Juan J. Flores recently joined the Florida Department of Transportation as The State Freight and Logistics
Administrator. In his new role, Juan serves as a key advisor on freight transportation policy which will help to create the conditions for the private sector to make the needed investments to strengthen Florida’s economy by efficiently moving freight throughout our State.
Previously, Mr. Flores was working for The Mississippi Department of Transportation (MDOT) helping lead their new Freight Division. The new division was one of twelve other offices like it in the country. He worked with the state's 16 port directors (Gulf, Mississippi River and Tennessee Tombigbee River) and the freight rail community, which includes 28 Class III (short line railroads) and 5 Class I railroads. He managed two comprehensive funding programs for capital improvements and strategic planning which invest over 14 million dollars back into the
Mississippi economy. He also administered a body of work looking at the growth needs in freight infrastructure within Mississippi through a Goods Movement Study looking at regional and international freight demands.
Before going to Mississippi, Mr. Flores was the Freight Program Manager for the American Association of State
Highway and Transportation Officials (AASHTO), an organization that represents highway and transportation departments in all the 50 states, the District of Columbia, and Puerto Rico. He helped to staff the organization's five modal committees; air, trucking, rail, water and intermodal freight. He kept state DOT offices updated on
Federal and U.S. Senate and House legislation during the last transportation reauthorization bill SAFETEA-LU. He provided economic development and outreach opportunities for state agencies in developing freight and
Intermodal offices across the country. At AASHTO, Mr. Flores focused on statewide freight planning, commercial vehicle size and weight regulation and enforcement, and passenger/freight rail policy. During his time there, he helped to develop a series of multi-modal reports (AASHTO’s Bottom Line Reports) focusing on the nation’s need for freight capacity and increased infrastructure investment.
He has written and co-authored scholarly papers and articles on topics ranging from —“Too Vital to Ignore:
Securing Port Access in Washington, DC,” prepared for Baltimore sector of the U.S. Coast Guard, “The
Importance of the U.S. Economy on Travel, Tourism and Recreation” also wrote the scope of work for America’s
Marine Corridor Program for the designation of the I-10 Marine Corridor, an official Marine Highway (MH I-10) which helps offset congestion from our roads by utilizing its maritime infrastructure.
Mr. Flores was raised in Laredo, Texas, a bilingual community where he began his transportation career working for the Texas Department of Transportation while in high school as a summer trainee. When he is not working,
Mr. Flores enjoys teaching and has been an instructor teaching computer literacy and English as a Second
Language (ESL) courses. He received his Bachelors degree from Purdue University, his Masters from George
Mason University and an MBA from Mississippi College. He has also completed his executive training in Supply
Chain Management and Logistics from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) and at the Center for
Advanced Infrastructure and Transportation at Rutgers University.