{"id":932931,"date":"2026-07-13T22:37:21","date_gmt":"2026-07-13T22:37:21","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/932931\/"},"modified":"2026-07-13T22:37:21","modified_gmt":"2026-07-13T22:37:21","slug":"dart-to-name-ceo-finalist-on-tuesday","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/932931\/","title":{"rendered":"DART to name CEO finalist on Tuesday"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p data-v-94395e58=\"\"><strong>DALLAS<\/strong> &#8211; Dallas&#8217; biggest public transportation company will vote on who they want their next President and CEO to be tomorrow.<\/p>\n<p> DART CEO finalists   <img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/v-dart-ceo-candidate-photo_00.00.00.00.jpg\" alt=\"\" loading=\"lazy\" fetchpriority=\"auto\" width=\"932\" height=\"524\" data-v-2fe2fe3e=\"\"\/>  <\/p>\n<p original-article-post=\"\" origination_station=\"KDFW\" data-v-ec26887a=\"\" data-v-94395e58=\"\">What we know:<\/p>\n<p data-v-94395e58=\"\">DART announced the three finalists for its President\/CEO position on Friday. They are:<\/p>\n<ul original-article-post=\"\" origination_station=\"KDFW\" data-v-03e8ff79=\"\" data-v-94395e58=\"\">\n<li class=\"article-ct\" data-v-03e8ff79=\"\">Nathaniel P. Ford Sr., CEO of the Jacksonville Transportation Authority<\/li>\n<li class=\"article-ct\" data-v-03e8ff79=\"\">Dee Leggett, AICP, Director of Business Operations for Herzot Transit Services, Inc.<\/li>\n<li class=\"article-ct\" data-v-03e8ff79=\"\">Monica Tellez-Fowler, President\/CEO of the Central Ohio Transit Authority<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p data-v-94395e58=\"\">DART&#8217;s Chairman of the Board says three dozen applications were sent in for the job.<\/p>\n<p> <img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/v-dart-service-world-cup-4a-_kdfwc40a_146_mxf_00.00.35.36.jpg\" alt=\"\" loading=\"lazy\" fetchpriority=\"auto\" width=\"932\" height=\"524\" data-v-2fe2fe3e=\"\"\/>  <\/p>\n<p original-article-post=\"\" origination_station=\"KDFW\" data-v-ec26887a=\"\" data-v-94395e58=\"\">Dig deeper:<\/p>\n<p data-v-94395e58=\"\">Ford&#8217;s tenure in Jacksonville has seen investigations into the Jacksonville Transportation Authority, or JTA.<\/p>\n<p data-v-94395e58=\"\">In 2024, Florida&#8217;s Office of the Inspector General looked into concerns about taxpayer funds being spent on extensive travel, including a $10,000 trip to Spain.<\/p>\n<p data-v-94395e58=\"\">FOX 30 in Jacksonville reported that JTA records state half of Ford&#8217;s time with the JTA has been spent outside the office traveling.<\/p>\n<p> DART CEO candidates speak <\/p>\n<p original-article-post=\"\" origination_station=\"KDFW\" data-v-ec26887a=\"\" data-v-94395e58=\"\">What they&#8217;re saying:<\/p>\n<p data-v-94395e58=\"\">&#8220;I want to address the pink elephant in the room.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p data-v-94395e58=\"\">Ford addressed concerns over his travel schedule with Dallas City Council members and the public at a DART event on Saturday. He argued his travel has brought clout to the JTA.<\/p>\n<p data-v-94395e58=\"\">&#8220;It&#8217;s not public transit, it&#8217;s people transit. Let&#8217;s put the people in front of every decision we make,&#8221; Ford said. &#8220;To make sure that we&#8217;re not just using the lens of finance and construction as the lens for determining what decisions we make.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p> <img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/v-lori-dart-ceo-vote-tuesday-4p_00.00.28.40.jpg\" alt=\"\" loading=\"lazy\" fetchpriority=\"auto\" width=\"932\" height=\"524\" data-v-2fe2fe3e=\"\"\/>  <\/p>\n<p data-v-94395e58=\"\">Leggett, previously DART&#8217;s Executive Vice President and Chief Development Officer, received an endorsement from the Dallas Area Transit Alliance on Monday.<\/p>\n<p data-v-94395e58=\"\">&#8220;When I think about where DART should be ten years from now, I see an organization recognized as North Texas&#8217; trusted mobility and economic development partner,&#8221; Leggett said.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p data-v-94395e58=\"\">&#8220;An organization our employees are proud to serve. What customers choose with confidence. One, our cities view as an indispensable partner.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p> <img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/v-lori-dart-ceo-vote-tuesday-4p_00.00.40.58.jpg\" alt=\"\" loading=\"lazy\" fetchpriority=\"auto\" width=\"932\" height=\"524\" data-v-2fe2fe3e=\"\"\/>  <\/p>\n<p data-v-94395e58=\"\">Monica Tellez-Fowler spent time in Texas as CFO of Trinity Metro from 2015-2019.