Win Apta Transit System of the Year PROFILE of ANDY BYFORD, Chief Executive Officer at the Toronto Transit Commission (TTC)*
Total Page：16
File Type：pdf, Size：1020Kb
win apta transit system of the year PROFILE OF ANDY BYFORD, Chief Executive Officer at the Toronto Transit Commission (TTC)* Interview location: TTC Headquarters in Toronto, Ontario and on the subway. In two words, he describes himself as “British Patriot.” By Laura Lee Huttenbach Andy Byford, in his office at the TTC headquarters in Toronto, with a framed Plymouth Argyle, his beloved football team’s, jersey. (Photo credit Laura Lee Huttenbach, August 2017.) Andy Byford is standing at his computer when he lets me into his office, four minutes after our scheduled meeting. “I’m sorry I kept you waiting,” he says. “I’m usually very punctual, but I just needed to finish a draft of this email. Here,” he continues, pointing to the monitor, “let me show you.” An accent, as well as the framed green Plymouth Argyle soccer jersey hanging on the wall, gives away his British upbringing. He is talking quickly, with an excited energy, as if he’s making up for running behind. Andy is the Chief Executive Officer of the Toronto Transit Commission (TTC), and the email is to the TTC Board about his Executive Team. He directs my attention to one line in particular, which reads, “Our Executive composition is at seven males, six females.” He is smiling broadly. “Five years ago,” he explains, “there wasn’t one woman on the Executive team.” People Who Move People: a series initiated and funded by 1 thick skin and endless optimism The goal, he says, is for the composition of his organization to reflect the makeup of society. He says he doesn’t use quotas, and makes appointments based on merit. But if there are two candidates with the exact same credentials and the only Andy, riding the TTC subway. (Photo credit Laura Lee difference is that one person comes from Huttenbach, August 2017.) an underrepresented demographic, he will hire that person, and he will continue Last June, when the American Public that practice until he achieves his goal of Transportation Association (APTA) named making the TTC look like the city it serves. TTC the Transit System of the Year, the answer “Sorry, we can sit down now,” he says, seemed to be yes. “Did you see the board directing me to the couch as he takes a seat downstairs?” asks Andy. In the lobby, next to in a leather chair. He is a little shy of six the security desk, an easel displays a three-foot feet, but his thin, runner’s frame makes poster with the designation written in red letters. him look taller. Seven floors below us, I am curious to know the arc of his experience at subway cars are pulling in and out of the TTC. “Oh, I could write a book today about my Davisville subway station, and the window time at TTC,” he says, leaning forward. “Ask me looks out onto the rail yard. anything you want.” Andy is a frequently featured figure in n July 2011, Andy was forty-five, living in Toronto media, and before meeting him Sydney, Australia, and working as RailCorp’s I’d read several articles. In April 2014, COO when he accepted an interview at TTC for example, the Star—Canada’s most (his wife, Ali, hails from Ottawa). On the circulated daily newspaper—published a day he was supposed to interview—literally as he 10,000-word profile about Andy, entitled, was on his way to the TTC office—a newspaper “Can This Man Save the TTC?” headline caught his eye: “[Toronto Mayor Rob] 2 People Who Move People: a series initiated and funded by Ford Plotting to Oust TTC Chief over Subway front line workers, including a fare collector Extension: Gary Webster’s Refusal to Support who’d fallen asleep in his booth. the Sheppard Subway Extension Has the Ford Administration Looking to Replace Him.” He and Webster spoke candidly about the state of TTC. Where some people might have Andy’s interview was with Gary Webster. “That was seen obstacles, Andy saw a huge opportunity. kind of awkward,” says Andy. “It was the elephant He’d been lucky to have good mentors like in the room, but Gary, for whom I have enormous Mike Brown at the London Underground and respect, tackled it head-on. He said, ‘Don’t worry Rob Mason at RailCorp—“icons who were about all that. It’s just politics.’” able to effect complete turnarounds”—and Andy was ready to build his own legacy. In Having already worked in transit in London November 2011, Andy became TTC’s new and Sydney for more than two decades, COO. A few months after he started the job, Andy