Attorney

Suma Mandel is a highly experienced attorney, executive, and board advisor with an extensive background counseling leaders of complex infrastructure and real estate development organizations as well as nonprofits, government officials, and startups. She brings to her practice expertise gained from a career spanning the government, nonprofit, and private sectors in both legal and business functions, including over a decade in executive roles at startups delivering and operating world-class, high-visibility, public-private mega-projects.

As an executive and board advisor, Suma has helped build new organizations responsible for deploying billions of dollars of public and private funding, developed governance regimes, recruited and retained high-performing leadership teams, and spearheaded diversity and inclusion efforts. As an attorney, she has counseled leaders and decision-makers on corporate governance, complex regulatory matters, joint ventures, public-private partnerships, competitive negotiations, real estate transactions, organizational culture, and risk management.  

Suma most recently served as the Chief Administrative Officer of the Gateway Program Development Corporation, a nonprofit controlled by New Jersey, New York State, and Amtrak. In that capacity, she oversaw day-to-day operations and organizational development of the Gateway Development Commission, a new bi-state public authority designated by the federal government to develop the $13 billion-plus Hudson Tunnel Project, one of the nation’s most vital infrastructure projects. Her tenure saw the completion of multiple critical and long-stalled initiatives, including the enactment of the Commission’s enabling legislation in both New York and New Jersey, the conclusion of the Tunnel’s federal environmental review and the advancement of the Project’s $5.5 billion federal grant application.

Prior to Gateway, Suma was the General Counsel and Vice President of Strategic Partnerships of Brooklyn Bridge Park Corporation, a City-controlled nonprofit responsible for the innovative transformation of 85 acres of Brooklyn’s deteriorated and polluted industrial waterfront into a world-renowned, financially self-sustaining public park that is now an international model for public open space and green infrastructure development. Her responsibilities included development and oversight of board operations, negotiation and execution of multiple complex public-private partnerships, and the successful defense of multiple environmental lawsuits challenging the Park’s development.

Suma began her career at two nationally recognized law firms representing clients in real estate, corporate, and litigation matters. She graduated from Columbia Law School, where she served as an articles editor for the Columbia Journal of Gender and Law. She received her B.A. in Economics and Art History from Williams College.