NYU Schack Institute of Real Estate

Marisa Lago

Since February 2010, Marisa Lago has served as the U.S. Department of the Treasury's assistant secretary for international markets and development where she is responsible for leading Treasury's role on the Committee on Foreign Investment in the United States. She also directs Treasury's portfolio on international financial services regulation, trade, banking and securities, development, technical assistance, and climate finance.

Previously, Lago served as the president and chief executive officer of Empire State Development (ESD), an organization whose primary mission is to facilitate business growth and job creation across New York State. During her tenure at ESD, she led important long-term development projects, including the revitalization of Erie Canal Harbor in Buffalo, New York, the expansion and renovation of the Jacob Javits Convention Center in Manhattan, and the construction of Brooklyn Bridge Park.

Prior to joining New York State government, Lago spent five years as the global head of compliance for Citigroup's corporate and investment bank. Before Citigroup, Lago headed the Office of International Affairs for the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission. As the head of the office responsible for all aspects of the SEC's international activities, Lago played a key role in numerous international initiatives involving trade in financial services, international accounting standards, securities activities on the Internet, and enhancing financial regulation in offshore financial centers.

As Boston's chief economic development officer from 1994 to 1997, Lago headed the Boston Redevelopment Authority and also was responsible for the city's public housing, affordable housing, neighborhood development, and job training agencies. From 1990 to 1994, she was general counsel for New York City's Economic Development Corporation. Lago earned a J.D. cum laude in 1982 from Harvard Law School and a B.S. in Physics from Cooper Union in 1977.

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Robert K. Steel

Robert K. Steel is the New York City deputy mayor for economic development. He is responsible for the Bloomberg administration's five-borough economic development strategy and job-creation efforts, as well as its efforts to expand job training, strengthen small business assistance, promote new industries, diversify the economy, and achieve the goals of the New Housing Marketplace Plan, which is designed to build and to preserve enough affordable housing for 500,000 New Yorkers by 2014. He spearheads the administration's major redevelopment projects, including those in Lower Manhattan, Flushing, Hunters Point South, Coney Island, Stapleton, the South Bronx, and Hudson Yards. Deputy Mayor Steel oversees such agencies as the Department of Housing Preservation and Development, Department of City Planning, Department of Small Business Services, NYC Economic Development Corporation, and NYC & Company. He also serves as chair of the Brooklyn Bridge Park board of directors.

Prior to his 2010 appointment as deputy mayor, Steel was the president and chief executive officer of Wachovia. From 2006 to 2008, Steel served as the under secretary for domestic finance at the U.S. Department of the Treasury. Before entering government service, Steel spent nearly 30 years at Goldman Sachs, ultimately rising to become co-head of the U.S. Equities Division and vice chairman of the firm. He is a graduate of Duke University and the University of Chicago's Booth School of Business and has distinguished himself as chairman of Duke's Board of Trustees, chairman of the Aspen Institute's Board of Trustees, Senior Fellow at the John F. Kennedy School of Government at Harvard University, a member of the FDIC Advisory Committee on Economic Inclusion, chairman of The After-School Corporation, and co-founder of SeaChange Capital Partners, an organization dedicated to helping nonprofits grow.

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Jay H. Walder

Jay H. Walder joined the Metropolitan Transportation Authority (MTA) as chairman and chief executive officer on October 5, 2009. In his first year as head of the country's largest public transportation system, Walder oversaw an agenda of change that included numerous customer improvements and the most aggressive cost-cutting initiative in the history of the MTA.

Walder has extensive experience in the public transportation business. He began his career in 1983 at the MTA, heading its capital program budget office, later serving as chief of staff, and ultimately executive director and chief financial officer. In those positions, he played important roles in the MTA's first Capital Program and the creation and implementation of the MetroCard.

After leaving the MTA in 1995, Walder taught public policy at the John F. Kennedy School of Government at Harvard University. He subsequently joined Transport for London (TfL), where he served as managing director for finance and development until 2006. TfL, created in 2000, is the integrated body responsible for London's transport services. Walder is credited with the introduction of the system's extremely successful and popular "Oyster card" and with leading the development of the transportation plans for London's successful bid for the 2012 Summer Olympics.

From 2007 until rejoining the MTA, Walder was a partner at McKinsey & Company, a management consulting firm advising leading companies on issues of strategy, organization, technology, and operations.

He is a member of several boards, including the executive committee and board of directors of the American Public Transit Association; the executive board and policy board of the International Association of Public Transport; the board of advisors of the Taubman Center for State and Local Government at the John F. Kennedy School of Government at Harvard University; and the board of advisors of the Eno Transportation Foundation.

Walder grew up in the Rockaways in Queens, New York. He attended Harpur College at the State University of New York at Binghamton and received a Master's in Public Policy from the John F. Kennedy School of Government at Harvard University.

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Peter Hendy

Appointed commissioner of Transport for London (TfL) on February 1, 2006, Peter Hendy oversees one of the world’s largest transport authorities. Established in 2000, TfL has a total expenditure of more than £8 billion; approximately 25,000 employees; runs the London Underground and manages the bus network, Docklands Light Railway and London Overground, the Congestion Charging scheme, Croydon Tramlink, and London’s busiest main roads. In 2009-10, over 3.5 billion journeys were made on the TfL network. Hendy is responsible to the Mayor of London, Boris Johnson, who chairs the TfL Board.

In 1975, Hendy joined what was then called London Transport as a graduate trainee and gained experience in all aspects of bus operations before being appointed managing director of CentreWest London Buses Ltd. in 1989. He led the successful buyout of CentreWest by its management and staff with venture capital backing in 1994, expanded the business, and, after a sale to FirstGroup plc, he became divisional director, London and South East in July 1998. Immediately prior to joining TfL, Hendy was deputy director of UK Bus, responsible for FirstGroup bus operations in London and southern England, and a director of New World First Bus in Hong Kong.

