Associate Administrator for Research, Demonstration and Innovation
Vincent Valdes was named Associate Administrator for Research, Demonstration, and Innovation on April 13th. As Associate Administrator for TRI, Vincent will be managing an office of 40 program managers, transportation specialists and engineers who work on FTA's critical transit research program. The program provides research leadership to the transit industry and facilitates the development of transit technologies and techniques that support national transportation goals.
Over the last two years Mr. Valdes was Director of FTA's Office of Oversight and Program Guidance. Under his leadership, the Oversight office has been extensively revamped in order to streamline and improve productivity, performance, and efficiency. As a result of these efforts, the oversight program has achieved a 20 percent increase in oversight reviews and an ability to anticipate problems among grantees before they become major issues.
In his 25 years as a senior manager in the public and private sector—the last six with FTA—Vincent has demonstrated a clear ability to lead change and innovation in transportation research, urban and regional planning, engineering research, neighborhood economic development, environmental protection, and international development. Moreover, Vincent has adopted a results-oriented approach to managing people and projects in diverse settings within the District of Columbia, Venezuela, and elsewhere.
As the Chief Ward 1 Planner for the D.C. Office of Planning, he was instrumental in devising and disseminating the city's transit-oriented development guidelines, and successfully led a staff of urban planners, architects, and real estate development specialists to achieve neighborhood revitalization goals.
During his tenure at the World Bank, Vince managed a team of engineers, scientists, and technicians involved in devising, evaluating, and implementing technology transfer strategies to signatory counties of the Montreal Protocol. And while serving as a foundation representative with the Inter-American Foundation, Vincent pioneered a new approach to conducting international development in Latin America that involved forging ties with private sector corporations as well as non-governmental organizations.