Ishita Aggarwal is the Chief Financial Officer for the U.S. at Siemens Corp based in New York. Born and raised in India, Ishita spent 15 years living primarily in Berlin, Germany before relocating to the United States in late 2024. She brings global finance experience in key leadership positions, having led teams across Europe, Asia, and the Americas. Before joining Siemens Mobility in 2020, she managed multi-billion EUR portfolios and drove financial strategy and transformation at organizations like Bombardier Transportation.

Ishita holds a Bachelor’s degree in Chemical Engineering, a Master’s in European Business from the European School of Management in London, and an MBA in International Management. She is passionate about continuous learning, fostering diversity, and connecting people. Outside of her professional life, she enjoys reading, creative writing, cooking, and traveling.

A nationally recognized strategist, Maria Comella helps leaders articulate their vision and navigate an increasingly volatile political and communications environment. She has successfully led complex teams towards accomplishing ambitious goals across fast-paced startup environments, the trenches of political and advocacy campaigns, and the halls of government.

Maria has served in high-profile positions on presidential campaigns, as well as managed political crises with national fallout. She most recently served as the chief strategist for Chris Christie’s 2024 presidential primary run, steering a path for a nimble, committed team with a clear message to exceed expectations and leave a lasting mark on the national discourse.

In the private sector, she led communications at CLEAR through their highly successful IPO process, and oversaw global public affairs at WeWork with a team in over 30 countries.

And as one of the few leaders to have been Chief of Staff to governors on both sides of the aisle in New Jersey and New York, Maria has the network of relationships and the expertise to tackle challenges at the intersection of communications, policy, and issue management.

Comella & Co. has managed coverage and secured placements across the media ecosystem and at every major news outlet, including high-level profiles in Vanity Fair, The Atlantic, NYT Magazine, New York Magazine, People, the New York Times, Wall Street Journal, Washington Post, and morning and evening programming across NBC, CBS, and ABC.

To Philip, great design is universal. As principal and director of Sasaki’s New York studio, he is responsible for realizing projects that range from pop-up parklets and plazas to large-scale mixed-use developments, public parks, and waterfronts. Philip’s approach balances systems thinking with the experiential qualities of public space, blending the complex infrastructural demands on our urban environments with the evolving social, environmental, and cultural needs of today’s public realm.

Since launching Sasaki’s New York presence in 2022, Philip has led some of Sasaki’s most impactful public realm projects. This includes Western Rail Yards, the second phase of Hudson Yards that will transform the west side of Manhattan and recenter the district around parks and public spaces for people to gather, play, and recharge; the West Village Streetscape Master Plan, which reimagines Seventh Avenue South as a resilient, people-centered corridor grounded in the West Village’s LGBTQIA+ history and the legacy of Stonewall; and at the Brooklyn Navy Yard, where Sasaki has been charged with the design and implementation of a critical civic plaza that weaves together the Yard’s rich industrial heritage with creative placemaking and its ongoing role as a hub for making. Across project scales and typologies, Philip is dedicated to improving the built environment for all, designing spaces that are engaging, accessible, and grounded in their context.

Tom Scerbo is New York Metro Region Executive at WSP in the U.S. In this role, he is responsible for steering the operations and growth of all WSP’s business lines in the region toward the objective of enabling WSP to be the preferred and trusted choice for clients, employees and partners.

Tom joins WSP after holding senior executive roles at other global and national architecture‑engineering‑construction firms. He has overseen major transportation, buildings and urban design programs — guiding integrated teams delivering aviation terminals, transit centers, federal facilities, climate‑resilient waterfront infrastructure and large public‑private partnership developments. His leadership spans strategic growth, business development, large‑scale program oversight and the advancement of digital and collaborative project delivery practices.

Tom is a graduate of the New York Institute of Technology with a bachelor’s degree in architecture, and Columbia University Graduate School of Architecture, Planning and Preservation with a master’s degree in advanced architectural design. A member of numerous industry organizations, he currently serves as president of the Society of American Military Engineers, New York City Post; and board advisor for Columbia University’s Center for Buildings, Infrastructure and Public Space.

Zach Solomon is a Managing Director at Morgan Stanley and Co-Head of Public Finance, leading Morgan Stanley’s investment banking franchise for the public sector, not-for-profit sector and tax-advantaged structured finance products. Morgan Stanley Public Finance consistently ranks as a top 4 underwriter of tax-exempt debt nationally, raising $40 billion+ in capital each year across 10 offices. In his 15 years at Morgan Stanley, he has worked with asset owners, developers and investors across the public and private sector to finance infrastructure and affordable housing assets throughout the United States. He is a graduate of Columbia Business School and Georgetown University. Zach lives with his wife and son in New York City.

Sharon is the Northeast Transportation Planning Lead at VHB. Based in New York City, Sharon guides the growth of VHB’s transportation planning practice across the region, advancing projects that connect people, strengthen communities, and support long-term economic vitality.

Sharon has shaped some of the most complex and impactful planning initiatives in the Northeast. She most recently served as Director of Infrastructure Planning for Amtrak’s Gateway Program, where she advanced critical capacity and station planning initiatives at Penn Station and collaborative efforts to enhance one of the nation’s busiest transit hubs. Sharon founded Art at Amtrak, an internationally recognized public art program that brought new visibility and vibrancy to stations along Amtrak’s Northeast Corridor and National Network. Prior to her time at Amtrak, Sharon positioned and advanced priority projects for our region at the NYC Economic Development Corporation, the Lower Manhattan Development Corporation, the City of Newark and the MTA.

Sharon holds a bachelor’s degree in design and environmental analysis from Cornell University, as well as a master’s degree in urban planning from Harvard University Graduate School of Design. She is certified by the American Institute of Certified Planners and is active on the APA New York Metro Chapter’s Transportation Committee and other civic organizations.

Antonio Weiss is a partner in investment firm SSW and a research fellow at the Harvard Kennedy School’s Mossavar-Rahmani Center. He served in the Obama Administration as Counselor to the Secretary of the U.S. Treasury, where he oversaw the department of Domestic Finance and was point-person on the debt crisis in Puerto Rico. Prior to joining Treasury, Mr. Weiss served in various leadership roles at Lazard in New York and Paris for over twenty years, including as Global Head of Investment Banking.

Mr. Weiss is a director of Banco Santander. He is a trustee or director of The Volcker Alliance, the Citizens Budget Committee, the Bretton Woods Committee and the French-American Foundation, and a member of the Council on Foreign Relations. He is a director and past Publisher of the leading literary quarterly, The Paris Review. Mr. Weiss earned his bachelor’s degree from Yale College and M.B.A. degree from Harvard Business School, where he was a Baker Scholar and Loeb Fellow.