Carla Bailo is a leader in engineering and vehicle program management with 35 years of experience in the automotive industry. As the Center for Automotive Research (CAR) President and CEO, she leads the overall mission, manages day-to-day business, and is the face for the automotive industry in several venues. CAR is an independent, non-profit research body respected for unbiased reporting on issues related to HAV’s (Highly Automated Vehicles), Light weighting and Materials research, Powertrain and Electrification, and Business/Government Economic impacts on the automotive industry. 
In her role prior to CAR, she was Ohio State’s assistant vice president for mobility research and business development. In this role, she implemented the university sustainable mobility and transportation innovation, while integrating related research and education across Ohio State’s academic units. She also led Ohio State’s involvement as the primary research partner for Smart Columbus, a $140 million program to transform central Ohio into the nation’s premier transportation innovation region. 
Bailo was the 2016-2018 vice president of automotive for SAE International, a global association of more than 138,000 engineers and related technical experts in the aerospace, automotive and commercial-vehicle industries. 
Bailo has 35 years experience in the automotive industry with 25 years at Nissan. In her most recent role at Nissan, she served as senior vice president of research and development for Nissan North America, Inc. Bailo was responsible for vehicle engineering and development operations in Michigan, Arizona, Mexico and Brazil, managing a $500 million budget and 2,500 employees. In this role, she improved the efficiency of Nissan’s R&D functions.