personnel

Out is Rosa Rountree, 46, the much liked, gutsy, executive director of Georgia Tolls, victim of infighting in Atlanta between the bigs in state government. Unlike too many chief execs of state agencies Rountree has a storied history in the toll business, having worked at PBS&J and ACS on tolling and been operations manager at OOCEA. She was appointed head of Georgia State Roads Toll Authority (GSRTA or 'Surtah') May 2006 and left February 7.

The news is hardly out that Gary Suhadolnik is leaving and the Cleveland Plain Dealer declares a Democrat pol looking for a job is "the front-runner to take his place." The anointed pol is George Distel, a five term state representative for Ashtabula in the northeast corner of the state. Distel is not eligible to run for re-election this November because of term limit laws.

Gary Suhadolnik executive director of the Ohio Turnpike Commission since January 2003 told his board of directors yesterday he is stepping down June 30. The move is a surprise - to us anyway. Turnpike Commission chair Joseph Balog says Suhadolnik, 57, will be working to ensure a smooth transition to a new exec-director.

Texas Gov Perry has appointed Hope Andrade, a commissioner since 2003, as interim chair of the Texas Transportation Commission, the body that governs the operations of Texas DOT including its Turnpike division.

Longtime head of the turnpike or tolls division of Texas DOT Phil Russell has been promoted to assistant executive director of the department. He is one of three AEDs immediately under the executive director Amadeo Saenz and the deputy executive director.

Mike Krusee, the principal architect of a major road building and toll concessions program in the Texas legislature 2003 to 2005 says he won't run for re-election at the end of 2008. Krusee was chairman of the state house transportation committee, but he suffered huge political defeat last summer when the legislature overturned his legislation by overwhelming majorities.

George III's Massachusetts taxman was tarred and feathered by the mob in Boston. Today's chief taxman gets sentenced by the popularly elected governor to try run the state Turnpike.

Orlando Evora, vice chair of the Orlando Orange County Expressway Authority (OOCEA) has resigned.

Wendy Viellenave has been appointed VP Programs at Transtoll in charge of project delivery and business development in North America.  She was most recently at Traffic Technologies Inc and before that worked at TransCore.

Transurban the leading toll operator in Australia and a major contender for US concessions is getting a former mining and metals senior executive as their new CEO. The appointee is Chris Lynch formerly chief financial officer and then group president carbon steels at BHP Billiton. Previous to that he worked at Alcoa.