There’s a quiet, little-observed process being conducted right now in the halls of the Metropolitan Transportation Commission: the search for a new executive director. You’d be forgiven for not paying attention — the current executive director has held the role for 17 years — but we are here to tell you that you should.

If you’ve struggled to make a long commute by transit; been packed into ancient, overcrowded train cars; or wondered if the second Transbay Tube will ever be more than a pipe dream, you should care very deeply about who leads the MTC.

The agency is a linchpin in our faltering regional transportation system, with billions of dollars in state and federal funds to disburse, and real power and influence to exert. To realize a seamless, world-class transit and transportation system across the Bay Area, we’ll need to start expecting more from our one regional transportation agency.

There is no doubt that the MTC under its previous leadership fumbled some important plays: favoring underperforming projects like the Oakland Airport Connector over more critical regional needs; negotiating an unwieldy and slow-to-deploy contract for regional bike-share; and most recently, awarding a half-billion dollars to a defense contractor for a feature-lite upgrade to Clipper. But much more concerning is what hasn’t been done. MTC hasn’t charted a clear path toward a better regional future. It hasn’t used its bully pulpit to encourage BART, Muni, AC Transit and others to deliver coordinated services and fares. It hasn’t led the regional conversation as disruptive mobility trends like Uber, Lyft, and now scooters have roiled cities. This is beyond a missed opportunity: It’s wasteful and dangerous to our long-term prosperity as a region.

We think the Bay Area deserves better. The next executive director should have firsthand and preferably international experience with well-run, truly integrated regional transportation systems. They should know how to advocate for the institutions, standards and funding streams that will deliver better regional transit, so they can break political logjams. They will have spent time directly improving the transportation experience for ordinary riders, so that they value placing rider needs first. They will know how to develop and pitch inclusive, inspiring and unifying visions. Most important, the next executive director of the MTC will balance all this with the humility to sweat the small stuff, so that change actually happens.

Here are a few names worth thinking about: Bruce McCuaig, former CEO of Toronto’s Metrolinx; Isabel Dedring, global lead for transport at engineering and planning firm Arup; and perhaps Mike Brown, commissioner of transport for London, who manages the largest integrated regional transportation agency in the world. Too aspirational? We don’t think so.

With new leadership, we think the MTC can become the agency it was always meant to be, one that demonstrates strong leadership toward realizing the legal and institutional changes necessary to deliver a seamless, world-class regional transportation system in the Bay Area.

Beaudry Kock is a member of Seamless Bay Area, a grassroots advocacy organization campaigning for seamless, world-class transit in the Bay Area. To comment, submit your letter to the editor at SFChronicle.com/letters.