Metrolink Chief Executive Officer Art Leahy has announced his retirement, effective January 4, 2019. Effectively immediately, Metrolink General Counsel Don Del Rio and Chief Financial Officer Ronnie Campbell have been appointed interim co-CEOs by the Board of Directors.
Leahy joined Metrolink in 2015 after serving as chief executive officer of Los Angeles County Metropolitan Transportation Authority (Metro) from 2009 to 2015. He began his career in 1971 as a bus operator for the Southern California Rapid Transit District (RTD) and went on to become chief operations officer. In addition, Leahy served as general manager of Metro Transit in Minneapolis-St. Paul from 1997 to 2001 and chief executive officer of the Orange County Transportation Authority from 2001 to 2009.
He earned a bachelor’s degree from California State University, Los Angeles and a master’s degree from USC.
“I express my sincere gratitude to Art for his dedication to this agency and to the people in our six-county service area,” said Metrolink Chair Andrew Kotyuk. “I commend him on the Authority’s many accomplishments under his leadership.”
“The last three years with the organization have been full of accomplishments, including the full implementation of Positive Train Control (PTC), deploying the Tier-4 clean-air locomotives and, more recently, receiving the largest grant ever for Metrolink, $875 million for the SCORE Program,” Kotyuk said. "The Board will begin recruitment of the new CEO at a very exciting time for the agency with the SCORE vision for improving the regional rail system moving forward as well as increasing ridership on many of the lines."
Metrolink, which is governed by The Southern California Regional Rail Authority, provides commuter rail service to Southern California.