C. Mikel Oglesby has been appointed by Detroit Mayor Mike Duggan to be the city’s new executive directors of transit, where he will oversee the Detroit Department of Transportation (DDOT) and the Detroit People Mover (DPM).
He will also be responsible for improving coordination with regional partners, including the Suburban Mobility Authority for Regional Transit and the Q Line. Oglesby began his new role May 11.
Oglesby comes to Detroit with more than three decades of transit experience spanning all aspects of the industry, from fixed route, paratransit, light and heavy rail service and maintenance. The son of a bus operator at the Massachusetts Bay Transportation Authority (MBTA), Oglesby began his career at the MBTA after graduating from the University of Massachusetts at Amherst and rose through the authority’s ranks to the assistant general manager.
After his time at the MBTA, he was recruited by SunLine Transit Agency in California where he oversaw an agency with a 100-bus fleet. There, Oglesby took an underperforming agency and transformed it into an agency with effective organizational structure and high-performance operations. Most recently, Oglesby served as the deputy executive director of the South Florida Regional Transportation Authority, where he was responsible for the day-to-day management of the authority, with oversight of operations, human resources, procurement, marketing, customer service, finance and information technology, engineering and construction and planning and capital development.
“Effective transit is critically important to many Detroiters and I am thrilled to have Mikel, with his extensive bus and rail transit experience and knowledge to Detroit, leading our efforts,” said Mayor Duggan. “While we have made tremendous improvements to DDOT and with regional transit coordination over the last several years, Mikel will help take us to the next level.”
Oglesby added, “I am excited for the opportunity to work with the mayor to further improve the transportation experience for the riders of DDOT. I welcome the opportunity to form partnerships within the region to make Detroit transportation a premier public transit provider.”
Oglesby is a nationally recognized leader in alternative fuel technology and is known as an innovator in the field of green energy with the development and deployment of the first hydrogen powered American Fuel Cell Bus. He is a member of the American Public Transportation Association and the Conference of Minority Transportation Officials.
Oglesby holds a Bachelor of Business Administration from the University of Massachusetts at Amherst.
