Mayor Eric Adams holds an in-person media availability at City Hall with First Deputy Mayor Maria Torres-Springer on Tuesday, October 8, 2024. | Photo by Ed Reed/Mayoral Photography Office.
NEW YORK—Following Executive Order 45 issued by Mayor Eric Adams on September 26, 2024, Maria Torres-Springer was appointed first deputy mayor, effective October 8. Her appointment makes her the highest-ranking Filipina American official in the Adams administration. She succeeds the first deputy mayor, Sheena Wright.
Executive Order 45 outlines the roles of all deputy mayors. Torres-Springer will assume oversight of the first deputy mayor portfolio and provide strategic direction and operational and budgetary oversight for the City of New York. In addition, given its significance to the administration’s agenda, she will continue to manage her housing and economic development portfolio and advise and assist the mayor regarding all policies, planning, and programs related to the government of the City of New York and the exercise of the mayor’s powers and duties.
Currently, as the deputy mayor for Housing, Economic Development, and Workforce, she is charged with spearheading the administration’s efforts to strengthen and diversify its economy, advancing Adams’ moonshot goal of creating 500,000 new homes for New Yorkers by 2032, preserving and improving NYCHA, bolstering small business, connecting New Yorkers to family-sustaining jobs, and expanding access to arts and culture.
Torres-Springer has overseen “Rebuild, Renew, Reinvent: A Blueprint for New York City’s Economic Recovery,” the city’s strong jobs recovery, efforts to support small businesses with the “Small Business Forward” executive order and the “New” New York panel’s “Making New York Work for Everyone” action plan, and moved transformational projects forward in Willets Point and on Governors Island.
Her accomplishments include regaining the nearly 1 million jobs the city lost during the pandemic more than a year ahead of schedule; launching a blueprint to create accessible career pathways and a more inclusive economy; driving down Black and Latino unemployment by nearly 30 percent; developing the “Get Stuff Built” plan to accelerate the pace of housing production; driving back-to-back record-breaking years for producing and connecting New Yorkers to new, affordable homes; advancing the Public Housing Preservation Trust to unlock billions of dollars for comprehensive renovations for thousands of New York City Housing Authority (NYCHA) residents; and advancing the administration’s historic three “City of Yes” initiatives to modernize the city’s zoning code to promote sustainability, support small businesses, and build more housing.
“The first deputy mayor serves a critical role in our administration, providing the connective tissue across city government to advance priorities and ensure we are working together to deliver for New Yorkers,” said Adams, acknowledging her “more than two decades of experience leading multiple city agencies and executing on one of the most successful housing and economic developmenet agendas in the city’s history.”
Added Adams: “Maria has delivered for our city over and over again, and I know she will continue to do so in this new role.”
“Throughout three mayoral administrations and leading three city agencies, my focus has been to provide steady, effective leadership while delivering tangible results for every New Yorker in every neighborhood,” said incoming First Deputy Mayor Maria Torres-Springer. “Serving this city has been my life’s work. I am deeply grateful to Mayor Eric Adams for entrusting me with this role, and I am humbled to continue working shoulder-to-shoulder with the 300,000 public servants who work tirelessly to move our great city forward.”
“Maria Torres-Springer has demonstrated her skill, integrity, and efficacy across three mayoral administrations, and is an excellent choice by Mayor Adams to serve as first deputy mayor. She has depth and experience in both government and the not-for-profit sector, and we know she will serve New Yorkers well,” said Steven Rubenstein, chairman of the Association for a Better New York. “At the same time, we are grateful to Sheena Wright for her leadership, and especially her dedication to uplifting so many of New York’s most vulnerable in her time at City Hall.”
“The reason that everyone from Mike Bloomberg to Bill de Blasio and now Eric Adams have all relied on Maria Torres-Springer is because she uniquely understands what New York can and must be and how to get us there,” said Julie Samuels, president, and CEO, Tech:NYC. “I’ve worked with the deputy mayor across administrations supporting the growth of the city’s tech sector, and I can say first-hand that she will be a formidable force for all of New York.”
Earlier in her career, as president and CEO of the New York City Economic Development Corporation, Torres-Springer led the implementation of the new citywide ferry service and made major investments in key sectors of the city’s economy. She also spearheaded several neighborhood revitalization plans. Before that, as commissioner of the New York City Department of Small Business Services, Torres-Springer prioritized efforts to raise wages and support women- and immigrant-owned businesses and worked to prepare New Yorkers for 21st-century jobs.
Torres-Springer previously was vice president of U.S. Programs at the Ford Foundation and commissioner of the New York City Department of Housing Preservation and Development, where she led the implementation of Housing New York, a five-borough, 12-year plan to create or preserve 300,000 affordable homes. She also steered the financing of approximately 60,000 affordable homes.
She earned her bachelor’s degree in ethics, politics, and economics from Yale University and a master’s in public policy from the Kennedy School of Government at Harvard University.
