The California High Speed Rail Authority (CHSRA) has appointed Joe Stephenshaw as interim CEO following the resignation of Ian Choudri on Nov. 4, noting he needed to focus on “important personal and family priorities,” according to the email resignation obtained by CalMatters.

Choudri held the position since 2024, a tenure that’s fielded lawsuits, dealt with federal funding woes after missing required deadlines to purchase trainsets, subsequently forfeiting $4 billion and had his contract authority tightened after a California Office of the Inspector General report found that the authority “improperly paid unallowable travel expenses for contracted consultants” totally nearly $600,000. The report says the authority “did not comply with state regulations requiring it to evaluate the business need for consultants to travel before approving travel.”

For nearly 60% of the payments reviewed, the authority had not approved the travel before it occurred, showing “little to no upfront consideration of the need for or cost of the travel,” according to the report.

The limit of contract authority came from a vote taking place earlier in the month, which required the authority’s in-house counsel to first sign off on any contracts under $25 million. Further, the CHSRA Board has outlined corrective actions and new policies they plan to implement to provide clearer rules in an effort to prevent misuse from happening.

Stephenshaw is currently director of the California Department of Finance. Prior to that appointment, Stephenshaw served in California Gov. Gavin Newsom’s office as a senior counselor on infrastructure and fiscal affairs.

Stephenshaw was the staff director for the Senate Budget and Fiscal Review Committee from 2017 to 2022. He held multiple positions in the California Legislature from 2008 to 2017, including serving as a policy consultant in the Office of the Senate President pro Tempore, a special advisor to the speaker of the assembly and as a budget consultant for both the Assembly Budget Committee and the Senate Budget and Fiscal Review Committee.

He is a graduate of Menlo College with a bachelor’s degree in business administration. He also earned a Master of Business Administration degree from California State University, Sacramento.

The change comes just after the authority inked a contract with Siemens for the initial three trainsets for the high-speed rail project, having the option to expand the agreement if needed. The board, in a separate action, also approved the Los Angeles to Anaheim, Calif., environmental document, marking completion of the final project section environmental clearance for the full 494-mile Phase 1 system between San Francisco and Los Angeles/Anaheim.