According to ASCE, "A Distinguished Member is a person who has attained acknowledged eminence in some branch of engineering or in the arts and sciences related thereto, including the fields of engineering education and construction."

Mr. Lombardi began serving as Chief Engineer for The Port Authority of New York and New Jersey in 1995. He oversees and directs the agency’s in-house Engineering Department staff of 670 employees and an equivalent number of professional, technical and advisory consultants to facilitate implementation of the Capital and Operating Programs and ensure the continued safe and efficient operation of Port Authority facilities.

Mr. Lombardi played a vital role in directing the enormous job of restoring the World Trade Center after a terrorist bombing in 1993. In the days immediately following the 9/11/01 terrorist attacks on the World Trade Center, Mr. Lombardi faced many challenges including securing of facilities, recovery of critical systems and data, resuming business operations (continuing construction contracts, returning staff to work), and the WTC site recovery. Since 9/11/01, Mr. Lombardi also played a vital role in the $565 million reconstruction of the Interim PATH-WTC station at the 16-acre World Trade Center site. In addition, Mr. Lombardi attended various industry and professional functions to present his personal account of that horrific day and to report on what was happening at the site at the time.

Mr. Lombardi came to the Port Authority in 1971 as an engineering trainee and rose through the ranks to his present position is a member of the Society of American Military Engineers, the New York State Society of Professional Engineers, the Board of Consultors to the Department of Civil Engineering at Manhattan College, the Board of Managers of the Columbia Engineering School Alumni Association, and on the Board of the Directors of the Salvadori Educational Center on the Built Environment (SECBE), a non-profit educational center at the City College of New York. Mr. Lombardi is also an Industry Professor at Polytechnic University.

A 1970 graduate of the College of Engineering of New York University, Mr. Lombardi majored in Civil Engineering. He attended Queens College for three years before transferring to NYU as part of a special five-year program combining liberal arts and engineering. As part of the program, he also received a Bachelor of Arts degree from Queens College. He received a Master of Science degree in Structures from Columbia University, a Certificate of Advanced Graduate Study in Business Management from Pace University, and is a licensed Professional Engineer in the States of New York and New Jersey.