Page 2 - Florida Sentinel 3-18-22

Feature
Adelee Le Grand, CEO Of HART Is Looking Forward And Moving Agency In New Direction
BY MONIQUE STAMPS Sentinel Staff Writer
Adelee Marie Le Grand, was selected as CEO of HART by its board in November 2020.
She has two decades of executive experience in pub- lic transit in Atlanta and New Orleans.
The native of Queens, New York, Le Grand has made great strides since being hired as the leader of Hillsborough County’s transportation system.
Mrs. Le Grand at- tended Morgan State Uni- versity in Baltimore, MD, for college. She says that she is grateful that she was able to attend an HBCU that has an excellent engineering program. She also received her master's degree from Morgan State in Trans- portation.
Le Grand is thankful that she could explore her love of math and science in an atmosphere where she was nurtured and encour- aged. She feels that her HBCU experience gave her the confidence and back-
ground to succeed in the corporate arena.
After her graduate pro- gram, she went to work in the budget division of the Management Engineering and Analysis Department for the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey. Her job involved making the Port Authority more effi- cient. It was there that the groundwork for her work for HART began.
She left the Port Author- ity when she married her husband and moved to Georgia.
“It was a big transition, but I have come to love the South,” Le Grand explains.
Her home base for 26 years was Atlanta. She worked for the Georgia De- partment of Transportation, she served as the chief mo- bility officer for the Atlanta- region Transit Link Authority, working closely with the executive director and planning division to de- velop a strategic plan to doc- ument the new state authority's suite of services and strengthen partner- ships with key stakeholders
ADELEE Le GRAND
... Chief Executive Officer Of Hillsborough Area Regional Transit
and regional partners.
She also served as the chief strategy officer in serv- ice to the New Orleans Re- gional Transit Authority where her responsibilities included developing the first Strategic Mobility Plan for the New Orleans Region and rebuilding the planning
department.
After having her chil-
dren, she stopped traveling and landed a coveted posi- tion at AECOM, one of the largest transportation con- sultancies in the world, where she served as its vice
president, before coming to Tampa.
The job at HART wasn’t on her radar, but a colleague from Tampa told her about the CEO position.
“I think that what we need in Tampa at this time is what I can deliver. Our employees should under- stand how we are impacting people and the economy. We need to elevate the brand in positive ways.”
“HART has not been in the conversation. We need to be in the conversation about our brand. It has been defined by outside entities.”
Most importantly, Mrs. Le Grand states that HART must be customer centric and if the customer experience isn’t great, they aren’t doing their job.
“We have to make sure that the bus stops and shel- ters are clean and safe. You should feel safe and secure every time you ride a bus,” Le Grand further states.
Correction
She is focusing on mak- ing sure that they are con- tinuing to provide excellent customer service and effi- ciencies for its customers.
Le Grand’s contract was extended to 2025 in February. She wants to change the direction of the organization and give tal- ented personnel some struc- tures to align priorities. She also wants to ensure that the next CEO has a strong foun- dation.
A three-year Strategic Plan is slated to be finished at the end of this year so that the public, the board of HART, and the employees have a solid foundation to move forward in a cohesive manner. “As markets change, the environment changes, but the Strategic Plan will serve the company well into the future,” she states.
Le Grand lives in Tampa with her husband and children.
Under the photo in an article on the Thompson Group Advisors, Page 8-A, March 11, 2022, Robert Thompson was listed as Founder/CEO of ‘Thomas’ Group Advisors.
The Sentinel apologizes to Mr. Thompson for the error.
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