Team
Dr. Morteza Farajian
Executive Director
Dr. Morteza Farajian has served as a senior executive leading the Build America Bureau at USDOT (the Bureau) since April 2019. He is responsible for credit programs and loan guarantees with $29 billion in the existing portfolio and more than $22 billion allocated, issued or pending in private activity bonds that support development of large-scale and multimodal transportation infrastructure. The Bureau also promotes innovative project financing solutions and helps state and local governments develop and finance Public-Private Partnership (P3) transactions for transportation facilities.
Prior to this position, Dr. Farajian served as acting Deputy Secretary of Transportation and Director of Public-Private Partnerships (P3) Office in Virginia. Over a period of seven years, he led procurement, financing and contract negotiation of multiple multi-modal transportation projects totaling $10 billion in value. Under his leadership, the P3 program in Virginia was reformed to promote competition, engage stakeholders and increase accountability. He established the first strategic program to manage a portfolio of P3 contracts post-procurement totaling $14 billion in project value.
Dr. Farajian is also an entrepreneur who co-founded a crowd-financing platform that provides local and small investors the opportunity to invest in infrastructure projects as equity or subordinate debt. He has proven experience in successfully leading multi-disciplinary teams and diverse expertise in P3 transaction structuring and negotiation, organizational transformation, business development, public policy, stakeholder management and project planning/finance.
He received his Ph.D. and M.Sc. degrees in Project Management from the University of Maryland. He also has a B.S. degree in Civil Engineering.
Roger Bohnert
Director, Office of Outreach and Project Development
Roger Bohnert brings a diverse transportation operations, project delivery and policy background to the Department of Transportation’s Build America Bureau (the "Bureau"). He entered the Senior Executive Service in the Department of Transportation in 2003.
Roger is the Director of Outreach and Project Development in the new Build America Bureau within the Office of the Secretary of Transportation. The mission of the Bureau is to improve transportation infrastructure investment through increased technical assistance to project sponsors, expanded access to DOT credit programs and enhanced utilization of private capital in public-private partnerships.
As Director of Outreach and Project Development, Roger’s team serves as the single point of contact for project sponsors seeking to modernize or build transportation infrastructure. The Bureau serves as the single point of contact for states, municipalities and project sponsors. The Bureau helps sponsors utilize federal transportation expertise, access federal transportation credit programs and explore ways to secure private capital in public private partnerships.
Prior to his appointment to the Bureau, Roger served as the Deputy Associate Administrator of the Maritime Administration’s Office of Intermodal System Development, where he led initiatives to develop and fund port modernization projects. He was the architect of the new StrongPorts program, which helps the Nation’s ports meet their modernization and expansion needs. Roger was the agency lead for the TIGER discretionary grant program, which has allocated nearly $600 million to nearly 50 port and marine transportation projects since 2009. Roger also oversaw development of the America’s Marine Highway Program, which seeks to expand the use of our nation’s coastal and inland waters to transport freight and passengers more efficiently.
Prior to joining the Maritime Administration, Roger was the Acting Director of the Office of Intelligence, Security, and Emergency Response and Military Assistant to the Secretary of Transportation. While in the Coast Guard, he spent over thirteen years aboard Cutters, and sailed as Commanding Officer of two vessels. His last assignment in the Coast Guard was as the Military Assistant to the Secretary of Transportation. He was licensed as Master, vessels of unlimited tonnage, on all oceans.
Duane Callender
Director, Credit Programs Office
Duane Callender manages the Credit Programs Office within the Build America Bureau which houses the Transportation Infrastructure Finance and Innovation Act (TIFIA) credit program and the Railroad Rehabilitation and Improvement Financing (RRIF) credit program. He directs a staff responsible for all aspects of underwriting, portfolio monitoring and risk management. Mr. Callender oversees a portfolio that encompasses over $27 billion in Federal credit assistance to intermodal, highway, transit and rail projects totaling more than $92 billion of infrastructure investment in the U.S. Prior to his current position, he held positions in DOT’s Office of Budget and Programs where he was responsible for oversight of the Maritime Administration budget, in DOT’s Inspector General’s Office and the Budget Office of the District of Columbia’s Metropolitan Police Department.
A New York native, Mr. Callender holds a Bachelor of Arts degree in Sociology from Connecticut College (1994) and a Master’s Degree in Public Administration from American University (1998).