McDonald Transit Associates Inc. recently announced the appointment of Blaine Rigler as the President of McDonald Transit, a leader in public transit for four decades and providing management services at 32 locations in 17 states across the U.S. Blaine Rigler will begin serving as president effective immediately as he replaces Ken Fischer, senior vice president of business development, who has been serving as interim president of McDonald Transit since the retirement of Robert (Bob) Babbitt in October. Rigler will also take on the role of vice president of bus for RATP Dev America, the parent company of McDonald Transit.
“Blaine has built an impressive track record of strategic, operational and organizational accomplishments,” said Catherine Chardon, CEO of RATP Dev America. “He has proven to be a successful and trusted leader and brings to this position a strong reputation for developing people and inspiring teams. His wealth of experience will be a valuable asset as we continue to accelerate growth and expansion. Blaine Rigler is emblematic of the deep bench strength we have developed at McDonald Transit, and I could not be more pleased about his appointment to this critical role at this important time.”
With over 25 years of experience in leadership and operations management roles, Blaine Rigler’s expertise encompasses sales and marketing leadership, international business acumen, operations, and technology systems innovation. Prior to McDonald Transit, Blaine Rigler served as senior vice president-global solutions at Iron Mountain Inc., a S&P 500 company employing almost 17,000 professionals in over 1,000 facilities across 36 countries.
“I am honored to take the helm of McDonald Transit and help build on the great accomplishments that Bob and the team have achieved to date,” said Rigler. “Together with our talented senior leadership team, we will focus on accelerating the growth of the company and continue to position McDonald Transit at the forefront of transportation and mobility.”
“While we have deep respect for Bob Babbitt following his navigation of McDonald Transit’s acquisition by RATP Dev America and the modernization of the company’s technology, we are enthused by the prospect of Blaine Rigler taking the reins and leading the company forward,” said Fischer.
“Blaine Rigler’s leadership transition comes at a time of strength for McDonald Transit given the growth of our highly respected organization, deep management team and our track record of innovation,” said Laurence Batlle, the company’s current head of business unit operations in the Americas and Africa. “I have the utmost trust in Blaine’s vision for this dynamic organization to meet the demands of an ever-changing transit market.”
Laurence Batlle will be taking over the reins as RATP Dev CEO from Francois-Xavier Perin who will be officially retiring in January 2017.
