Meet the Executive Director

Jim Larsen, CAE
Executive Director
Dulles Area Transportation Association

Jim Larsen currently serves as the Executive Director of the Dulles Area Transportation Association, a 501 c (3) entity now in its twentieth year of advocacy and mobility management efforts in the greater Dulles area. Through Larsen’s consensus-building efforts, DATA has been instrumental in serving as a catalyst for advancing transportation improvements targeting the commercially strategic Dulles corridor.

Larsen is a regular participant with the Virginia Department of Rail and Public Transportation’s TDM programs including Telework!VA and the Metropolitan Washington Council of Governments (MWCOG) Commuter Connections program. He is also Vice-Chairman Northern Virginia, for the Citizens’ Advisory Committee of the Transportation Planning Board at MWCOG and past chairman of its Commuter Connections Telecommuting subcommittee and the Transportation Management Association subcommittee.

A Certified Association Executive (CAE) and also a Certified Hotel Administrator (CHA), Larsen held several key operating positions with Hilton Hotels Corporation, developing the original concepts and supervising the opening of one of the Dulles area’s first class hotels, the current Hilton Washington Dulles Airport. He is also a former Director of the Fairfax County (VA) Convention and Visitors Bureau. As a tourism consultant, he conducted a tourism and business marketing evaluation for the City Council of Poznan, Poland and worked on a team for the Fairfax County Economic Development Authority opening up opportunities in Japan, Korea, and Hong Kong. As a specialist employed by Fairfax County Public School’s Foundation for Applied Technical Education, Inc., he provided student business opportunities including a residential construction business, identified and coordinated the process for re-zoning another parcel to expand the building program, and operated Virginia’s only used car dealership in a high school.

Larsen is active in several professional organizations for marketing, tourism, transportation, and chambers of commerce, and is a past president of the Washington, DC Skal International Club. He is also a graduate of Leaderhip Fairfax’s 1991 class. He currently serves on the national Board of Directors of the Association for Commuter Transportation.