DALLAS – The chief financial officer of the Texas Department of Transportation, James Bass, will head the agency as executive director, a position he held on an interim basis in 2014.
The Texas Transportation Commission, an appointed board that governs TxDOT, named Bass to the post on Dec. 17. He will begin the new assignment Jan. 1.
As CFO since 2005, Bass has supervised billions of dollars of bond sales, including a record issuance in 2014.
Bass began his TxDOT career in 1985 working summers in the Fort Worth District and as an engineer aide in the Austin District while earning his bachelor's degree in accounting at the University of Texas at Austin.
In November 1999, Bass was selected as TxDOT's finance division director before becoming chief financial officer.
Bass was named acting executive director at the beginning of 2014 after the departure of Phil Wilson, a close associate of then-Gov. Rick Perry who left TxDOT to head the Lower Colorado River Authority. When Joe Weber, Perry's former roommate at Texas A&M University, was named to fill the post in April 2014, Bass returned to the CFO position.
Weber, a retired lieutenant general for the U.S. Marine Corps, led the agency during an eventful legislative session this year that dramatically increased funding for TxDOT.
