Joshua Schank, who joined the Los Angeles County Metropolitan Transportation Authority seven years ago to run the Office of Extraordinary Innovation, is leaving for private industry.
Schank will join InfraStragies as a managing principal in the firm’s southern California office on Feb. 14 bringing “his unique and specialized experience in policy, strategy, program management and project development,” InfraStrategies Managing Partner Mike Schneider said in a statement.
Schank took on the job of chief innovation officer in October 2015 at LA Metro after racking up an impressive track record in transportation on the east coast.
He began his career at the New York Metropolitan Transportation Authority before becoming transportation policy advisor to then-Sen. Hillary Clinton. From there, he moved to Washington, D.C., to lead the National Transportation Policy Project at the Bipartisan Policy Center, and later was president and CEO of the Eno Center for Transportation.
Former LA Metro CEO Phil Washington hired Schank contingent on his being able to create transformative programs that would take public-private partnerships to the next level.
“I gave him four crazy ideas I wanted to do if I got the job,” Schank said. Washington “said ‘yes’, to all of them.”
Those ideas included streamlining public-private projects by using a
“There is always more to accomplish, but I have done a lot of what I set out to do when I joined Metro,” Schank said.
Now he wants to take what he has learned at Metro about creating better connections between private industry and public agencies and bring it to bear for the transportation consultant.
“It’s a strategic consulting firm that focuses on P3s, finance and strategic planning — all the things that are in my wheelhouse,” Schank said.
Simultaneously, Schank will be working as a senior fellow at the Institute for Transportation Studies at the University of California Los Angeles, where he will teach and serve as a resource for faculty and students.
