Obama Taps Matsuda as Marad Chief

President Obama will promote David T. Matsuda to head the Maritime Administration from administrator, where he has filled the top position on an acting basis since July.

The White House said Obama will also nominate Michael P. Huerta, a Department of Transportation official in the Clinton administration, to fill the number two post of deputy administrator at the Federal Aviation Administration.

Matsuda has a background in varied issues involving government oversight of transport modes, including at brief stint earlier this year at DOT as deputy assistant secretary for policy.

Before that he spent seven years as a Senate aide working on most major transport legislation since 2002. The White House said he worked on modernization of oil pollution prevention and response programs, overhaul of the passenger rail system, and security improvements at U.S. seaports.

Before joining the administration, he was senior counsel and primary transportation advisor to Sen. Frank Lautenberg, D-N.J., who chairs the surface transportation and merchant marine subcommittee. Earlier, he also worked for the office of chief counsel at the Federal Railroad Administration.

At FAA, Huerta also brings varied experience that includes executive director of the Port of San Francisco, and commissioner for the city of New York’s Department of Ports, International Trade and Commerce.

In the Clinton administration he directed DOT’s office of intermodalism and was chief of staff to Secretary Rodney Slater.

Huerta was a managing director with the Salt Lake Organizing Committee for the Olympic Winter Games of 2002, and a registered lobbyist. He later became group president until April 2009 of the transportation solutions group of Affiliated Computer Services, a technology services provider for transportation agencies worldwide.

He also chairs the Intelligent Transportation Society of America and was a member of President Obama’s transition team for DOT.

Contact John Boyd at jboyd@joc.com.