AASHTO Chooses Wright as Director
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The American Association of State Highway and Transportation Officials chose new leaders, including an executive director, during its annual convention last week in Pittsburgh.
Frederick “Bud” Wright, a transportation consultant and former Federal Highway Administration official, was selected as the new executive director.
The association’s board of directors also announced that it elected Rhode Island Transportation Director Michael Lewis, who was vice president of AASHTO, as president for the coming year, succeeding Kirk Steudle of the Michigan Department of Transportation. Mike Hancock, secretary of the Kentucky Transportation Cabinet and chairman of the AASHTO Standing Committee on Planning, was elected vice president.
Wright will succeed John Horsley, who is retiring Feb. 1 after serving as AASHTO’s executive director since 1999.
Jack Basso, director of program finance and management, will retire from AASHTO on Feb. 1, and Tony Kane, director of engineering and technical services, will retire March 1.
“I am excited to have the opportunity to join this great organization and to work with our members, the Congress, the administration and other U.S. transportation interests as we address the transportation policy and funding challenges that lie ahead,” Wright said in the same statement.
He is only the seventh director in AASHTO’s nearly 100-year history.
“Bud Wright has almost four decades of experience in both the private sector and as a top executive at the Federal Highway Administration,” outgoing president Steudle said in a statement.
“Wright’s proven leadership in critical areas such as transportation safety, policy and legislation, budget and financial oversight will be extremely beneficial to AASHTO as it works with our membership and lawmakers to shape the next surface transportation authorization bill,” Steudle added.
A career highway specialist, Wright was executive director of the Federal Highway Administration from 2001 to 2008. According to the agency, the executive director is required to assist the administrator in “establishing policies, programs and priorities” for the multibillion-dollar Federal-Aid Highway Program and to act as chief operating officer overseeing the agency’s workforce.
In 2001 and 2002, Wright was FHWA program manager for safety and previously had been director of its Office of Budget and Finance, AASHTO said.
He began his career in 1975 as an economist in FHWA’s office of planning, and a decade later was selected as a congressional fellow, working with Senate Appropriations Committee staff.
Since leaving FHWA, Wright has been a transportation consultant based in Alexandria, Va. He recently worked on a project examining approaches to performance-based management of the Federal-Aid Highway Program and “played a significant role” in a research effort on mileage-based user fees, AASHTO said.
He also has been a consultant to Lindsay Transportation Solutions/Barrier Systems Inc., a leading manufacturer of products used in highway lane management and highway safety.
Wright also is on the board of directors of the American Road and Transportation Builders Association.
