9/7-Tracy Rafter, Art Leahy

Tracy Rafter - CEO Bizfed

As the first female publisher in the nearly 100 year history of the Los Angeles Daily News, Tracy Rafter brought strategic vision, unbridled passion, fearless innovation, and dynamic leadership at a time of unprecedented challenge and change in the news media industry. She is now the principal of her own next level media company IMPOWER, LLC, and also owns a business advisory, Rafter Group, Inc. which provided management and leadership to organize, launch, and operate BizFed. As a 25 year veteran of the newspaper business, she has held chief executive positions in a variety of major markets across the country, including over a decade with the Journal Register Company of Trenton, New Jersey, where she served as Publisher and CEO of four award winning newspapers in Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, and Massachusetts.


Art Leahy-Metro CEO

Arthur T. Leahy, one of the nation's leading transportation executives, is Chief Executive Officer for the Los Angeles County Metropolitan Transportation Authority (Metro). Mr. Leahy started his career in public transportation in 1971 as a bus operator with Metro. After working his way up to Executive Officer of Operations and laying the foundation for the Metro Red, Green, and Blue Line rail systems, he went to Minnesota where he was the General Manager of Metro Transit in Minneapolis-St. Paul. Since January 2001, Mr. Leahy served as the CEO for the Orange County Transportation Authority (OCTA), overseeing the $550 million dollar expansion to State Route 22 and the purchase of the toll lanes from State Route 91. His leadership earned the OCTA the award for the “Outstanding Transportation System” of the year by the American Public Transportation Association in 2004. Mr. Leahy succeeded Roger Snoble as Metro CEO on April 6, 2009.