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Stephanie Wiggins named new L.A. Metro CEO

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Stephanie Wiggins (303579)
Stephanie Wiggins Credit: Metrolink

Last Thursday, Mayor Eric Garcetti announced that the Metro Board of Directors voted to appoint Stephanie Wiggins to be the next Metro Chief Executive Officer. Wiggins, currently the CEO of Metrolink, will be the first woman, and first Black woman, to serve in this role at Metro. She will succeed retiring CEO Phil Washington in May.

“Metro is in the midst of a generational transformation that will mean more jobs for local workers, more growth for our economy, and more ways for Angelenos to move around our region — and nobody is better prepared to carry the torch of progress than Stephanie Wiggins,” said Garcetti, who also serves as Metro Board chair. “Stephanie’s career makes her ideally suited to lead this agency at this moment: She’s experienced, determined, committed to equity, and steeped in L.A.’s transportation history, and she is the perfect candidate to carry Metro into its next chapter.”

As Metro’s CEO, Wiggins will manage a budget of nearly $7 billion, oversee up to $20 billion in capital construction projects, and an agency with 11,000 employees that transports more than a half-million boarding passengers daily on a fleet of 2,200 buses and six rail lines.

Previously, as CEO of Metrolink since December 2018, Wiggins directed an agency which operates a regional passenger rail network that connects riders across a six-county, 538 route-mile system. Prior to taking on that post, Wiggins served as Deputy CEO of Metro, where she assisted the CEO in advancing the agency’s primary objectives, including the implementation of projects made possible by Measure M. Wiggins has a Master of Business Administration degree from the USC Marshall School of Business. She is the recipient of a wide range of awards, including the Conference of Minority Transportation Officials’ 2018 Women Who Move the Nation Award and League of Railway Women’s 2020 Railway Woman of the Year Award.

“I am honored by the opportunity to return to LA Metro as its CEO and am grateful to Mayor Garcetti and the LA Metro Board for the faith they have placed in me for this important role. I am thankful to my team at Metrolink for all of our successes together – and those that are still to come throughout this transition and as we work together in the future,” said Wiggins. “LA County has great mobility needs that we must develop with goals of achieving better health, opportunity and equity for all of the region’s residents, and I look forward to bringing transformative leadership and collaboration with the region’s transportation authorities to make this vision a reality.”

Wiggins replaces retiring Metro CEO Phil Washington, who served the agency for six years.

“Phil Washington has been a visionary leader, a force for trailblazing growth and lasting progress across our transit network,” added Garcetti. “Phil leaves this agency better off than he found it — a legacy of an expanding public transportation system that gets Angelenos where they need to go and remains a force for sustainability, equity, jobs, workforce development, and shared prosperity across the L.A. area.”

“I have worked closely with Stephanie for many years and she has earned my trust and respect with her leadership, intellect, and dedication to mobility and to the people of Los Angeles County and Southern California,” said Washington. “I am thrilled with the Metro Board’s selection, and I know Stephanie is the right person to lead the agency into the future.”

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