Mamdani Names Budget Director as He Prepares to Enact Costly Agenda

Mayor-elect Zohran Mamdani chose Sherif Soliman, a veteran of municipal government and the chief financial officer of the City University of New York, to lead the Office of Management and Budget.

With just two weeks remaining before he becomes mayor of New York City and starts work on an agenda that is as ambitious as it is expensive, Zohran Mamdani on Thursday named the person who will be responsible for making the numbers work.

At a community center at a public housing development in Queens on Thursday, Mr. Mamdani announced that Sherif Soliman, the chief financial officer of the City University of New York, would take charge of the city’s Office of Management and Budget in January.

Mr. Soliman “has deep competence navigating the political complexities of budget management,” Mr. Mamdani said.

Mr. Soliman, a veteran of municipal government, now manages the finances for the largest urban public university system in the United States, which faces perpetual funding challenges. CUNY has 26 colleges in its portfolio and a roughly $5 billion budget.

Next month, Mr. Soliman will assume control of a city budget that exceeds $115 billion. Multiple budget experts described Mr. Soliman as a respected pick.

“It’s a loss for CUNY, but he is exactly the right person for the city,” said Henry T. Berger, the finance chair of the university system’s board of trustees. “He understands city government. He understands O.M.B. He understands the Department of Finance. He is a unicorn.”

Mr. Soliman has worked in three mayoral administrations, including as chief policy officer under Mayor Eric Adams and as commissioner of the Department of Finance under Mayor Bill de Blasio.

Mr. Mamdani made Thursday’s announcement at the Pomonok public housing development, just across the street from Queens College, whose finances Mr. Soliman helps oversee.

The son of immigrants from Egypt, Mr. Soliman lived in the Pomonok development until he was 11 and his family moved to Staten Island.

When Mr. Soliman joined CUNY as chief financial officer in 2023, nine of the system’s schools had structural deficits, meaning they did not take in enough money to cover operations, according to Mr. Berger.

In the ensuing years, he helped impose limits on hiring and expenses, actions that sometimes elicited faculty protests.

“I think we’re down to five schools now,” Mr. Berger said, referring to the schools whose expenses exceed their revenues. “And of the five, at least three of them are moving in the right direction.”

The challenges in New York City’s budgetary landscape are even bigger. Mr. Mamdani won office on promises to offer free bus service (at an estimated annual cost of about $800 million) and free child care for all children ages 6 months to 5 years (at an estimated annual cost of about $6 billion).

He will take office under a mercurial president who has threatened to withhold funding from the city, and as its five boroughs are facing upcoming budget deficits.

Recent reports from the city’s independent budget office warned that Mr. Mamdani may face the prospect of another federal government shutdown, as well as possible cuts to federal funding for education, health care, housing, cultural programming and disaster response.

On Thursday, Mr. Mamdani and his new budget chief spoke in front of a Christmas tree decorated with images of Mr. Soliman growing up in the neighborhood, as his family sat in the crowd.

“We are cleareyed about the risks that exist,” Mr. Soliman said.

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