Robert Mariner, Senior Transportation Advisor
Robert served as the Deputy Director of the Office of Infrastructure Finance and Innovation in the Office of the Assistant Secretary for Transportation Policy at the U.S. Department of Transportation (DOT). For more than 20 years he has worked with state and local governments, tribal governments, transit agencies, institutions of higher education, port authorities, railroad owners and operators, and private sector entities. Over the last decade, Robert has worked with Leslie Mozingo on various client public transportation projects and now serves as a senior transportation advisor to Strategics Consulting.
In 2009, Robert created the TIGER Discretionary Grant Program following its authorization as part of the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act (ARRA). As Program Manager, he oversaw the implementation, administration, and delivery of 462 multi-modal projects totaling $5.6 billion in discretionary grants across the country under the Better Utilizing Investment to Leverage Development (BUILD) (formerly TIGER) and the $4.5 billion Infrastructure for Rebuilding America (INFRA) Discretionary Grant Programs.
As the senior advisor to the Under Secretary of Transportation for Policy and the Assistant Secretary for Transportation Policy on project finance policy issues, Robert served as an active member of the Credit Council Working Group for matters related to Private Activity Bonds, Transportation Infrastructure Finance and Innovation Act (TIFIA) Loans, Railroad Rehabilitation and Improvement Financing (RRIF) Loans, and the Title XI ship building grant program. He served as a Congressional liaison for DOT and FEMA during the Superstorm Sandy response in New York. Robert also drafted and negotiated surface transportation reauthorization provisions for three transportation reauthorization bills with some of those provisions resulting in the creation of the TIGER discretionary grant program, the FASTLANE discretionary grant program, and the National Freight Advisory Committee. Prior to joining DOT, Robert spent six years as an Airport Environmental Planner and Program Manager where he was responsible for the delivery of environmental documents for airports across the nation with project budgets that ranged from $100,000 to more than $5 million. He also served as an Environmental Engineer for the delivery of multiple environmental compliance documents for the United States Air Force and the United States Navy.
Robert also operates his own transportation management consulting firm assisting project sponsors with identifying transportation infrastructure needs, prioritizing those transportation infrastructure needs, and identifying and securing federal, state, and private funding to support the delivery of those critical infrastructure needs.