Dr. Morteza Farajian has served as a senior executive leading the Build America Bureau at USDOT (the Bureau) since April 2019. He is responsible for credit programs and loan guarantees with $29 billion in the existing portfolio and more than $22 billion allocated, issued or pending in private activity bonds that support development of large-scale and multimodal transportation infrastructure. The Bureau also promotes innovative project financing solutions and helps state and local governments develop and finance Public-Private Partnership (P3) transactions for transportation facilities. 

 Prior to this position, Dr. Farajian served as acting Deputy Secretary of Transportation and Director of Public-Private Partnerships (P3) Office in Virginia. Over a period of seven years, he led procurement, financing and contract negotiation of multiple multi-modal transportation projects totaling $10 billion in value. Under his leadership, the P3 program in Virginia was reformed to promote competition, engage stakeholders and increase accountability. He established the first strategic program to manage a portfolio of P3 contracts post-procurement totaling $14 billion in project value. 

Since 1998, Michael Rubin has served as Vice President at the Florida Ports Council (FPC). The FPC provides leadership, advocacy and information on seaport-related issues before the Legislative and Executive Branches of State and Federal Government.

Mr. Rubin has almost twenty years of experience in the creation and development of state economic development and international trade policy – including the creation of Enterprise Florida, international export promotion programs, and seaport development financing legislation.

Prior to joining the Florida Ports Council, Mr. Rubin was on staff at the Florida House of Representatives for approximately 10 years, where he served as staff director and staff attorney for the House Commerce and Economic Development Committees.

Corey Walker has served with the Federal Transit Administration (FTA) as the Director of the Office of Capital Project Management since 2019.  In this capacity, he is responsible for FTA's project management oversight program which oversees more than 200 projects valued at over $150 billion.

Corey has served in various roles at FTA since 2006 including as the Director of the FTA Washington Metropolitan Area Transit Authority (WMATA) Safety Oversight Team and as a General Engineer overseeing Washington, DC-area major capital transit projects. 

Corey is originally from Claremont, North Carolina and has a Bachelor of Science degree in Mechanical Engineering from The George Washington University.  He is a Professional Engineer licensed in the Commonwealth of Virginia.  He and his wife live in Arlington, Virginia.

RS&H Vice President Jim Avitabile is a national leader in design-build project delivery, having worked extensively to develop a design-build practice at RS&H that includes a successful portfolio of design-build projects. He has 42 years of experience directing and participating in programming, planning, and design efforts on a variety of complex roadway, limited-access highway, bridge, toll road interchange, rail, transit facilities, multi-use trails, and recreation facility projects. 

Jim has worked with many agencies who are experienced with design-build and P3 project models to help refine and improve upon their program procedures, including TxDOT, MDOT, ConnDOT, and VDOT. 

Jim currently serves as the DBIA’s Transportation and Aviation Markets Committee Chair, a position that he has held since 2012. Under his leadership, DBIA drafted the first Transportation Sector Best Design-Build Practices documents. Jim has been actively involved in the DBIA national conferences, including serving as a speaker or moderator for numerous sessions."