When he was in business, Michael Bloomberg was known for having a simple policy: employees who quit for anything other than family reasons would not be rehired. * “We’re dependent on one another—and when someone departs, those of us who stay are hurt,” the mayor wrote in his 1997 book,  Bloomberg by Bloomberg. “We needed that person, or he or she wouldn’t have been here to begin with.” * Few quit Bloomberg LP and few, especially among the senior staff, have quit the Bloomberg mayoral administration, either. * Still, those who did leave—including the seven former senior staffers profiled here—say that they left on very good terms. More than that, they say they hope the mayor will understand their decision to leave the public sector, and might take another look at their résumés if ever he is staffing another, larger government office, like the one on Washington’s Pennsylvania Avenue in which he has been rumored to be interested. * They are hoping that Bloomberg will not stick to the policy he described in his book about refusing to consider rehires. * “What choice in the matter do we have? Two people work side by side; one leaves for greener pastures, and the other hunkers down and does the work of both,” he wrote. “Later the one who left us in the lurch realizes the grass wasn’t greener after all and wants all forgiven.”

Roy Bahat
Vice President of Business Development, News Corp
Position in the Bloomberg administration: Senior Policy Director for Deputy Mayor Doctoroff (February 2002-November 2003)

Roy Bahat says he has no specialty—since he left the Bloomberg administration, Bahat has worked in the worlds of professional sports, political consulting, and international media.
“What I like is being near the center of the action,” he said.
Which is why Bahat felt drawn to the Bloomberg administration after September 11^th.
“I felt like it was the most important place to be in the world at that time,” he said.
Concentrating on Lower Manhattan, Bahat met with community leaders, elected officials and non-profit organizations about economic development.
“You can’t get anything done alone in New York City,” he said.
After he left the administration, Bahat maintained close contact with city government as director of international strategy for the New York City 2012 Olympic bid. There, Bahat coordinated efforts to reach members of the Olympic committee, as well as athletes and other Olympic leaders, to explain why the Olympics should come to New York.
“Unfortunately, it didn’t work out, but it was thrilling,” he said. “So much of the 2012 vision is still happening.”
After the Olympic Committee closed down in 2005, Bahat consulted at Catalist, a data services company that provides political candidates with constituent lists.
In  2006, he moved on to his current job at News Corp, the Rupert Murdoch owned media conglomerate that owns the New York Post, Fox Broadcasting Company and myspace.com, among other companies.
Bahat initially developed new media strategies and international business opportunities for myspace.com. He also contributed to myspace.com’s fight against the sexual predators that have plagues their site, a project that he says has been going on since the website was created.
These days, Bahat leads News Corps efforts to combat an entirely different enemy: climate change. He said the company is trying to negate the negative impact it’s printing facilities and delivery services have on the environment
Bahat is accomplishing this by helping News Corp’s television programs and websites reach their audiences on the issue while also trying to lower News Corps own greenhouse emissions to make it climate neutral by 2010.
“I’ve been working with all of our different media outlets to get our own house in order and change the way we use energy,” Bahat said. “The idea is this just makes us a better media company.”

What do you miss least from your days working in the administration?
“Constantly be asked to make copies, because my desk looked like a receptionist’s area.”

Would you want to be part of a Bloomberg White House? In which role?
“I think it would be great if he was president. I think I would like something easy like poet laureate.”

Jordan Barowitz
Director of External Affairs, the Durst Organization
Position in the Bloomberg administration: Deputy Press Secretary to the Mayor (January 2002 – June 2006)

