Tom Prendergast | CEO
NYCT

Thomas F. Prendergast is currently the Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of the New York State (NYS) Metropolitan Transportation Authority (MTA). Mr. Prendergast is a career public transportation professional having worked over 38 years in both the private and public sector portion of the industry. He is a recognized leader who has worked in numerous positions within the industry while advancing throughout his career.
A native of Chicago, with a systems engineering degree from the University of Illinois, Mr. Prendergast began his career at the Chicago Transit Authority in 1975. From there, he joined the Department of Transportation in Washington, D.C., and then moved to the New York City Transit Authority in 1982 as Assistant Director of System Safety. In 1984, he was named Chief of the TA’s System Safety Department. In 1987 he became Staten Island General Manager, and in 1989, the agency’s Chief Electrical Officer. 

Then in 1990, he was named Senior Vice President of the Department of Subways under then president Alan F. Kiepper. In 1994, Prendergast left Subways’ SVP office at Jay Street in Brooklyn to become President of Long 
Island Rail Road, appointed by MTA Chair Peter Stangl. In 2000, he left the public sector to work as a consultant in transportation. Over the next eight years, he worked on numerous project and program management assignments in the UK, North America and Asia. He returned to the public sector in 2008 when he was named Chief Executive Officer at TransLink in Vancouver, British Columbia. He returned to the New York area in December 2009, to accept the position of President of New York City Transit. Following the resignation of MTA Chairman Joseph Lhota in December of 2012, Prendergast served as MTA’s Interim Executive Director. In April of 2013, he was nominated by Governor Andrew Cuomo to serve as MTA Chairman and Chief Executive Officer, and his nomination was confirmed by the New York State Senate in June. His terms expires on June 30, 2015.