May 27, 2021 - TRA Newswire -

Marc Williams has been named the Texas Department of Transportation's CEO, stepping in to replace Executive Director James Bass who previously announced his retirement. Bass' career with TxDOT spanned over 40 years.

Williams has served as the agency’s deputy executive since 2016, and will begin his new role June 1, 2021.

Texas House Transportation Chair Terry Canales addressed the Texas Transportation Commission at today's meeting and honored Bass with his comments. "You're going to leave a void. I am so grateful to your help for my office and I wish you the best. I know about one percent of the one hundred percent of your extensive knowledge."

According to the TxDOT Website, Bass began his TxDOT career in 1985 working summers in the Fort Worth District. He worked part-time as an engineering aide in the Austin District's South Travis/Hays County Area Office while earning his bachelor's degree in accounting at the University of Texas at Austin. Bass was selected as finance division director in November 1999, and became chief financial officer in 2005. He became executive director in January of 2016.

Bass will transition to lead the Central Texas Regional Mobility Authority as their new executive director, the second CEO in the organization’s history,

Williams' career experience in transportation planning and program efforts includes public- and private-sector organizations involving state, county and local jurisdictions. He has served in leadership positions with two state departments of transportation and has worked with national, private-sector transportation engineering organizations. His professional assignments have included directing statewide transportation planning and programming efforts as well as managing project-specific highway and multimodal transportation plans and programs, according to TxDOT.

Williams has worked extensively with public and agency outreach, transportation plans of various modes, regional and corridor-level plans and programs, environmental planning and approval, economics and finance, project design and development, along with work in the areas of construction management, operations and maintenance. Williams tweets on @MarcWilliamsTX.