Carolyn Flowers, chief operating officer of the Los Angeles County Metropolitan Transportation Authority, has been tapped as the new director and CEO of CATS.
Charlotte City Manager Curt Walton announced her appointment today.
Flowers, who will have a base salary of $197,500 a year, will start her new job in January.
In her current role, Flowers oversees bus operations, the Freeway Service Patrol and call box programs for MTA, where she manages an annual budget of $900 million and more than 6,000 employees.
Flowers will replace CATS director Keith Parker, who left this summer to run the San Antonio transit agency. She was picked from the 70 candidates who applied for the job. Seven were interviewed as finalists.
Walton says that Flowers was selected because of her experience and the number of key leadership roles held.
“I look forward to leading CATS and working with our experienced staff to continue building one of the finest transit systems in the country, she said in a statement. “The people in the Charlotte region can count on my experience and commitment to continue to provide service and make our system world-class.”
Flowers holds a bachelor’s of art from UCLA in History and Political Science and an MBA from UCLA’s Anderson School of Management.
She currently serves as vice-chair of the American Public Transportation Association (APTA) Diversity Committee. She is a member of the American Public Transportation’s “Passenger Transport” publication advisory committee and was named “Woman of the Year” by the Los Angeles Chapter of the Women’s Transportation Seminar in 2008. She also received the Ambassador award for her volunteer work with the American Stroke Association and was given a special recognition award by the Greater Los Angeles African-American Chamber of Commerce.
