LOS ANGELES — The leader of Los Angeles' airport enterprise will retire.
Executive Director Gina Marie Lindsey notified the Los Angeles World Airports board on Tuesday that she plans to retire in the spring to give officials time to find a replacement.
Lindsey, who was named to LAWA's top slot on June 2007, manages Los Angeles International, LA/Ontario International and Van Nuys airports.
LAWA is almost midway through $8.6 billion in improvements at LAX that are expected to be completed in fiscal year 2019. The airport, which has $3.5 billion in debt, planned to price $499 million in revenue bonds in a combined new money-refunding sale this week.
"This is an appropriate time for a transition," Lindsey said in a statement. "The next LAWA executive director will be able to take the Airports Development Program through its next major phase, its next round of projects that will last at least 20 years."
Mayor Eric Garcetti called Lindsay one of the nation's finest aviation executives.
"Her stewardship of Los Angeles World Airports strengthened operations and finances at Van Nuys Airport and helped Ontario Airport steer through a turbulent market, and it's only because of her exemplary leadership that LAX is executing the city's largest-ever public works program," Garcetti said in a statement.
Sean Burton, president of LAWA's board of commissioners, credited Lindsey with creating a strong team to transform LAX, responsibly managing operations and costs at LA/Ontario and moving Van Nuys into the black. The Ontario airport is the subject of a lawsuit in which Ontario's city leaders have been trying to wrest control of that airport from Los Angeles.
Over the course of her 39-year career, 33 of which were in the aviation industry, Lindsey worked in many leadership positions criss-crossing the U.S.
Immediately before joining LAWA, she worked as executive vice president of McBee Strategic Consulting, LLC, a government relations and aviation consulting firm in Washington, D.C. Before that, she was managing director of Seattle-Tacoma International Airport. She also worked as director of aviation for Anchorage International Airport. She began her career at the Alaska Department of Transportation on surface transportation issues.
She also has served on both the Airports Council International World Board and the Airport Cooperative Research Board under the National Academy of Sciences. She was the first female chairperson of the Airports Council International-North America, and chaired the Federal Aviation Federal Aviation Administration Management Advisory Council.
In January 2014, she was appointed to the seven-member Los Angeles Branch Board of Directors of the Federal Reserve Bank of San Francisco.
