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N.D. Lea & Associates
After 12 years at NASA, Chuck Elms felt it was time
to move on and devote himself to transportation
technology. He put out his résumé and received
a call from Norman Lea who had a company in
Canada called N.D. Lea & Assoc., Ltd. They had
come in contact before for a rapid transit project,
so they knew of each other. Norman woke him
early one Saturday to invite him up to Ottawa for
an interview. On the spot, he offered Chuck a job.
Not being prepared to relocate to Canada, however,
Chuck declined; but Norm called him again in
August 1973 and offered to start a business
with him in the United States. This was a more
intriguing proposition.
Thus was born the non-profit N.D. Lea
Transportation Research Corporation, which
would publish a compendium of new technology
in public transit. From Huntsville, Ala., they
published the first compendium and sold 1,000
subscriptions. While everyone from the KGB to the
CIA bought it, the income wasn’t enough to cover
expenses. In addition, they couldn’t keep their non-
profit status if they were going to do consulting
work. So in 1973 they formed N.D. Lea & Assoc.,
Inc. as a subsidiary of the Canadian company N.D.
Lea & Assoc., Ltd.
Chuck quickly realized that, with the federal
government as their major client, they would
be wise to relocate to Washington, D.C. Having
Becoming Lea+Elliott
The Founding
subsisted for four years in Huntsville on a $20,000
line of credit and just enough work to keep afloat,
the three proud controlling partners of N.D. Lea
& Assoc., Inc., Chuck, Wolfgang Bamberg and
Herbert Teumer, loaded up a U-Haul and headed
off to the Bandit Beltway just outside Washington,
D.C., eventually settling in Chantilly, Va. The
credibility of the Compendium, coupled with their
personal relationships with key officials in the
U.S. Department of Transportation (DOT) led to
successful bids on major contracts.
N.D. Lea & Assoc., Inc. (NDL) was off and
running.
Dennis Elliott & Associates, Inc.
Upon completion of the huge Airtrans project at
Dallas/Fort Worth International Airport (DFW),
Dennis Elliott was looking for new challenges.
Having gained valuable experience working on one
of the first airport APMs, he hoped to market his
knowledge as a people mover consultant.
The opportunity for this transition occurred
courtesy of the Federal Transit Administration,
then known as the Urban Mass Transportation
“We were ready at the forefront, at the
infancy of APMs. We could jump in there
and do it.”
Chuck Elms | Founder
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