HONG KONG -- Hong Kong's sole railway operator MTR Corporation appointed Jay Herbert Walder, who is currently the chairman and the chief executive officer (CEO) of the New York Metropolitan Transportation Authority, as the new CEO with effect from Jan 1, 2012, the company said here on Friday.

Walder will succeed the current CEO of the MTR Chow Chung-kong, who will retire on Dec 31, 2011, and to ensure a smooth transition. He will be appointed as the CEO Designate on Nov 1, MTR said in a statement filed to the stock exchange.

Walder will start an initial term of 30 months, and he will also become both a member of the Executive Directorate and a member of the Board of Directors in MTR with effect from January 1, 2012.

Walder, 52, has worked in the rail industry, both in England and in the United States, for over 20 years. He was the manager director, finance and planning of Transport for London between 2001 and 2007, and the lecturer at the John F. Kennedy School of Government at Harvard University from 1995 to 2001.

The MTR, or Mass Transit Railway, operates Hong Kong's metro and rail network. The MTR covers more than a third of nearly 12 million daily trips generated by Hong Kong's seven million people.