Stephen Klejst

Stephen Klejst currently serves as the Deputy Managing Director at the National Transportation Safety Board. As the senior career official at the NTSB, he assists the Managing Director in the executive oversight of the agency and serves as the NTSB’s Senior Agency Official for Privacy, Chief Human Capital Officer, and Senior Agency Official for Records Management. Prior to his promotion to Deputy Managing Director, Mr. Klejst served as the Director of the Office of Railroad, Pipeline and Hazardous Materials Investigations. In this capacity, he was responsible for directing the investigation of accidents that occur on railroads, pipelines and accidents involving hazardous materials. Mr. Klejst joined the Safety Board in November of 2008 as a Railroad Accident Investigator where he served as the Investigator-In-Charge of both major and field investigations.

Prior to joining the NTSB, Mr. Klejst served over 30 years with NJ Transit Rail Operations and Conrail in both freight and passenger railroad operations. As the Deputy General Manager, he was responsible for accident investigation, regulatory compliance, employee occupational health and safety, passenger safety, quality assurance/quality control and all technical and operations training.

During his career, Mr. Klejst was an active member of Federal Railroad Administration’s Rail Safety Advisory committee and several American Public Transportation Association (APTA) committees including the Rail Safety Committee and Human Factors Subcommittee. He was instrumental in the development of APTA’s first Manual for the Development of System Safety Program Plans for Commuter Railroads and the development of uniform training standards for commuter railroads to support the implementation of the Federal Railroad Administration’s (FRA) Qualified Maintenance Person regulation. Mr. Klejst also served on the steering committee for the Federal Railroad Administration’s pilot project on Confidential Close Call and Near Miss incident reporting and as the chairman of a Transportation Research Board technical panel on alertness and fatigue mitigation strategies for the transit industry.

Mr. Klejst received his bachelor’s degree in Chemistry from the University of Pennsylvania and a Master of Science degree in Management from the Stevens Institute of Technology. Mr. Klejst is also a Certified Safety and Security Director.