Shawn Donaghy

Bio

Shawn M. Donaghy currently serves as the Chief Executive Officer of the North County Transit District in San Diego County, one of only three transit agencies in the nation to have Hybrid Rail, Heavy, Rail and Bus Operations. NCTD is also the owner, common carrier, and railroad of record by the Federal Railroad Administration. Prior to NCTD, Donaghy served as Chief Executive Officer of C-TRAN in Vancouver, WA, Chief Operating Officer of Trinity Metro in Fort Worth, TX, and Chief Operations Officer at the Southwest Ohio RTA (SORTA) in Cincinnati, OH. His career has spanned several areas of focus, including operations and maintenance for bus and rail, information technology, safety and risk management, security and transit police, service scheduling, contract management, key performance and regulatory metrics, and large-scale capital project experience.

A third-generation public transit CEO, Donaghy serves in several industry capacities such as the Board of Directors Executive Committee for the American Public Transportation Association (APTA), President of the Bus Coalition, former President of the American Bus Benchmarking Group (ABBG) and is a former Mass Transit 40-Under-40 recipient. He has worked on several key large-scale transit projects such as the Cincinnati Streetcar, TEXRail, the Vine Bus Rapid Transit Line, the Interstate 5 Bridge Replacement Program, and the Del Mar Bluffs Rail Realignment Project. Donaghy has also managed fleet transitions to low/zero emission technology, including the first electric bus fleet, charging network and hydrogen infrastructure at C-TRAN.

Donaghy is also a proud member and supporter of the Conference of Minority Transportation Officials (COMTO), Latinos in Transit, WTS International, and serves on APTA’s Diversity and Inclusion Council.

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