New York City’s newly minted comptroller unveiled his executive leadership team on Monday.
Comptroller Brad Lander said his team is made up of new and returning deputy and assistant comptrollers. They will head the different bureaus within the comptroller’s office and have various responsibilities, such as overseeing the sale of municipal bonds by the city and its agencies and serving as fiduciary for the city’s five pension funds.
“This team brings a wide range of experience in and outside public service, a deep commitment to making government work better, and a strong investment in building a more just and equal city,” Lander said in a statement.
The appointments included Marjorie Henning, deputy comptroller for public finance; Michael Haddad, interim chief investment officer and deputy comptroller for asset management; Wendy Garcia, chief diversity officer; Ricky Da Costa, deputy comptroller for public affairs; Amedeo D’Angelo, deputy comptroller for administration; Naomi Dann, director of communications; Charlette Hamamgian, deputy comptroller for contracts and procurement; Alison Hirsh, assistant comptroller for pensions and senior adviser; Annie Levers, assistant comptroller for policy; and Jacqueline Thompson, deputy comptroller for accountancy.
At of the end of the second quarter of fiscal 2021, the city had about $38.57 billion of general obligation debt outstanding, not counting the various city authorities that issue debt. The NYC Transitional Finance Authority has $41.64 billion of debt outstanding while the NYC Municipal Water Finance Authority had $31.12 billion of debt outstanding.
The city’s GOs are rated Aa2 by Moody’s Investors Service, AA by S&P Global Ratings, AA-minus by Fitch Ratings and AA-plus by Kroll Bond Rating Agency. All four assign stable outlooks.
The city's five major pension funds — city employees, police, fire, teachers and Board of Education — are valued at $273 billion overall. The comptroller is custodian of the funds and serves as trustee on four out of the five. The comptroller is also investment advisor to all five pension boards.
“I’m thrilled to work with this first-rate team, and I know they will serve New Yorkers and our city well,” Lander said.
Previously, Lander named Sandra Abeles as executive deputy for management and operations, Francesco Brindisi as executive deputy for budget and finance, Justina Rivera as general counsel and Rachel Goodman as chief of staff.
As deputy comptroller for public finance, Henning manages the city’s debt issuance and related policy and administration on behalf the comptroller. She is a 30-year veteran of the municipal market and had served under former Comptroller Scott Stringer.
Previously, she was a director at Citigroup in the municipal securities division where she covered Northeast issuers. Prior to joining Citigroup, she was general counsel to the New York City Office of Management and Budget, where she was responsible for debt issuance by the city, the NYC TFA and the NYC MWFA.
Haddad leads the bureau of asset management and is responsible for investing the pension dollars of public sector workers. Previously, he served as deputy chief investment officer, overseeing all asset classes as well as asset allocation. Prior to this he worked in the financial arena for three decades, including at Morgan Stanley as a U.S. Treasury trader, at Caxton Associates as a senior managing director and at Soros Fund Management as a senior portfolio manager.
Garcia is responsible for increasing contracting opportunities for women-and minority-owned business enterprises and managing the comptroller office’s internal supplier diversity initiative, as well as other diversity related projects across all bureaus of the agency. Previously, she served in this role under Stringer.