was familiar with the delicate dance in February 2012, Gary Webster was fired between constituencies. (He has identified six after thirty-seven years of service. “It was a constituencies for a transit executive: employees, political coup,” explains Andy. In a special customers, politicians, the media, unions, meeting, executive board members voted, and contractors.) Andy was also aware of the five to four, to dismiss Webster in light of his problems at TTC. “The subways were squalid,” clashes with Ford. he says. Public washroom were disgusting. On the day the dismissal was announced, a press pack gathered outside City Hall. Andy spoke after Webster. “I was pretty nervous,” admits Andy. In his speech, My learning curve he thanked Webster for his service and promised to provide stability and vision went through to the organization. “My learning curve went through the roof,” he says. In April, he was officially named CEO. Immediately, the roof he identified what he calls “quick wins” for the company. Quick wins were things like cleaning up the subway and creating a customer charter. Trash littered the cars. Buses and streetcars were From the glass table in front of us, Andy packed like sardine cans. On social media, riders picks up a red booklet—a copy of TTC’s were posting unflattering images of the subway’s five-year corporate plan, published in People Who Move People: a series initiated and funded by 3 would play a video outlining the corporate plan. He knew his audience: many TTC employees had been there for decades, and some were second- or We had to act, third-generation transit workers. He wanted to tap into their inherent pride, so he would open by look, and think saying, “Are you as sick as I am with some of the media we get and how we’re slagged off every day in the Star and Sun?” A lot of people nodded their differently. heads. “I am, too,” he assured them. “And we’re going to do something about it.” Most people were receptive to his ideas and 2013—and passes it to me, adding the copy ready for change, but invariably, he says, “There was mine to take home. “That was a main would be someone sitting in the back like this.” thing for me,” he says. “Before that, we didn’t He assumes the universal I-hear-you-but-I’m-not- have a corporate plan.” In it, he outlines five listening pose, leaning back in his chair, locking “mega projects.” Mega projects included a new his fingers behind his neck, and propping one streetcar fleet, a smart card to replace tokens, foot up on the coffee table. installation of Automatic Train Control (a safety mechanism), an 8.6-kilometer extension to When it came time to take questions, as Andy Line One with six new stations, and—“this is recalls, that person “would say, ‘Yeah, no my signature policy,” he says—improvements disrespect, Mr. Byford, but we’ve heard it all to the work environment at TTC. “To have before.’ And I’d say, ‘But have you? Have you enduring success, we had to tackle the culture,” heard this message from your CEO in your he explains. “We had to act, look, and think lunchroom at three a.m.? I don’t think you have. differently.” Look, I haven’t made my mind up about you, and I’d ask you to do the same about me. Give me a Good leadership requires not only the ability year. If in a year, it doesn’t feel different, you’re to set clear goals, but also the ability to absolutely right.’” communicate them to stakeholders. In the beginning of 2013, Andy attended eighty- efore we head downstairs to the subway, two (out of eighty-three) employee town Andy puts on his navy suit jacket over hall meetings, held at all times of day. He his checkered button-down shirt. He wanted to address the people doing every job, moves his nametag, which had been pinned to his from a shift-working janitor to upper-level tie, to be displayed on his lapel, right underneath management. “It would be eleven at night, a TTC pin. He wants people to know who he is, and my wife would be saying, ‘Where are you in case they have a question or a suggestion for going?’ Another town hall.” At the meetings, he improving the system. 4 People Who Move People: a series initiated and funded by Andy, in front of one of the new TTC streetcar fleet. (Photo credit Laura Lee Huttenbach, August 2017.) receipt and a brochure from the ground. In the Davisville station, he points to a subway “I’ve only regretted picking up litter once map. In the bottom corner, there is a picture in my life,” he says, as we proceed through of the station manager with an office number. the turnstile.