Back in June, Sound Transit announced that it was hiring Celia Kupersmith to replace retiring Deputy CEO, Ron Tober. Kupersmith has now joined ST, bringing experience from her work in San Francisco where she was the GM of the Golden Gate Highway and Transportation District. The district runs transit service between San Francisco and Marin/Sonoma counties.
From Sound Transit’s press release:
“Celia is a nationally respected transit leader who brings extensive engineering, capital project management and operations experience to Sound Transit,” said Sound Transit CEO Joni Earl. “She will play a pivotal role in delivering high quality transit projects and services to the people of our region. We couldn’t be more thrilled to welcome her aboard.”
“Few transit systems nationally are growing as fast as Sound Transit’s, and none offer the professional challenges and opportunities that exist here,” Kupersmith said. “Sound Transit’s success in the years ahead will come from working with a broad range of partners including local governments and local transit agencies to deliver projects and services with tremendous focus on efficiency. There is not another agency in the country that could have lured me from the Golden Gate Bridge.”
While Tober left big shoes to fill, we wish Kupersmith the best of luck in helping carry out ST2.
Welcome to Seattle, Celia, and to the Puget Sound country. Of all the transit systems you could have picked, I think you’ll find this one far and away the most interesting in the country, and possibly one of the most unusual in the world.
A piece of information from the Norse culture that still clings to the north end of the Route 17 and the west terminal of the Route 44: our Tunnel has a patron deity in Valhalla. Reputation as a trickster aside, Loki is also known as… the god of unconventional solutions.
You’re going to have a good time here.
Mark Dublin
Welcome to Seattle! I lived in Marin County (Sausalito) when GGT first started its ferry and bus service way back in 1970 and vividly remember my first ferry ride to San Francisco on the ‘Golden Gate’.
How much is she being paid? Driver wages are on the block. Why not hers?
Why not? I can’t believe anybody in public transit doesn’t know the answer to that question! By The Seattle Times’ new reset-to-accept-your-limited-horizons-unless-you’re-a-billionaire formula, having your wages cut has to be earned by years of dedicated public service in some pretty demanding conditions. Golden Gate Transit probably had its off-days, but, face it, it’ll never be Cleveland or Pittsburgh for pay-cut-earning conditions.
So give the lady a chance. She looks like a hard, intelligent worker. So probably in five years or so, The Times will agree that her performance in our field gives her full rights to have her pay slashed alongside any regular Route 4 driver.
Mark Dublin
I suspect that if you want a really great, competent, proven leader to take the second pair of reins of a major organization, it would be a wise idea to pay enough to attract the very best person.
Walmart is great at paying lower wages and look at the kind of employee quality you have there.