- We got him, he's Kris Kollouri.

He's the President and CEO of, oh that's right, New Jersey Transit.

You've heard a little bit about them, and also Executive Director of the New Jersey Turnpike Authority.

Kris, good to see you.

- Good to see you, Steve.

Good to be with you.

- Okay, now, Kris, we're taping this on the 22nd of July.

There was a pretty big event that happened over in the Meadowlands, the World Cup final game here.

All kinds of talk beforehand.

People don't need me to remind them.

What was your greatest concern?

What was the greatest success?

And what's the greatest lesson?

Loaded question.

Go ahead, my friend.

- Well, the greatest concern was the unknowns, right?

Whether it was the weather or infrastructure problems, or mechanical problems.

I think the greatest success was, to me, the team worked together, and we never wavered from our plan.

And I think that says a lot about team building.

That says a lot about team execution.

And, for me, the greatest lesson is New Jersey, despite sometimes, New Jersey Transit, I should say, underdog status.

We could do big things, and we did big things very well.

- Let me also, I was remiss.

Let me disclose New Jersey Transit is a new underwriter of our programming.

Kris, you said, what was the reference... I don't want to get this wrong.

Give me the Super Bowl quote.

Come on.

- Yeah, look, Super Bowl happened in 2014, and for 12 years- - Kris, was there a problem?

I hadn't heard.

- Well, people were talking about it for 12 consecutive years.

- Exactly.

- I felt like we finally beated that curse because we proved not once, but for eight consecutive games.

We can move a record number of people, 370,000 to be precise, to and from the game in record- - Was that the number you expected?

- No.

Look, there's multiple factors that went into why that it wasn't more.

But, look, I think for me, every transportation mode worked.

There was a price point for everybody to get to the match.

And, for us, we did more than we've ever done before in a span of eight games, and I'm so proud of the team.

- How did you balance the needs of everyday commuters in New Jersey Transit with those who were using New Jersey Transit to get to the World Cup?

- That was the biggest challenge.

Look, not only it's that, we live in the most densely populated region in the country.

And to move record number of fans and record number of commuters at the same time was an incredible challenge.

And, on top of that, weather that was so unpredictable.

We went through a heat wave, we went through record storms.

We had a Taylor Swift wedding.

We had Knicks playing.

We had America 250th anniversary.

So you name a challenge, we had.

But, I got to tell you, it bodes well for the team.

The team stuck together, and we promised ourselves we would never let each other down, and we didn't.

- Kris, but you also, we talk partnerships a lot.

Talk about some of the partnerships that were critical to pulling this off.

By the way, that doesn't mean perfect.

It means there are a lot of things, I'm sure, Kris, I've known him long enough to know the post-game analysis was pretty intense regardless of the success, lots of things to work on.

That being said, talk about some of the partners.

- Yeah, look, I mean, the state police, the federal law enforcement officials, the federal transportation officials, Amtrak, New York City Police, there wasn't a group that did not touch this event.

And I think this is the biggest coordination event we've ever pulled off in this part of the world.

And I think the results speak for themselves.

- Was this the toughest thing you've ever done as a leader?

- I think this ranks among the most challenging things I've ever done, mostly because I didn't like the fact that there were a lot of things that were not within my control.

But I got to tell you, the governor, and I've said this before, Steve, and I think it's worth repeating.

This governor, Governor Sherrill, wanted to understand what the plan was.

And her only direction to me and my team was execute the plan as designed.

No distractions and no deviations.

If there are challenges, you deal with it, but you execute the plan.

And I got to tell you, that level of confidence and trust in the team meant that we had the ability to go do it without having to worry that somebody's gonna second guess us.

- A lot of pieces to this, and one of the ones I keep thinking about, which was obviously... I don't know if it was the case with the Super Bowl.

What year again, 2014?

- 14, yeah.

- So I keep thinking technology, 12 years.

Well, how much has technology changed?

Seriously, we all know.

To what degree did technology play a role, positive, negative, whatever, on social media.

Go ahead.

I'm sorry, Kris.

- Yeah, I think, Steve, I think technology played a big part of it from an information dissemination standpoint, direction of how to get places, how to pay for tickets.

That's all good, but I think the biggest lesson we learned from the Super Bowl is you have to plan for a predictable movement of people.

You can't have waves of people that show up that you didn't account for.

And that's exactly what happened in the Super Bowl.

And we said to ourselves, "We are never going to repeat that mistake again," and we didn't.

We have a controlled environment, predictable number of people that got out of the system, and we moved them successfully.

And the fan experience was amazing.

- Yeah.

Well, I was at one of the games, and I saw Mbappe play.

That's all I can say.

I don't know anything about soccer, I just went to see him with our son.

And I'm there at the game, and there's all the New Jersey transit signs and information.

And I'm watching, and I'm realizing you can't get on.

You couldn't get on a New Jersey Transit.

We were on a bus that took us wherever.

But here's the thing, if you didn't have a round ticket, if you didn't have a ticket, help me on this, Kris, I don't want to get this wrong.

And I think one of the problems in 2014 is a lot of people just got on the trains who didn't have two-way tickets.

What was different here?

- It was a controlled environment.

You had to have a ticket for the game, and for the New Jersey Transit trip, both to and from.

- Both ways, both ways.

- Both ways.

And we had wristbands.

A simple thing like a wristband, where people showed their wristband, did the trick.

And, in 2014, it was a free-for-all.

And you can't run a system like this with that kind of an uncontrolled environment.

And that's the lesson we've learned.

- You know, I'm a student of leadership, I think about it all the time.

I don't want to disclose anything too much.

When an event like this happens, and you're up at night, you're working with your people and partners, wherever, when it's over, what's it like to decompress?

Or is it the next challenge?

- Well, for us, it's always the morning rush hour, which happened within a few hours after the end of the game.

But I got to tell you, decompression for us came in the way of thanking each other.

And I got to tell you, the biggest lesson in leadership that I've learned in my years is you trust the team that you have.

You trust them to execute the plan you have, and you recognize them for their efforts post-facto.

And if something goes wrong, you as the leader own it.

- Kris, I'm not getting on my soapbox.

I said the other day in a leadership seminar, blame and responsibility move up, credit and recognition goes down.

Fair?

We agree?

- That's the only way to do.

- Yeah.

That's Kris Kolluri, he's the President and CEO of New Jersey Transit, Executive Director of New Jersey Turnpike Authority, who's going to get some rest, hopefully.

Thank you, Kris.

- Thank you so much.

See ya.

- You got it.

Stay with us, we'll be right back.

- [Narrator] Think Tank with Steve Adubato is a production of the Caucus Educational Corporation.

Funding has been provided by Horizon Blue Cross Blue Shield of New Jersey.

The Adubato Center for Media Leadership.

EJI, Excellence in Medicine Awards.

A New Jersey health foundation program.

Community FoodBank of New Jersey.

Valley Bank.

PSEG Foundation.

Robert Wood Johnson Foundation.

Garden State Initiative And by New Jersey Sharing Network.

Promotional support provided by Meadowlands Chamber.

And by New Jersey Globe.

- To watch more Think Tank with Steve Adubato, find us online and follow us on social media.

- Next, please.

Okay, we need a neutral expression.

Sir, you're smiling.

- Oh, am I?

- [Narrator] Over 1 million lives in the US have been saved by organ donations.

So when you choose to become a donor, you're doing something good, which can make you feel really good.

- Next.

(woman sighs) - [Narrator] Register today at NJSN.org.