New York City’s tech chief steps down, Mamdani’s tech priorities still unclear
Matt Fraser, who’d served as the New York’s chief technology officer since January 2022, under former Mayor Eric Adams, stepped down on Dec. 31. But the city’s technology priorities under newly inaugurated Mayor Zohran Mamdani remain unclear.
StateScoop discovered the departure on Monday following the quiet removal of Fraser’s biography from the Office of Technology and Innovation’s website. According to the website, Ruby Choi, OTI’s deputy commissioner for strategic initiatives, now serves as acting CTO.
Fraser’s resignation letter, which was only shared internally, was posted to X by a City & State New York reporter. In the letter, Fraser said serving as CTO of the “greatest city in the world,” as a Brooklyn native, “has been both a profound honor and a deeply personal privilege.”
“When I reflect on what we accomplished together in such a short period of time, I do so with immense pride-and sincere gratitude to each of you,” Fraser wrote. “We began this administration as separate technology organizations and built, together, a single, unified Office of Technology and Innovation. That transformation was not structural alone; it was cultural, operational, and mission-driven-and it happened because of your talent, dedication, and unwavering commitment to public service.”
In the letter, Fraser touted several of the office’s achievements, including projects like the Big Apple Connect program and the city’s Gigabit Centers, which brought access to free broadband services, devices and digital skills training “to more New Yorkers in a single term than any prior administration achieved across multiple terms.”
Last July, Adams announced a new pilot program called Liberty Link, designed to bring free or low-cost wireless internet to nearly 2,200 public housing units in the city. In September, Fraser announced that Big Apple Connect had been extended for another three years.
Under Adams and Fraser, the city also expanded its efforts to deliver digital services, hiring a new chief digital equity officer last March, establishing a working group to guide efforts to boost access to high-speed internet and digital skills training and investing $2.4 million to advance digital equity in disadvantaged communities with a new NYC Digital Equity Roadmap. Fraser praised the office’s work to modernize and improve access to government services and information through NYC311, NYC Open Data and the MyCity service — though the chatbot initially provided a number of wrong answers.
Fraser in his letter also touched on OTI and the city’s Cyber Command helping to make New York City safe by protecting residents from physical and digital threats, including successfully navigating the CrowdStrike global IT outage in 2024. Other highlights of Fraser’s included establishing “forward-looking governance for emerging technologies,” including artificial intelligence and blockchain.
One of Mamdani’s first actions as mayor was to sign an executive order that revoked all orders issued by Adams on or after Sept. 26, 2024, the date he was indicted on federal corruption charges. (Adams’ charges were dropped at the direction of President Donald Trump after he pledged support for the president’s deportation efforts.) This includes the order Adams signed last October that established an Office of Digital Assets and Blockchain Technology and drove the city’s “blockchain plan.”
Mamdani’s office has not responded to phone calls and emails requesting more information about his planned technology policies. A spokesperson from the Office of Technology and Innovation declined to comment.
Beyond Choi serving as interim CTO, little else is known about Mamdani’s plans for the city’s disposition on technology. The Democratic-Socialist mayor has been very vocal about plans to overhaul a number of the city’s social programs, but how technology will play into those efforts remains to be seen.
