Skip to main content

IBTTA announces new executive director and CEO

Kathryn Clay will start in January 2025 after Pat Jones' two-decade tenure
By Adam Hill December 18, 2024 Read time: 2 mins
Clay: 'We will advance innovative solutions'

Dr Kathryn Clay is to take over as executive director and CEO of IBTTA.

She will begin the role on 6 January 2025, replacing Pat Jones, who led the tolling organisation for 23 years.

Clay is "a seasoned association leader with a unique blend of scientific expertise, policy acumen and operational success", says IBTTA. 

She was most recently president and CEO of the International Liquid Terminals Association, and her career has taken in senior roles in energy, technology, and public policy, including work on Capitol Hill, where she helped shape legislation such as the Energy Policy Act of 2005 and the Energy Independence and Security Act of 2007. 

Clay said she was honoured to join IBTTA "at this pivotal moment for transportation and infrastructure".

“Patrick Jones has left an extraordinary legacy of collaboration and leadership, and I look forward to building on that foundation," she added. "As infrastructure funding gaps grow, tolling and user-fee financing are more critical than ever to ensuring safe and sustainable transportation systems. Together with IBTTA's members, we will advance innovative solutions that connect communities, support economic growth and address the challenges of the future.”

James Hofmann, CEO and executive director of the North Texas Tollway Authority - and 2025 IBTTA president - praised Clay's "multidisciplinary expertise in science, energy, technology and public policy", which he said "aligns perfectly with IBTTA’s mission to advance innovative and sustainable transportation systems".

"With Kathryn’s leadership, we are ready to address the critical infrastructure funding gaps facing our communities" Hofmann continued. "Tolling and user-fee financing are essential tools for building and maintaining sustainable transportation systems, and Kathryn’s vision and expertise will help position IBTTA to drive innovative solutions for these pressing challenges.”

Clay will share her vision for the future of tolling and user-fee financing at the IBTTA Technology Summit in Dallas, which runs from 22-25 March.

For more information on companies in this article

Related Content

  • Fasten your seatbelts: it’s going to be a bumpy ride
    June 26, 2018
    A spat has broken out between two major US transportation organisations over how best to pay for road use: the ATA says tolls are ‘fake funding’ while IBTTA has scorned ‘scare tactics and falsehoods’… Much has been made of the state of US roads: everyone agrees that funding is needed – but who should pay? And how? Chris Spear, president and CEO of American Trucking Associationsm(ATA), believes finance is facing a cliff edge: the Highway Trust Fund (HTF), historically the primary source of federal revenue
  • Cubic executive joins Tourism and Transport forum Australia board
    March 1, 2018
    Cubic Transportation Systems’ (CTS') senior vice president and managing director Tom Walker has been appointed to the advisory board of the Tourism and Transport Forum Australia (TTF). The industry group is a national member-funded CEO collective that advocates the public policy interests of corporations and institutions in transport, tourism and aviation. Matt Cole, president of CTS, said: “We are delighted that one of our most senior executives with such strong industry credentials has been invited to
  • MaaS: 'It's been much easier to convince politicians than we expected'
    August 11, 2021
    As she leaves the Mobility as a Service sector, Piia Karjalainen explains why the user must continue to be the focus – and why we haven’t yet even seen half of the innovations available 
  • Tolling is still stuck on the sidelines says ASECAP speaker
    August 19, 2015
    Geoff Hadwick attended ASECAP’s 2015 Study Days meeting in Lisbon and found a frustrated European tolling sector undertaking some soul searching. The international road tolling industry its failing to make it case and the sector is losing out to a range of other socio-political lobby groups according to International Bridge, Tunnel and Turnpike Association (IBTTA) chief executive Pat Jones. Speaking at the recent 2015 ASECAP Study Days conference in Lisbon, Jones issued a stark warning: “Tolling is still o