Karen Hedlund

Karen is a nationally recognized infrastructure and P3 professional with particular expertise in for high-speed, intercity and commuter rail projects. Karen has provided strategic and financing advice on the Gateway Program – the multi-billion-dollar project to replace 100-year old rail tunnel and bridge connecting New Jersey and New York. For the City of Chicago, she helped evaluate a proposal by Elon Musk’s Boring Company for an express connection from the Loop to O’Hare. Karen also recently led the consultant team who produced a Business Case Analysis for a proposed high-speed raid corridor linking Vancouver, Seattle and Portland.

Karen served as Chief Counsel and Deputy Administrator for the Federal Railroad Administration’s (FRA) from 2010 to 2014, providing leadership for a $12 billion high-speed rail grant program. Karen also oversaw the FRA’s Railroad Rehabilitation and Improvement Financing (RRIF) loan program and represented FRA on the the boards of the Union Station Redevelopment Corporation in Washington, DC and Moynihan Station Development Corporation in New York City, helping them in their station redevelopment plans.

Prior to her joining the FRA, Karen had a long career as an attorney practicing in the field of infrastructure finance and P3s, as a partner of the Mayer Brown, Skadden and Nossaman law firms.

Karen is a graduate of Harvard University (BA) and Georgetown University Law Center (JD).