MARTA interim CEO Jonathan Hunt gets permanent job

But Board Chair Jennifer Ide said Thursday that Hunt’s performance overseeing MARTA over the last year — a pivotal time that included the FIFA World Cup and the advancement of several major capital projects — showed he’s the best person for the job among a field of “exceptional” candidates.

“We could not be more excited to have Jonathan on board in this permanent role,” Ide said. “He inherited the interim job a year ago with high expectations and a very long list of major projects coming online at one of the most transformational moments in MARTA’s history. Through it all he led with passion, with dedication and with unwavering dedication.

“He met the moment and delivered.”

Hunt said Thursday that the last year has been a journey, and he thanked his colleagues and the board for their confidence in him. He said it was a good year but the agency has “a long way to go” and he was eager to get started, borrowing a line often said by Mayor Andre Dickens that Atlanta is “a group project.”

“Well, so is MARTA, and going forward we’re going to go in a collaborative way so that everybody feels a part of that group project versus MARTA standing alone,” Hunt said.

The board has not negotiated a contract with Hunt. His predecessor had an annual base salary of $446,250 and was eligible for annual bonuses up to 5% at the board’s discretion.

Ide said in an interview the board intends to set objective criteria for what could earn Hunt a bonus.

“We haven’t always had that in place in a way that’s clear to the public or, frankly, clear to the board, of what does success look like,” Ide said. “That is a real change that we want to put in place.”

Ide said success, for her, would involve increasing ridership and ensuring that MARTA’s four jurisdictional partners feel the transit agency is delivering on its promises.

Hunt came to MARTA in 2014 as its chief legal counsel, a job he held until last year when he was tapped to lead the agency on an interim basis. Before that, he worked for the city of Atlanta and private law firms.

Hunt told the board in his application letter that he’s focused his time as interim on two top priorities: increasing ridership and improving the customer experience. In the 10 months he’s served as chief, rail ridership is up 30% compared with the 10 previous months, according to federal ridership data. Bus ridership has not budged.

Rail ridership has been counted differently since January, when the agency began using statistical modeling to count passengers while fare gates have been under construction. Officials have said it’s more accurately capturing ridership because, previously, fare evasion was resulting in significant undercounts.

It also includes ridership from June when the FIFA World Cup tournament began. June ridership was about half a million trips higher than the average monthly ridership in 2026.

Credit: arvin.temkar@ajc.com

Credit: arvin.temkar@ajc.com

About a half-dozen major projects were in progress when Hunt took over, including the first substantive redesign of MARTA’s bus routes since the agency’s founding, as well as the introduction of new trains, a new fare payment and faregate system and the region’s first bus rapid transit line.

Other than the bus network redesign, the remaining projects are still in progress, with some months behind schedule.

A year ago, the agency was facing criticism from many political, business and civic leaders who found Greenwood difficult to work with. Hunt, who is regularly seen riding the system, said he’s made it a priority to be accessible to both officials and regular riders.

The hire won plaudits and head shakes

There were head shakes from several members of the public attending the meeting where Hunt’s selection was announced. Many had criticized MARTA services during public comment before the board voted on the new CEO.

But the decision won plaudits from many officials throughout the region, including Dickens, who said in a statement that he looked forward to continuing the work with Hunt.

“Hunt is prepared to hit the ground running, address the challenges facing the agency and strengthen faith and confidence in the very core of MARTA’s mission — providing safe, reliable transit to the people of this region,” Dickens said.

Atlanta Council member Thomas Worthy, who served on MARTA’s board until last year when he stepped down to run for city council, said Hunt has done “heavy lifting” to rebuild relationships with Atlanta officials that had frayed under Greenwood’s leadership.

Worthy, who is vice chairman of the council’s transportation committee, said he was impressed by all the finalists but agreed with the board that Hunt was the best option.

“I know he has both the smarts as well as the heart for MARTA,” Worthy said. “But equally as important to me is that he understands Atlanta and the people of Atlanta, and understands them not just as ridership numbers.”

Ide, MARTA’s chair, said the board’s charge to Hunt will change now that he has the job permanently. As interim, his job was to essentially ensure MARTA was prepared for the World Cup.

“I turned to him after the vote and I said: ‘Jonathan, it’s now Day One. I know you’ve been in the seat for a year, but now is the beginning of your job,’” Ide said. “He’s going to get a whole new set of marching orders now because we need to take what we did for FIFA, which was extraordinary, and make that the day-to-day experience of our riders.”

Katie Kirkpatrick, the president and CEO of the Metro Atlanta Chamber and one of Hunt’s advisers over the last year, echoed Ide’s comment.

“He must bring urgency and bold leadership to the transformation of the system,” Kirkpatrick said in a statement. “The work ahead is significant, and our region should expect a MARTA that is safe, reliable, and determined to be extraordinary every day.”

David Ward, the head of the union representing MARTA employees, said he would have preferred to see Leroy Jones, the finalist from the Washington Metropolitan Area Transit Authority, selected because of his experience serving as a chief operations officer there.

“There were other candidates that just had more hands-on transit experience,” Ward said. “If you look around the industry, those candidates that have experience from the chief operations officer position, they tend to fare well.”

But Ward said Hunt has been a good listener and communication between MARTA leadership and the union has improved since Hunt took over the job temporarily.

Hunt said he looks forward to working with all of MARTA’s employees, those represented by the union and not. He said employees’ passion for the job was a large factor in his decision to seek the permanent position.

“They really care about MARTA,” Hunt said. MARTA employees are “getting mom and dad to their work in the morning long before many people are even awake.”