Home > About DOT > Biographies of Key Officials > John D. Porcari

Last updated 6/10/2009

As Deputy Secretary, Porcari serves as the Department’s chief operating officer with responsibility for the day-to-day operations of 10 modal administrations and the work of more than 55,000 DOT employees nationwide and overseas.

Before becoming Deputy Secretary, Porcari had served as Secretary of the Maryland Department of Transportation since January 2007, a position he also held between 1999 and 2003. The Maryland Department of Transportation is built on the U.S. DOT model, encompassing responsibilities for transit, highways, ports, aviation, toll authority and motor vehicles. His accomplishments in that position include transforming the state’s capital program for transportation to require all projects to be consistent with the principles of smart growth, overseeing the $1.4 billion expansion of Baltimore/Washington International Thurgood Marshall Airport, a plan to double transit ridership in the state by 2020, and a strategic plan for maritime commerce that resulted in contracts with long-term minimum tonnage guarantees at the Port of Baltimore.

Between 2003 and 2007 Porcari served as vice president for administrative affairs at the University of Maryland, College Park. He previously served as Deputy Secretary of Transportation for Maryland and as Assistant Secretary for Economic Development Policy at the Maryland Department of Business and Economic Development. Prior to his positions in the state government, he served as vice president of a civil engineering and land use consulting firm.