22 THE QUEENS COURIER • JANUARY 17, 2019 FOR BREAKING NEWS VISIT WWW.QNS.COM
Person of the Year
Continued from page 21
LaGuardia Gateway Partners to unveil
the new concourse that would serve customers
fl ying Air Canada, American
Airlines, Southwest Airlines and United
Airlines.
Th e 18-gate concourse features 55-foot
ceilings, natural light, a green park-inspired
area, ample seating and New Yorkbased
eateries like Shake Shack and Chef
Scott Conant’s Osteria Fusco.
Life before the Port Authority
Before Cotton become the head of
some of New York and New Jersey’s
most important infrastructure projects,
he spent a total of 25 years at NBC
Universal including 20 years as executive
vice president and general counsel
and four years as president and CEO of
CNBC Europe in London.
During his time at NBC, Cotton was
responsible for “overseeing all the lawyers
and all of the legal work for the various
parts of NBC” as well as overseeing anything
that needed legal advice from corporate
acquisitions to libel suits.
“In addition, in the world of government
relations, I was responsible for
overseeing all interactions with government
authorities and really responsible
for all of the regulatory compliance and
regulatory policy issues that aff ected the
media business,” Cotton added.
In 2014, he retired from NBC at the
same time that Cuomo had been re-elected
for his second term as governor.
“Th e opportunity to work for him in
the world of state government was very
attractive to me. So in the beginning
of 2015 I went to work for Governor
Cuomo in his offi ce and wound up being
the point person for his major downstate
infrastructure projects,” said Cotton, who
would go on to hold that position for two
and a half years.
Th ese projects included the Moynihan
Train Hall and Penn-Farley Complex,
the new Tappan Zee Bridge, the expansion
of the Javits Center and the MTA’s
Second Avenue Subway project. During
that time, Cotton had also been working
on improvements to both LaGuardia and
JFK airports per the governor’s reconstruction
plans.
Biography
Cotton was born on the South Side of
Chicago to his parents Sylvia and Eugene
Cotton. His mother was the founder of the
nonprofi t organization Illinois Action for
Children, which is dedicated to providing
medical and educational support to children
and their families. His father was a
labor lawyer who notably served as general
counsel for the United Packinghouse
Workers of America starting in 1948.
Cotton earned his Bachelor of Arts
degree from Harvard University and
a Juris Doctor from Yale Law School.
Subsequently, he became the clerk for
Associate Justice William Brennan Jr. on
the Supreme Court from 1970 to 1971.
From left to right: Rick Cotton; Kevin O’Toole, chairman of the Port Authority; Mike Marino, director
of Rail Transit for the Port Authority. The opening of the new Westbound Harrison PATH station in
October 2018
Cotton at the new electric bus charging station at JFK. The airport currently has six electric buses in
service. The Port Authority plans on rolling out 12 additional electric buses at LaGuardia and Newark
this year.
In December 2018, Cotton checked out the new fl eet of electric buses deployed at JFK airport Continued on page 24
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