News Story

Longtime Deputy Executive Director Succeeds Therese W. McMillan

The Metropolitan Transportation Commission (MTC) today named Andrew B. Fremier as its new Executive Director. This position also serves as the top executive for the Association of Bay Area Governments (ABAG).

Mr. Fremier, who has served since 2005 as an MTC deputy executive director, succeeds Therese W. McMillan, who retired Feb. 1 after four years as Executive Director and after a nearly four-decade career in public service that included a combined 29 years at MTC, seven years on the Federal Transit Administration’s executive leadership team during the administration of former president Barack Obama and three years as planning chief for the Los Angeles County Metropolitan Transportation Authority.

Prior to joining MTC, Mr. Fremier served as the Chief Deputy District Director for Caltrans’ Oakland-based District 4. A licensed civil engineer, Fremier held a variety of positions during his 20 years at Caltrans, including leading the Toll Bridge and Highway construction program and developing the state Toll Bridge Seismic Retrofit Program.

After joining the MTC staff, Mr. Fremier served as a member of the Toll Bridge Program Oversight Committee’s project management team throughout its 2005-18 existence, helping the committee implement new project supervision and control processes and a comprehensive risk management program credited with avoiding years of potential delays and more than $455 million in potential costs during the replacement of the San Francisco-Oakland Bay Bridge East Span and the Bay Bridge West Approach, demolition of the original Bay Bridge East Span, construction of the new Benicia-Martinez Bridge that opened in 2007, and the retrofits of the original 1962 Benicia-Martinez Bridge, the 1958 Carquinez Bridge and the Antioch, Dumbarton, Richmond-San Rafael and San Mateo-Hayward bridges.

Mr. Fremier managed the seismic retrofit of the former U.S. Postal Service facility in San Francisco acquired by MTC’s Bay Area Headquarters Authority affiliate in 2011 and the five-year redevelopment project that transformed the previously hulking World War II-era building into the airy and light-filled Bay Area Metro Center, which now houses the headquarters for MTC, ABAG, the Bay Area Air Quality Management District and the San Francisco Bay Conservation and Development Commission.

As MTC’s Deputy Executive Director for Operations, Mr. Fremier has served as Deputy Executive Director of the Bay Area Toll Authority (BATA), supervising administration of all toll revenue from the Bay Area’s seven state-owned toll bridges. His management portfolio also has included MTC’s Design & Project Delivery, Electronic Payments, Facilities & Contract Services, Field Operations & Asset Management, and Technology Services sections, overseeing initiatives such as the Clipper® electronic transit-fare card program, the 511 traveler information system, the FasTrak® electronic tolling system and MTC’s growing network of freeway Express Lanes, which are operated by the Bay Area Infrastructure Financing Authority. Already in operation are Express Lanes on Interstate 880 in Alameda County and Interstate 680 in Contra Costa County, with construction now underway on Express Lanes in both directions of Interstate 80 between Cordelia and Vacaville in Solano County.

Mr. Fremier is the current president of the International Bridge, Tunnel and Turnpike Association and a former chair of the California Toll Operators Committee. He also is a member of the board of directors for San Francisco’s Ferry Bocce League and a San Francisco Giants season ticket holder. Mr. Fremier earned a bachelor’s degree in civil engineering from California Polytechnic State University in San Luis Obispo.