<\/p>\n<p data-v-94395e58=\"\">&#8220;Texas is home. I have loved doing everything I&#8217;ve done everywhere else, but I would love to do the work that I&#8217;m passionate about, that I believe in, for my hometown,&#8221; Tellez-Fowler said.<\/p>\n<p> <img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/v-lori-dart-ceo-vote-tuesday-4p_00.00.53.36.jpg\" alt=\"\" loading=\"lazy\" fetchpriority=\"auto\" width=\"932\" height=\"524\" data-v-2fe2fe3e=\"\"\/>  <\/p>\n<p original-article-post=\"\" origination_station=\"KDFW\" data-v-ec26887a=\"\" data-v-94395e58=\"\">What&#8217;s next:<\/p>\n<p data-v-94395e58=\"\">The DART board will vote on a finalist at a meeting on Tuesday, and hopes to finalize their next leader&#8217;s contract in the next few weeks or months.<\/p>\n<p> Previous DART CEO Nadine Lee leaves company <\/p>\n<p original-article-post=\"\" origination_station=\"KDFW\" data-v-ec26887a=\"\" data-v-94395e58=\"\">The backstory:<\/p>\n<p data-v-94395e58=\"\">DART has been led by David Leninger as its Interim President &amp; CEO since April. The company terminated outgoing CEO Nadine Lee&#8217;s contract when the two sides could not come to a severance agreement.<\/p>\n<p data-v-94395e58=\"\">Lee, who had led the transportation company since 2021, announced she would not seek to extend her contract in March.<\/p>\n<p>  <img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/r2pja65gkiopqdfd.jpg\" alt=\"PREVIOUS COVERAGE: DART's first female CEO explains decision to leave\" class=\"sr-only\" data-v-892ef6a8=\"\"\/>  <img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/r2pja65gkiopqdfd.jpg\" alt=\"PREVIOUS COVERAGE: DART's first female CEO explains decision to leave\" loading=\"eager\" fetchpriority=\"high\" class=\"vod-poster-image\" data-v-6546b402=\"\"\/>   <\/p>\n<p data-v-94395e58=\"\">She pointed to recent &#8220;political hurdles&#8221; for the service when examining her time with DART in an interview with FOX 4&#8217;s Shaun Rabb.<\/p>\n<p data-v-94395e58=\"\">&#8220;But at the broader level, we&#8217;ve encountered a lot of political hurdles, and that&#8217;s one of the things that has distracted us from our mission, distracted us from moving faster at improving the quality of our services and things like that.<\/p>\n<p data-v-94395e58=\"\">Hurdles included DART withdrawal elections held in Addison, Highland Park and University Park in May. Addison and University Park voted to stay in DART&#8217;s service area, while Highland Park voted to leave.<\/p>\n<p class=\"group-source-paragraph\" data-v-4fbf7207=\"\"><b data-v-4fbf7207=\"\">The Source:<\/b> Information in this story comes from DART.<\/p>\n<p>    <a href=\"https:\/\/www.fox4news.com\/tag\/organization\/dart\" class=\"tags-tag\" data-v-94395e58=\"\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Dallas Area Rapid Transit<\/a><a href=\"https:\/\/www.fox4news.com\/tag\/us\/tx\/dallas-county\/dallas\" class=\"tags-tag\" data-v-94395e58=\"\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Dallas<\/a><a href=\"https:\/\/www.fox4news.com\/tag\/transportation\" class=\"tags-tag\" data-v-94395e58=\"\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Transportation<\/a> <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"DALLAS &#8211; Dallas&#8217; biggest public transportation company will vote on who they want their next President and CEO&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":932932,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[5135],"tags":[5229,1596,7290,40460,50,12632,358,522,3187,67,586,132,5230,68,2969],"class_list":["post-932931","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-dallas","tag-america","tag-dallas","tag-dallas-county","tag-dart","tag-news","tag-organization","tag-texas","tag-transportation","tag-tx","tag-united-states","tag-united-states-of-america","tag-unitedstates","tag-unitedstatesofamerica","tag-us","tag-usa"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@us\/116915068126687778","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/932931","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=932931"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/932931\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/932932"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=932931"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=932931"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=932931"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}