Patrick J. Foye

President, MTA

Onetime white-shoe lawyer Patrick Foye has been a confidant of New York State governors for decades, an able administrator able to untangle bureaucratic snafus and get things working again. In his lengthy public service career Foye has helped turn LILCO’s lights out, guided one of Long Island’s biggest charities toward more responsible governance, and more recently eased the Bridgegate crisis by reopening the two lanes shut by marauding New Jersey political aides. Last August, Foye accepted his latest administrative challenge – running the Metropolitan Transportation Authority. He accepted the MTA’s presidency after serving as six years as executive director of the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey. He started at MTA just in time to announce a summer’s worth of major railway delays to harried commuters and start rescheduling hundreds of stalled rush-hour departures and arrivals. He handled the thankless tasks with customary aplomb. While at the Port Authority, the Sands Point resident led a public-private partnership that helped secure funding for the Goethals Bridge and construction of a new LaGuardia Airport terminal. He’s served a stint under Gov. Cuomo as deputy secretary for Economic Development, held a similar role in Nassau County under former County Executive Edward Mangano, and was an MTA director from 2010-2012. Foye served as interim president and chief executive officer at United Way of Long Island. As a director of the Long Island Lighting Company, he helped design the takeover plan which created the Long Island Power Authority and unplugged LILCO. A Fordham Law School graduate, Foye started out at Skadden, Arps, Slate, Meagher & Flom.