Commissioner Elliot Sander
Executive Director and Chief Executive Officer of the Metropolitan Transportation Authority (MTA)

Elliot G “Lee” Sander is the Executive Director and Chief Executive Officer of the Metropolitan Transportation Authority. Nominated to this position by Governor Eliot Spitzer, which Mr. Sander assumed on January 1, 2007, he oversees the largest public transportation network and toll authority in North America. Comprised of seven agencies; New York City Transit, Long Island Rail Road, Metro North Railroad, MTA Bridges and Tunnels, MTA Bus Company, MTA Capital Construction, and Long Island Bus, the MTA has approximately 70,000 employees, an annual operating budget of 10 billion dollars, a 22 billion dollar five year capital budget, and is responsible for the travel of 8.3 million transit customers and 1.4 million bridge and tunnel users daily. The MTA carries one third of all the nation’s users of mass transit, and two thirds of all the nation’s rail riders.

Mr. Sander has over 30 years of experience in the public, private, and academic sectors, where he has specialized in organizational “turn-arounds”, managing large capital projects and programs, and developing and implementing progressive transportation policy.

Prior to his appointment to the MTA, Mr. Sander was a senior executive at AECOM DMJM Harris, a global transportation architectural, engineering, and planning firm, where he led and significantly grew the company’s Metro division, the company’s largest operating group. For these accomplishments, he was awarded the President’s Cup as outstanding officer of the year in 1998 and the President’s Innovation Award in 2001.

From 1977 to 1996, Mr. Sander served in the public sector, primarily in executive positions at the New York State Department of Transportation, NYC Transit, the NYS Division of Housing and Community Renewal, and NYC Department of Transportation, where he was Commissioner under Mayor Rudolph Giuliani from 1994 to 1996. He began his career as a budget analyst at the NYC Office of Management and Budget.

Mr. Sander is also a leader in developing transportation policy on the national and local levels. He currently serves on the National Surface Transportation Infrastructure Financing Commission, which he was appointed to by Congressman and Chair of the Ways and Means Committee Charles Rangel in 2006. Mr. Sander is also chair of the American Public Transportation Association’s Transit 2050 Vision Task Force and serves on the New York City Traffic Congestion Mitigation Commission. In 2004 Mr. Sander sat on the New York State Advisory Panel on Transportation for 2025, a bi-partisan, blue ribbon panel charged with updating New York State’s transportation master plan.

Mr. Sander has also developed major advocacy organizations and campaigns for public transportation. In 1996, he founded the Empire State Transportation Alliance (ESTA) with Robert Yaro of the Regional Plan Association. ESTA played a leading role in passing the landmark MTA Capital Plans of 2000 and 2005, the passage of the Transportation Bond Act in 2005, and the transportation plan to redevelop Lower Manhattan following the tragedy of 9/11.

Mr. Sander is also the founding Chairman of the Transportation Research Board’s Large City Committee, and in 1996, he founded the National Association of City Transportation Officials, an organization comprised of the ten largest American cities that encourages the exchange of best practices while coordinating a strategic approach to the US Department of Transportation on key national issues. He is also the Founder and former Director of the Rudin Center for Transportation Policy and Management at NYU where he is also an Adjunct Associate Professor of Public Administration.

Mr. Sander served on the NYC Taxi and Limousine Commission from 1997 to 2007 as a Mayoral appointee under Mayor Giuliani and Mayor Bloomberg. He has also served as a Associate National Commissioner of the Anti-Defamation League.

Mr. Sander’s work in effecting organizational change and influencing state transportation policy has been covered extensively in the New York Times, Governing Magazine, and other written and electronic media.

Mr. Sander is a graduate of the School of Foreign Service at Georgetown, and is a product of the New York City public school system. He resides in Douglaston, Queens with his wife Lisa, his daughter Bria, and son Ethan. He is an avid instrument rated pilot.