Carl Weisbrod was appointed as Director of the New York City Department of City Planning and Chairman of the New York City Planning Commission by Mayor Bill de Blasio in March, 2014. Weisbrod has more than 35 years of experience serving the people of New York. He has left his mark on some of the city’s most dynamic and fastest-growing neighborhoods.

Weisbrod’s service in government extends back to the Lindsay administration, which he joined as a young lawyer at the Department of Relocation. He was appointed by Mayor Koch to spearhead the city’s efforts to transform Times Square, and he also served as the Executive Director of the New York City Department of City Planning and Chairman of the New York City Loft Board. As president of New York State’s 42nd Street Development Project, Weisbrod led the effort to revitalize Times Square, transforming it into a global hub for tourism and entertainment.

Under Mayor Dinkins, Weisbrod was the Founding President of the New York City Economic Development Corporation, where he negotiated the United States Tennis Association’s 99-year lease in Flushing Meadows-Corona Park—regarded as one of the most beneficial municipal sports deals in the nation—as well as the transaction that brought Harlem its first major supermarket, the Pathmark on 125th Street.

Mayor Bloomberg appointed him as a Director of the Trust for Governors Island and the Lower Manhattan Development Corporation, where he helped lead the post-9/11 recovery of downtown neighborhoods. That tenure overlapped with his 10 years as the founding president of the Alliance for Downtown New York, the largest business improvement district in the nation, setting in motion the evolution of the financial district from an area dominated by daytime office workers into a thriving 24-7 neighborhood.

Weisbrod also served as the President of the real estate division of Trinity Church. He is a former Trustee of the Ford Foundation and the Urban Land Institute.

Weisbrod is also a Senior Advisor at HR&A, a firm where he served as a partner from 2011 through February 2014, managing the successful rezoning of the Hudson Square area in Manhattan into a dynamic hub for creative industries and new housing, including up to 700 affordable units.