Lesley Kandaras
General Manager
Lesley Kandaras has served as Metro Transit’s general manager since July 2023. In 2024, she completed her mission to ride every route Metro Transit operates within her first year in the general manager role and recorded more than 1,000 annual rides. Kandaras also led efforts to co-create a new strategic framework, Metro Transit Forward, that identifies Metro Transit's strategic priorities as employees, experience, and service.
Kandaras joined the Metropolitan Council in 2012 as a senior project coordinator, supporting the Council Chair and Council Members. She came to Metro Transit, a division of the Met Council, in 2019 to serve as senior manager-policy development and later served as chief of staff and interim general manager. She is the first woman to permanently fill the position of Metro Transit general manager.
Before joining the Met Council, Kandaras worked for a South Dakota congressperson and as an outreach director for Minnesota Sen. Amy Klobuchar.
Kandaras grew up in Rapid City, S.D., and came to the Twin Cities to attend Hamline University, where she earned a double-major in sociology and political science. She has a master’s degree in sociology from the University of Chicago.
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General Managers through history
- 1970-80: Harry Springer
- 1980-85: Lou Olsen
- 1985-90: John Capell
- 1990-93: Mike Christenson
- 1993-96: Tom Sather
- 1996-97: Julie Johanson (acting)
- 1997-01: Art Leahy
- 2001: John Haley
- 2002-04: Mike Setzer
- 2004-2019: Brian Lamb
- 2019-2022: Wes Kooistra