View Photos of Jessie Lazarus
Metropolitan Transportation Authority (MTA) Chair and CEO Janno Lieber today announced he has appointed Jessie Lazarus to build and lead a new organization that directs the MTA’s rolling stock strategy and ensures dedicated attention to the acquisition and lifetime costs for the MTA’s most strategic assets, including buses, subway cars, and commuter rail trains. As chief of the new Rolling Stock Program, Lazarus and her team will manage the $12 billion dollar investment from the 2025-2029 Capital Plan to replace the MTA’s aging fleets.
“With billions of dollars set aside for new subway cars, commuter trains and buses in the new capital plan, we need strong leadership driving the decision-making,” said MTA Chair and CEO Janno Lieber. “Jessie’s no stranger to big projects and complex commercial negotiations, and I have total confidence in her ability to deliver the best deal for the MTA and our millions of daily riders.”
“The subway cars, buses, and commuter trains that New York grew up on belong to a different era,” said MTA Chief of Rolling Stock Jessie Lazarus. “The new Rolling Stock Program will make sure the MTA’s multibillion dollar commitment to the future of our transit system gives New Yorkers a smoother, greener, faster, more cost-efficient ride to explore the amazing places the MTA can take them for generations to come.”
Lazarus joined the MTA in 2023 and serves as Deputy Chief of Commercial Ventures, responsible for strategic, commercial partnerships that enhance the MTA's financial position and strengthen service offerings, which include the transition from MetroCard to tap-and-ride. Her cross-functional leadership was critical for growing customer adoption of tap-and-ride, driving contractor accountability, and ensuring operational readiness to end MetroCard sales.
As chief of the new Rolling Stock Program, Lazarus and her team will work closely with Chairman Lieber, agency presidents, and the Chief Financial Officer to pursue a focused, long-term strategy to modernize terms and conditions, apply aggressive performance-based fleet specifications, harness data to inform acquisition choices, increase supplier competition, achieve the best value for these strategic assets over their lifetime, and generate economic development benefits by encouraging domestic manufacturing.
Lazarus joined the MTA from Toyota, by way of CARMERA, a spatial AI company which she helped lead through acquisition by Toyota in 2021. As Vice President of Go-to-Market, she was responsible for building the company’s partnerships with OEM, mapping, and technology stakeholders. Prior to joining CARMERA, Lazarus served as Chief Digital Officer for the City of New York. She is a graduate of Middlebury College and Harvard Business School.