LRTA Names Brian Sullivan as Next Executive Director

The Lowcountry Regional Transportation Authority (LRTA), Bluffton, SC, has named transit industry veteran and current LRTA Director of Marketing & Communications Brian Sullivan as its next executive director. He will succeed Mary Lou Franzoni, who is to retire Nov. 1.

Sullivan has been a public transportation leader for nearly 30 years. He has been an integral part of the LRTA leadership team since 2018, when he started serving as a consultant, and since 2020 as a full-time employee. Between 1995 and 2016, he managed and led marketing and business development teams for First Transit, Tectrans/Keolis, and National Express Transit.

In 2016, Sullivan established the Lost Art Communications, LLC marketing consultancy, which has an emphasis on supporting public transportation agencies and suppliers. His assignments with Lost Art have included contracts in South Carolina, California, Arizona, and Virginia, with additional nationwide assignments supporting private-sector transit contracting and non-emergency medical transportation firms.

Mary Lou Franzoni has served as LRTA executive director since 2014, overseeing all operations of the five-county authority on behalf of the eight-member board of directors. LRTA owns and operates Palmetto Breeze, which includes daily service across the Lowcountry region.

Prior to her time with LRTA, Franzoni was general manager for First Transit, Inc. She also served as transportation director for Chapel Hill Transit, NC. She began her public transit career in 1983 as a supervisor/dispatcher for Blacksburg Transit in Virginia.