in cultivating leadership, optimizing organizational performance and guiding artificial intelligence integration, with a demonstrated track record of scaling high-growth companies. Following five years at an independent operations consultancy specializing in digital transformations and legacy modernizations, Feeney developed her proprietary "Business Rhythm" framework, a system that bridges the gap between corporate vision and daily execution. Prior to her consultancy, Feeney served as director of operations at Next Trucking and Newfront Insurance, and as head of special projects and operations at Convoy. She was also a key contributor during the formative years of Uber, Coinbase and Airbnb, guiding operations and logistics as the firms transitioned from startups to global enterprises. What is Nava? Nava is a digital services firm specializing in software development, DevSecOps and cloud modernization for government agencies. The company has spearheaded major public sector transformations, notably partnering with the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services to launch a self-service cloud environment. Recently, Nava expanded its capabilities by acquiring Beam, a cloud-based emergency aid platform, and launching Nava Strata, an open-source architecture for government digital services.

Long Beach, California-based NEXT Trucking recently announced product and program updates as part of its tech stack improvements following its merger with Chicago-based digital freight broker CDL-1000. These updates are targeted at improving the experience for both shippers and carriers by leveraging the combined companies’ resources and industry expertise.NEXT Trucking began as a FreightTech pioneer back in 2015 with a focus on connecting full truckload and less-than-truckload carriers with shippers through an online platform and mobile application. By 2019, the company has added drayage as part of its logistics offering and expanded its technology platform.In an interview with FreightWaves, Chris North, product marketing manager at NEXT, talked about the newest updates and his tenure with the company. With NEXT since 2016, North helped build the over-the-road business and technology before helping the company diversify into drayage.“We built our OTR brokerage and tech platform to a point where it was sustainable and doing well,” said North. “I’d been managing drayage and OTR shipments since joining NEXT, so expanding into drayage technology was a natural progression for us. Of course, drayage is a heck of a lot more complex than truckload, but here we are almost five years later with the most advanced drayage technology in the industry.”The path to drayage success involves integrations due to the extra complexities among multiple parties