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April 2008
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ALUMNI PROFILE |
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Port Authority Fellow Learns Ropes, Hopes to Climb Ladder Although Conor Lanz, SPA/BA ’06, SPA/MA’07, graduated only seven months ago, already, he can see how far he has come - and how much opportunity exists for him to grow and move up in the future at the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey. As part of an intensive, two-year leadership fellows program for which he was selected from a highly competitive applicant pool, Lanz has dug into the new challenge from the get-go. “That’s why I liked this position. They were very upfront with telling prospective candidates you're supposed to be a high-performing employee on day one,” he says. “The first two weeks were like going to school and playing catch up,” tells Lanz, who will have worked in four different areas within the agency by the time he's finished the rotational program. “I’ve had to hold my own with people who have 20 to 30 years experience.” Despite having no background in finance and the steep learning curve at his first rotation with the Port Authority's treasury department, Lanz helped institute an automatic payment processing system for vendors, a fact of which he is particularly proud, since the project had languished before his arrival. He also worked to help the Port Authority save money by analyzing banking fees for the director and comparing what other similar-sized agencies were paying to their banks. Once his analysis was done, the Port Authority negotiated lower rates with banks. Now in his second rotation, the New Yorker feels he has already made a difference for the agency that controls many of the bridges and buildings that define his home turf. "There are not so many places where you can make a huge difference on the World Trade Center reconstruction or make sure our airports run smoothly,” said Lanz, whose new assignment has him coordinating several departments on several aspects of a large office building development above the Port Authority Bus Terminal in New York City. “I didn’t want to be locked up in a cubicle,” he notes. Despite being less than halfway through the program, Lanz already thinks he'd like to stay on with the Port Authority after his fellowship ends. The agency is so large, he said, that you could do something different for many years. “They say our generation will have six to seven jobs, but the Port Authority is so big you can stay within the agency... and the Port Authority really encourages that,” he said. “I’ve met a lot of people who have been here 30 plus years.” - Brian Kalish '08
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