The lights went out. Back-up generators immediately kicked in at City Hall allowing business-as-usual to continue.
But the rest of Manhattan was still dark.
Jordan Barowitz remembers the afternoon of the 2002 blackout well.
“Immediately my phone rang. It was my mother. She was in Midtown where she told me the lights went out. I was the first to know we were in big trouble when that happened,” he said.
Responding to this sort of crisis was what brought Barowitz into the Bloomberg administration in the first place. After the World Trade Center attacks, the lifelong Democrat said he felt his allegiance to the city trumped party loyalty.
“I’m a fourth generation New Yorker,” he said. “I couldn’t turn down the offer to help rebuild New York, even in the small way that I did after 9/11.”
Barowitz fondly remembers Bloomberg’s ability to make difficult decisions, including those which dealt with rebuilding Lower Manhattan, managing a ballooning budget crisis and the “awesome task” of restoring the city’s confidence.
He got his start at City Hall working as communications director for then-Council Speaker Peter Vallone, Sr. (D-Queens). Barowitz was then the communications director for Vallone’s 1998 gubernatorial and 2001 mayoral campaigns. He also worked in the New York office of Al Gore’s 2000 presidential campaign.
Barowitz said he parlayed his experience in matters related to city development into his current role, working with government agencies for the Durst Organization, a real estate development company focused on eco-friendly construction.

Did Bloomberg give you any parting words of advice? He’s given me a lot of advice over the years on stuff, and of those couple of things he used in my presence, one was: “If you can’t sell something raise the price.” And also, “It’s better to beg for forgiveness than ask for permission.”

Would you want to be part of a Bloomberg White House? In which role? I take the mayor for his word when he said he wasn’t running for president. I’m very happy in my new digs.

—Elizabeth Kraushar




Patrick Brennan
President, Strategic Communications Division of The Parkside Group
Position in the Bloomberg administration: Deputy Campaign Manager, Bloomberg 2005 (December 2004 – December 2005); Special Assistant to the Mayor & Chief of Staff for Government Affairs (January 2006 – June 2006); Commissioner of the Community Assistance Unit
 (June 2006 – June 2007)

Patrick Brennan’s résumé lists experience with some of the most influential names in the Democratic Party, from George Soros to 1199 SEIU, the healthcare workers union.
Nonetheless, he joined the 2005 reelection campaign for Bloomberg, then a Republican, as the deputy campaign manager, working directly under Kevin Sheekey.
His previous political experience includes a stint as chief of staff for then-State Sen. Vincent Gentile (D-Brooklyn), contributing to Sen. John Kerry’s (D-Massachusetts) 2004 presidential campaign through the Soros group America Coming Together, and being part of the political team at 1199.
He had no qualms, though, about backing a man with an “R” after his name.
“Bloomberg is not an ideologue,” he said. “Democrats, Republicans and Independents can all work with him.”
Following the 2005 election, Bloomberg hired him as a special assistant to the mayor, and later, as chief of staff for government affairs, a position which had him developing the mayor’s legislative agenda. He called securing money for city schools his biggest legislative victory. He was later named the commissioner of the community assistance unit.
“I think you’d be hard pressed,” he said, “to find a place or a business or a section of the political world that being associated with a successful mayor would be a negative.”

What do you miss most from your days working in the administration? Working with a large number of very, very talented people. Working with people with one common interest in mind is an exciting place to be.

Did Bloomberg give you any parting words of advice? He did. He gave me… It was a private conversation and it will stay that way.

—Dan Rivoli


Joe Chan
President, Downtown Brooklyn Partnership
Position in the Bloomberg administration: Senior Policy Advisor to Dan Doctoroff (February 2002 – September 2006)

The Downtown Brooklyn Partnership advances public and private development in the downtown Brooklyn area, facilitating around $9 billion in private investment. As its president, Chan manages a budget of around $8 million and a staff of 25.
Chan said he learned what he needed for the job from his time as an advisor to Deputy Mayor Dan Doctoroff.
“It was the greatest professional development experience I will ever have,” he said. “I don’t think there’s anything that could have prepared me better.”
Under Doctoroff, Chan was in charge of small business development in Brooklyn.
In both roles, Chan has worked as an intermediary between public and private interests.
Now, though, Chan’s efforts are much more focused—instead of dealing with borough-wide issues, he focuses on stewarding the economic growth of a 40-square block area.
He took Bloomberg’s management style along with him. Since he was appointed to his current job, Chan has tried to recreate there the atmosphere of intensity and dedication he experienced in the Bloomberg administration.
“Being in City Hall for almost five years during this administration,” Chan said, “taught me how to operate with a sense of urgency, taught me how to step up the quality of my work, and exposed me to a level of people and expertise that I just would not have got anywhere else.”
But not everything is the same.
“There’s a big lifestyle difference. City Hall is a 12- to 13-hour a day commitment, and you really have to be on and accessible at nights and the weekend. It really is an intense experience,” Chan said.

