Amy Loprest, Executive Director of The New York City Campaign Finance Board, to Retire in October

06/21/2022

Frederick Schaffer, Chair of the New York City Campaign Finance Board (CFB), announced today that Amy M. Loprest will retire as Executive Director of the CFB this coming October.

“Amy Loprest directed the Campaign Finance Board through a crucial period in the growth of the agency and the city’s gold-standard public matching funds program,” said Chair Schaffer. “Her deep commitment to this work is unmatched, and her leadership will be missed.”

Ms. Loprest was appointed in September 2006 as Executive Director of the CFB, chaired at the time by Frederick A. O. Schwarz, Jr. She is the second person to hold the title of CFB Executive Director, succeeding Nicole Gordon. Ms. Loprest’s career at the CFB began in November 1990. After leaving the agency in August 1992, she returned in May 1999. Before her appointment as Executive Director, she held a number of key positions at the CFB, including Assistant Executive Director, Director of Campaign Finance Administration, Deputy General Counsel, and Chief of the Candidate Services Unit. Her CFB tenure spans eight city-wide elections—the last four as Executive Director.

Ms. Loprest directed a significant expansion of the CFB’s mission and its work. Major initiatives added to the Campaign Finance Act and the City Charter and implemented under her leadership include strict, low limits on “pay-to-play” contributions from people doing business with city government, comprehensive requirements for disclosure of independent expenditures in city elections, and a series of improvements to NYC’s campaign matching funds program, culminating with a dramatic increase to the Program’s scope enacted before the historic 2021 elections.

Ms. Loprest led the agency through an increase of its responsibilities for voter engagement. Following a 2010 Charter referendum, the CFB built an expansive voter outreach program, took on leadership of the city’s education campaign for ranked choice voting, and is currently building capacity to manage expanded language translation and accessibility mandates and preparing an education campaign for Our City Our Vote in 2023.

Under Ms. Loprest’s direction, the agency strengthened its operations to support its expanded work, putting into place new budgeting and finance procedures; new technology processes; a detailed risk-based analysis for prioritizing and performing post-election audits; and a five-year strategic plan for the agency. Ms. Loprest pushed to incorporate emerging technology into the agency’s work—including a new online registration portal for campaigns and NYC Votes Contribute, a first-of-its-kind online fundraising platform that simplifies reporting and compliance requirements for city candidates.

Leading this organization and its important work has been the greatest honor and privilege of my life,” said Ms. Loprest. “It has been a consistent challenge that has proved to be invigorating and satisfying. I am immensely proud of what our staff has accomplished together during these years. Now that we’re past the largest election in the history of the Program, I feel ready to move on to my next phase. With this important milestone, it is time for the agency to move forward under new leadership.”

The Board intends to conduct a wide-ranging national search for Ms. Loprest’s successor, befitting the organization’s stature as custodian of the nation’s largest public campaign financing program and its ground-breaking voter engagement efforts. The transition to new leadership will maintain continuity for the agency’s staff and its work, and preserve the high standard of service that candidates and voters expect from the CFB.