Back: The Team

Andrew Salkin

Founding Principal

Andrew Salkin is a Founding Principal of Resilient Cities Catalyst, leading RCC’s work connecting Cities and the Private sector to spur innovation and financing to ensure resilient initiatives actually happen. 

Andrew has over 25 years of experience working in and with cities.  He is an urban innovator who specializes in inspiring city officials to proactively transform business as usual to achieve higher impact and more resilience outcomes. He is an expert in leveraging available budgets, public administration and governance to drive transformation.

Prior to RCC, Andrew served on the 100 Resilient Cities leadership team from the inception, helping 100RC grow into a global organization that include five regional offices, 100+ city and 150 other partners that inspired cities leaders across the globe. He joined 100 Resilient Cities from 16 years serving New York City government. Most recently he was at New York City’s Department of Finance, where he was the Deputy Commissioner of Operations, managing more than 800 people and responsible for collecting $30 billion annually through real estate, business, and excise taxes, as well as parking summonses. In this role he improved efficiencies and customer service, including introducing technology and web-based payment options. Previously he served as the First Deputy Commissioner of the Taxi and Limousine Commission, overseeing day-to-day operations of the agency, including the regulations of New York City’s medallion taxi fleet, livery vehicles, commuter vans and paratransit vehicles – comprising 50,000 vehicles and 100,000 drivers. Some of his hallmark projects included equipping taxis with credit card payment machines and New York City’s Taxi of Tomorrow competition. During the transit strike of 2005, he developed and oversaw the implementation of the Transit Strike Plan that allowed for an additional 1,500,000 taxi rides a day.

Prior to joining the Taxi and Limousine Commission, Andrew worked at the Department of Transportation as Lower Manhattan Borough Commissioner, the “Downtown Construction Czar,” where he led the City’s efforts to balance the needs of residents, employees, and tourists of Lower Manhattan amidst the clean-up, construction, and rebuilding post-September 11.

Andrew holds a Master’s degree in Public Administration from the Maxwell School of Citizenship and Public Affairs at Syracuse University and a BA in Economics from the University of Wisconsin—Madison.