Executive Overview
The transportation sector stands at a critical juncture, balancing the rapid evolution of smart-city infrastructure, post-pandemic ridership shifts, mounting safety demands, and an aging population requiring specialized mobility. Across public transit authorities, federal oversight bodies, and private-sector engineering and technology firms, leadership is undergoing a profound transformation.
METRO’s People Movement dossier captures this dynamic period of transition, highlighting a wave of strategic executive appointments across the public transit, motorcoach, commercial motor vehicle, and specialized mobility sectors.
From the Metropolitan Atlanta Rapid Transit Authority (MARTA) securing a permanent chief executive to guide its multi-billion-dollar modernization agenda, to the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration (FMCSA) and the Federal Highway Administration (FHWA) welcoming seasoned veterans to tackle commercial and federal infrastructure safety, these leadership changes reflect an industry doubling down on governance, technical execution, and operational resilience.
This report provides an in-depth examination of these personnel movements, analyzing the career backgrounds of the appointees, the operational scope of their new roles, and the broader implications these shifts hold for the future of North American transportation.
Detailed Chronology of Leadership Appointments
The recent slate of appointments highlights a deliberate industry-wide push to pair hands-on operational experience with high-level strategic governance. Below is a comprehensive breakdown of the key leadership transitions reshaping the mobility landscape.
1. MARTA Names Jonathan Hunt Permanent GM/CEO
The Board of Directors for the Metropolitan Atlanta Rapid Transit Authority (MARTA) officially selected Jonathan Hunt as the organization’s permanent General Manager and Chief Executive Officer (GM/CEO).
- Background and Transition: Hunt is no stranger to the helm at MARTA. He stepped into the role as interim GM/CEO in August 2025 following the departure of former chief Collie Greenwood. Prior to leading executive operations, Hunt spent more than a decade embedded within MARTA’s legal and real estate divisions. He started his tenure with the agency in 2014, eventually rising through the ranks to serve as chief of corporate law and real estate, deputy chief counsel, and ultimately chief legal counsel.
- Key Achievements During Interim Tenure: During his brief stint as interim leader, Hunt successfully steered MARTA through several monumental operational milestones. These included the launch and redesign of MARTA’s next-generation bus network, the complex replacement of the legacy Breeze fare payment system, and the deployment of Atlanta’s very first Bus Rapid Transit (BRT) line. Furthermore, Hunt maintained flawless operational oversight, safety protocols, and customer experience frameworks during the massive influx of transit ridership driven by the FIFA World Cup matches hosted in the city over the summer.
- Industry Leadership: Beyond his local responsibilities, Hunt remains deeply invested in national transit advocacy, serving on the national board of the American Public Transportation Association (APTA) and chairing its Legal Affairs Committee.
2. Steve Dowling Appointed Chief Safety Officer at FMCSA
The U.S. Department of Transportation (USDOT) and the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration (FMCSA) announced the appointment of Steve Dowling as the agency’s new Chief Safety Officer. Dowling brings over 35 years of combined law enforcement and commercial motor vehicle (CMV) industry experience to the post.
- Private-Sector Excellence: Dowling transitions to the federal agency from Covenant Logistics, where he served as Senior Director of Safety. During his tenure at Covenant, Dowling spearheaded safety performance and operational excellence initiatives that yielded three consecutive years of record-breaking crash rate reductions.
- Law Enforcement Roots: Before entering private-sector logistics leadership, Dowling had a distinguished career with the California Highway Patrol (CHP), culminating in his role as Chief of the Valley Division. In that capacity, he commanded an 850-person force responsible for the greater Sacramento region, overseeing operations across 20 distinct commands, a commercial vehicle enforcement facility, and three communications hubs spanning 10 counties. Notably, he served as Incident Commander of the Emergency Operations Center during multiple catastrophic natural disasters, including the devastating 2018 Camp Fire in Paradise, California.
- Agency Mission: As chief safety officer, Dowling will direct the agency’s core safety programs. His mandate involves collaborating closely with federal, state, and industry stakeholders to lower commercial vehicle crashes, injuries, and fatalities while optimizing freight mobility across the United States.
3. HDR Expands Leadership with Dual Appointments
Engineering and architectural giant HDR has bolstered its global and regional infrastructure practices by appointing Rashed Islam, PE, as Professional Services Director for Transportation, and Jeff Stapleton, PE, as Program Management Lead for Canada.
