“To me, transportation is kind of a fundamental challenge for the Commonwealth,” he said. “It touches all parts of our economy and everyone’s lives in a lot of different ways.”

Dempsey, a Brookline native who takes the MBTA every day, said he grew up watching the Green Line rumble down the street outside his window, and is eager to lobby the state to improve its transportation systems.

Chris Dempsey, a leader behind a campaign to keep the 2024 Olympics out of Boston, has been named the director of Transportation for Massachusetts, a prominent transportation advocacy coalition.

The Harvard Business School graduate has worked at Bain & Co., a Boston consulting firm, and the state Department of Transportation, but is best known for his work with the “No Boston Olympics” coalition that fought efforts to bring the Games to the city.


While civic leaders said the Olympics could compel Boston to improve its transportation system, Dempsey argued that the region could improve its infrastructure on its own terms.

The sentiment behind No Boston Olympics prevailed, and Boston’s bid was withdrawn.

Most recently, Dempsey worked at Masabi, which creates mobile ticketing apps for transit systems.

Transportation for Massachusetts represents a diverse range of groups, including the Boston Cyclists Union, the League of Women Voters, and the MBTA Advisory Board.

Under its previous permanent executive director, Kristina Egan, Transportation for Massachusetts was a big proponent of additional revenue for the transportation system and fought a successful ballot measure that rejected automatic increases to the gas tax.

Josh Ostroff, who succeeded Egan on an interim basis, spoke often about the need for greater investment.

It remains to be seen whether Dempsey will be as vocal about the need for more public investment, particularly in regard to a “millionaires’ tax” that could come before voters in 2018.


Dempsey said it was fair to say that spending more on public transportation should be part of the conversation, but that it “goes hand in hand with continued reform and continuing to make things more efficient.”

He said he’s eager to help the state prepare for big changes in transportation, such as self-driving cars or partnerships with ride-hailing firms such as Uber.

At the Department of Transportation, he was part of a team that helped launch an initiative to make transportation data public. Dempsey will begin his new role Feb. 6.

14 workers laid off at MBTA

As part of ongoing privatization and cost-saving efforts, the Massachusetts Bay Transportation Authority last week laid off 14 workers from its call center and marketing departments, an agency spokesman said.

The MBTA and its control board “will continue to make the tough decisions necessary to set the MBTA on a path to improved service and fiscal sustainability,” said spokesman Joe Pesaturo.

The layoffs were evenly split between the call center, which had 28 workers, and the marketing and customer service department, which had 54, Pesaturo said.

The layoffs represent a small fraction of MBTA workers, but are a likely prelude to more job losses. MBTA officials have regularly discussed plans to shrink or privatize some corporate functions, although the agency has also been adding staff in some areas, such as procurement and bus driving.

MBTA officials had requested bids to run the call center after receiving an unsolicited proposal from a company in the fall. Bids are due later this month.


A new contract between the MBTA and its largest labor union, the Boston Carmen’s Union, protected several hundred jobs from privatization, but it still allowed the MBTA to move forward with outsourcing jobs in several sections of the agency.

The employees laid off last week were represented by some of the T’s other labor groups, including Local 453 of the Office and Professional Employees International Union.

The MBTA has talked about privatizing its call center before.

In October, officials gave a presentation that showed the company could save money on the call center operation, but fiscal and management control board members asked them to gather more information.

A contract to privatize the call center could be awarded by April, under a timetable included in the request for companies to bid on the operation.

Nicole Dungca can be reached at nicole.dungca@globe.com. Follow her on Twitter@ndungca.