Cal Marsella
General Manager & Chief Executive Officer
The Regional Transportation District
Clarence W. “Cal” Marsella, a 34-year transit veteran, was hired as the General Manager of the Regional Transportation District (RTD) in August 1995. He manages 2500 employees, over 1000 privately contracted employees, and an annual operating budget of more than $400 million. Since taking the reins at RTD, Cal and his talented staff have helped gain the trust of the greater Denver metro area by building three new light rail lines on time and on budget. That includes RTD’s $879 million light rail component of the $1.67 billion T-REX light rail and highway project that opened November 17, 2006. The level of public trust in RTD was verified in 2004 when metro area voters overwhelmingly passed the $4.7 billion light rail and commuter rail rapid transit expansion program for the eight- county metro area. This represents the largest transit-only voter approved program in the entire country.
Mr. Marsella began his transportation career in the highway engineering division of the State of Connecticut Department of Transportation in 1974. He then served as the Director of Transportation Services for the City of Hartford, Connecticut from 1976 through 1979. From 1979 through 1992, Cal served as the Chief of Contracted Services for Miami’s Metro Dade Transit Agency. There, he was responsible for the development and management of all transit and paratransit services operated under contract to private sector service providers. Mr. Marsella is a nationally-known private transportation expert, and served as co-owner of Gulf Coast Paratransit, Inc. consultants in Fort Myers, Florida from 1992 to 1995 before moving to Denver.
Cal was selected by the American Public Transportation Association as the Outstanding Public Transportation Manager in 2006, by the University of Colorado Real Estate Council as their 2006 Person of the Year, and by Colorado Association of State Transportation Agencies as the Transportation Professional of the Year in 2000. He serves on the National Academy of Sciences Transportation Research Board, and was a member of the Board of Directors of the Intermodal Transportation Research Institute at the University of Denver. He regularly guest lectures at the University of Denver and the University of Colorado Masters Degree programs in Transportation and Public Administration. Mr. Marsella holds a Masters Degree in Public Affairs and a Bachelor of Arts Degree, both from the University of Connecticut. Cal commutes by bus each day from his home in Louisville, where he resides with his wife Sheri and their children.