Winchester Man Appointed to Transportation Infrastructure Committee

A Winchester man was one of seven individuals appointed to the state's Special Public-Private Partnership Infrastructure Commission, according to a press statement by Gov. Deval Patrick's office.

The legislatively-mandated commission reviews and approves all public-private partnership transportation infrastructure requests for proposals for design-build-finance-operate-maintain contract services, according to the statement. 

Four members are appointed by the governor and one each by the Senate President Therese Murray, House Speaker Robert DeLeo and State Treasurer Steve Grossman. The four members appointed by Governor Patrick to the Commission for a two-year period include:

• Alan Macdonald, Winchester: Current member, Massachusetts Department of Transportation Board of Directors; executive director of the Massachusetts Business Roundtable for 23 years, chairman of the Transportation Advisory Committee, and member of the 2007 Transportation Finance Commission.
  
• Congressman John Olver, Amherst: U.S. House of Representatives, 1991-January 2013; Ranking Member, House Subcommittee on Transportation, Housing and Urban Development; recognized leader in advocating for innovative transportation infrastructure projects, including the John W. Olver Transit Center, Greenfield.
• Joseph Dorant, Saugus: President, Massachusetts Organization of State Engineers and Scientists, professional employee union that represents 3,400 technical, engineering and scientific employees of 39 agencies of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts.
• Valerie Mosley, Weston: Chairwoman and CEO, Valmo Ventures; retired Partner, Senior Vice President and Investment Strategist at Wellington Management Company, LLP, global money management firm.

The three members appointed by Senate President Murray, House Speaker DeLeo and Treasurer Grossman include:

• David Luberoff (appointed by Senate President): Senior project advisor to the Radcliffe Institute for Advanced Study’s Boston Area Research Initiative; Executive Director of Harvard’s Rappaport Institute for Greater Boston, 2004-2012.
• John Vitagliano (appointed by House Speaker): Winthrop, Principal, Seagull Consulting; former Massport Board Member; former City of Boston Transportation Commissioner.
• Jessica Strunkin (appointed by State Treasurer): Deputy Director, 495/MetroWest Partnership; previously Director of Government Affairs at the North Central Massachusetts Chamber of Commerce.

“These highly-qualified leaders will provide critical early input to ensure that transportation investments are made wisely,” Patrick said in the statement.

Commission members must be experts with experience in transportation law, public policy, public finance, management consulting, transportation or organizational change, reads the statement.

The commission, in reviewing the requests for proposals, will consider such issues as the proposed policies for overseeing a privately operated transportation facility; financial issues including taxation, profit-sharing, revenue producing ideas and the financial value of any state transportation facility involved; use of new technologies; and the anticipated advantages of entering into a public-private agreement for services, reads the statement.