Black business leader Ray McGuire is pulling out all the stops in his campaign announcement for Mayor of New York City today.
Celebrity narrated video, check. Inspirational backstory, check. Always keep fighting New York tough message with gratuitous shots of deeply afflicted neighborhoods in Brooklyn and so forth, double-check.
“New York has been knocked down and people are scared,” said McGuire. “New Yorkers are scared of losing a job, violence in their neighborhoods, and scared of catching Covid-19. But make no mistake: we will rise again. With new ideas and a fresh start at City Hall, we can build a much fairer and more vibrant city.”
McGuire, 63, has launched himself as the incredibly business savvy candidate that aims to revive New York’s economy, and thereby, saving his adopted city. He’s now in league with multiple candidates vying for the same position, including City Comptroller Scott Stringer, former U.S. Secretary of Housing and Urban Development Shaun Donovan, civil rights lawyer Maya Wiley, current Brooklyn Borough President Eric Adams, and Councilman Carlos Menchaca (D-Brooklyn).
“I know the fears and anxieties so many New Yorkers are dealing with today,” said McGuire. “I’ve been there. Those experiences will never leave me; they are the internal compass that will guide me as Mayor.”
McGuire grew up in Dayton, Ohio, with two brothers and five to ten foster siblings at any given time in a low-income household. He was raised by his mother and grandparents across the street from the Howard Paper Mill in Urbana. He eventually aspired to use education as a way out and received a world-class education through hard work and scholarships, including three degrees from Harvard.
“Education made my life possible. But I was lucky. At a couple of key moments, teachers spotted and encouraged me,” said McGuire. “But so many of our city’s children are not getting the shot I did. I had teachers who believed in me. Our children need the entire city to believe in them.”
“I have the lived experience, the management expertise, the relationships, and the vision to lead the greatest revival our city has ever seen. I’ll lift our public schools, help rescue our small businesses, focus on fundamentals like safe and clean streets, and expand access to physical and mental health care,” added McGuire about his vision for the city’s recovery.
Over the last 36 years, McGuire has led businesses responsible for generating more than $20 billion a year in revenue by supporting public and private sector clients around the world. McGuire certainly has the lived experience of building wealth and has advised the CEOs of companies on how to help their businesses grow and thrive.
For the last 13 years, McGuire was the “head of global corporate and investment banking at Citigroup and the longest-tenured head of investment banking in the history of Wall Street,” a field which has classically ostracized Black men, women, and people of color from holding higher-ranking positions.
McGuire has also been outspoken about racial discrimination on Wall Street and in the recent Black Lives Matter movement. As a Citi Foundation Board member, McGuire helped the firm improve practices, and recently wrote the introduction to a report from Citi explaining the economic impact of systemic racism. The report states that $16 trillion could have been added to the U.S economy if four key racial gaps facing Black Americans had been closed.
McGuire lives on Central Park West with his wife, Crystal McCrary McGuire, a lawyer and filmmaker, and their children, reported The New York Times. Crystal McCrary McGuire is also a notable author and filmmaker, executive producing her husband’s campaign video with an all-Black production team and the infamous Spike Lee as narrator.
Ray believes New Yorkers want a new approach at City Hall that includes “real leadership and solutions, not political games,” says Lee as narrator.
“As I travel the city and talk to everyday New Yorkers, I’ve come to believe we have one shot to right the ship,” said McGuire.
