DART Names Nathaniel P. Ford Sr. President and CEO

Dallas Area Rapid Transit (DART) selected Nathaniel P. Ford Sr. to lead the agency as president and chief executive officer. DART Board Chair Randall Bryant said, “Ford brings a proven record of organizational transformation and a deep understanding that transit is about much more than buses and trains.”

Ford most recently served as Jacksonville Transportation Authority (JTA) chief executive officer for the past 13 years. JTA’s milestones under Ford’s leadership include developing the largest BRT network in the Southeastern U.S., supporting the passage of a tax extension generating $1 billion for regional infrastructure, implementing the first complete redesign of JTA’s transit system, and launching the nation’s first autonomous vehicle service in public transit.

Mayor Donna Deegan called Ford a dedicated partner who helped move the City of Jacksonville forward. “Under Mr. Ford’s leadership, our transportation authority became not only a model for innovation, but a catalyst for economic growth, attracting new businesses and creating quality jobs that strengthened Jacksonville’s future,” she said.

Ford is a nationally recognized transportation thought leader and has played key roles at APTA. He was APTA chair from 2017-2018 and sits on numerous APTA committees, including currently serving as chair of the Automated Vehicles Innovation Committee. He was also chair of the Transportation Research Board of the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine and served as U.S. policy board national ambassador for the International Association of Public Transport.

In 2020, he was named APTA’s Outstanding Public Transportation Manager and, under his leadership, JTA won the 2016 APTA Outstanding Public Transportation System Achievement Award. Also in 2016, he was acknowledged as a White House Champion of Change in Transportation by USDOT. In 2024, he received the Transportation Research Board’s Sharon D. Banks Award for Humanitarian Leadership in Transportation.

Ford began his transit career as a train driver. Since then, he has served as a superintendent at the New York Metropolitan Transportation Authority, assistant chief transportation officer at Bay Area Rapid Transit District, and was CEO at the San Francisco Municipal Transportation Agency and the Metropolitan Atlanta Rapid Transit Authority.