Heard Around Town
Ruben Diaz Jr. is getting in the lobbying game
The former Bronx BP has been hired by Actum, but also has his own firm with clients.
Ruben Diaz Jr. Phillip Vukelich
Former Bronx Borough President Ruben Diaz Jr. has a new job as a co-chair of Actum, the still new-ish political strategy firm announced today – but he isn’t giving up his other gigs yet. So Diaz will stay on as senior vice president of strategic initiatives at Montefiore Medicine – a job that City & State broke the news of in February – and he will also keep his own lobbying firm, Nuevo Diaz & Associates. Diaz was planning ahead and formed that LLC in April 2021, some eight months ahead of when was term-limited out of office. He has reported two clients in city lobbying disclosures already: Sentry Management Solutions, which previously had city contracts for nonemergency medical transportation; and Dynamic Star, a real estate development firm with major projects in the Bronx and Queens. Diaz didn’t respond to a request for comment, but two sources with knowledge of the setup confirmed his hat trick of jobs. Diaz is a high-profile get for Actum, led in New York by Mercury alums Rachel Noerdlinger and Mike McKeon. Openly bipartisan, the firm has one eyebrow-raising co-chair: Mick Mulvaney, former acting chief of staff to then-President Donald Trump.