NEW YORK — Craig Cipriano, who previously oversaw the New York City Transit bus system, has become NYCT’s interim president, succeeding Sarah Feinberg.
An MTA press release announced that Janno Lieber, who became acting Metropolitan Transportation Authority chairman and CEO on July 31, appointed Cipriano to his position. Feinberg stepped down last week after 17 months as the interim president of the bus-and-subway arm of the MTA [see “Feinberg steps down …,” Trains News Wire, Aug. 2, 2021].
Cipriano has spent more than 30 years at the MTA, beginning at the subway Coney Island Yard in Brooklyn.
Before departing, Feinberg promoted Demetrius Crichlow to the position of senior vice president of NYCT Department of Subways. Crichlow, who began with the MTA in 1997 as an assistant signal maintainer at the Long Island Railroad, was named acting executive vice president of the subway division earlier this year.
Lieber, who had been president of MTA Construction and Development, nominated for the CEO job earlier this year by Gov. Andrew Cuomo, at the same time he appointed Feinberg to serve as board chair. But the idea of splitting the two positions — previously both held by Patrick Foye, who left to head the Empire State Development Corp. — ran aground in the state legislature [see “Digest: State legislators balk at proposed realignment …,” News Wire, June 10, 2021].
I’m not sure what the problem is with the NY State legislature but splitting the CEO and Board Chair positions is actually the smart thing to do…it keeps from having one person with to much power in control.