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DART President and CEO candidate Nathaniel P. Ford Sr (left), interacts with crowd during a meet and greet, on Saturday, July 11, 2026 at Dallas Area Rapid Transit headquarters in Dallas.<\/p>\n
Shafkat Anowar\/The Dallas Morning News<\/p>\n
Dallas Area Rapid Transit\u2019s next CEO, Nathaniel Ford Sr.<\/a>, will take the helm in October and bring with him 26 years of experience leading transportation agencies.\u00a0<\/p>\n His hiring was contentious, dividing board members<\/a> who questioned the current CEO of the Jacksonville Transportation Authority\u2019s past spending controversies<\/a> and his late reentry into the candidate pool.\u00a0<\/p>\n DART officials said Ford will not speak with reporters for the time being.\u00a0<\/p>\n Article continues below this ad<\/p>\n DART Board Chair Randall Bryant<\/a> said his agency had secured \u201cone of the most talented, sought-out transit executives\u201d in hiring Ford<\/a>, pointing to his decades of experience serving as CEO of transportation agencies in Atlanta, San Francisco and Jacksonville.\u00a0<\/p>\n Related: DART names Florida transit executive Nathaniel Ford CEO after divided board vote<\/a><\/p>\n Here\u2019s what to know about Ford.\u00a0<\/p>\n Long tenure<\/p>\n Ford started his career at the Metropolitan Transportation Authority in New York, according to his bio. DART officials said he started out as a train operator before climbing the ranks.\u00a0<\/p>\n Article continues below this ad<\/p>\n His next agency, according to his LinkedIn, was the San Francisco Bay Area Rapid Transit District, where he worked as an assistant chief transportation officer in 1992. In 2001, he became CEO of the Metropolitan Atlanta Rapid Transit Authority in Georgia.<\/p>\n Ford moved on to become CEO of the San Francisco Municipal Transportation Agency in 2006, then CEO at the JTA in 2012. He announced in early July he would step down from the job, effective in January.\u00a0<\/p>\n DART President and CEO candidate Nathaniel P. Ford Sr, speaks during a meet and greet, on Saturday, July 11, 2026 at Dallas Area Rapid Transit headquarters in Dallas.<\/p>\n Shafkat Anowar\/The Dallas Morning News<\/p>\n DART board member Gary Slagel said this announcement prompted DART to approach Ford, who had dropped out of consideration earlier in the hiring process, to reconsider his candidacy for the top job in Dallas.\u00a0<\/p>\n Ford has an MBA from Jacksonville University\u2019s Davis School of Business, according to a statement from DART, and a bachelor’s degree from Mercer University in Georgia. He also has education from Emory University and the John F. Kennedy School of Government at Harvard University.\u00a0<\/p>\n Article continues below this ad<\/p>\n Ford is married to Jannet Walker-Ford, an executive and former national transit and rail leader at WSP, an engineering and professional services consulting firm.\u00a0<\/p>\n WSP was involved in the Silver Line rail project<\/a> and has contracted with DART. According to reporting in the Florida Times-Union, the JTA also worked with WSP and had policies for how contracts were handled to avoid conflicts of interest.\u00a0<\/p>\n Previous questions<\/p>\n Ford\u2019s background also includes high pay and questions surrounding his spending and travel.\u00a0<\/p>\n Article continues below this ad<\/p>\n In San Francisco and Jacksonville, local outlets reported he was one of the highest-paid city employees.\u00a0<\/p>\n Related: DART\u2019s apparent CEO pick brings decades of experience \u2014 and scrutiny at past agencies<\/a><\/p>\n DART officials would not reveal Tuesday how much Ford will make in Dallas, but said it will be similar to past CEO pay and Ford will take a pay cut. Former CEO Nadine Lee, who stepped down in March, earned $412,000 in base pay annually in 2025.\u00a0<\/p>\n Jacksonville station WJAX-TV reported Ford spent tens of thousands of dollars on travel while serving as the JTA\u2019s CEO, including international trips, mostly for conferences or transit-related events.<\/p>\n Bryant said travel at Ford\u2019s past agency had been approved and his expenses were audited.<\/p>\n Article continues below this ad<\/p>\n According to 2006 reporting in the Atlanta Business Chronicle on audits of his spending, Ford and his secretaries charged nearly $150,000 over his five years at MARTA to agency credit cards that its board did not know about.<\/p>\n DART President and CEO candidate Nathaniel P. Ford Sr, interacts with crowd during a meet and greet, on Saturday, July 11, 2026 at Dallas Area Rapid Transit headquarters in Dallas.<\/p>\n Shafkat Anowar\/The Dallas Morning News<\/p>\n The costs were primarily business-related but should have been curtailed, officials said at the time, and the audit also found personal spending, according to the Chronicle.\u00a0<\/p>\n High praise<\/p>\n Jacksonville Mayor Donna\u00a0Deegan said Dallas is scoring a great leader. She called Ford \u201ca visionary\u201d and said she was disappointed he is leaving Florida but not surprised DART hired him.<\/p>\n Article continues below this ad<\/p>\n \u201cHe is constantly trying to look to the next innovation and what can make us a leader,\u201d she told The Dallas Morning News. \u201cMany of the projects we’ve been able to fund here have been because of the relationships he’s established and the vision that he’s had<\/a>.\u201d<\/p>\n One of Ford\u2019s \u201ccrowning achievements\u201d in Jacksonville, according to his bio, is the city\u2019s autonomous vehicle program. Some city leaders have questioned the success and future of the program, but\u00a0Deegan said the JTA is looking at the future, not for immediate results \u2014 \u201cpeople are very slow to adapt to new things,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n<\/p>\n
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