RPA is thrilled to welcome six new members to our Board of Directors. From public service to architecture to engineering, the skills and experience of these outstanding individuals complements the existing mix of civic and business expertise on RPA’s Board. Their achievements embody the values that underpin RPA’s work; equity, health, prosperity, sustainability. As Board members, they strengthen RPA’s ability to implement these values throughout the New York-New Jersey-Connecticut metropolitan region. Learn more below about the new members of our Board of Directors.
Henry Cisneros, Principal, Siebert Cisneros Shank & Co.
The Honorable Henry Cisneros serves as a Principal of Siebert Cisneros Shank & Co, and is also the Founder and Chairman of the CityView companies, which is a partner in building more than 7,000 homes in 13 states. In 1981, Mr. Cisneros became the first Latino-American mayor of a major U.S. city, San Antonio, Texas. In 1992, President Clinton appointed Mr. Cisneros to be Secretary of the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD), where he was credited with initiating the revitalization of many of the nation’s public housing developments. After leaving HUD in 1997, Mr. Cisneros was President and COO of Univision Communications. Mr. Cisneros has served as President of the National League of Cities, as Deputy Chair of the Federal Reserve Bank of Dallas, and as Vice-Chairman of Habitat for Humanity International. Mr. Cisneros is also an award-winning author and a former infantry officer in the United States Army.
Linda Harrison, Director & CEO, The Newark Museum
Linda Harrison is the Director and CEO of the Newark Museum. She has more than 20 years of leadership experience in both the for-profit and non-profit sectors and was previously the Director and CEO of the Museum of the African Diaspora (MoAD). She is a Getty Foundation Executive Leadership Institute Fellow, founded two San Francisco businesses, and worked as a Vice President for Eastman Kodak, along with other Fortune 500 companies.
Mary Margaret Jones, Senior Principal, Hargreaves Associates
Ms. Jones has led many of Hargreaves Associates award-winning landscape architecture projects around the globe, including the recently completed Zaryadye Park in Moscow, Russia; the soon-to-be-completed 70 acre Scissortail Park in downtown Oklahoma City; and the new Kendall Square East project for MIT. The firm has received more than 100 national and international awards, and is the recipient of the 2016 Cooper Hewitt National Design Award and the Rosa Barba International Landscape Prize for the Queen Elizabeth Olympic Park in London, UK. Ms. Jones has served on numerous juries, lectures widely, and is active in the public forum of design and development issues. She is also Vice President of the Boards of ODC Dance in San Francisco and The Architectural League of New York.
John Porcari, President, Advisory Services, WSP
John Porcari is responsible for integrating WSP’s technical expertise in planning, engineering, program/construction management and operations with the strategic thinking needed by owners, developers and operators to successfully deliver infrastructure programs and projects. He served as Interim Executive Director of the Gateway Development Corporation (GDC) from July 2016 until early 2019 and remains an advisor to the GDC. Prior to joining WSP, Mr. Porcari was Deputy Secretary at the U.S. Department of Transportation, where he served as the chief operating officer for an executive branch with a $77 billion annual budget and 55,000 employees worldwide. He twice served as Secretary of the Maryland Department of Transportation.
Gerald Rosberg, Senior Executive Vice President, Columbia University
As the Senior Executive Vice President of Columbia University, Gerald Rosberg works with the President and the University’s senior leadership on long-term planning and human resource and other strategic issues, with a particular focus on coordination across departments. He served for 20 years as a senior executive of the Washington Post Company (now Graham Holdings). Before that he was a lawyer in private practice and a professor of law at the University of Michigan Law School.
Aditya Sanghvi, Senior Partner, McKinsey & Co.
Aditya coleads McKinsey’s service of the real estate industry, serving leading companies in both residential and commercial real estate including developers, investment managers, real estate investment trusts, tenants, governments, services companies, and technology disruptors. He also leads McKinsey’s efforts in the use of advanced analytics in real estate. Aditya is active in the community on issues of economic inequality and mentorship. He is the Chair of the Board of America Needs You, which provides intensive mentorship to first-generation, low-income students at public universities. He also sits on the Board of the Boys & Girls Harbor, which focuses on the power of education and the arts for students in the lower Harlem area of New York City.
