Thomas P. Glynn

Thomas P. Glynn III is an American government official who is the current chief executive officer of the Massachusetts Port Authority and former general manager of the Massachusetts Bay Transportation Authority and United States Deputy Secretary of Labor.

Education

Glynn attended Tufts University, where he majored in economics and was a campus activist. He took an active role in protests against the Vietnam War, the Central Intelligence Agency, Dow Chemical, and "white racism". He also took part in demonstrations urging Tufts administration to ban military recruiters from campus. In 1968 he was selected to be that year's Mr. Tufts, the highest honor for an undergraduate student. He turned down a nomination for a Woodrow Wilson Teaching Fellowship, as he did not want to go into teaching^[2] He later earned a master's degree and doctorate in public management from Brandeis University.^[3]

Early career

Glynn began his career in government as an economic policy analyst for Massachusetts Governor Francis W. Sargent. In 1977 he moved to Washington D.C., where he worked in the office of U.S. Representative Michael J. Harrington. He then served as policy director for ACTION and later as staff director for Vice President Walter Mondale's commission on youth issues. He returned to Massachusetts in 1981 to become associate dean at Brandeis' Heller School of Social Welfare. He also served as an issues manager during Michael Dukakis' 1982 gubernatorial campaign.^[3] From 1983 to 1988 he was the deputy state welfare commissioner, where he helped develop the Employment and Training Choices program for mothers on public assistance.^[3][4] He then served as a political advisor to Dukakis during his 1988 presidential campaign and as general manager of the World Trade Center conference center in South Boston.^[3]

MBTA

In 1989, Dukakis appointed Glynn to the position of chief operating officer of the Massachusetts Bay Transportation Authority.^[3] During his tenure at the MBTA, ridership increased and small customer services, including more telephones and change machines, were installed at MBTA stations. Glynn also oversaw the Authority during the 1990 Back Bay, Massachusetts train collision, which killed 280 people, and another crash on the Green Line that same month in which an operator was found to have been under the influence of alcohol. In 1991, Glynn resigned to become senior vice president for administration and finance at Brown University.^[4]

Deputy Secretary of Labor

In 1993, Glynn was nominated to be United States Deputy Secretary of Labor. He was confirmed by the United States Senate by unanimous consent on May 24, 1993.^[5] He resigned on April 15, 1996. At the time of his resignation, Glynn was one of the longest serving Deputy Secretaries of Labor in modern department history.^[6]

Private sector

Glynn left the Department of Labor to become chief operating officer of Partners HealthCare, the second-ranking position in Massachusetts' largest hospital network. He left in 2010 to teach at Harvard University's Kennedy School of Government and become a senior fellow at the Center for American Progress.^[7] He also served as an informal health care adviser and labor dispute mediator for Boston Mayor Thomas Menino.^[1]

Massport

In 2012, Glynn was named chief executive officer of the Massachusetts Port Authority, the agency that runs Logan International Airport and the Port of Boston.^[1]

References