The Metropolitan Atlanta Rapid Transit Authority board voted last week to hire Keith T. Parker as general manager and chief executive officer.
Parker has been president and CEO of VIA Metropolitan Transit in San Antonio, Texas, since July 2009.
He is replacing Beverly Scott, who is leaving MARTA to head the Massachusetts Bay Transportation Authority. Scott has headed MARTA since 2007. She decided not to renew her five-year contract and leaves later this year.
The terms of Parker’s contract will be negotiated. “This is a bittersweet choice for me,” he said in a release on VIA’s website. “Although my family and I have grown very fond of VIA and San Antonio, MARTA is the right choice for us now.” Parker said the move would put his family closer to relatives “in the mid-Atlantic region, while leading one of the most dynamic transit agencies in the nation.”
Before working at VIA, Parker was the assistant city manager for Charlotte, N.C., from 2004 to 2007. Before that he was CEO of the Clark County Transit Authority in Vancouver, Wash., and deputy director of the transit agency in Richmond, Va.
Parker received his bachelor’s and master’s degrees from the Virginia Commonwealth University and a master’s of business administration from the University of Richmond. He is a certified urban planner with the American Institute of Certified Planners.
