Kathryn Wylde is President and CEO of the nonprofit Partnership for New York City, the city’s leading business organization.  Its mission is to work with government, labor, and the civic sector to increase economic opportunity and to build a stronger New York, with a focus on education, infrastructure and the economy.

Wylde was the founding CEO of both the Partnership’s housing and investment fund affiliates.  From 1982 to 1996, she was responsible for developing and managing affordable housing and economic development programs that contributed to the renaissance of blighted urban neighborhoods across the five boroughs.  The New York City Housing Partnership was the sponsor of the city’s New Homes and Neighborhood Builders programs, producing more than 35,000 units of new, owner-occupied housing and of the Neighborhood Entrepreneurs Program, which enabled more than fifty minority and women-owned firms to purchase and rehabilitate apartment buildings that were formerly owned by the city.

From 1995-2001, Wylde worked with Henry Kravis and Jerry Speyer to establish and manage the Partnership Fund for New York City, a civic fund that was capitalized with more than $100 million in private contributions. The Fund has led successful public-private initiatives to diversify the city economy, both geographically and by sector. It built a network of business experts and investors that nurtured the growth of the city’s “innovation economy,” creating thousands of jobs and promoting entrepreneurship, with a focus on disadvantaged communities.

Wylde was named chief executive of the Partnership in 2001. Under her leadership, the business community worked with government to develop an impact assessment and response to the 9/11 terrorist attack on the World Trade Center, generating $23 billion in federal aid to support the rebuilding of Lower Manhattan. Subsequently, the Partnership has been a major source of the research and policies required to sustain New York City’s role as the world financial capital and as a global hub of high tech and life sciences. In 2017, the nation’s first Transit Innovation Partnership was established with the Metropolitan Transportation Authority, to accelerate improvement of the region’s transit system.

Wylde is an internationally known expert in housing, economic development and urban policy.  She serves on many nonprofit boards and advisory groups in New York and Puerto Rico, including the NYC Economic Development Corporation, the Fund for Public Schools, Manhattan Institute, Sponsors for Educational Opportunity (SEO), and the Governor’s NYC Regional Economic Development Council.  She has authored numerous articles, opinion and policy papers and has been recognized for her leadership by dozens of educational, professional and nonprofit institutions.

Prior to joining the Partnership, Wylde worked in senior positions at the former Anchor Savings Bank and at Lutheran Medical Center in Sunset Park, Brooklyn. She is a native of Madison, Wisconsin, a Phi Beta Kappa graduate of St. Olaf College, and resides in Brooklyn, New York, and Quebradillas, Puerto Rico.