Lina Khan is serving as a Transition Co-Chair on Zohran Mamdani’s transition team, one of the many women selected to steer the transition ahead of the new administration. Hailed as a wunderkind, Khan previously served as chair of the Federal Trade Commission under the Biden administration at just 36.
She became known for her critique of consumer welfare standards and the monopoly of power in labor markets through her 2017 Yale Law Journal paper “Amazon’s Antitrust Paradox.” Khan then made her mark by pursuing aggressive antitrust enforcement against major corporations throughout her term.
Before leading the FTC, she was counsel to the U.S. House Judiciary Committee’s Subcommittee on Antitrust, Commercial, and Administrative Law and later joined the faculty at Columbia Law School. Her work focused on digital markets, competition policy, and regulatory enforcement with an emphasis on holding powerful companies accountable.
Khan’s role as a co-chair places her at the top of the transition structure, giving her responsibility for overseeing the work of the 17 transition committees and advising on early policy direction. Transition co-chairs are accountable for shaping how advisory committees align with the incoming mayor’s priorities, which Khan has indicated will likely focus on what actions Mamdani can take without the oversight of Albany or the City Council.
Her presence signals that economic power and corporate regulation are part of the broad governance agenda the transition is organizing around. While her role is advisory rather than executive, it shapes the intellectual framing of policy deliberations before January 1.
Grace Bonilla serves as a Transition Co-Chair in Mamdani’s transition, co-leading the effort with Khan, Maria Torres-Springer, and Melanie Hartzog. Bonilla is president and CEO of United Way of New York City, a nonprofit organization that helps low-income New Yorkers. She previously served in senior roles within New York City government, including as administrator of the Human Resources Administration.
Bonilla’s career spans nonprofit leadership and public service, making her network wide and her focus on impactful programming and fundraising. She led the city’s first Taskforce on Racial Equity and Inclusion and has worked on initiatives addressing food access, social services, and systemic equity.
As a co-chair, Bonilla helps oversee the 17 transition committees that will advise the incoming administration and shape early policy thinking on issues like housing, social services, and equity. Co-chairs are designed to bridge expertise and the mayor-elect’s political commitments.
Bonilla’s background in nonprofit and social service leadership suggests that the transition is embedding perspectives shaped by community needs and service delivery into its planning. Her experience navigating government and nonprofit partnerships adds administrative depth to a team that blends experienced officials with movement-aligned figures.
Elana Leopold was named Executive Director of the Transition Team, which places her in charge of coordinating strategic and operational aspects of the transition, including committee work and staffing logistics. She previously served as a senior adviser on Mamdani’s campaign and has experience in political strategy and civic engagement.
Leopold has a long track record in progressive politics, having led fundraising and communications for Cynthia Nixon’s 2018 run for New York governor. She, like Fuleihan, also brings City Hall experience to Mamdani’s team. Leopold served in several senior positions under de Blasio, including finance director and on his 2013 transition team.
The executive director role is the operational backbone of a mayoral transition, managing internal logistics, committee coordination, and recruitment pipelines for potential administration staff. Leopold’s position gives her substantial influence on how transition priorities are structured and how personnel decisions are vetted, making her one of the most powerful figures behind the scenes prior to inauguration.
Melanie Hartzog is a Transition Co-Chair and Director of the Transition Team, a senior role in the transition leadership that relies on her extensive knowledge of how city government agencies operate. She previously served as Deputy Mayor for Health and Human Services and as director of the Mayor’s Office of Management and Budget, the first woman of color to do so, under former Mayor Bill de Blasio. New York City has the country’s largest municipal budget
Hartzog is also president and CEO of The New York Foundling, an institution providing extensive social services to families, children, and vulnerable populations.
Hartzog’s background in large-scale municipal administration, and her knowledge of the day-to-day problems faced by families in the city enable her to ensure that the transition bridges political commitments with organizational capacity. Her resume signals an attempt to ground the transition in management expertise as the mayor-elect prepares to assume executive authority.
Her dual role as co-chair and operational leader suggests that service delivery—particularly in health, human services, and budgeting—will be integral to early City Hall priorities.
Maria Torres-Springer was named a Transition Co-Chair for Mamdani’s transition team. She previously served as First Deputy Mayor in the Adams administration. In that role, she oversaw the city’s daily operations and the strategic coordination of major agencies and an annual budget of more than $110 billion.
She has also held senior roles, including Deputy Mayor for Housing, Economic Development, and Workforce, and Commissioner of the Department of Housing Preservation and Development. As another holdover from the Adams administration’s cabinet, Torres-Springer potentially carries the same baggage as Bozorg but also institutional knowledge.
Her city career also includes leadership of the New York City Economic Development Corporation, and roles at national philanthropic organizations focused on urban economic strategy. She is also a widely respected figure among Asian American nonprofit leaders in the city, and is the first Filipina to serve in senior leadership in the city government.
Torres-Springer’s role as a co-chair places her at the center of transition planning for housing, affordability, and economic development—key areas of focus in Mamdani’s campaign messaging and provides the Mandani team members who are new to city government a steady and knowledgeable hand. That continuity in technical expertise for housing policy, even amid political shifts, signals that policy planning may be grounded in institutional knowledge as well as movement values by the incoming administration.
Torres-Springer also faces some of the same criticisms as Bozorg for her championing of the City of Yes initiative. Opponents have argued that while increasing housing supply is important, without stronger safeguards, deeper affordability commitments, and careful planning for local impacts, the reforms risk reinforcing displacement, undermining community character, and privileging development interests over residents’ stability.
