Mayor Brandon Johnson tapped a former City Hall official and executive at a design and engineering firm to be the next leader of the Chicago Department of Aviation, the mayor’s office announced Monday.
Michael McMurray, president of transportation and infrastructure at Wight & Company, will be the Aviation commissioner, according to a news release. He would need City Council approval to assume the post, which is currently helmed by acting head Tracey Payne.
McMurray’s ascension to the post caps off the search process to replace Jamie Rhee, who stepped down in February — days after the mayor delivered a warning about purging city officials who lacked loyalty to him.
It also fuels the ongoing speculation that John Roberson, the city’s chief operating officer, is in line to be the mayor’s pick to lead the Chicago Transit Authority rather than return to CDA, where he served as commissioner under Mayor Richard M. Daley and was also floated as Rhee’s replacement.
Amid the Roberson to CTA rumors, transit activist groups sought to flex their muscle in a letter last month calling “for transparency and a nationwide search,” without naming anyone. Johnson declined to answer when asked earlier in April if he had spoken to CTA board members about the potential appointment of Roberson and dodged questions about it by saying he and the city are “blessed to have” the longtime bureaucrat at City Hall.
Meanwhile, McMurray served as a deputy commissioner at Aviation under Daley before moving over to leadership roles in the city procurement and general services departments. Before that, his government experience included working as a senior counsel at the Chicago Housing Authority and as an assistant counsel at the U.S. Social Security Administration.
His private sector experience includes serving as president of the Globetrotters Engineering Corporation before heading to Wight & Company, the latter of which has a portfolio that includes design and construction projects for “local, county, and state roadway and bridges; highway interchanges, tollways and tollway facilities; commuter rail, freight rail, transit systems and stations,” per McMurray’s LinkedIn page.
Rhee, who was appointed by Mayor Rahm Emanuel, oversaw O’Hare and Midway airports, key drivers of the city’s economy. More recently, she has helped lead an effort to overhaul large parts of O’Hare that has at times pitted Johnson against the Illinois congressional delegation.
Another major O’Hare construction project during Rhee’s tenure has yet to take off. Work to replace Terminal 2 with a new Global Terminal and add two satellite concourses is set to be the centerpiece of an overhaul of the airport’s terminals.
