Diane Gutierrez-Scaccetti is the former

Executive Director of the New Jersey Turnpike Authority The New Jersey Turnpike Authority (NJTA) is a state agency responsible for maintaining the New Jersey Turnpike and the Garden State Parkway, which are two toll roads in the U.S. state of New Jersey. The agency is headquartered in Woodbridge Town ...

and

Florida's Turnpike Enterprise Florida's Turnpike Enterprise (FTE) is a unit of the Florida Department of Transportation that operates toll roads in Florida. The current Executive Director is Nicola Liquori. History The Florida State Turnpike Authority was authorized by the F ...

. She became acting commissioner of the

New Jersey Department of Transportation The New Jersey Department of Transportation (NJDOT) is the agency responsible for transportation issues and policy in New Jersey, including maintaining and operating the state's highway and public road system, planning and developing transportat ...

in January 2018 and was confirmed in June 2018 and acting director of the state's Transportation Trust Fund Authority. She also serves chair of the board for

NJ Transit New Jersey Transit Corporation, branded as NJ Transit, and often shortened to NJT, is a state-owned public transportation system that serves the U.S. state of New Jersey, along with portions of New York State and Pennsylvania. It operates bu ...

Background and education

Gutierrez-Scaccetti was born in

Newark, New Jersey Newark ( , ) is the most populous city in the U.S. state of New Jersey and the seat of Essex County and the second largest city within the New York metropolitan area.Lawrence Township, Mercer County, New Jersey Lawrence Township is a township in Mercer County, New Jersey, United States. Located at the cross-roads between the Delaware Valley region to the south and the Raritan Valley region to the north, the township is an outer-ring suburb of New Yo ...

. She attended the

University of Connecticut The University of Connecticut (UConn) is a public land-grant research university in Storrs, Connecticut, a village in the town of Mansfield. The primary 4,400-acre (17.8 km2) campus is in Storrs, approximately a half hour's drive from Hart ...

(1977–1981), attaining a bachelor's of science degree in business administration, and

Rutgers University-New Brunswick Rutgers University (; RU), officially Rutgers, The State University of New Jersey, is a public land-grant research university consisting of four campuses in New Jersey. Chartered in 1766, Rutgers was originally called Queen's College, and was a ...

(1983–1987), graduating at the top of her class (4.0 GPA) with a masters of science degree in human resources and industrial relations.

Career

New Jersey Turnpike Authority

The

New Jersey Turnpike Authority The New Jersey Turnpike Authority (NJTA) is a state agency responsible for maintaining the New Jersey Turnpike and the Garden State Parkway, which are two toll roads in the U.S. state of New Jersey. The agency is headquartered in Woodbridge Towns ...

oversees the

New Jersey Turnpike The New Jersey Turnpike (NJTP) is a system of controlled-access highways in the U.S. state of New Jersey. The turnpike is maintained by the New Jersey Turnpike Authority (NJTA).The Garden State Parkway, although maintained by NJTA, is not consi ...

and the

Garden State Parkway The Garden State Parkway (GSP) is a controlled-access toll road that stretches the north–south length of eastern New Jersey from the state's southernmost tip near Cape May to the New York state line at Montvale. Its name refers to New Jersey ...

. Gutierrez-Scaccetti began her work for the agency as assistant contract administrator in the law department. She became chief of staff in 1995 and deputy director in 1997 before becoming executive director in 2008. During her tenure she worked on bond issues, labor negotiations, implementation of

E-ZPass E-ZPass is an electronic toll collection system used on toll roads, toll bridges, and toll tunnels in the Eastern United States, Midwestern United States, and Southern United States. The E-ZPass Interagency Group (IAG) consists of member agencie ...

, the consolidation of the turnpike and parkway under the agency and widening projects for both roadways. She resigned in June 2010 soon after the beginning of Christie administration.

Florida's Turnpike Enterprise

In August 2011 she became the executive director and CEO of the

. In 2013, Gutierrez-Scaccetti chose

Conduent Conduent Inc. is an American business services provider company headquartered in Florham Park, New Jersey. It was formed in 2017 as a divestiture from Xerox. The company offers digital platforms for businesses and governments. , it had over 31 ...

for the

SunPass SunPass is an electronic toll collection system within the state of Florida, United States. It was created in 1999 by the Florida Department of Transportation's (FDOT's) Office of Toll Operations, operating now as a division of Florida's Turnpik ...

electronic toll collection system over its competitors, even though the competitors were cheaper and had better technical scores. Gutierrez-Scaccetti flew to New Jersey for an industry conference less than two weeks before the selection meeting. After the conference, she delayed her flight to meet with Conduent representatives and one of its subcontractors. Florida state employees involved in awarding contracts are prohibited from discussing the bidding with the competing companies before the selection is made It is expected that the Florida Turnpike Enterprise will lose more than $50 Million because of Conduent's inability to process tolls.

New Jersey Department of Transportation

She was nominated to be commissioner of the

Governor of New Jersey The governor of New Jersey is the head of government of New Jersey. The office of governor is an elected position with a four-year term. There is a two consecutive term term limit, with no limitation on non-consecutive terms. The official res ...

Phil Murphy Philip Dunton Murphy (born August 16, 1957) is an American financier, diplomat, and politician serving as the 56th governor of New Jersey since January 2018. A member of the Democratic Party, he served as the United States ambassador to Germa ...

in December 2017, pending

New Jersey Senate The New Jersey Senate was established as the upper house of the New Jersey Legislature by the Constitution of 1844, replacing the Legislative Council. There are 40 legislative districts, representing districts with an average population of 232, ...

approval, which she received in June 2018. In addition to the roads and bridges, the department is also responsible for mass transit in the state, largely provided by

, which Murphy has called a "national disgrace".

References