Metro transit agency President and CEO John Nations announced Thursday that John Langa is joining the agency as vice president of economic development.

Langa, who will assume his new role on March 14, brings nine years of public sector experience in the fields of economic development and real estate brokerage and development, according to a Metro news release.

“I am very pleased that we have been able to attract a candidate with Mr. Langa’s extensive abilities and experience to work on behalf of our customers and taxpayers of the St. Louis region,” Nations stated in the release. “John is here to help us continue to fulfill the promise Bi-State Development Agency made more than 60 years ago to be a leader in building the economic health of the region.”

Langa comes to Metro after serving as a vice-president at Jones Lang LaSalle, an international financial and professional services firm specializing in real estate. He also serves as an adjunct professor of real estate development and economic development at Saint Louis University and is a member of the Chesterfield Development Advisory Council and the Board of Advisers of Pulaski Bank.

He is a St. Louis native who devotes much of his time to community, and is well known in the real estate and economic development sectors of the St. Louis region, according to the release. Langa holds a bachelor’s degree in business administration and a master’s degree in urban planning, both from the University of Kansas.