Richard Schwartz

Technology and policy

Richard Schwartz is co-founder and President of Clearview.

Prior to co-founding Clearview in 2017, Richard worked as a consultant providing strategic and media services to clients in business, government, labor and academia. From 2001 to 2005, he served as Editorial Page Editor and Opinion Columnist at the New York Daily News, where he won the Silurian and Deadline Awards and was nominated for the Pulitzer Prize. His board’s series of editorials following 9/11 helped lead to the creation of the U.S. Transportation Safety Administration (TSA).

As Senior Advisor to the Mayor of New York City in the 1990s, he oversaw the City’s landmark welfare reform, which served as the model for President Bill Clinton’s 1997 Temporary Assistance for Needy Families (TANF) reform. He created NYC’s Dept. of Design & Construction (DDC) and Dept. of Information Technology & Telecom (DoITT) and helped draft the City University of New York’s reform blueprint, which made possible CUNY’s turnaround. He also oversaw the reform and/or restructuring of many other City agencies, ranging from Emergency Medical Services to the Department of Citywide Administrative Services

After City Hall, he ran a workforce development & welfare reform firm. Prior to his work in City Hall, Richard ran NYC’s Parks Capital Projects Department, where he reformed its design and construction operations, making possible the largest revitalization of the City’s public parks since FDR’s Works Progress Administration.

He holds a B.A. from Columbia University in History and an M.P.A. from NYU’s Wagner School, where he was the first recipient of its Alumni Award for Lifetime Achievement in Public Service.
He has also served as a Trustee on the Boards of the Penn Station Redevelopment Corp. and the Hudson River Park Trust.