Movin' On Up: Obama Administration Reaches Into Reston to Run Federal Agency

President Barack Obama took time away from appearing on the Tonight Show to nominate J. Randolph Babbitt, director of Reston-based Access National Corp. to run the Federal Aviation Administration.

Babbitt, the director of Reston-based Access National Corp. (NASDAQ: ANCX), will lead the 46,000-person agency within the Department of Transportation that regulates and oversees all parts of civil aviation, including air traffic control, safety and noise.

He has four decades of experience in aviation and labor relations, including CEO of the Airline Pilots Association. Babbitt began his aviation career as a pilot for Eastern Airlines and flew for more than 25 years. He founded Eclat Consulting in Reston, which provided economic support for regulatory, legislative, and business issues in aviation.

Babbitt has served on the board of Access National Corp. and Access National Bank since his role as an organizing investor of the bank in 1999. Access National Corp. is the holding company for Access National Bank, which has approximately $700 million in assets.

Lest you forget, Access National is the banking company that told the administration just where to stick its fancy bailout money. We don't really have a joke for that, except to say we'll take some of that money if it's just lying around somewhere, in a filing cabinet or something.