Joe Alexander
President, The Alexander Group, Alexandria, VA
Consultant to Los Alamos Technical Associates, Inc.
Past APTA Chair
Member, APTA Board of Directors
Member, Leadership APTA Committee
Member, Member Services Committee

How many people do you employ? More than 500

How long have you worked in the public transportation industry? 45 years

How long have you been a member of APTA? 40 years

What drew you to a career in public transportation?
I never really thought about public transportation until I was elected to the Fairfax County Board of Supervisors in 1964. Then I was appointed to the Northern Virginia Transportation Commission and that led to my appointment to the Washington Metropolitan Area Transit Authority Board of Directors. That was during the time when we were designing and building the Metro system in the region. That is how I started—and it has led me to a very successful career in public transportation.

What have you found to be the most valuable APTA benefit or resource—that helps you do your job?
The networking and contacts with the many members of APTA: public transit systems, business members, FTA and the great staff work and support work from APTA, as well as the many APTA committees that tackle critical issues and produce workable solutions. The APTA meetings also allow a person to make business contacts and address the major transportation issues of the day, and this includes the issues addressed by the Business Member Board of Governors. APTA has been a great benefit to me personally and also to LATA. And I must mention being honored as a member of the APTA Hall of Fame.

Please explain why or how this has helped.
First, being active in APTA has allowed me to serve as vice chair and chair of APTA during some of the critical times in our industry. One of the most important missions at APTA is to encourage new and younger experienced leadership in our industry. The Leadership APTA program has been one of the most successful ventures that APTA has undertaken and I treasure the time I have spent working with our up-and-coming transit and business managers.

What do you like most about your job?
Well, I do business development and marketing for LATA. That allows me to make many contacts with public transit systems all over the U.S. and work with all the transit officials that I know, as well as many transit-related businesses, and I also coordinate projects with our LATA technical staff. I am a people person and I love my job.

What is unique about your agency or business that readers would be surprised to learn?
LATA is a service disabled veteran-owned engineering and information consulting firm founded in 1976. They started out with the designing, installation, and operation of highly specialized systems and processes for handling nuclear material. Since that time, they have moved into providing rail and bus systems wireless information and customer service options such as GPS, location and automated passenger announcements, security and video surveillance, Wi-Fi for trains, buses, and stations, as well as control center work stations and networks.

On a personal note, readers may be surprised to learn that I have been flying airplanes since I was 16 years old and I also have a Metro station named after me: the Joe Alexander Transportation Center at Springfield-Franconia on the Blue Line in Virginia.

Make sure you see Joe Alexander’s video, now that you've read this!