Updated September 6, 2024 at 4:00 pm:

The TTC has announced that Greg Percy has been appointed interim CEO effective September 9.

Percy had a 15 year career including the President of GO Transit and Chief Operating Officer of Metrolinx, and since 2019 has been Executive Vice President of CAD Railway.

At a meeting on Friday, September 6, 2024, the TTC Board is expected to appoint an Interim CEO replacing the just-departed Rick Leary for a period of at least six months. Their special meeting will occur online starting at 2pm, but discussion of the appointment will occur in private session with results to be announced following the approval.

This process took longer than originally expected back on June 20 when Leary announced his resignation. Moreover, there have been conflicting reports of whether an Interim CEO could also compete for the permanent role through a search process now underway. An established transit professional is unlikely to uproot his or her career for a short term assignment.

The role brings many challenges, but chief among them will be to right “the good ship TTC” not just from the cumulative effects of the pandemic, but of the Leary years’ damage to organizational culture. It is no secret that he stripped the TTC of many from the leadership team built by former CEO Andy Byford, and that his management style brooked no opposition.

The TTC Board was complicit through their inaction, notably after the scandal of the “near miss” incident near Osgoode Station, and only finally launched an investigation into Leary’s performance in Fall 2023 after a failed attempt to oust him by Chair Jamaal Myers.

Some Board members regard their job as setting overall direction and policy, and leaving running the organization to management. That sentiment is fine in theory, but it assumes that the Board is well informed, ensures that mechanisms to monitor the system’s health are in place, and establishes policy, not just as a rubber stamp. In this they have failed, and even the reconstituted Board in Mayor Chow’s term has not fully addressed several issues, notably service quality and the future operating budget.

If an Interim CEO does little more than keep the lights on and the CEO’s chair warm for an eventual replacement, the TTC will lose vital time when inaction really is not an option. Key issues face the TTC today.

Continue reading →