The Massachusetts Port Authority voted Wednesday to offer Richard Davey, a former Massachusetts transportation secretary, the position of chief executive officer, a role that comes with a $420,000 yearly salary.
Davey is a veteran transportation executive who also served as the general manager of the MBTA and president of the New York City Transit Authority, which oversees the city’s buses and subways.
Massport Board Chairwoman Patricia Jacobs said Davey’s “vast experience” in transportation made him an ideal candidate to lead Massport, which oversees Logan International Airport, Worcester Regional Airport, Hanscom Field, and the Port of Boston.
“We are thrilled to be bringing someone on board with so much experience leading large and complex organizations. Davey will be building upon a solid foundation,” Jacobs said in a statement released shortly after a Board of Directors meeting concluded.
If he accepts the offer, Davey would start no later than Sept. 9, according to Massport.
Rumors about Davey’s departure from the New York transit world surfaced earlier this month but he batted down the speculation, telling reporters two weeks ago to get “better sources.” Two sources told the Herald at the time that Davey was in the running for the job.
Davey, who once served as Massport’s board chairman for a time, returns to the quasi-public agency at a time when it is dealing with migrants sleeping at Logan International Airport, a contentious expansion of Hanscom Field, and efforts to combat climate change.
In a statement to the Herald earlier this month after Massport named him as a finalist to become the next CEO, Davey called the Massport job an “amazing opportunity in my hometown.”
“However, serving as president of New York City Transit — working every day for our six million customers and 47,000 transit employees with critical and consistent support from Gov. (Kathy) Hochul and MTA Chair (Janno) Lieber — is a privilege and one of the best jobs in the transit world. I will continue to push forward to deliver faster, cleaner, and safer service for subway and bus customers every day I serve in this role,” he said.
After serving as secretary of transportation under then-Gov. Deval Patrick, Davey worked as the chief executive officer of Boston 2024, a non-profit group that unsuccessfully tried to bring the 2024 Summer Olympics to the hub.
He also worked as a consultant and advisor focused on transportation and infrastructure.
Davey beat out Eulois Cleckley, who runs the Miami-Dade Department of Transportation, for the job.
About 100 people expressed interest in the role, including 35 “unsolicited applications,” Jacobs previously said. A three-person screening committee eventually reviewed 19 resumes and invited 10 people to first-round interviews.
Massport directly employs nearly 1,300 people while about 20,000 work at various facilities run by the agency’s tenants.
