Walter M. Arsenault was appointed Executive Director of the Waterfront Commission of New York Harbor on September 10, 2008. He is the grandson of a long shore man and the son of a U.S. Customs Inspector and Supervisor who spent his career on the piers of New Jersey. Mr. Arsenault is a graduate of the Johns Hopkins University and Rutgers University School of Law. He served as an Assistant Prosecutor in Bergen County, New Jersey from 1978 to 1984 where he was Chief of the Trial and Grand Jury Sections.
Mr. Arsenault joined the New York County District Attorney's Office in 1984 where he served until 2003. Mr. Arsenault was the Chief of that office's Homicide Investigation Unit for most of his career there. He specialized in the investigation and prosecution of violent drug gangs. Mr. Arsenault also served as a Senior Trial Counsel in Trial Bureau 70 and a Senior Investigative Counsel in the Office of the Special Narcotics Prosecutor.
In 2003, Mr. Arsenault was appointed First Deputy Commissioner of the New York City Department of Investigation. He oversaw that office's daily operations as well as leading high profile political corruption and organized crime investigations. He retired from city service in March of 2008.
Ann M. Gross Commission Secretary
Ann M. Gross came to the Waterfront Commission in July 1994 as Secretary
to the Executive Director and continues to serve in that capacity.
She was appointed to the office of Commission Secretary in October
2003, the first woman to hold that position in the history of the
Commission. Previously, she was a legal secretary and office manager
in the private sector for over 30 years. She is a graduate of Pace
University and received her Master's Degree in Education from New
York University.
