Wall Streeters slammed New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani’s new so-called “Business Advisory Council,” calling it “phony” and a “waste of time” after the far-left pol delivered months of insults to the business community.
The panel aims to tap key industries for advice and feedback to the mayor, Bloomberg reported Friday. It said the Mamdani administration has invited bankers including Robert Wolf, the former chief executive officer of UBS Americas and an ally of former President Obama’s.
“Phony. A pretend effort to fool reasonable people into thinking [Mamdani] is willing to be reasonable towards business,” a top Wall Street said of the board.
A Wall Street CEO called it “probably a waste of time,” scoffing that Wolf is “a bag of air.”
Asked for comment, a Wall Street lawyer said of Wolf, a major Democratic Party donor: “The old UBS guy? He’s kind of a douche.”
Mamdani recently axed the advisors of a major nonprofit that channels private sector donations to fund city initiatives.
The 35-year-old dismissed all of the advisory board members of the Mayor’s Fund to Advance New York City.
The new advisory board will be a poor substitute, the lawyer said.
“It only exists to get checks from appointees for the mayor’s pet projects,” the person said. “Mam is appointing many folks who can’t write checks, so I don’t get it.
Wolf dismissed the criticism as “uninformed gossip.”
“If Mamdani or anyone else asks for my advice on how to make New York city thrive, I would raise my hand if they were Democrat or Republican,” he told The Post.
Wolf declined to confirm whether he’s joining the business panel.
A separate source briefed on the matter said there has been “no formal ask or acceptance” among the names floated
The new group is set to provide the mayor with direct feedback from the finance, technology and real estate sectors.
Along with Wolf, City Hall has reportedly invited ex-Lazard global investment banking chief Antonio Weiss and Bank of America’s New York City president Jose Tavarez.
“The administration is in the process of reaching out to business executives to form a Business Advisory Council,” a City Hall spokesperson told Bloomberg. “The purpose of the council is to engage with business leaders for their insights and input as we build an economic development strategy that improves life for all New Yorkers.
Not everyone on Wall Street was completely dismissive.
“Wolf says he’s only doing stuff with Mamdani because he gives a s–t about NYC,” a friend of the ex-banker said.
Since taking office this year, Mamdani has been angering some of New York’s powerful business elite — drawing criticism from JPMorgan CEO Jamie Dimon and Citadel founder Ken Griffin.
Griffin was the subject of a bizarre mayoral video in which Mamdani stood outside his Manhattan condo to announce his plan to tax second homes.
The creation of the new board left the Wall Street exec downright suspicious.
“Remember the Saul Alinksy formula — deception is a tool for amassing power,” he told The Post, referring to the late Chicago radical.
Mamdani has targeted a who’s who of finance in his broadside against the Mayor’s Fund to Advance New York.
Among those who received their walking papers were Richard Born of BD Hotels, Jeffrey Gural, chairman of GFP Real Estate; Alex Katz, senior managing director at Blackstone Inc.; Edward Skyler, Citigroup Inc.’s head of enterprise services and public affairs; and James Whelan, president of the Real Estate Board of New York.
Mamdani has also overhauled the city’s Economic Development Corporation, which manages city-owned property and drives local business growth.
He ordered the agency to focus exclusively on economic justice and housing affordability, with an aim to reduce the wealth gap and provide equal financial opportunities for low-income residents.
The Post has sought comment from Mamdani, Tavarez and Weiss.
