Mike Lorusso

Energy and Power Managing Director and Group Head, CIT Group

Biography:

Mike Lorusso is managing director and group head for CIT Group’s Power and Energy finance unit. In his role, he is responsible for overseeing financing activities in primary parts of the energy value chain, including the power project sector and the oil and gas sector. He has particular expertise in financing renewable and conventional power generation, as well as oil and gas exploration and production. Prior to joining CIT, Lorusso served as the head of Energy and Project Finance, Americas, for National Australia Bank. Before this, he served as senior vice president of Structured Finance for ABB and earlier worked as a deal team leader to originate, structure and close energy transactions for GE Capital Corporation. Lorusso has a bachelor’s degree in engineering from Duke University and an MBA from Fairleigh Dickinson University.

Why did you decide on teaming with New York City Parks Department to help combat an invasive plant species in Inwood Hill Park as part of “CIT Cares Month”?  Why was this particular volunteer effort important to you?

CIT’s corporate responsibility framework focuses on personal and financial empowerment, advancing wellness and supporting the environment.

We designate every June as CIT Cares Month, during which our employees volunteer thousands of hours of their time to benefit more than 250 community projects nationwide.

So when the opportunity arose last June to work with the New York City Parks Department on enhancing conditions at Inwood Hill Park in northern Manhattan, we jumped at the chance.

Under the guidance of a specialist from the Parks Department, I and about two dozen other members of CIT’s Power and Energy business, went through the park to help combat the advance of an invasive plant species that is threatening to crowd out the native vegetation. It was very rewarding to feel that we were making a difference on behalf of the natural environment.

Your charitable activities through “CIT Cares Month” were focused on improving the environment. Please tell us about any additional environmental (or other) organizations you are involved with and why their missions are important to you. Will you be participating in a new or similar volunteer effort this coming June, either through CIT Cares Month or in general?

Supporting the environment is a theme for CIT’s Power and Energy team.

In our professional lives, we help finance the construction and operation of many megawatts of renewable power generation. On the volunteer side, we’ll be collaborating with the NYC Parks Department again in June 2019 -- this time performing tree maintenance and again combatting invasive plant species in and around Manhattan’s Amelia Gorman Park.

We’ll be learning how to identify, aerate, cultivate and mulch street trees that are important to sustaining the local environment. This is a volunteer activity and no one is required to participate. But I must say how proud I am of my fellow CIT colleagues who step up without hesitation year after year to lend a hand.

Again, ours is just one of many, many CIT volunteer projects that take place each June across the U.S. Others involve everything from planting trees and cleaning up beaches to harvesting produce and even promoting the re-entry of oysters in our waterways.

To give you another environmental example, CIT employees last June collaborated with the Surfrider Foundation in support of its work to clean up the world’s oceans and beaches. Employees combed through the sands at Huntington Beach and Newport Beach, California, to remove vast quantities of cups, plastic straws, bottle caps and other trash and debris.

Most environmental problems are too big for an individual or even a whole organization to solve on their own. But individual efforts add up. By collaborating with each other and with third-party organizations, CIT employees are able to make a positive, meaningful difference in the community.