What do you miss most from your days working in the administration? The people. Working with so many incredibly motivated and talented people, spending 13 hours a day with incredibly motivated peers is a great thing.

Would you want to be part of a Bloomberg White House? In which role? I am one of the scores of City Hall staffers that would probably follow the mayor anywhere. I don’t know what position. I really love this city and love this borough, so it’s not anything I’ve given any thought to.

—Joseph Meyers

Jonathan Greenspun
Managing Director, Mercury Public Affairs
Position in the Bloomberg administration: Commissioner of the Community Assistance Unit
(January 2002 – June 2006)

As the youngest commissioner in the Bloomberg administration, the then-30 year-old Jonathan Greenspun got a thrill from trumpeting the mayor’s message across the five boroughs.
Leading the community assistance unit, Greenspun also fielded neighborhood complaints about some of Bloomberg’s less popular choices, like when he raised property taxes.
“Listening to the feedback was difficult, but watching the mayor make decisions that were right in the long-run was a good lesson for me to learn,” he said.
Before going to City Hall, Greenspun served six years in various positions in former Gov. George Pataki’s (R) administration. He also worked for then-Rep. Rick Lazio (R-Suffolk) during his 2000 Senate campaign against Hillary Clinton.
But after 10-and-a-half years in government and politics, Greenspun decided the time had come to try a new career path.
Now doing communications and government relations at Mercury Public Affairs, Greenspun guides his clients—many of them Fortune 500 companies—through often complex government regulations, in everything from environmental protection to economic development.
He said he continues to call upon the skills he gained from working with city agencies while commissioner.
“You learn about how decisions get made and how to reach consensus,” he said, “How to talk to the right people.”

What do you miss least from your days working in the administration? I probably miss the least a call at 2 a.m. telling me there is a water-main break.

Would you want to be part of a Bloomberg White House? In which role? My bags are packed already like an expectant mother. As far as a position, that’s being too presumptuous. Let’s solve one problem at a time. I would have no hesitation about helping him get to the White House.

—Elizabeth Kraushar

Marc Ricks
Associate, Infrastructure Group of Goldman Sachs
Position in the Bloomberg administration: Chief of Staff to Dan Doctoroff
(December 2005 – May 2007)

When Marc Ricks left his unpaid City Hall job at the end of the summer of 2003, he had every intention of going back to the private sector for good.
Ricks had previously spent five years at McKenzie and Company. He took the summer of 2003 to gain experience in government.
He was not gone long. Four months after he left, Ricks was back at City Hall, as Dan Doctoroff’s senior policy advisor. A year after that, he was Doctoroff’s chief of staff.
Ricks oversaw all of the projects and agencies under Doctoroff’s aegis. In addition to hiring new employees and writing reviews, Ricks said his primary responsibility was maintaining a steady information flow—both between Doctoroff’s staff and between Doctoroff and the other deputy mayors.
“Everybody had an extraordinary sense of impatience best exemplified by the countdown clock,” Ricks said. “The mayor was the first person to get there, and we burned the candle at both ends.”
After two years, Ricks decided to once more try getting back to the private sector. After two years in a very intense environment, he felt he was no longer bringing the freshness of perspective he began with.
But, he said, the switch to Goldman Sachs did not mean shorter days, at a company where 120-hour work weeks rarely raise an eyebrow.
“You do the math and it works out to be pretty painful,” he said.
Ricks said he chose Goldman Sachs because it is known for a collegial environment of teamwork and camaraderie, something he had grown accustomed to while working with Bloomberg.
As a junior staffer at Goldman Sachs, he works in a bullpen environment similar to Bloomberg’s. Senior staffers, though, have their own offices—unlike Bloomberg, who sits in the middle of his own bullpen.
This can make Ricks nostalgic for his time in City Hall.
“It’s not quite the same as when the most senior person is sitting in the same cubicle,” he said.

