RI Housing Secretary Pryor Resigns

RI Housing Secretary Pryor Resigns

Stefan Pryor, a longtime top appointee of Governors Gina Raimondo and Dan McKee, has resigned as Housing Secretary.

Pryor served as Commerce Secretary under Raimondo and then left government briefly to run for General Treasurer.

He lost in the Democratic primary to James Diossa.

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Pryor said on Thursday, “Serving this State for nearly a decade has been an enormous honor. When I accepted Governor McKee’s invitation to serve as Housing Secretary, we discussed my doing the job for a year in order to start up the new Housing Department and catalyze needed housing activity. Almost a year and a half later, I reflect with pride on the accomplishments of our Housing team and its partners.”

"But the work is far from done – continuing commitment and investment are required. And while I transition now to a position in the private sector, I hope to continue contributing to Rhode Island’s progress in meaningful ways going forward," Pryor added. He did not disclose his next position.

He is a graduate of Yale and Yale Law School, and has held top positions in New York, New Jersey, and Connecticut before coming to Rhode Island to assume the top economic development position. And in building that resume, he has developed a top-tier network of government and business leaders.

Besides serving as the top economic development officer for Governors Gina Raimondo and Dan McKee, he worked in a key economic development job for Republicans George Pataki and New York City Mayors Rudy Guiliani and Michael Bloomberg (the billionaire Bloomberg who later became an independent and ran for President as a Democrat).

Pryor served as head of the Lower Manhattan Development Corporation — the agency rebuilding the area of the World Trade Center attack.