#187: Randy Clarke, CEO Washington Metropolitan Area Transit Authority: Turning Customer Experience Into An Organization-wide Strategy
What changes when a transit CEO decides that customer experience is not a department—it is the responsibility of the entire organization?
Randy Clarke, General Manager and CEO of the Washington Metropolitan Area Transit Authority (WMATA), was just named one of Governing’s 2026 Public Officials of the Year, recognized for helping restore confidence in one of America’s largest transit systems through improvements in safety, reliability, and customer experience.
Since taking the helm of WMATA in 2022, Randy has put the rider at the center of how Metro operates and how he leads. He rides Metro’s trains and buses himself every day, engages directly with customers and frontline employees, and has elevated customer experience into the agency’s executive leadership.
He hired WMATA's first Chief Customer Experience Officer — an executive-level seat, not a department head. He also rides Metro every day himself. He's said he's become the symbol of Metro's quality to the people who see him on their commute.
The results are showing up in the numbers: record customer satisfaction across Metrorail, Metrobus, and MetroAccess at the end of 2024; fare evasion down; robberies and assaults on the system at a 25-year low.
Before Metro, he ran Capital Metro in Austin, where he helped pass Project Connect, one of the largest voter-approved transit expansion measures in U.S. history. Before that, six years at MBTA Boston, including as chief safety officer.
We will explore: What would we do differently if we designed, operated, and led public transit from the customer’s point of view?
The CEO as a rider.
Customer experience in the C-suite.
From customer experience to organizational change.
Listening versus leading.
Technology, automation, and AI.
Measuring what matters.