Richmond, Va.’s GRTC Transit System selected Julie Timm as its sixth CEO and first female CEO in company history. She will begin her new position September 23.

Timm 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.

She returns to Virginia from Tennessee, where she served the past three years as the chief development officer for Nashville Metropolitan Transit Authority and the Regional Transportation Authority of Middle Tenn., 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.

A native of Hampton Roads, Timm previously worked as the transit development officer for Hampton Roads Transit from 2012 to 2016.

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 COO from August 2018 to June 2019 — and Sheryl Adams — current COO from July 2019 until Timm begins next month.