In January 2001, Hendy rejoined the public sector and became TfL’s managing director of surface transport where he oversaw the revitalization of London’s Buses. Additional responsibilities included the Public Carriage Office, Croydon Tramlink, Dial-a-Ride, Victoria Coach Station, London River Services, and transport policing and enforcement. In 2003, his role widened to include the management of the UK’s first congestion charge, London’s major roads, traffic management, road safety, walking, cycling, and the movement of goods.

Hendy is a Fellow of the Chartered Institute of Logistics and Transport and serves as its president for 2011-12, a Fellow of the Chartered Institute of Highways and Transportation, and a Fellow of the Royal Society of Arts. From 2005 until 2010, he was chair of the Commission for Integrated Transport. He was formerly a Council member of the Confederation of Passenger Transport and a member of the Employment Tribunals.

Following the terrorist attack on London’s public transport network on July 7, 2005, and the immediate recovery of the public transport networks, Hendy was awarded the Commander of the British Empire (CBE) in the 2006 New Year’s Honours list, for services to public transport and the community in London.

Hendy holds a B. A. in Economics and Geography from the University of Leeds, and in February 2010, was awarded the Honorary Doctor of Science by City University.

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Dame Judith Mayhew Jonas

Judith Mayhew Jonas, who was appointed Dame Commander of the British Empire (DBE) in 2002 for services to the City of London, is Chairman of London & Partners and the New West End Company. She is a member of the Mayor’s Promote London Council, is Co-Chair of the London/New York Dialogue, and is a Vice President of London First. She was a City lawyer and former political Leader of the City of London Corporation. She was Deputy Chairman of the London Development Agency (LDA), City and Business Adviser to the Mayor of London, and chaired the Private Investment Commission. She has just completed five years as Chairman of the Royal Opera House and has been a trustee of several museums. She is currently a trustee of the Imperial War Museum.

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Stephen Glaister

Stephen Glaister, CBE, FICE, FTRF, FCGI, is director of the Royal Automobile Club (RAC) Foundation, London, and professor emeritus of Transport and Infrastructure at Imperial College, London.

From 2009 to 2010, he served as partnership director of Tube Lines. Glaister also served as a member of the board of Transport for London (TfL) from 2000 to 2008, and a non-executive director of London Regional Transport from 1984 until 1993. Previously, he was a member of the Steering Group for the Department for Transport’s 2004 National Road Pricing Feasibility Study and a member of the Friends Group advising Sir Rod Eddington on his Transport Study. He is a member of the External Challenge Group for High Speed 2 (HS2).

Between 1993 and spring 2001, Glaister was an economic advisor to the Rail Regulator. He also was a member of the government's first Advisory Committee on Trunk Road Assessment, served as specialist advisor to the Parliamentary Select Committee on Transport, and was an advisor to the Commission for Integrated Transport.

Glaister has published widely on transport policy and also on regulation in the telecommunications, water, and gas industries. He is the principal author of a series of three studies into national road pricing for the Independent Transport Commission and of the RAC Foundation study “Governing and Paying for England’s Roads.”

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Robert E. Paaswell

Dr. Robert Paaswell is distinguished professor of civil engineering at City College of New York, the flagship institution of the City University of New York (CUNY). He also is the emeritus director of the College’s University Transportation Research Center, Region II, which he led for 19 years and the founding director of the CUNY Institute for Urban Systems (CIUS). From 2009-2010, he served as interim president of the College.

A civil engineer and former head of the Chicago Transit Authority, Dr. Paaswell is an internationally recognized expert in public transportation issues and consulting. He has reported on governance structures for U.S. transit organizations, public-private issues in New York and Chicago, and labor union/management issues. He served as an advisor to the Israeli government concerning the restructuring of their bus companies, and issues of competition. He recently served as chairman of the board of the Transit Standards Consortium, a new professional group addressing the problems of integration of high technology into public transit systems. He is a Distinguished Member of the American Society of Civil Engineers and former chair of their Committee on Peer Review of Public Agencies. He is an appointed member of the New York State Governor’s High Speed Rail Task Force and was an appointed member to the Governor’s Commission on Higher Education and an appointed member of the New York Metropolitan Transit Authority (MTA) Blue Ribbon Panel on Workforce Development and Construction Excellence. He serves on the board of directors of several CUNY schools and institutes and at various periods served on New York State task forces.

As the interim president of City College, Dr. Paaswell was the chief executive of a comprehensive teaching, research, and service institution with 16,000 students; professional schools in architecture, biomedical education, education, and engineering; a College of Liberal Arts and Science; and an annual budget of over $230 million. During his tenure, Dr. Paaswell raised the intellectual profile of the College, energized its faculty, focused the administration on to its core mission of serving students and faculty, and engaged the Upper Manhattan community. He raised $29.4 million in gifts in his affiliated role as president of the City College 21st Century Foundation, and prepared the College for a transition to new leadership.

Dr. Paaswell has authored two books,11 book chapters, over 150 technical publications and reports, and contributes articles to the World Book Encyclopedia. He is a sought-after speaker in his field with over 200 invited technical presentations. Dr. Paaswell is listed in Who's Who in the World, Who's Who in America, Who's Who in Engineering, and Who’s Who in Finance and Industry. He has served as the principal investigator for over 100 sponsored research grants with a value of approximately $60 million. His current research concerns transit system budgeting and finance, including both operating and capital budgets; transit investment strategies; and issues of transit system governance. Dr. Paaswell also is leading CIUS in innovative research and programs that address issues of urban sustainability.

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