Dallas Area Rapid Transit (DART) on April 16 reported that David Leininger will take the throttle as Interim President and CEO on May 4, 2026, following the departure of Nadine S. Lee. He held the same transitional role from 2020 to 2021 when Gary C. Thomas retired after nearly 20 years of service, and was also the agency’s Chief Financial Officer for nine years, until 2018. In this interim leadership role, Leininger will oversee day-to-day operations at DART, which operates light rail, Trinity Railway Express, regional rail, bus routes, GoLink on-demand service, and paratransit, moving more than 171,000 riders daily across a 700-square-mile, 13-city region of Texas (download map below). He will also support ongoing strategic initiatives and work closely with the Board, staff, and regional stakeholders. l3_276-5898-0825-gopass-fy25—maps-update—updated-system-mapDownload Leininger joined DART in 2008 as Senior Vice President, CFO, and was promoted in 2012 to Executive Vice President, a role that also charged him with overseeing the Information Technology, Marketing & Communications, Procurement, and Risk Management departments. Before joining the agency, he spent five years serving the city of Irving, Texas—first as CFO and then as Managing Director of Development Services and Economic Initiatives—and 25 years holding a variety of real estate development roles in the private sector. Since 2018, he has served as Founder and Principal Advisor of Leininger Analytics, which is described as a “strategic consulting and board level advisory service associated with transit-oriented development, mobile integrated transportation ticketing and payment, [and] structured financial debt transactions associated with public/private…
