NYC Mayor-elect Mamdani names Sherif Soliman as budget director

Josephine Stratman and Chris Sommerfeldt, New York Daily News on Dec 18, 2025

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NEW YORK — Mayor-elect Zohran Mamdani on Thursday named Sherif Soliman as his budget director, one of the most consequential roles at City Hall, as his administration seeks to follow through on its ambitious affordability agenda.

Soliman, a local government vet who previously served in the administration of former Mayor Bill de Blasio, will be tasked with managing the city’s roughly $115 billion budget amid uncertain economic headwinds and as the Mamdani administration looks to implement a series of costly agenda items.

“Budgets are nothing if not a reflection of political choices and political will, and together, I am eager to make different decisions and to enact an agenda that puts first the many, not just the privileged few,” Mamdani said at a press conference announcing his pick. “I know that this is work that Sherif is not only uniquely qualified to perform, but deeply eager to lead, and I am grateful to him for returning to serving this city.”

After working as Department of Finance commissioner for de Blasio, he was chief policy officer under Mayor Eric Adams before resigning in fall 2023 to become the City University of New York’s chief financial officer.

Thursday’s announcement, which Soliman’s family attended, took place at the Pomonok Houses in Flushing, Queens, where he lived as a child. The Daily News first reported on Monday that Soliman would likely be Mamdani’s pick for the role.

As Mamdani’s director of the Mayor’s Office of Management and Budge, Soliman will have to tangle with an uncertain economic outlook.

Some budget forecasts show Mamdani’s administration is likely to be confronted by multi-billion dollar budget gaps in the coming years, including a Wednesday report from the Independent Budget Office that found Mamdani will face a $380 million deficit upon taking office on Jan. 1. It’s also unclear what impact the federal government will have on the city’s pocketbooks, or whether President Donald Trump intends to follow through on his threats to yank funding for his hometown.

“I’ll be sitting down with [Mayor Adams’ OMB Director Jacques] Jiha soon as well, and understanding their projections, what they’re seeing on the revenue side, what they’re seeing… on the expense side,” Soliman said when asked about the IBO’s report. “And you know, our preliminary budget will reflect the mayor’s priorities, and we will have a preliminary budget that will be balanced.”

Added to those challenges are Mamdani’s campaign promises to deliver free buses across the five boroughs and free childcare. These programs carry estimated annual price tags of about $800 million and $6 billion, respectively.

“OMB can be a real catalyst for change, for finding efficiencies, for finding innovation and excellence in government,” Soliman said. “And that is really something that we’ll lean into with a great team that we have.”

Asked whether he’d look at spending cuts similar to the ones he oversaw while leading CUNY’s finances to balance the city budget, Soliman replied that he would “not shy away” from looking at programs “to make them more effective.”

An OMB official, who spoke to The News on condition of anonymity, said the reaction inside the office to Soliman’s appointment was largely positive, with many staffers encouraged by his past experience as Department of Finance commissioner.

“To no-one’s surprise, Mayor-elect Mamdani today named CUNY CFO Sherif Soliman as the incoming budget director,” OMB communications head Michael Greenberg wrote in an email to staff reviewed by The News.

City Council Finance Chairman Justin Brannan, a Democrat leaving office at the end of the year, called Soliman “the perfect pick.”

“He’s a consummate professional with impeccable integrity and sound judgment. This will be a new era for OMB,” said Brannan, who publicly railed against cuts to city agencies under Jiha. “No more Death Star, just an office laser-focused on delivering affordability across all city agencies.”

Mamdani previously announced Jahmila Edwards, a top official in the city’s DC 37 union, as his intergovernmental affairs chief and Cat Da Costa his head of appointments.

The mayor-elect has yet to name his schools chancellor or a slate of deputy mayors, aside from his incoming First Deputy Mayor Dean Fuleihan.

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