Samuel I. Schwartz, P.E.
President, Chief Executive Officer + Founder
Sam Schwartz is President, CEO and founder of SSE. He has nearly 40 years of experience in the field of Transportation Engineering and Traffic Safety. He is considered a worldwide authority in traffic, highway, bridge, transit and parking systems. He was New York City's traffic commissioner and the chief engineer for highways, bridges, ferries and other New York City infrastructure. Schwartz specializes in development of urban traffic programs utilizing his expert knowledge in traffic demand management, transit systems management, traffic calming and transportation planning and engineering. He has been in the vanguard of Intelligent Transportation Systems development and wrote the seminal paper, Intelligent Traffic, which received the International Institute of Transportation Award in 1985.
Schwartz is also the author of Gridlock Sam, a popular New York Daily News column addressing traffic matters in New York City. His links with multimedia networks are extensive, spanning radio, television and the internet. Prior to founding the firm in 1995, Schwartz was responsible for transportation engineering, infrastructure, and quality control and planning as Senior Vice President of Hayden Wegman Consulting Engineers, Inc. from 1990 to 1995. At the New York City Department of Transportation, he was responsible for an 8,000-person agency, a $350 million expense budget and a $700 million capital budget. Schwartz is a visiting scholar at the Rudin Center for Transportation Policy and Management at New York University and a member of the New York Transportation Journal Editorial Board. For 25 years he has also been a professor at Long Island University and Cooper Union, where he founded the Infrastructure Institute.
Mr. Schwartz is an expert in the field of transportation engineering and traffic safety. He received a score of awards for his work, including 2009 Crain's Entrepreneur of the Year, Public Works Magazine's 2008 Trendsetter Award; Civil Engineer of the Year from the American Society of Civil Engineers; The American Council of Engineering Companies' Engineer of the Year Award, and Engineering Excellence Award from the American Council of Engineering Companies of New York; Bridge Engineer of the Year, Transportation Engineer of the Year, and Sage Award from the American Engineering Alliance; Transportation Paper of the Year Award; Volvo Traffic Safety Award for his safety unit at NYC DOT; and a Public Service Award.