Richard A. White has spent his entire career in the public transportation industry. He has over 40 years of experience, with more than 32 years on the public sector side at the federal, state and regional levels and more than 16 years with executive management responsibilities at multimodal transit agencies.
White served as General Manager and Chief Executive Officer of the Washington Metropolitan Area Transit Agency (WMATA) from 1996-2006, where he managed more than 10,000 employees through a 10-member executive staff. He developed and managed a $1 billion annual operating budget as well as a $3.3 billion, six-year Capital Investment Program.
White also led the San Francisco Bay Area Rapid Transit District (BART) from 1991-1996, serving as Deputy General Manager and then General Manager. At BART, he managed more than 3,000 employees through an eight-member executive staff and managed a $240 million annual operating budget. WMATA and BART are two of the nation’s largest and most complex public transit agencies.
He also served in management roles at the Metropolitan Transit Authority of Harris County (Houston METRO) and New Jersey Transit Corporation.
White has eight years of experience on the private sector side with consulting services in the international transportation and infrastructure market. During this time, he worked for AECOM and Parsons Corporation.
He also worked for six years with the Urban Mass Transportation Administration, now the Federal Transit Administration.
In addition, White has served in top member-elected leadership positions for the American Public Transportation Association (APTA) for nine consecutive years, including as its chair from 2005-2006. He joined APTA in September 2015 as Vice President-Member Services.
He received a BA from the University of Massachusetts at Amherst and a MPA from the Maxwell School of Citizenship and Public Affairs at Syracuse University.