By Albert Amateau
The Union Square Partnership board of directors announced last Thursday that Jennifer Falk, currently first deputy press secretary for Mayor Mike Bloomberg and spokesperson for Dan Doctoroff, deputy mayor of economic development and rebuilding, will be the business improvement district’s new executive director beginning Jan. 3, 2007.
“We are thrilled that Jennifer is bringing her extraordinary talents and energy to the Union Square Partnership as our new executive director,” said the partnership’s co-chairperson, Danny Meyer. “We are confident that under her leadership the Union Square community will flourish and achieve even greater success in the future.”
Falk, who will remain at City Hall until the end of November, said, “The Union Square Partnership was the first business improvement district in the city — the model of success upon which dozens more were built — and I am honored to join the team, and eager to build on that history to help lead it to the next level.”
At City Hall, Falk coordinated the communications strategy for the Bloomberg administration’s major projects and for the city’s development agencies, including the Department of Small Business Services and the Economic Development Corporation
Prior to City Hall, Falk worked at the city’s Administration for Children’s Services under the leadership of then-Commissioner Nicholas Scoppetta, where she served as deputy director of communications for several years and later as the agency’s press secretary.
“I am pleased that we will continue to benefit from Jennifer’s commitment to our city as she begins her work as executive director of the Union Square Partnership,” Bloomberg said in a statement. “I know she will excel in her new position, taking the organization to new heights, and I wish her every happiness and success going forward.”
“The Union Square Partnership took the lead role in the economic revitalization of Union Square, and continues to provide strong leadership,” said Robert Walsh, commissioner of the Department of Small Business Services. “It will become even stronger under Jennifer’s leadership, and I look forward to working closely with her and the organization.”
Walsh was director of the 14th St.-Union Square BID in the 1990s.
Falk replaces Karen Shaw, who resigned as the BID’s director in June.
