ALBANY, N.Y. (AP) — Governor-elect Spitzer announced a string of top level appointments Friday, including a transportation engineer as executive director and chief executive officer of the Metropolitan Transportation Authority.

Elliot Sander is Spitzer’s choice to replace the executive director of the MTA, Katherine Lapp, who was Governor Pataki’s executive director of the authority that runs the trains, buses and other transportation facilities in New York City.

Mr. Sander is corporate senior vice president at DMJM Harris, a transportation engineering firm, and director of the Rudin Center for Transportation Policy and Management at the Robert F. Wagner Graduate School of Public Service at New York University. He is also the founder and co-chairman of the Empire State Transportation Alliance and a commissioner on the New York City Taxi and Limousine Commission, Mr. Spitzer’s transition team said.

Ms. Lapp, an attorney and former head of Pataki’s criminal justice department, has been widely praised for her work on the MTA over five years.

“I am honored that these talented individuals have chosen to join me in government service,” Mr. Spitzer said. “They will bring their diverse professional backgrounds and experience to the challenges facing the state. I am confident they will ably and honorably represent the people of New York.”

Mr. Spitzer won the office in November by a historically large margin. He promised to bring experts to government offices, not political allies or “cronies.” The Democrat takes over after the 12-year tenure of Mr. Pataki, a Republican who chose not to seek another term.

The other appointments include:

— Terryl Brown Clemons to first assistant counsel to the governor. She has been the assistant deputy attorney general of the Division of Public Advocacy in the state attorney general’s office under Mr. Spitzer.

— Marty Mack to deputy secretary for intergovernmental affairs. He also was a top assistant attorney general,

— Peter Pope to governor’s policy director. He was chief of the attorney general’s Criminal Division.

— Priscilla Almodovar to be president and CEO of the New York State Housing Finance Agency. She worked on Mr. Spitzer’s campaign and began her career in 1990 at the White & Case international law firm in New York City and became a partner. She handled financial transactions.

— Michael Schell to senior adviser for intergovernmental affairs. He was Mr. Spitzer’s upstate campaign director and founded the Democratic Rural Conference, which has endorsed Spitzer’s campaigns.

— Avi Schick, a longtime and prominent assistant attorney general to downstate CEO and president of the Empire State Development Corp., the lead agent in bringing jobs to the state.

Mr. Spitzer also made a number of nominations that are subject to approval by the state Senate:

— Anthony Shorris to executive director of the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey. He has been the director of Princeton University’s Policy Research Institute at the Woodrow Wilson School of Public and International Affairs. Mr. Spitzer graduated from Princeton. Shorris was also deputy chancellor of the New York City Board of Education from 2001 to 2003 and in the early 1990s was the first deputy executive director of the Port Authority.

— Eric Dinallo to state insurance superintendent. A private attorney, Mr. Dinallo had been a major figure in Mr. Spitzer’s Wall Street investigations as head of Mr. Spitzer’s Investment Protection Bureau.

— Patricia Smith to Department of Labor commissioner. She has been the assistant attorney general in-charge of the Labor Bureau since 1999.

— Pat Foye to downstate co-chairman of the state Urban Development Corporation, which works to attract and retain businesses and jobs. Mr. Foye is president and CEO of the United Way of Long Island. An upstate co-chairman will be located in Buffalo.