When incoming New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio introduced Anthony Shorris *79 as his choice for first deputy mayor, he emphasized the “first” in the job title. “This will be the person I turn to to run the day-to-day operations of government,” de Blasio said. “This will be the person who will have my imprimatur to make sure our agenda is implemented each and every day.”
For Shorris, the key post in the country’s largest municipal government is the latest in a string of high-profile jobs in New York City. He also served as senior vice president of New York University’s Langone Medical Center, a deputy chancellor in the city’s public schools, and the executive director of the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey.
De Blasio’s move drew strong marks from The New York Times. “In Mr. Shorris, the incoming mayor has selected a steady hand who knows the many aspects of city government inside out,” the newspaper’s editorial board wrote last week. “His budgetary skills will be crucial as the city navigates its way through tricky, even treacherous, financial currents.”
Shorris, a Woodrow Wilson School MPA graduate, began his work in city government in 1984, during the second term of Mayor Ed Koch. His breaks from public service include a return to Princeton, from 2003 to 2007, when he taught at the Wilson School and led the Policy Research Institute for the Region.
Do you have a nominee for Tiger of the Week? Let us know. All alumni qualify. PAW’s Tiger of the Week is selected by our staff, with help from readers like you.