Mortimer L. Downey III Elected Chair of Metro Board of Directors

Mortimer L. Downey III has been elected chair of the board of directors of the Washington Metropolitan Area Transit Authority (Metro) effective immediately. Downey, who joined the Board in January 2010 as the first member appointed by the federal government, succeeds Tom Downs, whose two-year term as chair ended yesterday (Thursday, Jan. 22).

“This new board leadership will remain focused on maintaining a spirit of governance that is both cooperative and collaborative, as we seek to select a new general manager/CEO and secure adequate funding for Metro’s future,” Downey said. “Going forward, the board’s governance should provide for public accountability and build confidence and trust in Metro,” he said.

Downey, who had been deputy secretary of transportation in the Clinton Administration, served on the Transportation Policy Committee for the Obama presidential campaign, and during the 2008-2009 presidential transition was appointed as leader of the Department of Transportation Agency Review Team. He is also vice chairman of DOT’s National Freight Transportation Advisory Committee.

As the executive director and chief financial officer of the New York Metropolitan Transportation Authority (MTA) for 12 years, Downey served the MTA Board in its oversight of the nation’s largest independent public transportation authority. He was particularly involved in the capital rebuilding of the MTA system, overseeing the financing for and programming of more than $20 billion of capital investment into the New York region’s transportation facilities. He has also worked at the U.S. House of Representatives Committee on the Budget, and at the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey.

A resident of Oakton, Virginia, Downey is president of Mort Downey Consulting LLC, and among other consulting activities, serves as a senior advisor to Parsons Brinckerhoff, providing advisory and management consulting services to the firm and its clients. He and his late wife, Joyce Downey, have two children and five grandchildren.