The Metropolitan Washington Airports Authority board of directors elected William Shaw McDermott to serve as its next chairman and Warner H. Session to continue to serve as vice chairman at its monthly meeting. The Board also elected Lisa Makle-Brooks as interim secretary to the Authority. All three will serve one-year terms in office beginning in January 2016.

William Shaw McDermott, chairman, is an attorney and partner at K&L Gates, a law firm where he specializes in complex commercial, class actions, internal investigations and the defense of government enforcement actions litigation. During his 36 year career, he has prepared and tried cases in state and federal courts on a wide variety of subjects, primarily in civil matters. He was president of the Boston Bar Foundation and the Harvard Club of Boston. He served in leadership positions at Harvard teaching hospitals, Harvard medical faculty physicians and its School of Public Health. McDermott graduated from Harvard College, attended Oxford University and earned a law degree from the University of Virginia. He lives in Massachusetts and was appointed by the President of the United States and confirmed by the U.S. Senate.

Warner H. Session, vice chairman, is the founder of The Session Law Firm, which offers legal, government relations and business consulting services in such matters as corporate transactions, federal procurement, small business development, strategic partnering, legislation, regulatory compliance and real estate. Session is former counsel to the House Government Activities and Transportation subcommittee and served as lead counsel to the subcommittee as it investigated the 1988 bombing of Pan Am flight 103. Session serves on the Boards of the Thurgood Marshall Center, United Black Fund, Parklands Community Center and Metropolitan Day School. He is a graduate of Stanford University and earned a law degree from Georgetown University. Session is an appointee of the mayor of the District of Columbia.

Lisa Makle-Brooks, interim secretary, has held several positions in the board of directors office for more than 20 years. She has served as assistant secretary since 2007.  Makle-Brooks has extensive knowledge in board operations, policies and procedures at the Airports Authority.

Following the vote the board acknowledged outgoing chairman Frank M. Conner III for his contributions to the Airports Authority over the past two years.

Reagan National and Washington Dulles International airports, together serve more than 40 million passengers a year. The Airports Authority also operates and maintains the Dulles Airport Access Road and the Dulles Toll Road and manages construction of the Silver Line project, a 23-mile extension of the Washington region’s Metrorail system into Loudoun County, Va. No tax dollars are used to operate the toll road, which is funded by toll revenues, or the airports, which are funded through aircraft landing fees, rents and revenues from concessions. The Airports Authority generates more than 387,000 jobs in the National Capital Region.