Our founder was Charles John Robbins, P.E. (1965-2016). Though his name was Charles, most of us just called him, Charlie. Charlie’s vision, coupled with his mentoring abilities, made him the perfect leader, a much-respected manager, and an esteemed transportation engineer. Charlie loved traffic engineering. He was continuously looking for new ways to advance Intelligent Transportation Systems (ITS). Whether it was creating new trends for data analysis or software enhancements (see OpMinder®), or making traffic operations and incident management procedures easier and more efficient, Charlie was usually at the forefront of them all.
Professionally, Charlie played an integral part in improving the regional transportation landscape of southeast Florida. As a consultant engineer for numerous districts of the Florida Department of Transportation (FDOT), he helped shape the agency’s emerging Transportation Systems Management and Operations (TSM&O) Program into the leading, internationally renowned Program it is today. Charlie worked on numerous high-profile projects, including the nationally recognized and multi-award winning, 95 Express Project. Charlie’s influence in ITS will be felt in our industry for years to come. Many of the initiatives he championed while a consultant for FDOT have since been adapted and are currently being used throughout the state. His work left a mark in the way we manage traffic in our state and he left an imprint in the lives of those lucky enough to work with him.
Because of his successes, Charlie was the recipient of the ITS Florida Presidents Award (2017) and is part of the ITS Florida Honor roll. Part of Charlie’s vision was to own and operate his own engineering firm. In 2011, Charlie created Concepts to Success (C2S) Engineering; specializing in ITS and Advanced Traffic Management Systems (ATMS). Charlie’s stellar reputation and professionalism awarded him and his new company with multiple contracts supporting many of the clients he had worked so hard to build lasting relationships. It wasn’t only contractual relationships that Charlie cherished. Charlie loved his staff as well. Always firm, but fair…always willing to sit down and discuss anything…always willing to impart knowledge and wisdom. One of his favorite quotes was, “Only good news on a Friday!,” but to those of us who knew him best it really just meant he wanted to get home to his beloved wife, Virginia, current owner of C2S, and daughter, Valerie. We here at C2S aspire to keep Charlie’s dream alive and growing; respecting all of those relationships he created, building new ones, and strengthening them all for years to come.