- Rashed Islam (Professional Services Director, Transportation): Based in Austin, Texas, Islam will oversee HDR’s integrated infrastructure delivery model. This expansive portfolio spans engineering, construction, program management, environmental planning, and advisory services executed by more than 5,000 transportation professionals worldwide. Islam will collaborate with practice leaders to foster professional development, elevate technical leadership, and competitively position HDR within the global infrastructure market. His strategic duties include standardizing operations, implementing robust quality assurance and risk management protocols, and aligning the firm’s approach to emerging transportation technologies.
- Jeff Stapleton (Program Management Lead, Canada): Operating out of Burlington, Ontario, Stapleton will harness technical expertise from across HDR’s multidisciplinary practices to guide Canadian clients through the successful delivery of complex mega-projects. His role centers on aligning organizational resources, tools, and technical capabilities to match client needs across diverse markets, ensuring sound program governance, efficient decision-making, and superior project outcomes. The practice he oversees encompasses engineering design, project controls, environmental compliance, safety frameworks, utility coordination, systems architecture, and traffic engineering.
4. Wabtec Appoints Rajas Joshi to Lead Transit Power & Mobility Components
Wabtec Corporation has appointed Rajas Joshi as Vice President of its Transit Power & Mobility Business Unit for Bus, succeeding Bob Gallant.
- Executive Profile: Joshi brings more than two decades of experience leading global manufacturing operations and intricate supply chains spanning North America, Europe, and Asia.
- Strategic Value: Wabtec leadership highlighted Joshi’s unique blend of large-scale corporate management and private equity execution discipline. His appointment is expected to accelerate growth, optimize manufacturing footprints, and drive enterprise value within the company’s bus components division amidst evolving urban transit demands.
5. WSP Names Gloria M. Shepherd National Strategic Advisor
WSP in the U.S. has added Gloria M. Shepherd to its advisory and planning team as a National Planning and Project Delivery Strategic Advisor.
- Distinguished Federal Career: Shepherd joins WSP following a monumental three-decade career in public policy, transportation planning, and program management. Most recently, she served as the Executive Director of the Federal Highway Administration (FHWA). In that capacity, she helped oversee the administration of over $350 billion in federal highway programs, forging tight partnerships with state departments of transportation, metropolitan planning organizations (MPOs), tribal governments, and local agencies.
- Consulting Role: At WSP, Shepherd will provide high-level strategic counsel on intricate transportation infrastructure projects. She will also leverage her deep public-sector relationships to advance planning, environmental sustainability, community resilience, and equitable mobility initiatives nationwide.
6. SilverRide Appoints Sooketoo Bhuta Chief Product & Technology Officer
SilverRide Inc., a leader in assisted and specialized transportation, announced the appointment of Sooketoo Bhuta as its new Chief Product and Technology Officer (CPTO).
- Technological Scaling: Reporting directly to CEO Jeff Maltz, Bhuta will direct SilverRide’s product, technology, data architecture, and innovation strategy. He will oversee the multi-year technological roadmap for the platform that powers SilverRide’s assisted transportation network.
- Focus on Modernization: As assisted transit transitions from a niche service into critical public infrastructure, SilverRide is investing heavily in digital infrastructure. Bhuta’s core objective is to accelerate this transformation by scaling data reporting, integrating artificial intelligence and automation across customer support, billing, and user experiences, and deepening integration with healthcare and paratransit ecosystems. Furthermore, he will evaluate market expansion opportunities in adjacent sectors focused on aging in place and community mobility.
Supporting Context & Industry Metrics
To understand the weight of these leadership changes, one must examine the broader economic and operational pressures facing the modern transportation ecosystem.
| Sector | Primary Challenge | Strategic Focus of New Leadership |
|---|---|---|
| Public Transit | Post-pandemic ridership recovery, funding cliffs, fare system modernization | Network redesigns, BRT expansion, digital fare collection (e.g., MARTA) |
| Commercial Freight & Safety | Supply chain bottlenecks, driver shortages, highway crash rates | Data-driven safety oversight, compliance enforcement, technological optimization (e.g., FMCSA, Wabtec) |
| Engineering & Delivery | Aging civil infrastructure, mega-project cost overruns, decarbonization | Integrated program management, risk mitigation, quality assurance (e.g., HDR, WSP) |
| Specialized Mobility | Aging demographics, paratransit inefficiency, healthcare-transit integration | AI-driven dispatching, automated platform scaling, aging-in-place solutions (e.g., SilverRide) |
The Public Transit Horizon
Public transit agencies are operating under a microscope. With federal stimulus funds from the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act (IIJA) actively being deployed, transit agencies cannot afford administrative missteps. Leaders like Jonathan Hunt at MARTA face the dual challenge of rolling out capital-intensive projects—such as new BRT lines and fare systems—while convincing commuters that public transit is safe, clean, and reliable.
