Peter M. Rogoff
Peter M. Rogoff, Under Secretary of Transportation for Policy

It looks like Sound Tran­sit’s search for a new per­ma­nent CEO has come to an end. Today, the agency announced its search com­mit­tee is rec­om­mend­ing a high-cal­iber, dis­tin­guished can­di­date to suc­ceed out­go­ing exec­u­tive Joni Earl.

His name is Peter M. Rogoff, and he pre­vi­ous­ly served as Fed­er­al Tran­sit Admin­is­tra­tor pri­or to assum­ing the post of Under Sec­re­tary of Trans­porta­tion for Pol­i­cy in the Unit­ed States Depart­ment of Transportation.

“In a com­pet­i­tive field of appli­cants, Peter Rogoff is the com­mit­tee’s clear and unan­i­mous rec­om­men­da­tion to lead our region in meet­ing the grow­ing demand for rail and bus ser­vice,” Sound Tran­sit Board Chair and King Coun­ty Exec­u­tive Dow Con­stan­tine said in a news release sent to NPI. “Tomor­row, the full Sound Tran­sit Board will dis­cuss his con­sid­er­able qualifications.”

“At its meet­ing tomor­row the full Board may accept the com­mit­tee’s rec­om­men­da­tion or con­tin­ue the search process,” the release says, adding, “Rogoff will be present at the meet­ing. The Sound Tran­sit Board will meet in exec­u­tive ses­sion, ini­tial­ly with Rogoff and then with Board mem­bers only. It will move back into open ses­sion to dis­cuss next steps. The meet­ing is sched­uled for 1:30 PM to 4 PM at Union Sta­tion, 401 S. Jack­son Street in Seattle.”

I have had the plea­sure of being able to inter­act with Peter Rogoff in 2011 (when he vis­it­ed Seat­tle to par­tic­i­pate in ground­break­ing fes­tiv­i­ties for Uni­ver­si­ty Link), and have been very impressed with him. He speaks well, is well respect­ed in his pro­fes­sion, and would bring invalu­able expe­ri­ence and con­nec­tions to the job.

It is a tes­ta­ment to Joni Ear­l’s lead­er­ship and record of get­ting results that Rogoff is inter­est­ed in tak­ing over for her. This would be a huge win for Sound Transit.

We con­grat­u­late King Coun­ty Exec­u­tive Dow Con­stan­tine and the Sound Tran­sit board on this recruit­ing coup, and urge the board to hire Peter Rogoff as the new chief exec­u­tive offi­cer of Sound Tran­sit as soon as it feels com­fort­able doing so.

About the author

Andrew Villeneuve is the founder and executive director of the Northwest Progressive Institute, as well as the founder of NPI's sibling, the Northwest Progressive Foundation. He has worked to advance progressive causes for over two decades as a strategist, speaker, author, and organizer. Andrew is also a cybersecurity expert, a veteran facilitator, a delegate to the Washington State Democratic Central Committee, and a member of the Climate Reality Leadership Corps.

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