Jason C. Henry, B.Sc.
Manager of Transit
City of Grande Prairie (Grande Prairie Transit)
- One Word to Describe Yourself: Personable
- Alma Mater: University of Illinois Chicago & Trinity International University
- Favorite Book: "The Giving Tree"
- Favorite TV Show: "Sanford & Son," "House of Lies," "Family Guy," "The Boss," "Game of Thrones," "Breaking Bad," "House of Cards," "Survivor"
- Favorite Movie: "Love Actually," "A Challenge to be Free," "Coming to America," "The Guy From Harlem," "Scarface"
- Favorite Hobbies: All water sports, camping & hiking, downhill & x-country skiing, music, films
- Fun Fact: He was drafted in the 2nd round by the New York Yankees in 1997 as a pitcher
- Favorite Transit System (Outside of the one they have worked for): Chicago Transit Authority (CTA). It was his main mode of transportation in University and made keeping up with his favorite Chicago Marathon runners possible
Jason Henry enjoys that each day brings new and exciting challenges working in the transit industry as it’s one of the most innovative industries to be in right now. As transit manager in the city of Grande Prairie, he leads Grande Prairie Transit in a city with the prevalent car culture of Northern Alberta.
When he joined the organization, Henry brought the operations in house to gain flexibility and increase the focus on customer service and satisfaction. Within 15 months, he brought the operations in house and created the vision for the team.
Recently he deployed ITS technologies and used the opportunity to initiate a culture change. Henry garnered support from key decision makers and built a culture of innovation within the organization by laying out his vision for the future. He secured the necessary support and funding from the council to move the project forward, which has worked toward transforming people’s perception of transit.
He’s currently involved in working toward the city of Grande Prairie implementing North America’s first solar energy storage system to charge its electric buses completely off-grid.
Henry is involved in the industry through the Canadian Urban Transit Association (CUTA) and serves on the Executive Committee of the CUTA Prairies Provinces & Territories Chapter. Along with his colleagues and peers, he has contributed to raising the profile of public transit in Alberta and, for the very first time, the Alberta government is now in the process of developing a comprehensive provincial transit strategy.
“I have always had to work hard and take risks (big and small) my entire collegiate and professional career so I would say adding all of that up gave me the experience and courage to make the career change into public transit industry as a manager.”
“On day 1, I had a lot of questions, and 4 years later I still have questions and the thing I like most is that I can always count on my transit colleagues all over North America to share their experiences and ideas. The transit industry is comprised of the brightest and most gracious folks you’ll ever come across.”
