C.E.O. Comments on Chief Transport Officer Qualifications

News Five also asked C.E.O. Leal about his new Chief Transport Officer, Diane Vasquez.  Since her appointment on May eighteenth, the leadership of the Public Service Union has been critical of the choice.  Former First Vice President, now President of the P.S.U., Dean Flowers believes that her qualifications, though extensive, do not fit the post.  Flowers also questioned whether any opportunity had been given to personnel within the department for upward mobility. Here is how C.E.O. Leal responded to those concerns.

Marconi Leal, C.E.O., Ministry of Public Utilities, Energy and Logistic

“I think Diane is very dynamic. From the interview that we did with her, the Minister and I, we saw that she was going to be a good fit to align with the strategy we have at the transport department. And more specifically to some of the things we want to achieve from a training standpoint, from a enforcement stand point. One of the things, she is very detailed in terms of the reporting we need in terms of revenues and tracking these things. She come with a wealth of experience that will be able to support the strategy that we have going forward. From her master’s degree that she has, one of the big things we are looking at from a transport standpoint is our low emission development strategy. Because of her master’s degree that she has to support that and her experience in those things, I think from a policy standpoint, she would definitely be able to support some of the key things we have to do in transport going forward and the reform project.”

Marconi Leal

Paul Lopez

“One of the things I do have to ask you is if there was no one qualified within the department that could have ranked up to Chief Transport Officer and take that place when the former CTO left?”

Marconi Leal

“So when Mister Tirso Galvez resigned, there was definitely no one to replace him in the Chief Transport Officer position. And that is because of the lack of succession planning that should have been within the department. So the next post to that was an operations officer position, which is still not filled. And we somebody acting in that position. So, there was definitely no one in the department that could have filled the position, which is why we knew that we had to look otherwise to fill the post.”