The agency that runs the trains and buses most downtown workers, residents and visitors depend on is days away from naming a permanent boss. The Metropolitan Atlanta Rapid Transit Authority's board of directors interviewed three finalists for general manager and CEO on Aug. 10 and expects to name its pick at its regular board meeting on Aug. 13.
One of the three is already in the job on an interim basis. Jonathan Hunt has served as MARTA's interim general manager and CEO since August 2025. He joined the agency in 2014 and spent more than a decade in its legal department as chief of corporate law and real estate, deputy chief counsel and chief legal counsel. Before MARTA he was a senior assistant city attorney for Atlanta handling aviation matters for Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta International Airport, practiced law at Dentons and Baker & Hostetler, and worked as a project engineer for Gilbane Building Co.
The outside candidates both come from large peer systems. Cleveland Ferguson III is executive vice president and chief administrative officer of the Jacksonville Transportation Authority, a post he has held since 2023 after joining the agency in 2015 as senior vice president and chief administrative officer. He oversees administrative operations, strategic planning and economic development there, including public-private partnerships and transit-oriented development. Leroy Jones is executive vice president and chief operating officer of the Washington Metropolitan Area Transit Authority, a role he took on in 2025 after more than 26 years at the agency, rising from entry-level track laborer through superintendent of track maintenance, vice president and then senior vice president of bus services, and chief transportation officer.
MARTA hired executive search firm Diversified Search Group to run the process after a competitive selection. The search reached across the transportation sector, including transit agencies at the federal and state levels, airports and airlines, freight and passenger railroads, port authorities and logistics companies, and the firm contacted more than 250 candidates. Board chair Jennifer Ide, who is leading the search, called the choice one of the most consequential decisions the board will make, said the region deserved a rigorous process, and said she was proud of the national search and the caliber of the three finalists it produced.
Whoever gets the job inherits real operational work. A new fleet of MARTA rail cars that was expected to be running by the time Atlanta hosted eight FIFA World Cup matches at Mercedes-Benz Stadium from June 15 to July 15 has still not been put into service. Federal attention has also increased: U.S. Transportation Secretary Sean P. Duffy ordered a Federal Transit Administration review of the system in early June.
The World Cup stretch offered a look at what the system can do at scale, which matters for a downtown that keeps drawing large events. MARTA officials said the system carried 4.7 million riders across the 35 days of events in metro Atlanta. Hundreds of MARTA officers worked nearly around the clock, with help from transit police from Denver and other jurisdictions, and 600 MARTA ambassadors and 100 multilingual FIFA volunteers handed out directions, water, sunscreen and first aid.
Original reporting: Rough Draft Atlanta (2026-08-10)
