Harry Eugene Black (born January 6, 1963) is former

City Manager A city manager is an official appointed as the administrative manager of a city, in a "Mayor–council government" council–manager form of city government. Local officials serving in this position are sometimes referred to as the chief exec ...

Cincinnati, Ohio Cincinnati ( ) is a city in the U.S. state of Ohio and the county seat of Hamilton County. Settled in 1788, the city is located at the northern side of the confluence of the Licking and Ohio rivers, the latter of which marks the state line w ...

. He took office September 8, 2014, and was responsible for the day-to-day government operations of Ohio's third largest city. He resigned from the position April 21, 2018. Before coming to Cincinnati, Black served as finance director of the City of

Baltimore Baltimore ( , locally: or ) is the most populous city in the U.S. state of Maryland, fourth most populous city in the Mid-Atlantic, and the 30th most populous city in the United States with a population of 585,708 in 2020. Baltimore was ...

. Before that he held leadership roles such as CEO, CFO and COO in both the private and public sector in cities across the country.

Background

Black was born in

Jersey City Jersey City is the second-most populous city in the U.S. state of New Jersey, after Newark.New Jersey New Jersey is a state in the Mid-Atlantic and Northeastern regions of the United States. It is bordered on the north and east by the state of New York; on the east, southeast, and south by the Atlantic Ocean; on the west by the Delawa ...

in 1963. His parents moved to Baltimore before his first birthday and he went on to spend his entire adolescent life and part of his adult life there. He attended and graduated from Paul Lawrence Dunbar High School (1976-1981). where he served as captain of the cross-country team. His start in government came during his senior year when he served as a student page in Maryland's General Assembly in Annapolis. After graduating, Black went on to attend

Virginia State University Virginia State University (VSU or Virginia State) is a public historically Black land-grant university in Ettrick, Virginia. Founded on , Virginia State developed as the United States's first fully state-supported four-year institution of hi ...

where he majored in Public Administration. He served as president of the student government and in the summer of 1985 he was a Governors Fellow in the office of former Virginia Gov.

Charles Robb Charles Spittal Robb (born June 26, 1939) is an American politician from Virginia and former officer in the United States Marine Corps. A member of the Democratic Party, he served as the 64th governor of Virginia from 1982 to 1986 and a United ...

. He was also managing editor of the school's paper, the Virginia Statesman. He later earned a Master's in Public Administration from the

University of Virginia The University of Virginia (UVA) is a public research university in Charlottesville, Virginia. Founded in 1819 by Thomas Jefferson, the university is ranked among the top academic institutions in the United States, with highly selective ad ...

Professional life

Black's public service career includes stints with the

New York City Transit Authority The New York City Transit Authority (also known as NYCTA, the TA, or simply Transit, and branded as MTA New York City Transit) is a New York state public-benefit corporations, public-benefit corporation in the U.S. state of New York (state), New ...

, the

Port Authority of New York and New Jersey The Port Authority of New York and New Jersey, PANYNJ; stylized, in logo since 2020, as Port Authority NY NJ, is a joint venture between the U.S. states of New York and New Jersey, established in 1921 through an interstate compact authorize ...

, New York City's Mayor's Office of Contracts and the District of Columbia's City Council. For three years (2005-2008) he served as Chief Financial Officer for the City of

Richmond, Virginia (Thus do we reach the stars) , image_map = , mapsize = 250 px , map_caption = Location within Virginia , pushpin_map = Virginia#USA , pushpin_label = Richmond , pushpin_m ...

. He joined his wife in co-managing Global Commerce Solutions, Inc., a District of Columbia-based government services firm founded by both. Prior to that, Black held the position of vice president and program manager at

McKissack & McKissack McKissack & McKissack is an American architecture, engineering, program management and construction firm based in Washington, D.C. It is the oldest minority-owned architecture and construction company in the United States. The firm was foun ...

, an architecture and engineering firm based in Washington, D.C. Black took the job as Baltimore's CFO in January 2012. There, he oversaw an All-Funds Budget of $3.3 billion supporting a workforce of 15,000 providing services to more than 620,000 residents, and achieved an S&P upgrade of Baltimore's bond rating. While in Baltimore he authored a 10-year financial plan, Change to Grow. Black left Baltimore in August 2014 to become the 15th City Manager of Cincinnati. One of his major accomplishments during his time in Cincinnati is the launch of the Office of Performance of Data Analytics, a first-of-its-kind venture that looks to streamline government processes and cut down on City spending. Black, is the author of ''Achieving Economic Development Success: Tools that work''. The book was published by the International City/County Management Association. He also co-authored "City of Baltimore at an Inflection Point - Bending the Mix of Total Remuneration" which the Journal of Compensation and Benefits published in July 2014.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Black, Harry People from Cincinnati 1963 births Living people American city managers