New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio’s commissioner for international affairs is reportedly using her contacts from her earlier job with Hillary Clinton to raise the mayor’s international standing. According to a Feb. 8 Daily News report, Penny Abeywardena, was hired four months ago from the Clinton Global Initiative, where she worked closely with the former secretary of state around Clinton’s core issue of women’s rights.
The mayor was aware of her connection to Hillary Clinton and extensive list of contacts at her fingertips, but most of all he felt they shared the same values, a political operative who knows Abeywardena told the Daily News. “She has a massive Rolodex – she has contacts that even de Blasio doesn’t have, “the contact said, adding, “This advantage raises the mayor’s international standing.”
Abeywardena has used some of those contacts to the mayor’s advantage. When the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge came to New York City last December, Abeywardena organized their events with de Blasio and his wife; after the Charlie Hebdo attack in Paris last month, the 37-year-old had Paris Mayor Anne Hidalgo on the phone and secured de Blasio’s 24-hour solidarity trip to France. Similarly she also organized a meeting between Israeli President Reuven Rivlin and de Blasio on Feb. 4 at the Park Lane Hotel on Central Park South. . In addition, when the pope comes to visit later this year, Abeywardena will be the city’s liaison, the Daily News report said.
“Secretary Clinton could not have been a bigger supporter or happier for me to be in this post,” Abeywardena told The Daily News, adding that the mayor and Clinton had “a good laugh about it.”
As the head of the Mayor’s Office for International Affairs, Abeywardena is charged with leading the office’s mission to serve as the primary liaison between the City of New York and the diplomatic community, foreign governments, the United Nations, and the U.S. Department of State. Additionally, the Mayor’s Office for International Affairs works work with city agencies and the diplomatic community to ensure safety and security through adherence to city codes.
In addition to the important formal function of the office, Abeywardena has been charged with building a global platform through which the city can promote its equity agenda and share policies and best practices globally. “The vision the mayor and I have for this is to create a global platform from which to promote what’s working in New York City, but also engage this diplomatic community with its local immigrant communities,” she said, adding that she has bigger plans for the job. Among the many ideas, she is looking to create a 14-person office.
Abeywardena was born in Sri Lanka and grew up in Los Angeles. She attended graduate school for international studies at Columbia University and has stayed in New York City ever since, claiming she felt reborn once she came to the city.
She advocates for women’s rights because every day the odds are against them. She comes from a background of abuse and since then she has striven to fight for equality for woman and preventing domestic violence, the Daily News reported.
Before joining the mayor Abeywardena worked as the director of Girls and Women Integration at the Clinton Global Initiative. Before joining the Clinton Global Initiative, Abeywardena worked as the director of Strategic Relations at The Drum Major Institute and as the Funding Exchange’s development program officer prior to that. She is a member of the World Bank’s Advisory Council on Gender and Development, a Term Member of the Council on Foreign Relations, and a contributing author in the book “Women in the Global Economy: Leading Social Change.”