The Greater Dayton RTA has announced the promotion of Chris Cole, current chief maintenance officer, to the newly-created role of chief operating officer.
The Chief Operating Officer will directly oversee the Operations, Maintenance and Human Resources departments at the RTA. Each of the three departments will have a director who will report to Cole.
“Coming from an operations background I am excited to lead these departments and return back to the roots of the customer service side of transit,” Cole said.
The change in structure comes as RTA CEO Mark Donaghy looks to bond the three departments which work closely together to keep the agency’s buses running 24/7.
“The critical nature of the relationship of support between these working groups logically begs for unified leadership. The passion and experience Chris brings allows us this opportunity to develop a service quality focus to move RTA toward best-in-class performance for the Dayton region,” Donaghy said.
Cole has established himself as a caring leader, Donaghy added, who is driven to produce superior results for RTA customers, employees and stakeholders.
Cole has more than 25 years of public service experience, including 20 years of operations management. He served more than 15 years with the Central Ohio Transit Authority (COTA) in Columbus, where he held various positions, ultimately becoming COTA’s director of transportation. In that role, Cole was in charge of more than 680 COTA employees.
In 2015, Cole accepted the position of deputy chief maintenance officer with Dayton RTA. In his two years with the agency, he has restructured the department and created a strong leadership team which he will continue to manage.
As COO, Cole will be responsible for Bus Operations, Safety and Security, Training, Human Resources, Fleet Maintenance, Electrical Infrastructure, Fleet Inventory/stores and Buildings & Grounds, which includes 23 RTA properties.
“I believe in leadership and I want to push employees in those departments to provide excellent service to our customers, that means our riders and our own employees,” Cole said.
