FHWA Names Waidelich Executive Director

Federal Highway Administrator Gregory Nadeau notified agency employees March 15 that Walter “Butch” Waidelich Jr. will be the Federal Highway Administration’s new executive director, in which he will function as the chief operating officer.

 Waidelich

He will take over the position from Anthony Furst, the associate administrator for safety who filled in as acting executive director starting last Oct. 12. Longtime Executive Director Jeff Paniati left the agency that month to become CEO of the Washington, D.C.-based Institute of Transportation Engineers.

Nadeau later announced that Furst will now take on the role of director of innovative program delivery.

That creates a vacancy for associate administrator for safety, and the FHWA has posted that position opening and is taking applications.

Nadeau in his internal message about Waidelich, who has been the FHWA’s associate administrator in the Office of Infrastructure since August 2013, said he “brings an incredible breadth of agency-wide leadership and federal-aid program experience to this pivotal position.”

Waidelich joined the FHWA in 1988 after service as an engineer officer in the Army. His past FHWA leadership positions include director of Field Services West, which oversaw the activity of that region’s 13 state division offices. Before that he was division administrator in California and in Utah, New Hampshire assistant division administrator, district engineer in Texas and engineering team leader in Illinois.

Since becoming a member of the agency’s career senior executive service in 2008, Waidelich led the creation of the FHWA’s risk-based oversight posture in its relationship with state departments of transportation, Nadeau said, and “championed the integration of risk management into how FHWA establishes annual priorities.”

The administrator said Waidelich brings to the COO position “strong leadership skills . . . [a] results-oriented management approach” and a “capacity to collaboratively engage across a broad range of stakeholders and partners and build trust with them.”

Waidelich’s promotion also creates a vacancy for associate administrator for infrastructure. The FHWA has also posted that position for potential applicants.