The Greater Richmond Transit Company (GRTC) unanimously selected Julie Timm as its next chief executive officer after a year-long search.
Timm, GRTC’s sixth CEO and first female CEO, will start on September 23. She brings more than 20 years of experience in customer-focused strategic planning and the management of widely diverse transportation capital projects in the local, state and federal arenas.
“I am so excited to be coming home to Virginia and honored for the opportunity to serve the Greater Richmond community,” Timm said. “Mobility is an indispensable requirement for how we define our communities and how we connect to housing, jobs, education, healthcare, food and recreation. More importantly, it is an essential element to how we connect to each other. This time of growth and transformation for Greater Richmond opens a valuable window for us to clearly define how we will advance those mobility connections for the prosperity of all the residents of our region.”
Timm returns to Virginia from Tennessee, where she served the past three years as the chief development officer for Nashville Metropolitan Transit Authority and Regional Transportation Authority of Middle TN, recently rebranded as WeGo Public Transit. Timm led WeGo’s input into Nashville’s $6 billion multimodal transit referendum and served as the WeGo staff advisor to Nashville’s Transit and Affordability Task Force.
"We are extremely excited to have Julie Timm join GRTC as our next CEO,” said GRTC Board Chair Gary Armstrong. “Julie brings broad transit experience and a progressive approach to addressing mobility needs. She is a great fit for the expanded leadership we see GRTC providing in the region's growth in public transportation and integrated mobility options."
Vice Chair Rev. Benjamin Campbell added, “Julie Timm has energy, experience and commitment to lead GRTC as we seek to make certain that every person, every worker and every student can have full, timely access to all of metropolitan Richmond. We believe she is the right person for this dynamic city in this dynamic time.”
A native of Hampton Roads, Timm previously worked as the transit development officer for Hampton Roads Transit from 2012 to 2016. Timm holds a Master of Science and a Bachelor of Science in biology from Old Dominion University and a Master of Business Administration from Vanderbilt University.
GRTC’s Board of Directors guided the national recruitment effort during the past year, conducting thorough interviews and reviewing two rounds of candidates. While the CEO search occurred, GRTC was led by two Interim CEOs, Charles Mitchell (retired Chief Operating Officer) from August 2018 to June 2019 and Sheryl Adams (current Chief Operating Officer) from July 2019 until Timm begins next month.
