Veronique "Ronnie" Hakim, a top official at New York's Metropolitan Transportation Authority, is resigning as managing director by the end of February.
“With the MTA on the rebound and service improving across all agencies, I feel I can move on,” Hakim said in a statement.
Her move comes as the state-run MTA is embarking on a reorganization plan aimed at grasping a financial crisis and ushering in a congestion pricing mechanism for Manhattan that could yield the authority up to $15 billion through bonding.
Its board approved the transformation plan in July.
The authority, one of the largest municipal issuers with roughly $43 billion in debt, is expected to submit its capital program for 2020 to 2024 to a state review panel later this month. The MTA operates the city's subways and buses, two commuter rail lines and several intraborough bridges and tunnels.
The board is scheduled to meet Sept. 23 and 25.
Hakim, a native of the city's Queens borough, has spent 27 years at the MTA over two stretches, most recently since 2015 as president of New York City Transit and later interim executive director. As the latter, she became the first woman to head the MTA.
In 2013 and 2014 she was executive director of NJ Transit, the country's largest statewide public transportation system.
Over her earlier time at the MTA that began in 1987, Hakim was special counsel at New York City Transit as well as executive vice president and general counsel at MTA Capital Construction, where she provided senior management with policy and legal advice on megaprojects such as the Second Avenue Subway, East Side Access and the 7-train extension to Hudson Yards.
