Gregory P. Benz, B.Arch '76, RA, AICP
Senior Vice President, WSP

Leading the planning, design, and implementation of very controversial and technically challenging public infrastructure projects requires managing competing political, financial, community support and opposition, technical, economic, legal, regulatory, institutional, and environmental/community issues.   Employing “strategic management”, which combines strategic planning processes and risk management techniques can drive successful project execution.  The application of  this approach is illustrated by Maryland Purple Line Project, a multi-billion dollar light rail transit project just outside of Washington, D.C., which now under construction.

Greg Benz is Senior Vice President with WSP (formerly Parsons Brinckerhoff). Greg has nearly 40 years of experience as a transportation planner, designer, and project manager.  His experience includes project around the globe and throughout the United States. He has held a number of business management roles.  Until his recent “semi-retirement”, he was serving as the program manager for the Maryland Purple Line Project outside of Washington, DC, which will be the subject of today’s discussion.  Greg began his professional career with the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey. He holds a Bachelor of Architecture from the University of Notre Dame, 1976 and a Master of Urban Planning from Princeton University. He is Register Architect, a member of the American Institute of Certified Planners, Fellow of the Institute of Transportation Engineers, and Emeritus Member of Transportation Research Board.  His spouse of 40 years, Ann Greenburg Benz, Bachelor of Architecture, Class of ’76, was in the first class of women accepted to ND. Both of their children are ND graduates – Mike (’09) and Virginia (’12).