{"id":106986,"date":"2026-02-06T13:22:37","date_gmt":"2026-02-06T13:22:37","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/106986\/"},"modified":"2026-02-06T13:22:37","modified_gmt":"2026-02-06T13:22:37","slug":"airport-authority-picks-new-ceo-from-philadelphia-to-succeed-kim-becker","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/106986\/","title":{"rendered":"Airport Authority picks new CEO from Philadelphia to succeed Kim Becker"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><a href=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/timesofsandiego.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/02\/Atif-Saeed.jpg?ssl=1\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\"><img data-perfmatters-preload=\"\" data-recalc-dims=\"1\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"780\" height=\"501\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/02\/Atif-Saeed.jpg\" alt=\"Atif Saeed\" class=\"wp-image-367018\"   fetchpriority=\"high\"\/><\/a>Atif Saeed. (Photo courtesy San Diego County  Regional Airport Authority)<\/p>\n<p>The <a href=\"https:\/\/www.san.org\/about-the-authority\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">San Diego County Regional Airport Authority<\/a> Thursday announced Atif Saeed will be its next president and CEO, taking over the role in March from Kimberly J. Becker after her 40 years in the aviation industry.<\/p>\n<p>Saeed currently serves as CEO of Philadelphia\u2019s Department of Aviation, where he oversees the planning, development and operation of <a href=\"https:\/\/www.phl.org\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Philadelphia International Airport<\/a> and Northeast Philadelphia Airport. He has also held leadership roles at Minneapolis-Saint Paul International Airport, Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta International Airport and Phoenix Sky Harbor International Airport.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThe San Diego County Regional Airport Authority is excited to welcome Atif Saeed as our next president and CEO,\u201d said Gil Cabrera, airport authority board of directors chair. \u201cWe also extend our deep gratitude to Kim Becker for her steady, visionary leadership and commitment to excellence. We look forward to building on that strong foundation under Mr. Saeed\u2019s leadership.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Saeed will join the Airport Authority after a months-long nationwide search which began when Becker announced her retirement in October.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI am honored to be selected to serve as the next president and CEO of the San Diego County Regional Airport Authority,\u201d Saeed said. \u201cSan Diego International Airport plays a vital role in the region\u2019s economy, and I am impressed by the organization\u2019s commitment to customer service and deep connection to the community.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI look forward to working closely with the board, employees, stakeholders, and the community to advance the Airport Authority*s mission.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Saeed holds an masters of business administration from <a href=\"http:\/\/ASU.edu\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Arizona State University<\/a> and has completed executive education programs at Harvard Business School and Harvard Kennedy School of Government. He is an Accredited Airport Executive and International Airport Professional currently serving in multiple industry leadership roles, including on the boards of the American Association of Airport Executives and Airport Council International \u2013 North America.<\/p>\n<p>Becker joined the authority in 2017 and has spearheaded significant changes at the airport, including the $3.8 billion new Terminal 1. Under her leadership, SAN saw a record 25 million travelers in 2024 and expanded its flight network to 85 destinations.<\/p>\n<p>She will remain with the organization through March 18.<\/p>\n<p>READ NEXT\n\t<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Atif Saeed. (Photo courtesy San Diego County Regional Airport Authority) The San Diego County Regional Airport Authority Thursday&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":106987,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[1817,51491,51492,69,71,70,51493,51494],"class_list":["post-106986","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-philadelphia","tag-airports","tag-atif-saeed","tag-kim-becker","tag-philadelphia","tag-philadelphia-headlines","tag-philadelphia-news","tag-san-diego-county-regional-airport-authority","tag-san-diego-international-airport"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/106986","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=106986"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/106986\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/106987"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=106986"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=106986"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=106986"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}