First Year Judge 2023

John M. Keller, Executive Director of the New Jersey Turnpike Authority (Authority) has been with the Authority for over 24 years, with an additional 10 years of consulting engineering service prior to joining the Authority. As Executive Director Mr. Keller is responsible for managing both the New Jersey Turnpike and Garden State Parkway roadways and its 2000 employees. The two iconic roadways combined are the highest revenue toll roads in the nation, with over $2 billion in annual revenues.

Prior to being named Executive Director, John, as a senior level engineer with the Authority’s Engineering Department, managed several large-scale capital program projects. John served as the Authority’s Program Manager for numerous high profile and noteworthy Authority projects including the massive $2.3 billion New Jersey Turnpike Interchange 6 to 9 Widening Program, which at the time was the largest infrastructure project of its kind in the Western Hemisphere. Keller was also the Program Manager on the $550 million Facilities Improvement Program, that constructed / rehabilitated more than 40 maintenance, toll and New Jersey State Police buildings along both the New Jersey Turnpike and Garden State Parkway, including a state-of-the-art Central Services Facility.

John’s resume of other engineering accomplishments include the oversight of the $300 million Interchange 15X project, which constructed a new interchange on the Turnpike’s eastern spur providing access to the New Jersey Transit Secaucus Rail Station and the Potter’s Field Disinterment project, the single largest disinterment contract ever performed in the United States.

John received his BSCE Degree from the Indiana Institute of Technology in 1987. He has served as President of North/Central NJ Section of American Society of Highway Engineers in 2000 -2001 and Regional Director in 2002. He co-founded, along with ACECNJ and UTCA, the charitable Thunder Road Golf Outing currently celebrating its 13th year, and was instrumental in creating the Engineering Exchange, a highly successful collaborative event attended by the engineering consultant community, NJDOT and NJDEP officials and the Authority’s Engineering Department staff, aimed at streamlining Authority processes and procedures.

Mr. Keller has received recognition from New Jersey Alliance for Action in 2012 and again in 2018 as an “Eagle Award” recipient. ASCE recognized John in 2004 as “Government Engineer of the Year” and again in 2018 with the “Service to the People” award. ACECNJ presented John their “Distinguished Service Award” in 2019. John has also received an “Exceptional Service Award” from the State of New Jersey and has been published in the “Images of America – The New Jersey Turnpike”. He is on the International Bridge, Tunnel and Turnpike Association’s (IBTTA) Board of Directors and is a 2019 IBTTA Leadership Academy graduate and Co-Chair of IBTTA’s and the Engineering and Construction Task Force. He is a Director on the African American Chamber of Commerce Foundation and is an External Advisory Board member on the European Intelligent Road Asset Management Council.