As the anniversary of the departure of MARTA’s general manager and CEO approaches, Board Chair Jennifer Ide said the search for Collie Greenwood’s replacement is going well.
There’s been significant interest in the position, Ide said in an update on the search at Thursday’s board meeting. Close to 300 people have applied to lead the transit agency, the eighth largest in the country.
“There has been tremendous interest in the job,” Ide said. “We have had very, very well-qualified candidates.”
Among the applicants are people from the transit industry, transportation-adjacent industries and the business world, she said. Ide has said the board doesn’t want to limit itself to candidates with a transit background.
The search for a permanent leader kicked off last fall. MARTA hired DSG Global, an executive search firm, to lead the process. The search hit a snag in December when the man leading it left DSG for another position, then resumed in February with new staff from DSG.
The committee’s original goal was to make a hire before the FIFA World Cup games, which begin Monday in Atlanta. Ide said the goal now is to make an offer by the end of summer.
Ide said the search committee has given DSG a list of qualities they want in the new CEO. They’re looking for someone good at building a team and working with a large, unionized workforce. The person should also have good crisis management and communication skills, experience with large capital projects, a good grasp of fiscal oversight, experience in transit or related transportation fields, and a “strong sense of personal accountability.”
The search committee is in the process of narrowing the 300 applicants to a more manageable short list, Ide said. Then it will interview candidates and make an offer.
Ide said she would not talk about the specifics of anyone being considered for the job.
“They’re all people that have big, important jobs that they don’t want disclosed that they are interested in this position,” she said.
Greenwood, who stopped working in June last year because of a visa issue, was an internal hire, promoted to the top job after first serving as deputy and then interim chief.
The next general manager and CEO is likely to be an external hire, Ide has said.
Jonathan Hunt, who was appointed to serve as interim last August, has said he’s not interested in the permanent position, as have other top executives at MARTA.
A search committee meeting scheduled for Thursday was canceled. The group said they plan to meet again later this month.
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