What do you miss least from your days working in the administration? I don’t miss the press angle, by which I mean everything from a small measure of fear that something you do and say will end up, to the immediacy of the press cycle, opinion pieces masquerading as news articles, and one third of the facts in article about your project wrong but you can’t do anything about it.

Did Bloomberg give you any parting words of advice?  He said if I need anything I should call his friend [Goldman Sachs CEO] Lloyd Blanfine.

—Joseph Meyers


Silvia Alverez
Director of Multicultural and Charitable Communications, Major League Baseball
Position in Bloomberg administration: Deputy Press Secretary
(December 2003 – September 2006)

These days, Silvia Alverez is dealing with a different kind of bullpen.
Once Bloomberg’s deputy press secretary, Alverez now oversees promotion of Major League Baseball’s sponsored charities and ethnic outreach programs.
She spends much of her time putting together media plans for charity events hosted by the league and organizations like the Boys and Girls Club of America which the league supports.
Much of her time is spent preparing for the annual All Star Game, which she called one of the league’s jewel events. Her job is to publicize the positive effects that the All Star Game has on its host city, particularly through all the charity events planned in conjunction with the game.
More than anything else, Alverez said, she misses the fast paced environment she formerly worked in.
“It’s like a rush,” she said. “When I was at City Hall, if I was talking to a reporter, it was about a story that was coming out tomorrow.”
Alverez said her work for the baseball league is less hectic, partly because sports reporters are less intense than political reporters.
“I don’t feel so much on the spot with a sports writer as I did with a City Hall writer,” she said.
Another difference: While in City Hall, everyone knew she was on the Bloomberg team. Working for Major League Baseball, she is not allowed to publicize her allegiances.
“I do have a secret favorite,” she said, “but I can’t tell you.”

Did Bloomberg give you any parting words of advice? It was the same one he gave me when I started at City Hall: “Don’t screw it up!”

Would you want to be part of a Bloomberg White House? In which role? I would want to be his liaison to different ethnic communities.

—Joseph Meyers


Jennifer Falk
Executive Director, Union Square Partnership
Position in the Bloomberg administration: First Deputy Press Secretary
Spokesperson for Dan Doctoroff
(January 2002 – December 2006)

Fresh off a stint as a teacher and various temp jobs, the then-24-year-old Jennifer Falk joined the Administration of Children’s Services as its deputy communications director in the early 1990s.
She was the agency’s press secretary when Deputy Mayor Ed Skyler, then Bloomberg’s press secretary, asked Falk to join City Hall as the first deputy press secretary.
With five years experience in social services, Falk used the opportunity to change fields. She put in a special request to work with Deputy Mayor Dan Doctoroff as the chief spokesperson for Bloomberg’s five-borough economic development plan.
“One of the most amazing things about the types of jobs you can have in government, especially when it comes to communications, is the skills translate from topic to topic.”
After a decade of being a spokesperson for the city, she made the tough decision to leave City Hall and become the executive director of the Union Square Partnership.
Using her skills in communications and business, Falk meets with politicians, businesses and the community to keep the redevelopment of Union Square Park’s north end, a $20 million project, on schedule. The plans include an expanded playground, additional bathrooms, office space and a rehabilitated pavilion.
She still maintains close relationships with the community and continues to serve the public.

Did Bloomberg give you any parting words of advice? Yeah. He gave me the same advice he gives most people: “Don’t screw it up.”

Would you want to be part of a Bloomberg White House? In which role? That’s the one question that will get me in trouble with my board.

—Dan Rivoli