Category Archives: 5 Minutes With …

5 Minutes with … Bill de Blasio



In our 5 Minutes With … feature we spend 5 interesting minutes with leading elected officials and policy leaders.  In this “5 Minutes With …” segment we speak with New York City Public Advocate Bill de Blasio.

Join us as we discuss the structure and role of the Public Advocate’s office and look ahead to January 2014 and the challenges that the next Public Advocate will face.

Be sure to also watch our report on the first candidate forum in the 2013 Public Advocate race.

5 Minutes With … Richard Ravitch



In our “5 Minutes With …” feature we spend 5 interesting minutes with leading elected officials and policy leaders.  In this “5 Minutes With …” segment we spoke with Richard Ravitch about the State Budget Crisis Task Force and New York State’s fiscal challenges.

Richard Ravitch has been a leader in state and city government finance for decades.  He was a pivotal figure in rescuing New York City during the fiscal crisis of the 1970s and has filled an extraordinary number of vital roles since then.  In 2011, Richard Ravitch and Paul Volcker organized, and co-chaired, the State Budget Crisis Task Force, with the goal of conducting an in-depth analysis of the financial condition of six large states.   (More background can be found here.)

The Task Force has now issued its report analyzing New York State’s daunting fiscal challenges. The State Budget Crisis Task Force, the New York Report and New York State’s fiscal challenges are the subject of our 5 Minutes With … Richard Ravitch.

5 Minutes With … Kathryn Wylde



In our “5 Minutes With …” feature we spend 5 interesting minutes with leading elected officials and policy leaders.  In this “5 Minutes With …” segment we spoke with Kathryn Wylde, President and CEO of the Partnership for New York City.

Kathryn Wylde’s career, in which she has risen to lead one of the preeminent business/civic organizations in the country, spans a period of remarkable changes in professional opportunities for women.  (Her bio is here.)  As the President and CEO of the Partnership for New York City, she has a unique view into the most senior levels of American business today.

In our “5 Minutes With … Kathryn Wylde“, she describes conditions at the beginning of her career, when the senior ranks of business and government were largely closed to women, how far we’ve progressed and what remains to be accomplished in reaching full parity for women in the professional world.

5 Minutes With … Gina Raimondo



In our “5 Minutes With …” feature we spend 5 interesting minutes with leading elected officials and policy leaders.  In this “5 Minutes With …” segment we spoke with Gina Raimondo, Rhode Island State Treasurer, on the topic of pension reform.

When Gina Raimondo took office in 2011, Rhode Island had one of the weakest state pension systems in the country.  Gina Raimondo’s approach in seeking major changes was markedly different from that of many other elected officials around the country, as illustrated by her comment that “we took a tone of no finger pointing, no blame, no nasty divisive rhetoric … [and] my mantra was ‘this is math, not politics.'”

How she moved her state from inertia to action to dramatically change the Rhode Island state pension system is the focus of our “5 Minutes With … Gina Raimondo”.