Board Members

The governing arm of the CTA is the Chicago Transit Board. According to the Metropolitan Transit Authority Act, which created and governs the CTA, "the governing and administrative body of the Authority shall be a board consisting of seven members, to be known as Chicago Transit Board. Members of the Board shall be residents of the metropolitan area and persons of recognized business ability" (Sec. 19). "...the Governor, by and with the advice and consent of the Senate, shall appoint three members of the Board... the Mayor, with advice and consent of the City Council of the City of Chicago, shall appoint four members of the Board..." (Sec. 20). Sec. 22 of the Act provides for a chairman to be selected from among the seven Board members.

Below is a list of the Chicago Transit Board members from the CTA's creation in 1945 through today:

 

Chairman	Appointed by	Term	Board Members	Appointed by	Term
Philip Harrington	Mayor	1945-1949	William W. McKenna	Mayor	1945-1971
			John Quincy Adams	Governor	1945-1947
			George F. Getz, Jr.	Governor	1945-1947
			Philip W. Collins	Governor	1945-1958
			Irving L. Porter	Mayor	1945-1950
			James R. Quinn	Mayor	1945-1976
			Guy. A. Richardson	Governor	1945-1954
Ralph Budd	Mayor	1949-1952	John S. Miller	Governor	1949-1956
			John Holmes	Mayor	1952-1958
Virgil E. Gunlock	Mayor	1952-1963	Werner W. Schroeder	Mayor	1954-1960
			Bernice T. Van der Vries	Governor	1957-1971
			Edward F. Moore	Governor	1958-1963
			Joseph D. Murphy	Mayor	1958-1969
			Raymond D. Peacock	Governor	1961-1970
			James E. Rutherford	Governor	1963-1969
George L. DeMent	Mayor	1963-1971	Ernie Banks	Governor	1969-1981
			Wallace D. Johnson	Governor	1970-1976
			Clair M. Roddewig1	Mayor	1970-1975
Michael J. Cafferty	Mayor	1971-1973	Donald Walsh	Mayor	1971-1978
			Lawrence C. Sucsy	Governor	1971-1979
Milton Pikarsky	Mayor	1973-1975	Edward F. Brabec	Mayor	1975-1979
James J. McDonough2	Mayor	1976-1979	Mathilda A. Jakubowski	Governor	1976-1979
			James P. Gallagher	Mayor	1978-1986
			John J. Hoellen	Governor	1979-1990
			Howard C. Medley, Sr.	Mayor	1979-1989
			Nick Ruggiero	Governor	1979-1987
Eugene M. Barnes	Mayor	1979-1982	Michael I. Brady	Mayor	1981-1985
			Jordan J. Hillman	Governor	1981-1987
Michael A. Cardilli	Mayor	1982-1986	James I. Charlton	Mayor	1986-1994
Walter Clark	Mayor	1986-1988	Natalia Delgado	Mayor	1986-1992
			J. Douglas Donenfeld	Governor	1987-2003
			Milton Holzman	Governor	1987-1996
Clark Burrus	Mayor	1988-1995	Arthur F. Hill, Jr.	Mayor	1989-1996
			Kim B. Fox	Governor	1990-1996
			Guadalupe Reyes	Mayor	1992-2000
Valerie B. Jarrett	Mayor	1995-2003	Karen M. Dichiser	Mayor	1995-2002
			Susan A. Leonis	Governor	1996-2009
			Donald Jackson	Mayor	1998-2002
			William E. Dugan	Governor	1999-2000
			Alejandro Silva	Mayor	2001-2023
			Victor Reyes	Mayor	2001-2003
			Alan Drazek	Governor	2000-2002
			John Catlin	Mayor	2002-2004
			Rev. Charles E. Robinson	Mayor	2002-2015
			Cynthia A. Panayotovich	Governor	2002-2009
Carole L. Brown	Mayor	2003-2009	Nicholas A. Zagotta	Governor	2004-2008
			Henry T. Chandler, Jr.	Mayor	2006-2011
			Sheila Nix	Governor	2008-2009
Terry Peterson	Mayor	2009-2020	Jacquelyne "Jacky" Grimshaw	Governor	2009-2015
			John Bouman	Governor	2009-2013
			Katie McClain	Governor	2009-2012
			Kevin Irvine	Mayor	2012-2022
			Ashish Sen	Governor	2012-2016
			Frank Zuccarelli	Governor	2013
			Robert Lewis	Governor	2014-2015
			Arabel Alva Rosales	Governor	2015-2022
			Andre Youngblood	Governor	2015-2019
			Rev. Johnny L. Miller	Mayor	2016-current
			Robert Patterson	Governor	2018-2019
			Rev. Dr. L. Bernard Jakes	Governor	2019-current
			Judge Gloria Chevere	Governor	2019-2022
Lester Barclay	Mayor	2021-current	Michele A. Lee	Mayor	2022-current
			Neema Jha	Governor	2022-current
			Rosa Y. Ortiz	Governor	2022-current
			Georgette L. Greenlee	Mayor	2023-current

Notes:
1. Roddewig served as Acting Chairman upon DeMent's death. Other vice chairmen acted similarly.
2. McDonough was Acting Chairman from Feb-Oct 1976, Chairman from Oct 1976-1979, and continued to serve as a board member until 1980.

Sec. 27 for the Metropolitan Transit Authority Act provides for the Board the appoint an a chief operating officer to "have management of the properties and business of the Authority and the employees thereof, subject to the general control of the Board," and who "shall direct the enforcement of all ordinances, resolutions, rules and regulations of the Board, and shall perform such other duties as may be prescribed from time to time by the Board."

The position was originally called "General Manager" when first created in 1947. In 1976, the name of the position was changed to "Executive Director" in 1992, it became "President". However, the duties of the job remained basically the same throughout.

Below is a list of the CTA chief operating officers from the beginning of CTA's operating of transit service in 1947 through today:

 

Name	Title	Term
Walter J. McCarter	General Manager	1947-1964
Thomas B. O'Connor	General Manager	1964-1973
Milton Pikarski, J. Aurand, T. Hill, P. Kole, and George Krambles	Management Committee	1973-1975
George Krambles	General Manager (until Oct. 1976); Executive Director (after Oct. 1976)	1976-1980
Theodore G. Schuster	Executive Director	1981-1982
Bernard J. Ford	Executive Director	1982-1985
Robert E. Paaswell	Executive Director	1986-1989
Bernard J. Ford	Engagement Manager	1989-1990
Alfred H. Savage	Executive Director	1990-1992
Robert P. Belcaster	President	1992-1995
David Mosena	President	1995-1997
Frank Kruesi	President	1997-2007
Ron Huberman	President	2007-2009
Dorval J. Carter, Jr.	Acting President	2009
Richard L. Rodriguez	President	2009-2011
Forrest Claypool	President	2011-2015
Dorval J. Carter, Jr.	President	2015-current