Danny helps clients navigate and shape advances in digital infrastructure and policy in pursuit of digital justice, economic and workforce development, and public health. As leader of HR&A’s Tech & Society team, he is responsible for developing our people, platform, and partnerships to generate scalable and sustainable impact for our clients.
The New York City son of doctors and grandson of public servants, civic leaders, and social workers, Danny is a former urban planner, placemaker, real estate and infrastructure investment advisor, civic tech pioneer, public servant, and civic engagement leader trusted by visionary leaders in the public, private, nonprofit, and philanthropic sectors. A policy polyglot and public entrepreneur, heis driven by a passion for building tools, organizations, and systems that promote people power amidst the rise of ever more powerful digital technologies.
Danny’s work ranges from designing and developing civic technology platforms to managing billion-dollar infrastructure programs, leading large-scale civic engagement efforts to scaling new systems in government, piloting new approaches to complex challenges of community development to scaling sustainable solutions through creative approaches to funding and governance, always with a focus on systems change that serves both immediate needs and long-term resilience for communities.
As a nationally-recognized leader in broadband and digital opportunity, Danny has guided the deployment of billions of dollars in federal, state, and local investments to close the digital divide through government programs and public-private partnerships. As strategic advisor to multiple state broadband offices, local government CIOs and economic development officers, nonprofit organizations large and small, investor-backed technology companies, and national philanthropies, Danny demonstrates how creative, thoughtful planning can transform historic funding opportunities into sustainable infrastructure that promotes economic opportunity for all communities.
Strategic data-driven capital planning is core to Danny’s approach to ensuring that infrastructure investments support long-term triple bottom line outcomes for communities and their investment partners. As Founding Director of the City of New York’s Capital Planning Division, he created systems like the Capital Planning Platform that make complex planning processes transparent and efficient. The $1 billion Neighborhood Development Fund that he designed and managed illustrated how strategic funding mechanisms can align infrastructure investments with neighborhood planning and rezoning, ensuring that development is supported by necessary public improvements while fostering community growth and resilience that balances new development with community preservation. As Co-Chair of the City’s long-term plan for core infrastructure and services, he led systems-change in how the City develops its Ten-Year Capital Strategy to deliver Mayoral priorities.
With a long history of stewarding successful public-private partnerships, Danny understands how to structure complex transactions that maximize public benefit while leveraging private sector capabilities. Beyond digital infrastructure, such partnerships have included real estate development projects like Pier 57 in the Hudson River Park, transportation infrastructure like Fulton Center in Lower Manhattan and the Saint Paul Union Depot, and large-scale land development projects like London’s Queen Elizabeth Olympic Park. This experience, combined with his evaluation of the economic and fiscal impacts of over $20 billion in infrastructure investments, provides him with sophisticated capabilities for assessing project feasibility and identifying optimal financing strategies that serve diverse stakeholder interests.
Danny holds a Bachelor of Arts with distinction in Architecture and Urban Studies from Yale University.
Projects
HR&A worked with the City of Dallas and stakeholders to craft an Economic Development Policy and Incentives Policy to proactively address disparities in economic opportunity through policy, public investment, and partnership. As advisors, analysts, subject matter experts, and external capacity, HR&A helped ensure that the implementation of the policy would provide measurable impacts and improvements to businesses and communities across Dallas.
HR&A led an interdisciplinary team working with the Mayor's Office of the Chief Technology Officer to develop New York City's first Internet Master Plan, addressing the digital divide affecting nearly one-third of city households. Our comprehensive strategy established frameworks for public-private collaboration, governance, and financing that enabled the City to commit $157 million toward expanding affordable broadband access to 600,000 New Yorkers, including innovative procurement approaches that experts have praised as among the nation's boldest universal broadband initiatives.
HR&A serves as lead strategic advisor and program manager to the California Department of Technology, helping to deliver the nation's largest middle mile broadband investment and building the state's digital equity ecosystem. We function as an extension of state leadership teams, building organizational capacity, delivering complex quantitative and qualitative analytics, and engaging thousands of Californians alongside hundreds of local governments, community organizations, and technology companies to design programs, secure funding, and drive measurable impact.
HR&A developed and continues to advance a comprehensive Strategic Broadband Action Plan for Clark County, Nevada, home to 70 percent of the state's residents. Our multi-phase approach has helped the County secure over $11 million in federal funding, establish a Broadband Program Office, and position Clark County as a national leader in equitable broadband deployment and digital inclusion.
HR&A worked with the North Fork Rancheria of Mono Indians of California to assess broadband connectivity solutions for their sovereign tribal nation of over 2,000 members. Through comprehensive feasibility analysis and community engagement, HR&A developed a strategic deployment plan that identified two viable pathways—a tribally owned wireless network and household service subsidies—to address critical connectivity gaps in this underserved Sierra National Forest community.
HR&A serves as lead strategic advisor and program manager to the ConnectALL office of the Empire State Development Corporation, supporting the investment of more than $1.5 billion to close New York's digital divide. Our comprehensive support spans organizational development, stakeholder engagement, data analytics, program design, and federal grant compliance, advancing the mission of universal internet access throughout the state.
