Dave Zelenok has more than thirty years of senior management experience at the municipal, state DOT and federal levels as well as a consulting engineer managing the “full spectrum” of transportation service delivery and public works, including Aviation, Mass Transit, Civil Engineering, Toll Highway, Public Works operations.

He is CEO of ZK Engineers and has consulted with more than 40 public sector agencies as well as the private sector on resiliency, smart cities technologies, innovation processes, emerging technologies as well as telecommunications and transportation infrastructure. He has presented at Mountain Connect five times since its inception.

From 2007 to 2015, he served in a number of roles for the City of Centennial, (population 110,000, incorporated 2002) – including Interim City Manager, the government’s Chief Executive Officer, Chief Innovation Officer and Director of Public Works. While with Centennial, he helped lead a voter-approved initiative to authorize the deployment of municipal broadband throughout the community in partnership with the private sector, the first city in Colorado to do so.

Under his leadership, former New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg recognized Dave’s efforts on behalf of Centennial as one of 14 cities internationally awarded a multi-million grant from his philanthropic foundation to advance Centennial’s use of “smart city” technologies.

In his capacity as Director of Public Works and Transportation for the City of Colorado Springs, for 14 years, Dave oversaw roughly 400 employees responsible for all of the city government’s street operations, traffic engineering, city engineering and the Pikes Peak Toll Highway. He also oversaw Springs Transit – Colorado’s second largest mass transit system. Dave also led the much of the city’s response and recovery efforts for several federally-declared natural disasters.
Dave also oversaw the management and operation of the Colorado Springs Airport for seven years and was responsible for a major expansion project there. During his tenure, the facility was designated the nation’s fastest growing airport for two consecutive years. He has testified before a number of Congressional subcommittees in support of increased funding for multi-modal, surface and air transportation-related issues.
While on active duty in the USAF, he taught Civil Engineering on the Faculty of the United States Air Force Academy (USAFA) in Colorado Springs, CO. On the USAFA faculty, he directed the Academy’s first-ever course in Solar Energy – including topics such as renewable energy, as well as solar passive, active and photovoltaic technologies.
In 2003, he took a leave of absence from his civilian position to serve on Active Duty as an Air Force Reservist in Space Command (re-designated in 2019 as Space Force) serving as “second in command” of Schriever AFB, the world’s largest satellite telecommunications ground station and was awarded “Mission Ready” status operating the constellation of 28 Global Positioning System (GPS) satellites.
Later, serving as Mobilization Assistant (MA) to the Space Command’s Director of Plans and Programs and as MA to the Director of Operations (both Brigadier General positions), he was heavily involved in operating and managing much of the nation’s $11 billion annual military space program from its Peterson AFB Headquarters in Colorado Springs.

He holds a Bachelor’s Degree in Civil Engineering from the US Air Force Academy and a Masters Degree in Engineering from the University of Texas at Austin, is a 2014 graduate of the Harvard Kennedy School’s Senior Executives in Government Program.

Dave is registered as a licensed Professional Engineer (P.E.) in the State of Colorado and the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania; and formerly in the State of Texas.