In a reorganization at New York’s Metropolitan Transportation Authority, Patrick Foye will leave as chairman and chief executive, while Sarah Feinberg and Janno Lieber will assume those respective positions.
A senior MTA official confirmed the news on Tuesday.
Foye is expected to run the Empire State Development Corp. the state’s economic development wing. He is a former downstate chairman of the ESDC.
Feinberg, now interim president of the MTA’s New York City Transit unit, will become the board’s first female chair while Lieber, as CEO, will oversee daily operations. Lieber, now chief development officer, will continue to oversee the MTA’s five-year, $51.5 billion capital program, the MTA official said.
The changes would take effect at the end of July, pending state Senate approval.
The state-run MTA is one of the largest municipal issuers with $50 billion of debt including special credits. It operates New York City’s massive subway-and-bus system, two commuter railroads and several interborough bridges and tunnels.
Its annual operating budget is roughly $18 billion, respectively.
These changes come at a critical time for the MTA, which is looking to restore ridership to levels before the COVID-19 pandemic hit. Before the coronavirus, daily ridership totaled about 8 million.
In addition, the MTA is awaiting federal approval on a congestion-pricing mechanism for Manhattan, which it projects to generate $1 billion annually in capital funding for mass transit.
The authority has also been grappling with a spike in crime and homelessness, which triggered the latest round of sparring between state and MTA officials, and City Hall. Additionally, MTA officials days ago acknowledged an attempted cyber hack of its systems.
Feinberg in particular has been critical of Mayor Bill de Blasio over policing levels in the subways.
Foye has been MTA chairman since April 1, 2019, when he succeeded Joseph Lhota. Before joining the MTA, Foye was executive director of the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey from November 2011 to August 2017.
Previously, Foye was deputy secretary for economic development for Gov. Andrew Cuomo and board member of the Long Island Power Authority.
Before naming Foye chairman two years ago, Cuomo had offered Feinberg the MTA chairmanship. At the time she turned it down, citing family considerations.
Feinberg became the acting New York City Transit chief when Andy Byford resigned in February 2020. She was administrator of the Federal Railroad Administration from 2015 to 2017 and once chaired the MTA’s board transit and bus committee.
Lieber, who joined the MTA in 2017, was president of Silverstein Properties World Trade Center Properties LLC, where he ran point on efforts to rebuild the World Trade Center site. Earlier in his career, he held positions in the administrations of President Bill Clinton and New York Mayor Ed Koch, and also worked as an attorney in private practice.
