Mayor Zohran Mamdani has removed the advisory board of a prominent nonprofit that helps steer private-sector contributions into New York City programs, a move likely to intensify scrutiny of his relationship with the city’s business establishment.
In a letter obtained by Bloomberg News, Mamdani expressed gratitude to the outgoing members of the Mayor’s Fund to Advance New York City, acknowledging their work as their roles came to an end.
The organization also informed members by email that the full board would be dissolved, a sweeping shake-up that Bloomberg reported has not occurred across at least the past three mayoral administrations.
“I commend you for your dedication and the benefit you have brought to our City as you conclude your tenure on the Mayor’s Fund Board of Advisors,” Mamdani wrote in the letter.
Those dismissed include several high-profile figures from New York’s real estate, finance and corporate sectors, among them BD Hotels’ Richard Born; GFP Real Estate chairman Jeffrey Gural; Blackstone Inc. senior managing director Alex Katz; Citigroup Inc. head of enterprise services and public affairs Edward Skyler; and Real Estate Board of New York president James Whelan.
City Hall told Bloomberg that new advisory board members are expected to be named later this year.
“The creation of a new advisory board is an important next step in reimagining how philanthropy can augment, but not replace, public dollars and public goods, and we are eager to share more about our new board of advisors later this year,” Mamdani senior adviser Dora Pekec told Bloomberg.
The Mayor’s Fund, which reported $16.4 million in cash on hand in its 2025 tax filing, has long relied in part on ties to New York City’s business community to support fundraising campaigns that bring in millions of dollars annually for civic initiatives.
It’s raised hundreds of millions since its 1995 inception – including a staggering $107 million to support family members of rescue workers killed or injured in the Sept. 11, 2001 terror attacks.
During the darkest days of the COVID-19 pandemic, the fund raised $54.5 million for an emergency relief fund that covered meals and personal protective equipment (PPE) for healthcare workers.
But Mamdani started eroding the fund’s lucrative business connections as soon as he took office in April, appointing a former dockworker and a high school teacher to serve on the fund’s board of directors.
“In January, our city entered a new era – one that demands our city government reflect our communities,” Pekec said. “The building of a new Mayor’s Fund, built on the ethos of putting those directly impacted in the rooms where decisions are made, is a continuation of that work.”
The move is the continuation of an anti-business throughline in the Mamdani administration, which has repeatedly demonstrated its willingness to spit in the face of big business and wealthy New Yorkers.
