PANYNJ expands CEO search; Foye backs out

Written by Jenifer Nunez, assistant editor

The Port Authority of New York and New Jersey's  (PANYNJ) Board of Commissioners has been conducting a search for the agency's first CEO since New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie and New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo endorsed the December 2014 recommendation of the Special Panel on the Future of the Port Authority that the bi-state agency appoint a single chief executive officer selected by and accountable to the Board of Commissioners.

The board appointed a CEO Search Committee to work with a leading executive search firm, Spencer Stuart, to develop a slate of candidates for consideration by the full board; the Search Committee had initially hoped to make its recommendations to the full board this month. In light of recent progress made on the Gateway program to construct new cross-Hudson rail tunnels and other major construction projects such as the PANYNJ Bus Terminal replacement, however, the Search Committee has recommended that the chief executive officer search be extended and broadened to ensure that the skill sets represented in the candidate group reflect all of the bistate agency’s future needs.

“The recent agreement among Governors Christie and Cuomo and the Obama Administration to fund the Gateway project is welcome news for the entire region,” said PANYNJ Chairman John Degnan. “Given the leadership role assigned to PANYNJ in this effort, we owe it to the board to make certain we have taken this substantial new responsibility into account in selecting our first CEO.”

“We have spoken with a number of impressive candidates,” said PANYNJ Vice Chairman Scott Rechler. “But in the past year, PANYNJ has committed itself to a number of projects, such as a modernized LaGuardia Airport, a new Bus Terminal and, most recently, the new responsibility of leading the Gateway program, all of which are some of the largest transportation projects in the country. Therefore, it makes sense for us to pause to ensure that we have factored that into our selection process and candidate selection.”

PANYNJ also announced that Executive Director Pat Foye, who has served the agency in that capacity since November 2011, has asked that his name be withdrawn from the CEO selection process and plans to leave the agency within 120 days. The board will work with Foye during that time to put an interim leadership team in place to manage the authority until the search for a permanent CEO is completed.

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