The Federal Transit Administration has a new chief. James S. Simpson, a former New York State Metropolitan Transportation Authority board member, was sworn in Aug. 10 as the agency's administrator.

Simpson, confirmed by the Senate to the FTA post on Aug. 3, had been chairman and CEO of Vic- tory Worldwide Transportation Inc., a moving company based in Staten Island. He was a New York MTA director from 1995 to 2005.

Simpson succeeds Jennifer Dorn, who left FTA last year to be the U.S. alternate executive director at the World Bank. American Public Transportation Association President William W. Millar says Simpson's "wide-ranging experience, especially in transit, will serve him well" as FTA's head.