Federal Safety and Infrastructure Oversight
The appointments at the federal level—Steve Dowling at FMCSA and Gloria M. Shepherd at WSP (formerly FHWA)—signal an era of heightened accountability. With thousands of commercial motor vehicles moving billions of tons of freight across the interstate highway system, federal regulators are under pressure to reduce fatalities. Dowling’s extensive experience handling high-stress crisis command during the California wildfires and managing low-crash metrics at Covenant Logistics provides him with the tactical background required to enforce federal safety mandates effectively. Similarly, Shepherd’s oversight of $350 billion in federal highway programs ensures that state and local agencies receiving advisory support from WSP will navigate regulatory compliance with unmatched precision.
The Rise of Tech-Enabled Specialized Mobility
Perhaps one of the most underserved yet rapidly expanding segments of transportation is assisted mobility. With the U.S. population aging rapidly, the demand for paratransit, PACE programs, and healthcare-adjacent transportation has outpaced legacy operational models. SilverRide’s appointment of Sooketoo Bhuta as CPTO underscores an industry-wide realization: manual dispatching and legacy software are no longer sufficient. By introducing AI automation, advanced data integration, and scalable architecture, technology companies are transforming assisted transport into essential, reliable public infrastructure.
Official Statements and Industry Perspective
Industry executives and agency stakeholders have expressed optimism regarding how these leadership additions will steer their respective organizations through upcoming fiscal and operational challenges.
Reflecting on the infrastructure demands facing Canada and the U.S., HDR representatives emphasized the need for cross-disciplinary cohesion. Commenting on the integration of Rashed Islam and Jeff Stapleton into their respective divisions, company leadership noted that modern mega-projects require a seamless blend of local regulatory understanding and global engineering standards. “Aligning our technical resources and programmatic capabilities ensures that our public- and private-sector clients can deliver complex infrastructure on time and within budget,” firm representatives stated.
In the technology and component manufacturing space, Wabtec executives pointed to Rajas Joshi’s supply chain acumen as vital for navigating global market volatility. “Joshi brings a disciplined, execution-focused mindset that bridges corporate scale with operational agility. His leadership in our Transit Power & Mobility business unit will ensure we continue to deliver high-performance solutions for global bus networks,” company officials remarked.
Meanwhile, in the specialized mobility sector, SilverRide CEO Jeff Maltz emphasized the strategic necessity of technology investment. “Assisted transportation is no longer just a supportive service; it is the backbone of community mobility for our aging population. Sooketoo Bhuta’s expertise in scaling enterprise platforms, data infrastructure, and AI integration will allow us to expand our footprint while delivering the uncompromising reliability our healthcare and paratransit partners expect.”
Future Outlook: Navigating the Road Ahead
As the transportation sector looks toward the remainder of the decade, the success of these newly appointed leaders will be measured by their ability to execute complex, long-term visions in the face of rapid technological and demographic change.
- Digital Transformation and Automation: Whether it is MARTA replacing its Breeze fare system, Wabtec optimizing global manufacturing chains, or SilverRide deploying AI-driven paratransit platforms, digital modernization remains the baseline for operational survival.
- Safety as a Core Metric: With seasoned leaders like Steve Dowling heading FMCSA safety initiatives and Gloria M. Shepherd advising on major project delivery, regulatory compliance and proactive risk mitigation will take center stage across both freight and highway development.
- Resilient Infrastructure Delivery: Firms like HDR and WSP will play a pivotal role in ensuring that federal infrastructure investments translate into durable, sustainable, and equitable transit systems that can withstand future economic and environmental shocks.
Ultimately, the individuals highlighted in this edition of METRO’s People Movement are not merely filling job vacancies—they are architecting the policies, systems, and technologies that will define how people and goods move for generations to come.
