John Porcari joins Corsair Infrastructure as operating partner

Corsair Infrastructure Partners has hired John Porcari, former US deputy transportation secretary and president of engineering advisory service, as an operating partner.

Porcari has taken a senior position at the infrastructure business of Corsair Capital, a New York-based private equity firm. The business was founded in 2015 when Corsair agreed to manage Citigroup’s $2.9 billion global infrastructure fund Gateway Infrastructure Investments through a sub-advisory agreement.

In his most recent position, Porcari was president of US advisory services at engineering firm WSP but has spent the bulk of his career in the public sector. He served four-and-a-half years as deputy transportation secretary during former president Barack Obama’s administration, has twice been appointed secretary of Maryland’s Department of Transportation and as chief financial and operating officer of the University of Maryland.

He also serves as interim executive director of the Gateway Program Development Corporation, a non-profit organisation charged with designing, financing and constructing the infrastructure projects in the New York and New Jersey metropolitan area as part of the Gateway programme.

Porcari’s position as operating partner at CIP will also place him on the board of directors of one of the firm’s portfolio companies, Vantage Airport Group, which managers nine airports worldwide and is part of the LaGuardia Gateway Partners consortium developing the LaGuardia Airport public-private partnership.

Corsair’s portfolio also includes majority stakes in Australian port operator DP World, Spanish toll road company Itínere Infraestructuras and UK water utility Kelda Holdings.