personnel

There's a rumor been circulating that Jose Maria Lopez was "pushed out" at Cintra US and that was the reason for the quiet departure - no announcement. We thought maybe he was disillusioned with the political turn against concessions in Texas.

A Xerox ACS official tells us veteran toller Alan Allegretto is joining them to be a Leader Toll Collection Operations working directly to Ken Philmus. His formal title will be Vice President Transportation Solutions

This is a big personnel change we should have picked up months ago even though no one made any announcements. Jose Maria Lopez de Fuentes (Lopez) one of the major figures in PPP/private sector tolling in North America for over a decade quietly departed Cintra late last summer (August we think) and his offices in Austin Texas.

Illinois State Toll Highway Administration, commonly known as the Illinois Tollway, is conducting a recruitment for a new executive-director (ED). Applications and resumes are being accepted Feb 8 through 24. The past couple of years have been tumultuous at the Tollway following the impeachment and removal from office of the state governor Rod Blagojevich. (CORRECTION)

Jim Crawford, the blunt spoken executive-director of the E-ZPass Inter Agency Group (IAG) will step down from his position at the country's leading electronic toll collection cooperative when his employment contract expires in late May 2010. The search has begun for his successor.

Mary Z Connaughton board member of the just disbanded Massachusetts Turnpike Authority and a Republican is running for the elected position of state auditor against incumbent Democrat Joe DeNucci.  The election is Nov 2010.

Two major personalities have recently departed North Texas Tollway Authority without there being any announcement. The quiet departees are:

- Rick Herrington, former #2 and deputy executive director

- Susan Buse, former chief financial officer

Donald Cohrs is transitioning from Transtoll to TransCore. At TransCore he'll be an associate VP and area manager Mid Atlantic with an emphasis on maintenance and customer service.

Cohrs was effectively number 2 at the North America offices of Transtoll led by Dan Toohey in Delaware.

Teri Argabright, former operations director at the South Bay Expressway has joined Parson Brinckerhoff (PB) soon to be part of Balfour Beatty. She's an associate vice-president and will be a PB project manager for toll systems work on toll roads and toll lanes projects in the southwest.

Massachusetts Turnpike chief Jeffrey B Mullan is the new secretary of transport in Massachusettts and will also be executive director of the new Massachusetts Department of Transportation (MassDOT).

Transtoll the Macquarie-owned toll systems company has lost Wendy Viellenave to HNTB and Steve Finn to TransCore from their North American office. Viellenave a veteran toll customer service and marketing person was with Transtoll for about two years and will join an HNTB toll operations group. Finn who was chief technology officer at Transtoll North America has gone back to TransCore and is working out of California.

Charlie Mitchell former general manager at TRMI started work today as VP Sales at ACS Transportation Solutions (ACS-TS). Mitchell, who is in his early 50s, had been at the smaller, well-regarded Hudson Valley NY company for about 15 years.

At ACS-TS he'll focus on the northeast. ACS Transportation is based in Germantown MD.

Their biggest contracts are back office operations for E-ZPass in New York, New Jersey and several other states.

TOLLROADSnews 2009-08-31

With the Massachusetts Turnpike Authority nearing its end some of its senior officers are finding new employment. And it's looking high profile stuff.

Delaware River Port Authority (DRPA) commissioners have appointed Timothy Pulte, a former commercial real estate partner and president as their chief operating officer.

Charlie Mitchell has left TRMI after a number of years as VP and general manager. Steven Rosakranse, Executive Vice President of TRMI, will add to his responsibilities the role of General Manager. (CORRECTION)

Mark IV IVHS the Mississauga Ontario based-business that provides the transponders and readers for the E-ZPass Inter Agency Group is losing Martin Capper, president since 2001 and a senior officer there previously.  Capper has presided over the growth of Mark IV into the largest supplier of electronic toll equipment in north America.

North Texas Tollway Authority's board has appointed Allen Clemson their new executive director, effective June 1. Clemson, 60, is completely new to the toll industry. His most recent job was special assistant to the vice chancellor of University of North Texas (UNT) Dallas Campus where his bio describes him as overseeing administration and finance.

Harvey Goodwin, administrator of the Bureau of Turnpikes in the New Hampshire DOT since 1997 has retired from there last week at age 60. A civil engineer he worked most of his career in NHDOT, first in construction, then in bridge maintenance where he rose to the top. At the Turnpikes bureau he went through the conversion to electronic tolling and his last big push was for toll increases and to get authority to put open road tolling in at the I-95 mainline plaza in Hampton - with enabling legislation passed in the week of his retirement.

The Pennsylvania Turnpike Commission says that the state secretary of transportation Allen Biehler "was recently named chairman..." We looked at Governor Rendell's news releases to see if he'd named Biehler. Nothing. Apparently the Commission "names" its own. In this case Biehler as state secretary of transportation was already an ex-officio commissioner.

The salaries paid to Mike Snyder Orlando toll's executive director and other senior staff came under fire at the first meeting of a Citizens Advisory Committee (CAC) from the committee chairman, former senator Dan Webster. Webster said he had identified over $600k/year in salary cuts needed at the Orlando Orange County (Toll) Expressway Authority, singling out executive director Mike Snyder.