New York City’s most powerful business lobby booted its leader after she made fawning remarks about far-left socialist Mayor Zohran Mamdani, according to a report.
Kathy Wylde, the former head of the Partnership for New York City, lost the support of the high-powered CEOs who make up the organization’s board after she made conciliatory remarks about Mamdani following his shock victory in the Democratic primary last year, according to New York magazine.
As Wylde sought to make nice with Mamdani, business titans including Pfizer CEO Albert Bourla and Tishman Speyer boss Rob Speyer concluded they wanted “a different kind of leader” because her “can’t-we-all-just-get-along approach was no longer tenable,” New York reported.
A key inflection point was a CNBC interview that Wylde granted last summer, just after Mamdani’s upset victory in the primary, during which she lavished praise on the former assemblyman.
When asked about Mamdani’s private meeting with Partnership members, Wylde told CNBC: “I think everyone walked away thinking that he was the most impressive candidate they have seen in generations.”
Wylde went on to compliment Mamdani, telling CNBC: “He’s very compelling, charming, smart young man and gives you a sense of he’s honest, means what he says so. And he’s full of hope.”
One source familiar with the matter told New York magazine that Wylde’s effusive praise for Mamdani on CNBC was a “holy s—t” moment for CEOs in the Partnership.
“She just really stepped on it with the Zohran thing,” the source told the publication.
“That whole CNBC interview was a ‘holy s–t’ moment. People were so keyed up. There was no hedge, just her always trying to reach out to Zohran and his team. People started wondering, What are the principles of this organization? Do we fight for what we believe in, or are we just supposed to make friends at all costs?”
Wylde announced she would step down as president and CEO of the Partnership in May, ending a 25-year run leading the powerful CEO group.
At the time, Wylde, then 79, signaled her intent to retire amid expectations that Andrew Cuomo would reclaim City Hall, privately telling associates she had no desire to endure another term navigating Cuomo-era politics.
After Mamdani won the Democratic primary and later the general election, the Partnership’s board rejected Wylde’s request to remain beyond the end of the year and instead selected Steve Fulop as her successor.
Fulop, a former Jersey City mayor coming off a failed bid for New Jersey governor, took over on Jan. 20.
He assumed the helm of Partnership despite lacking deep ties to New York’s business or political establishment.
His appointment marked a sharp break from Wylde’s consensus-driven style, with Fulop quickly signaling a more aggressive posture by publicly blasting Mamdani’s proposed corporate tax hikes as “suicide for New York City.”
Business leaders have been alarmed by Mamdani’s economic platform, which centers on sweeping tax hikes to close a projected $12 billion budget deficit.
Mamdani has proposed sharply raising income taxes on the city’s top earners and boosting the state corporate tax rate on large companies — moves critics say would make New York even less competitive at a time when it already has the highest combined state and local tax burden in the nation.
Conservative policy groups warn the plan risks accelerating the exodus of wealthy residents and businesses, noting that New York has already suffered the steepest decline in income millionaires of any state over the past decade.
Those in the know told New York magazine that Fulop’s arrival marked a new era in which the Partnership would assume a more combative stance vis-à-vis the new mayor.
“It was pretty clear that they were looking for someone who was much harder-hitting than Kathy,” one person familiar with the succession process told the publication.
“There was this perception that Kathy wasn’t fighting as hard as she could, and they wanted an advocate who more directly and vociferously would advocate for their companies’ bottom-line issues.”
Criticism of Wylde’s leadership also came from outside the Partnership, with some political strategists arguing the group had grown ineffective by avoiding direct political combat.
Bradley Tusk, a veteran Democratic strategist turned venture capitalist, told New York magazine that the organization failed to function as a real force in city politics, leaving it sidelined as progressive groups gained power.
“Right now the Partnership is a total disaster, and if they can’t become a political force they should not even exist,” Tusk said, arguing that the group had become “completely ineffective politically.”
Tusk said the problem stemmed from what he described as Wylde’s fundamentally flawed view of how power operates at City Hall and in Albany.
He mocked the idea that white papers or appeals from corporate titans could sway local lawmakers, saying Wylde’s approach was often to sit down with an outer-borough council member and relay what major CEOs wanted — an argument he said routinely fell flat.
“As impressive as Jamie Dimon is, no councilmember from Staten Island cares,” Tusk said, adding that this disconnect is “why the Partnership is constantly losing.”
The Post has sought comment from the Partnership, Mamdani, Bourla and Speyer. Wylde was not immediately available for comment.
