Kathryn Wylde is retiring after a quarter century advocating for New York’s business sector, counseling mayors and governors and shaping key policies as president of the Partnership for New York City.
Wylde, 78, announced Thursday that she will step down in 2026 from the Partnership — the nonprofit consortium of finance, real estate and law firms that she has helmed since 2000. She could not immediately be reached for comment, but told the New York Times that it is “time for younger leadership.”
Recent months have seen Wylde as busy as ever. She has led the business community’s efforts to keep the city’s congestion pricing program in the face of President Donald Trump’s efforts to kill it — after having pushed successfully to revive the tolls when Gov. Kathy Hochul, with whom Wylde has a close relationship, unexpectedly paused the program last summer.
Wylde allied with the governor this spring in a controversial but successful push to tighten the evidence-sharing laws that govern criminal cases — a top priority of the business world, as employers remain anxious about the city’s post-pandemic crime spike. And she is now serving on the Charter Revision Commission convened by Mayor Eric Adams that is considering major reforms to the city’s governing document that could speed up housing development and alter election laws.
Her successor will take the reins of an organization with about $10 million in annual revenue coming mostly by member dues — plus a linked investment arm that has seeded local companies with some $200 million since the 1990s. Wylde received a salary of $1.5 million in 2023, the most recent year for which tax documents are available.
Less clear is whether the Partnership’s new leader will be able to replicate Wylde’s influence, which owes in part to her singular style: blunt, with a deep knowledge of local politics, a willingness to vocally oppose policies she views as anti-business, and a readiness to place personal phone calls and weekend emails to elected officials and reporters alike.
And it remains to be seen whether Wylde’s successor will share her unique path to becoming the business community’s voice in city affairs. A Wisconsin native, Wylde arrived in Brooklyn in the 1960s as a community organizer, where she protested disinvestment in low-income neighborhoods. She joined the Partnership’s fold in the 1980s at the invitation of its founder, David Rockefeller, who brought her on board to run a housing program.
Wylde has long argued that New York must do all it can to retain businesses and wealthy residents in order to rake in enough tax revenue to pay for programs that care for its neediest residents. At a Crain’s event last year, Wylde said her biggest fear for the city’s future is that it remains a “high-cost place to live and do business.”
“How are we going to get control of that factor and still provide all the services and care we need to, for the people who we want to attract here and bring here?” she said.
