John B. Catoe Jr., general manager of the Washington Metropolitan Area Transit Authority (WMATA), announced Jan. 14 that he will resign his position effective April 2.

A Washington native and son of a D.C. cab driver, Catoe returned to the city in January 2007 when he joined WMATA as its general manager. He was previously deputy chief executive officer with Los Angeles County Metro, and earlier was director of transit services for the Big Blue Bus in Santa Monica, CA, and served the Orange County Transportation Authority in Orange, CA, for 17 years.

Catoe has shifted WMATA’s 30-year focus from construction to operations and customer service. During President Barack Obama’s inauguration, he oversaw record service, which included an unprecedented 17 hours of rush-hour rail availability. In the fall of 2008, he rallied the industry to leverage its collective power on the courts and on Capitol Hill to resolve transit leasing agreements. The Metrorail accident in June 2009 in which six people died caused unprecedented media and public attention for WMATA.

His APTA activities have included chairing Leadership APTA and serving as co-chair of the Legislative Committee’s Reauthorization Task Force. In October 2009, he was honored as APTA’s Outstanding Public Transportation Manager during its Annual Meeting in Orlando, FL.

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