The Texas Transportation Commission on April 4 named Joe Weber, current vice president of student affairs at Texas A&M University and retired Lieutenant General of the U.S. Marine Corps, as the next executive director of the Texas Department of Transportation. Weber will begin at TxDOT on April 23.
"We are thrilled to have a leader with such stature and experience join the TxDOT team and be a part of this great organization," said Texas Transportation Commission Chairman Ted Houghton in a statement. "General Weber is the right person at the right time to make a great agency even better."
In his current role, Weber is in charge of the strategic planning, direction, and development of staff and finances, and how they impact the 57,000 students at the school. He also leads crisis management efforts and oversight of the university's 900 student organizations and campus-wide programs. Previously, Weber spent 36 years in the military, eventually managing more than 75,000 marines and sailors along the East Coast, spending years in his career focusing on training, education, and combat readiness. He holds a master's degree from the LBJ School of Public Affairs at the University of Texas.
"It is a true honor for me to be selected to lead TxDOT at this time in its evolution and as it continues to fulfill its mission," Weber said. "I look forward to working closely with the dynamic TxDOT team, the Legislature and transportation stakeholders keen on using transportation as an economic development tool that continues to make Texas a great destination for businesses and visitors, and for the 26 million of us who call it home."
Weber succeeds Phil Wilson, who left TxDOT to take a position at the Lower Colorado River Authority (see related AASHTO Journal story here)
