Bob Kiley

Robert R. "Bob" Kiley (September 16, 1935 – August 9, 2016) was a public transit planner and supervisor, with a reputation of being able to save transit systems experiencing serious problems. From 2001 to 2006 he was the initial Commissioner of Transport for London, the public organisation empowered with running and maintaining London's public transport network.

Kiley also worked as a CIA agent, as the CEO of the Massachusetts Bay Transportation Authority, the Deputy Mayor of Boston, the chairman and CEO of the Metropolitan Transportation Authority and as President and CEO of the New York City Partnership. He is credited as being the architect of the revival of Boston and New York's ailing public transport systems in the 1970s and 1980s respectively.

Kiley was born in Minneapolis, Minnesota and educated at the University of Notre Dame in Indiana. He graduated magna cum laude and went on to study at Harvard's Graduate School. In 1963 he joined the Central Intelligence Agency. The BBC reports that although former colleagues say it would be incorrect to regard Bob Kiley as a "spook" he did travel around the world in his role as Manager of Intelligence Operations. He later served as Executive Assistant to the Agency Director Richard Helms.

Kiley left the Agency in 1970 and embarked a career in management, with particular emphasis on transport. He first worked as an assistant director at the Police Foundation in Washington D.C. Two years later he became deputy mayor of Boston, a position he held for three years. In 1975 Kiley took on two new roles – one as adjunct professor of public management at Boston University – and the other as chairman and CEO of the Massachusetts Bay Transportation Authority. He left the MBTA in 1979 and became a vice-president at the Management Analysis Center (now part of Cap Gemini). In 1983 Kiley moved down the east coast to become the chairman and CEO of the Metropolitan Transportation Authority (MTA). He remained in the position until 1990 and in his time in the role secured state funding to the tune of $16bn to revitalise the railroads, buses and subways in the MTA region. Gene Russianoff, of the New York Straphangers Campaign, says that the money was spent wisely – "Even normally grudging New Yorkers say he did a good job," says Russianoff. The clean-up campaign involving arresting fare dodgers and cleaning up graffiti is now regarded as a prelude to the city-wide policy of "zero tolerance" enforced by Rudy Giuliani during his time as Mayor in the 1990s.

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