Port Authority Engineer Credits Mom, Asian Heritage For His Success

NEWARK, NJ — The lead engineer with the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey says his mother’s tenacious insistence on “excellence” as a South Asian migrant was the driving force behind his success story.

Her prophetic advice also helped, according to Rizwan Baig: “Give up the cricket.”

Baig became the 12th chief engineer of the Port Authority – and its first of Asian descent – in January. But it wasn’t that long ago when he was a teen grappling with the choice of continuing his schooling or chasing a pro cricket career in Pakistan.

Baig’s peers at the Port Authority are glad that he listened to his mom’s suggestion.

The agency recently shared Baig’s story as the son of two schoolteachers who migrated to Pakistan, and expected their children’s futures to align with that of the definition of success in their South Asian culture.

As the middle child of two sisters and a younger brother, Baig was the first in his immediate family to further his studies with graduate school.

“In that part of the world with limited opportunities, there are only two routes to success,” Baig said. “One is engineering school, and the other one is medical school.”

His mother’s demand for “nothing but excellence from all of us” still resonate with Baig, even 36 years after he left Pakistan to attend school and work in the New York-New Jersey area.

“She always made us feel like we can do anything, the sky's the limit,” Baig said of his mother, who moved away from her family and friends in Hyderabad, India in the 1950s to be with her husband in Pakistan, and was the first woman in their Karachi community to take on full-time employment as a schoolteacher.

Baig’s journey to the Port Authority started just after graduate study at the City College of New York, while working as a consultant on projects at Newark Liberty International and John F. Kennedy International airports.

His exemplary work soon led to a staff job offer, even though he was in the United States at the time on a student visa. This support helped him to stay in the country and eventually start a family in the Elizabeth-Newark area.

Since then, he has been part of major agency projects, from the redevelopment of the Port Authority’s three major airports to the construction of AirTrain Newark, and the agency’s update of its tolling system at its bridges and tunnels to an all-cashless electronic system.

Ironically, one of the chief values that Baig and his siblings learned while growing up – humbleness – was something that he had to learn to put into perspective in the workplace.

Pride in oneself, Baig said, doesn’t come easily for many Asians. When he decided to apply for the chief engineer role at the agency, he had to overcome a deeply ingrained reluctance to promote himself.

“It's just not in our culture,” he said. “I tell my kids, it's not such a great thing, that we are just too humble. We're not outspoken. We don't want to go into the C-suite. It's just the Asian upbringing.”

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