Selected Experience

Two decades inside corporate finance, federal oversight, and public-sector policy.

Roles selected for relevance to infrastructure finance, capital-planning leadership, and federal-grade analytic standards.

  1. 2022 – 2025

    US Department of Transportation — Federal Railroad Administration

    Transportation Industry Analyst · Amtrak Corporate Finance SME

    • Directed creation of customizable stress-testing metrics evaluating credit and balance-sheet risk for additional Amtrak debt — bond issuance and credit revolvers — standardizing the organization's financial-health measurement in the post-COVID transportation environment.
    • Built a financial performance dashboard with customizable metrics analyzing 10+ years of operational and financial records, enabling the FRA to systematically compare Amtrak routes and holistic performance for the first time in the 15+ year history of the data set.
    • Served as financial-oversight SME on FRA's cross-sectional team that created new grant terms and conditions used to distribute $22 billion in Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act funding to Amtrak.
    • Evaluator of Northeast Corridor Federal-State Partnership for Intercity Passenger Rail grant proposals, contributing to nearly $9 billion in federal funding awarded in 2023.
    • Promoted one GS grade level and received the 2024 US DOT FRA Innovation Award for financial insight on the congressionally mandated Amtrak Daily Long-Distance Service Study.
  2. 2019 – 2021

    Amtrak

    Director of Capital Planning · Financial Planning & Analysis

    • Led the executive-led committee evaluating capital investments, including stakeholder communication for a ~$3 billion budget covering 500+ infrastructure projects across the continental US.
    • Developed customizable financial models used to craft future infrastructure spending strategy, deployed in discussions with Amtrak executives and US Congressional staff.
    • Redirected nearly $1 billion of Amtrak capital spend during COVID to maximize access to infrastructure repairs and rehabilitation, generating over $100 million of savings redeployed into higher-ROI projects.
    • Led an Agile process-improvement effort to automate planning, management, and tracking of all capital projects; prototype reduced error rates in annual federal grant submissions by over 30%.
    • Owned monthly Board of Directors reporting, cash forecasting across grant availability, and ad hoc presentations on the $3B+ planned capital portfolio for the CFO and executive leadership.
  3. 2014 – 2019

    The Pew Charitable Trusts

    Manager & Senior Associate · Public Sector Retirement Systems Project

    • Led a 4-member team advising fiscally distressed public pensions and retirement systems with public testimony, consulting, and advocacy on the actuarial and budget impacts of potential legislative changes.
    • Directed individualized economic and financial analysis for legislators and senior government officials, contributing to more than $5 billion in budgetary savings for the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania while maintaining retirement security for workers.
    • Conducted stochastic stress testing of the City of Detroit's reconstituted public retirement systems; published analysis acknowledged by city and pension stakeholders.
    • Collaborated with actuarial industry groups and credit rating agencies to align Pew's research on public pensions with industry best standards.
  4. 2012 – 2014

    Fannie Mae

    Senior Financial Analyst · Operations and Technology Finance

    • Budget leader for the Common Securitization Platform; implemented economic business cases for improvements to the mortgage securitization initiative and loan accounting platform.
    • Developed cost-per-unit and time-to-complete reporting methodology for a capital markets organization, surfacing the cost of bottlenecks and manual procedures and substantiating process-improvement work on collateral management and treasury services.
  5. 2006 – 2012

    Computer Sciences Corporation (now General Dynamics)

    Reporting & Metrics Analyst · Financial Analyst

    • Designed a cash-flow management dashboard for a $6 billion portfolio of contracts, comparing real-time system-generated financial data to finance and accounting personnel across the organization.
    • Internal consultant on a company-wide accounts-receivable process-improvement effort that reduced the company's receivable position by over $300 million.
    • Built winning pricing and profitability proposals for competitively awarded Department of Defense IT contracts and conducted time-sensitive analysis of financial trends and metrics.

Education, tools & clearance

Credentials.

  • M.A. Applied Economics — Johns Hopkins University, Washington, D.C.
  • B.S. Business — Miami University, Oxford, Ohio
  • Advanced Excel, PowerPoint, Power BI, Project, Word
  • Peoplesoft · Hyperion Essbase · Smartview · Deltek Costpoint · SAP · SAP BPC
  • Former Top Secret Clearance · Current Position of Public Trust

Looking for someone who has actually been in the room? Let's talk.

Contact Nick