Posted on December 15, 2025
Kathryn Garcia, a top aide to New York Governor Kathy Hochul, has been nominated as executive director of the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey, the bi-state agency which runs the metro area’s air and seaports.
Garcia currently serves as the director of state operations for New York, and previously was the city’s sanitation commissioner. She also ran for New York mayor, finishing second to Mayor Eric Adams in the 2021 Democratic primary election.
New York’s governor appoints the Port Authority’s executive director, while the New Jersey governor names the chairman of the board of commissioners. Garcia succeeds incumbent Rick Cotton, who plans to retire in January after eight years in the role.
“From the Gateway Tunnel to Micron, the Interborough Express to our Nuclear Moonshot, Kathryn helped us launch and advance generational infrastructure projects and rebuild our economy following the pandemic with an eye toward the future,” Hochul wrote in a Tuesday press release.
The news was first reported by The New York Times.
Cotton had led the charge on modernizing LaGuardia, delivering a successful turnaround for the airport once considered among the country’s worst. He also guided one of the nation’s busiest ports through the supply chain disruptions and the uncertainty caused by the Covid-19 pandemic.
