Santa Monica, Calif.’s Big Blue Bus (BBB) announced the appointment of Rolando Cruz to the position of COO.

Cruz brings more than two decades of experience in public transportation to Big Blue Bus. He most recently served as the executive director and VP, maintenance and facilities, at Calif.’s Long Beach Transit, and also held the positions of maintenance manager and finance manager during his tenure there. Cruz is a Certified Public Accountant in the state of Texas and holds an MBA and BBA in Accounting from the University of Texas.

He is a graduate of the 2008 American Public Transportation Association (APTA) leadership program, a former board member and chair of the Southern California Regional Transit Training Consortium, and a graduate of the Leadership Long Beach Program, where he currently serves as a board member. Cruz also currently serves as co-chair of the California Transit Association Maintenance Committee and is a member of the APTA Transit Asset Management Standards working group.

“We are excited to welcome Rolando Cruz to our organization. He is entering the agency at a time when we face many new challenges, but it is also a time of defining moments in our organization’s history where we will establish new standards that raise the bar for service delivery to the Westside of Los Angeles and the City of Santa Monica,” said Ed King, director, transit services, at BBB.