OCTA’s Leahy Accepts CEO Position at Metro

Board expected to appoint interim CEO until permanent replacement is hired

ORANGE – Art Leahy, chief executive officer of the Orange County Transportation Authority, announced today that he will be leaving his post at the end of the month to head Metro in Los Angeles.

Leahy, who has led OCTA since January 2001, is expected to begin April 6 as chief executive officer for the nation’s third largest transportation agency.

“I’m exceptionally proud of OCTA’s accomplishments in Orange County during the past eight years and I will miss working closely with the community here,” Leahy said. “As hard as it is to leave, I’m looking forward to the opportunities and challenges I’ll face at Metro while working to improve the transportation network in Los Angeles.”

OCTA Chairman Peter Buffa said the board will appoint an interim CEO in the coming weeks and begin the process of hiring a permanent replacement for Leahy.

“Art’s extraordinary leadership and vision have had an enormous impact on transportation here and throughout Southern California,” Buffa said. “We will miss him a great deal and wish him the very best. Hats off to Los Angeles – they signed Art Leahy and Manny Ramirez in the same week.”

Leahy has been instrumental in bringing together Southern California’s transportation agencies to work on solutions to issues such as the impacts from increased port traffic, fighting for the region’s fair share of state funding, and launching an effort to integrate and improve the region’s passenger rail services.

During Leahy’s tenure OCTA saw record ridership increases in both bus and rail transit, the Measure M half-cent sales tax for transportation was overwhelmingly renewed by voters, the 91 Express Lanes were purchased paving the way for improvements to the Riverside 91 Freeway, and the Garden Grove Freeway (SR-22) improvement project – Orange County’s first design-build freeway project – was completed.