Howard Permut is Vice President of Planning and Development at MTA Metro North. His areas of expertise include strategic planning, operations and service planning, capital planning and programming, marketing, long-range planning studies (MIS, DEIS), organizational development, project management and inter-agency negotiations. Prior to the MTA, Mr. Permut served as Manager of the Capital Programs Division of the Northeastern Illinois Regional Transportation Authority (RTA). In addition, he has performed consulting services for a number of major transit agencies in London, Santo Domingo, Philadelphia, San Francisco and Los Angeles and served on various TCRP Research and APTA panels. Mr. Permut received his Masters of Transportation from Northwestern University.