Baas to replace Goss as head of transportation group WTBA

Steve Baas

Steve Baas, who recently advocated for widening Interstate 94 west of downtown Milwaukee, will take over as head of the Wisconsin Transportation Builders Association, the advocacy group announced on Thursday.

Baas most recently served as the senior vice president for government affairs at the Metropolitan Milwaukee Association of Commerce, a group he joined in 2005 after working as press secretary and communications director for the Wisconsin State Assembly for nearly a decade.

At WTBA, he will succeed Pat Goss, who was recently named executive director of the Southeast Wisconsin Professional Baseball Park District, which oversees American Family Park in Milwaukee. Goss had led the organization since 2007.

“I look forward to working with WTBA members and the WTBA team to continue their long history of being the leading voice on transportation issues impacting Wisconsin and the region,” Baas said in a statement. “The role of WTBA as a trusted voice of transportation expertise will be more important than ever as changes in technology, mobility options, and the nature of work itself demand increasingly creative and innovative solutions to our critical transportation and transportation funding needs.”

Baas will begin in his new role on Sept. 7. Jeff Parisi, who previously led WTBA and was the chairman of a group charged with finding the next executive director, said Baas’s role in transportation debates while at MMAC was a good preparation for leading the association.

Recently, Baas advocated for rebuilding and widening I-94 East-West between the Zoo and Marquette Interchanges.

“Steve has a long track record of working with diverse communities of interest to reach consensus solutions on complex issues,” Parisi said in a statement. “We’re excited to tap into his combination of experience, leadership and strategic thinking, and we are confident those tools will be big assets as we work with industry advocates and elected officials to build on the momentum around the message that investing in transportation is a key component of building a brighter future for all of Wisconsin.”