Sally Librera will join HNTB Corporation as vice president of strategic planning and client support.
Her career in transportation includes 16 years spent solving infrastructure and transportation challenges in the New York area. Librera is based in HNTB’s Empire State Building office and will support clients throughout the Northeast and across the country.
“We are delighted to welcome Sally to HNTB in this new role that capitalizes on her strengths and skills in strategic planning and operational readiness to deliver extraordinary value to our clients,” said Stephen Dilts, HNTB New York office leader and senior vice president. “Her attention to details, data and front-line employee engagement will be incredibly valuable for our clients who are solving unprecedented challenges as the country’s transportation systems rebound from the effects of COVID-19.”
In her new role at HNTB, Librera is responsible for utilizing data analytics to drive strategic planning and operational/capital best value that improves clients’ performance and reduces operating and capital costs. Her counsel will allow them to be ready to deliver operations smarter, faster and efficiently coming out of the pandemic. She also will develop and deliver business plans that drive performance turnaround and strategic investments, with a business process re-engineering mindset that fosters whole life cycle asset management and reliability-based maintenance. Libera will identify market trends to support smart business decisions for HNTB’s clients and to advise decision makers across agencies and states.
In her most recent role at the Metropolitan Transportation Authority (MTA) as senior vice president of New York City Transit (NYCT) subways — a post she was the first woman to hold — Librera led all aspects of daily operations for North America’s largest urban rail network; one of nearly 700 track miles, 472 stations and 5.6 million daily riders pre-pandemic. Librera led the 30,000-person subway team through a dramatic performance turnaround, significantly improving on-time performance, cutting delays in half and safely reducing run times on every line in the system.
Prior to heading the NYCT subway system, Librera led the MTA’s Staten Island Railway, where she also served in the groundbreaking role of first female leader to lead Staten Island’s 24/7 heavy-rail operation.
Librera also held several key leadership posts at NYCT, including vice president and chief officer for subways operations support; chief officer, subways operations training; and chief officer, workforce development.
Librera received dual master’s degrees from the University of California, Berkeley, in city and regional planning and civil and environmental engineering. She also has a bachelor of science in industrial and labor relations from Cornell University. She has spoken at many industry gatherings, including serving as keynote speaker for the Transportation Diversity Council – Massachusetts Institute of Technology’s Transportation & Infrastructure Summit; presenter at American Public Transportation Association’s annual conference; and panelist for Women’s Transportation Seminar on “Glass Ceiling Panel: Women Who Have Broken Through.”
