RALEIGH, NC Gov. Roy Cooper said he has selected James Trogdon to be Secretary of the North Carolina Department of Transportation (NCDOT).

The new governor took office at the beginning of 2017 and soon began announcing his choices to fill positions in his Cabinet and other administration posts.

Cooper's announcement called Trogdon "an engineer with decades of leadership in state government and the military."

It said Trogdon previously served as the NCDOT's Chief Operating Officer before his retirement in 2013, was director of strategic transportation planning for the state's General Assembly and most recently has been national transportation director for North Carolina analytics software firm SAS Institute.

Trogdon is also a major general in the Army National Guard, the News and Observer reported.

"Jim Trogdon knows North Carolina's transportation successes and challenges better than anyone, and he will bring technical know-how and smart solutions to the job," Cooper said. "Our state's growing population and business climate need good roads and smart mass transit, and he will lead the way."

The announcement also said the governor had installed the NCDOT's Chief Engineer, Mike Holder, as interim secretary "while the process for appointing cabinet secretaries is completed."

"We're hitting the ground running by making sure veteran managers are in place across state agencies," said Cooper. "I'm grateful these experienced public servants have agreed to serve temporarily."

Trogdon, as secretary, will follow Nick Tennyson, who had been the department's CEO since August 2015 under former Gov. Pat McCrory.