New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani is bringing 15 business leaders into City Hall as he looks to mend a rocky relationship between his administration and some of the city’s most powerful executives.
Mamdani announced Thursday morning the launch of a new Business Advisory Council spanning finance, real estate, health care, technology, sports and retail, an effort to bring some of New York’s most prominent business leaders to the table with a democratic socialist mayor whose economic agenda has often put him at odds with the business community. Its members include Chobani founder and CEO Hamdi Ulukaya, Etsy CEO Kruti Patel Goyal, RXR chairman and CEO Scott Rechler and New York Liberty CEO Keia Clarke.
Taking a closer look, one might notice some of the biggest names in New York business are notably absent. The council includes no current executives from JPMorgan Chase, Citigroup, American Express or BlackRock, nor from tech giants Meta or Alphabet.
Last year, JPMorgan CEO Jamie Dimon told Fortune that he would offer to help Mamdani if he became mayor, while also describing his movement as “more Marxist than socialist.”
City Hall approached at least three prominent business leaders who ultimately did not join: Bank of America’s New York City president Jose Tavarez, former American Express CEO Ken Chenault and private equity executive Charles Phillips, according to the New York Times.
