MAYOR BLOOMBERG ANNOUNCES THAT STU LOESER, LONGEST-SERVING MAYORAL SPOKESPERSON IN NEW YORK CITY HISTORY, IS STEPPING DOWN TO LAUNCH A CONSULTING FIRM – APPOINTS MARC LA VORGNA PRESS SECRETARY
As First Deputy Press Secretary, La Vorgna Managed Communications for Top Bloomberg Priorities Including Public Safety, Budget, Transportation, Illegal Guns and Immigration Coalitions
Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg today announced that Stu Loeser, the longest-serving chief spokesperson for any Mayor in New York City’s history, is leaving City Hall to launch a strategy and communications consulting firm. The Mayor also announced today that he has promoted Marc V. La Vorgna, who currently serves as First Deputy in the Mayor’s Press Office, to serve as his Press Secretary. Loeser became the Mayor’s City Hall spokesperson in January 2006 after serving as a senior strategist and chief spokesperson for the Mayor’s 2005 reelection campaign. For more than six and a half years, he has overseen the press operations in the Mayor’s Office and every City agency, and managed the City’s communications responses to breaking news in New York and around the world. He helped design, roll out and explain every initiative undertaken by Mayor Bloomberg and the Bloomberg Administration in its second and third terms.
“When I asked Stu to join me at City Hall, I promised that he’d be able to change the world here, and that’s exactly what he’s helped us do,” said Mayor Bloomberg. “Stu can identify problems before they happen and make sure they don’t happen, and I have no doubt Stu Loeser kept me out of more trouble than he got me out of. And Stu excelled at the most important task I give any member of my team – finding someone even better to take his place. I’ve worked closely with Marc over the last few years and know he is going to be able to do even more to help us transform New York City and the world.”
“Being press secretary to the mayor of New York City has always been one of the best jobs anywhere, but I have also been phenomenally lucky to get to learn every day from one of the world’s greatest entrepreneurs, philanthropists and public servants,” said Loeser. “I am deeply grateful for the opportunity Mike Bloomberg gave me to serve the people of the city I love for so long, and am extraordinarily excited to follow his lead and launch a startup in New York City.”
“It has been an honor to be a part of an Administration that never backs away from directly taking on any difficult issue and always looks for new for ways to tackle the challenges the city presents to make life better for New Yorkers – and that tone is set at the top by the Mayor,” said La Vorgna. “I want to thank the Mayor for this incredible opportunity to be a part of building on the progress we’ve made in New York City.”
As Mayor Bloomberg's chief spokesman, Loeser has designed and implemented long-term strategies to make New York City a leading international force on environmental sustainability, illegal guns and immigration. He has overseen all press inquiries and news stories from City Hall and more than 40 agencies. Loeser also has been Mayor Bloomberg’s principal aide responsible for briefing and preparing him for multiple press conferences and question and answer sessions with the media every week. In recent years, he has worked especially closely with the Mayor crafting defenses of New York’s financial services industry and pitching technology companies to start or expand here.
Reviews of New York City archives and the archives of The New York Times show no individual who has served as chief spokesperson to a Mayor for as long as the six years and eight months tenure that Loeser will complete when he leaves City Hall in August.
Stu Loeser was chief spokesperson for Mayor’s Bloomberg’s 2005 re-election campaign, overseeing both the campaign’s press and research operations. Prior to that, Loeser was Senator Charles E. Schumer’s Press Secretary, Communications Director and campaign spokesperson. He worked on state and national campaigns, including Clinton-Gore ‘96, Gore-Lieberman 2000, Mark Green for Mayor, and Carl McCall for Governor, helped launch President Clinton’s AmeriCorps National Service program, and served as Director of External Affairs for the Presidential Advisory Commission on Holocaust Assets in the United States. He and his wife Jessica, a land use attorney and a Democratic District Leader, live on the Lower East Side with their three children.
Marc La Vorgna joined the Mayor’s Press Office in September 2008 from the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey, where he served as Assistant Director for Media Relations. In April 2011, he was promoted to First Deputy Press Secretary in the Mayor’s Office, where he has helped lead the City’s communications in response any emergency, including Hurricane Irene, and served as the Mayor’s Press Secretary during any absences by Mr. Loeser. From City Hall, La Vorgna currently oversees communications for the Police, Fire, Emergency Management and Transportation Departments and has served as the lead communications strategist on the City’s budget. In addition, La Vorgna has led the communications teams for several national initiatives that are part of Mayor Bloomberg’s highest priorities: the Mayors Against Illegal Guns coalition and the Partnership for a New American Economy immigration reform coalition.
La Vorgna previously led the communications teams for PlaNYC, the Mayor’s comprehensive sustainability plan; the Office of Operations; and the Departments of Environmental Protection, Finance, Buildings and several other City agencies. He previously served as a New York spokesman for Obama for America during the 2008 Democratic primary, as Press Secretary to Congressman Bill Pascrell, Jr. and the chief spokesperson for Governor Richard J. Codey’s Department of Transportation in New Jersey. La Vorgna earned a B.A. from Georgetown University and lives in Manhattan.
In September, Loeser will open Stu Loeser & Company, a strategy and communications consulting firm that will advise corporate clients in tech, finance and other sectors.
