Readout of Mayor de Blasio’s Meeting With NYC Tech Talent Pipeline Advisory Board

February 9, 2016

Today, Mayor Bill de Blasio welcomed 28 of the City’s leading tech companies to City Hall for a meeting of the NYC Tech Talent Pipeline Advisory Board, an industry partnership designed to support the growth of the City’s tech sector and prepare New Yorkers for 21st century jobs. Marking the first anniversary of the advisory group’s inaugural meeting at LinkedIn, the Mayor thanked the companies gathered for their contributions to making these achievements a reality through curriculum development, higher education alignment, expanded internships, and review and hiring of candidates across the five boroughs. They also discussed ways to further improve access to tech jobs and equip more New Yorkers with industry-informed skills and training. In just 12 months, the de Blasio Administration – together with NYC Tech Talent Pipeline employers, academic institutions, training providers, and community organizations – has launched an initiative to provide Computer Science education for 1.1 million students through CS for All, garnered commitments from 14 NYC academic institutions to better align the preparation of homegrown tech talent with hometown workforce needs, and developed 10 new and expanded industry-informed tech training programs to serve 750 New Yorkers – including 250 New Yorkers who are now in jobs or internships.

Prior to the meeting, the Mayor met with two graduates of the NYC Tech Talent Pipeline’s Web Development Fellowship program. This program targets 18- to 26-year-olds without a college degree, and the two graduates are currently employed as software engineers at Foursquare and Vice Media.

The Mayor and the NYC Tech Talent Pipeline Advisory Board members met in the Blue Room. Representatives of the following companies were in attendance:Alley Corp, AppNexus, AT&T, CapitalOne, CTO Club, Etsy, Facebook, Foursquare, Goldman Sachs, Google, Hopscotch, Infor, Interbrand, JPMorgan Chase, Kickstarter, LinkedIn, Livestream, Microsoft, MongoDB, News Corp, Spotify, Trello, Union Square Ventures, Verizon, Viacom, Wheelhouse, ZocDoc. Other attendees included Gregg Bishop, Commissioner of the Department of Small Businesses Services and Kristen Titus, Founding Director of the NYC Tech Talent Pipeline.