My father and I never agreed on politics, but his oft-repeated dinner-table admonition set the course of my career: “When public service calls, you answer ‘Yes’.” He was a Westchester-based businessman elected to public office in city and county politics who also served in national and international appointive positions, including the U.S. Delegate to the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO).
With his advice in mind, I attended Yale School of Management. Its mission—envisioned by its founding dean, Wall Street and government leader Bill Donaldson—was to train a new breed of professionals to be change-agents in careers spanning the public, private and not-for-profits sectors. So, in 1987 when I was invited to join Gov. Mario Cuomo’s administration as Deputy Commissioner of New York’s Department of Environmental Conservation, I left behind a happy bachelor life and banking job in Boston to accept the post in Albany.
I continue to admire people who have great impacts on society over careers spanning the public and private sectors.
One example is Bill Mulrow, an icon of New York public service who has spent most of his professional life as a business executive. He recently stepped down from his post as Secretary to Gov. Andrew Cuomo, returning to the finance industry. As the governor’s top aide for the last two years, he helped implement many of the administration’s landmark initiatives and actions.
A graduate of Yale College and Harvard’s Kennedy School of Government, Bill Mulrow has held top executive positions in a range of financial institutions, including Donaldson Lufkin and Jenrette, Citicorp and Blackstone Group. On the government front, he chaired the NYS Housing Finance Agency, the State of New York Mortgage Agency, the Judicial Compensation Commission, the Municipal Assistance Corporation and the United Nations Development Corporation. He has received humanitarian and civic awards from several organizations, including the NAACP, and served on advisory boards at Harvard and Syracuse universities.
Bill Mulrow’s engagement on environmental policy in New York spanned a period when Gov. Cuomo was launching his leadership and achievements into a higher orbit in both the state and national spheres. The governor’s executive budget, recently adopted by the Legislature, included the highest level of funding ever for diverse environmental capital initiatives, including the $2.5-billion Water Infrastructure Bond Act, the $300-million Environmental Protection Fund and the $200-million Empire State Trail linking Manhattan with upstate New York. The governor also expanded his commitment to fighting climate change and converting the state’s power supply from fossil fuels, positioning him as one of the nation’s leading governors in renewable energy and carbon reduction. During the same period, Gov. Cuomo made good on his commitment to close down the Indian Point nuclear power plant.
I had the privilege of working with Bill Mulrow in the context of the governor’s emergence as a leader in achieving a comprehensive cleanup of PCBs in the upper Hudson River and in opposing a U.S. Coast Guard proposal to allow anchorages for 43 crude oil barges in the lower river. In the face of scientific evidence that General Electric’s PCB cleanup has failed to address the full extent of contamination, Gov. Cuomo is working for additional cleanup to repair our American Heritage River, protect public health, and open the door for tourism and high-paying jobs as part of his statewide economic development vision. Bill Mulrow has served as an effective ambassador for the governor—reaching out to officials in Washington and the environmental community in New York.
Similarly, the governor has blown the whistle on the U.S. Coast Guard’s proposal to turn the Hudson into a parking lot for barges carrying highly volatile crude oil and other hazardous substances in 10 locations between Kingston and Yonkers, raising the specter of devastating impacts on drinking water supplies, parks, environmental resources and revitalized waterfronts. Bill Mulrow coordinated the efforts of multiple state agencies to back the governor’s 2016 call for a full environmental review of this misguided concept.
Beyond the substance of his role in helping implement key aspects of Gov. Cuomo’s environmental vision while juggling dozens of other priorities, Bill Mulrow was always a gentleman, uniquely accessible, ready to listen and penetrate to the heart of a matter to develop strategies and actions to achieve an outcome. He is among the best and the brightest of the capable team Gov. Cuomo has assembled, and among the most dedicated public servants I’ve worked with in any administration. He will be missed in Albany, but I have no doubt he will continue to make important contributions in whatever posts he takes on—in the public, private or non-profit worlds.