Waidelich Promoted to Executive Director of FHWA
Walter “Butch” Waidelich Jr. is the new executive director of the Federal Highway Administration. Waidelich, who had been the associate administrator in FHWA’s Office of Infrastructure since August 2013, will serve as the agency’s chief operating officer, FHWA Administrator Gregory Nadeau said.
Waidelich succeeds Anthony Furst, the associate administrator for safety who had been acting executive director since Jeff Paniati left the agency in October to become CEO of the Institute of Transportation Engineers. Furst moves into the role of director of innovative program delivery.
Nadeau said Waidelich "brings an incredible breadth of agency-wide leadership and federal-aid program experience to this pivotal position [including] "strong leadership skills . . . [a] results-oriented management approach" and a "capacity to collaboratively engage across a broad range of stakeholders and partners and build trust with them."
Waidelich joined FHWA in 1988 and has served as division administrator in California and in Utah, an assistant division administrator in New Hampshire, a district engineer in Texas and an engineering team leader in Illinois. Waidelich’s last position before coming to FHWA headquarters in Washington was director of field services West, overseeing the activity of that region's 13 state division offices.
Within the agency, Nadeau said that Waidelich has "championed the integration of risk management into how FHWA establishes annual priorities."
