Bill Lhota President and CEO, Central Ohio Transit Authority (COTA)

William J. Lhota was elected President and Chief Executive Officer of the Central Ohio Transit Authority (COTA) in September 2004. COTA is the public transportation provider in central Ohio.

Following retirement from American Electric Power (AEP) in December 2001, as a senior executive, he formed LHOTA SERVICES in January 2002.  LHOTA SERVICES was a sole proprietor business focusing on arbitration, mediation, energy consulting, as well as consulting, teaching and lecturing on business and engineering ethics.

At retirement from AEP, Lhota was President - Energy Delivery, American Electric Power and Executive Vice President, American Electric Power Service Corporation.

While at AEP Lhota was responsible for power transmission and distribution systems in 11 states. He spent 37 years at AEP serving in numerous management positions at Ohio Power Company and Columbus Southern Power, both subsidiaries of AEP in addition to the AEP Service Corporation.

Throughout his career Lhota has had extensive experience in public policy and labor relations.  Early in his career, for four years, he had day-to-day responsibility for public policy in Washington D.C. and in Ohio.  In all subsequent positions, in addition to other duties, he directed both national and state public policy. Lhota has worked with organized labor throughout his career and he was instrumental in establishing cooperative relations between AEP and its labor unions.

He earned a Bachelor's Degree in Civil Engineering in 1964 from The Ohio State University. He also earned a Master's Degree in Management from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in 1978. He is a registered professional engineer and surveyor in Ohio and a member of the American Society of Civil Engineers, National Society of Professional Engineers (NSPE), and the Ohio Society of Professional Engineers.

Lhota created and managed AEP’s original corporate governance program, has extensive experience in ethics and is:

• A member of the Board of Directors for the National Institute for Engineering Ethics (NIEE);
• A past, Chair and member of the NSPE Board of Ethical Review.

Lhota is also:

• Director and Chair of the Board for Ohio’s Bureau of Workers’ Compensation, Ohio’s workers’ insurance fund providing medical and compensation benefits for work-related injuries, diseases and deaths
• Director and Chair of the Audit Committee for Green Mountain Energy, the largest and fastest growing provider of less-polluting electricity to residential  and business customers in the United States
• Director and Chair of the Risk Committee for Huntington Bancshares Inc., a large regional bank holding company located in Columbus, Ohio
• Member and Chair for the State of Ohio Board of Building Appeals in the Department of Commerce
• Advisory Director of Twenty First Century Communications a national phone service provider
• Labor arbitrator for the Federal Mediation and Conciliation Service (currently on inactive status);
• Past Chair and current Board member of the Columbus Regional Airport Authority. The Authority administers an airport system comprised of Port Columbus International Airport, Rickenbacker Airport, and a reliever airport, Bolton Field.  Port Columbus is a large regional airport serving approximately 7.0 million passengers annually.  Rickenbacker is a cargo facility
• Past Chair and current member of the Executive Committee and the Board of the Ohio Chamber of Commerce.

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