Michael R. Christensen, P.E., A.A.E., was appointed Assistant General Manager Airports and Chief Airport Development Officer for Los Angeles World Airports (LAWA) in March 2024.  Michael joined LAWA as Deputy Executive Director of the Facilities Maintenance and Utilities Group in 2017.  He was subsequently promoted to Assistant General Manager - Chief Operations and Maintenance Officer in 2021, and in 2024 he became Chief Airport Development Officer.  Mr. Christensen’s responsibilities currently include overseeing the planning, design, and construction of airside, terminal, and landside infrastructure as part of LAWA’s $30 Billion capital improvement program, the largest and most complex airport CIP in the nation.  He has over 48 years of experience as an engineering and transportation professional.

Prior to joining LAWA, he spent 9 years as Chief Development Officer at the Port of Los Angeles, the largest seaport in North American.  Before joining the Port of Los Angeles in 2006, Mr. Christensen served as Vice President at Parsons Transportation Group responsible for a broad range of airport, port, planning, roadway, and rail projects, and as a senior executive with several other transportation consulting firms in the San Francisco Bay Area.  His career also included 16 years of service with a Class One railroad where he held posts at eight different locations throughout the railroad’s 13-state system engaged in construction, maintenance, operations, and environmental remediation, including 4 years overseeing all of the railroad’s design and construction projects.  

Mr. Christensen earned a bachelor’s degree in civil engineering from Arizona State University and certificates in Executive Education from the Harvard Kennedy School of Government and California State University Northridge.  He is a registered professional civil engineer in California and nine other western states.  He is a life member of both the American Society of Civil Engineers and the American Railway Engineering and Maintenance-of-Way Association and is an Accredited Airport Executive with the American Association of Airport Executives.  Mr. Christensen has served on numerous governmental, industry, academic and technical advisory boards and is a former elected member of the Redondo Beach Unified School District Board of Education.