Ron Tober, the former CEO of the Charlotte Area Transit System (CATS) and a nationally recognized expert in transit agency management and operations, has been named a senior advisor at Parsons Brinckerhoff.
In his new position, Tober will assist the firm’s clients on transit policy and strategy. He will be based in Parsons Brinckerhoff’s Charlotte office. He comes to Parsons Brinckerhoff from InfraConsult, LLC where he worked as an advisor on the creation of the Honolulu Authority for Transportation and the Honolulu rail project during 2011 and 2012.
Tober has 43 years of experience in public transportation and has held leadership positions at transit agencies across the country. Recently, he assisted the Central Indiana Corporate Partnership as an independent contractor working on the planning and execution of a strategy to develop new transit options in the Indianapolis region.
In 2009 and 2010, Tober was deputy CEO at Sound Transit in Seattle, responsible for day-to-day management of business operations for the agency. Prior to that, he was executive director of Charlotte Trolley, Inc., a private, non-profit organization dedicated to historic preservation and education concerning the role that streetcars played in the development of Charlotte.
From 1999 to 2007, Tober was CEO of CATS. During his tenure, he created the CATS organization and opened the highly successful LYNX Blue Line, the region’s first light rail system.
He previously served for 12 years as general manager of the Greater Cleveland Regional Transit Authority, director of transit for Seattle Metro, CEO of the Pioneer Valley Transit Authority in Springfield, Mass., and other senior management positions at transit agencies nationwide including the Massachusetts Bay Transportation Authority in Boston and the Miami Dade Transit Agency.
Tober has been active in the American Public Transportation Association (APTA), serving for eight years on the executive committee including stints as the secretary-treasurer and board chair. He has received numerous awards, including APTA’s Outstanding Transit Manager of the Year in 2005 and Executive of the Year awards from the Women’s Transportation Seminar and the Conference of Minority Transportation Officials. He was inducted into the North Carolina Transportation Hall of Fame in 2008.
Tober earned an M.S. in operations research from Case Western University and a B.S. in industrial engineering from Cornell University.
