CT city’s new development chief brings major business experience. Why he made public sector move.

In a corporate career spanning nearly three decades, Jeff Auker waded deep into public service, most recently as a leading member of a state’s workforce development council aiming to match jobs with the industries seen as fueling Connecticut’s future economic growth.

Now, Auker is taking the plunge into the public sector.

Hartford Mayor Arunan Arulampalam this week named Auker as the city’s director of development services, responsible for plotting an economic development strategy for the city and a new mayoral administration, now in its sixth month.

Auker, most recently an executive of tech giant Infosys in downtown Hartford, joins City Hall at a time when the city sorely needs to ease the tax burdens on both businesses and homeowners; keep revitalization both downtown and in the neighborhoods on track after a setback in the pandemic; and deal with a downtown office vacancy rate that has reached a 35-year high as COVID-19 altered how much time employees spend in the workplace.

Auker, 54, said his post at Infosys leading digital and innovation efforts, naturally extended into workforce development and his efforts on the CT Governor’s Workforce Council as well as chair of ReadyCT. ReadyCT is a statewide, not-for-profit that seeks to narrow the achievement gap for all Connecticut students.

As director of development services, Auker sees his background as essential to spurring on the city’s economic vitality.

“It seemed like a chance to really get in the arena,” Auker said. “To actually go shoulder-to-shoulder with the people that are building the city, that are building the community around here and building the workforce of the future, which is going to underpin anything we do from an economic development standpoint.”

“That will show the businesses that we are serious about sustaining the workforce, training that workforce, adapting as things evolve with technology,” Auker said.

The foundation for such a vision is already taking shape, with the addition of more than 3,000 new apartments in and around downtown in the last decade, with more planned and increasingly pushing into the neighborhoods.

Housing is seen as essential to attracting young workers to cities like Hartford and is consideration as employers look to relocate or expand.

Strides also are coming together to rebuild a vibrant restaurant, bar and entertainment scene, especially around downtown’s historic Pratt Street. Those efforts are not only key for building the workforce but to attracting visitors to Hartford.

Arulampalam said it is “remarkable” that Auker would leave the private sector and bring his background in technology and strategic leadership to the city.

“With Jeff at the helm, [the department of development services] will focus on innovation and growth across all our great neighborhoods, to the benefit of Hartford families and businesses,” Arulampalam said. “His proven track record in driving digital transformation and empowering communities will be instrumental as we build a prosperous future for Hartford.”

Auker succeeds I. Charles Mathews, who stepped down from the job in December at the close of former Mayor Luke Bronin’s tenure. Auker’s appointment is expected to be confirmed by the city council.

He will be paid $152,000.

Auker’s work experience also includes stints at accounting giant PwC and The Hartford Financial Services Group, the property-casualty insurer headquartered In Hartford and a major employer in the city.

Auker’s corporate experience is seen as an asset for Arulampalam’s administration as it builds relationships with employers in the city.

But Auker will have to forge new relationships with the city’s diverse ethnic and racial communities as well as navigate Hartford’s often-complex political landscape.

Newly-minted empty nesters of a blended family of five, Auker said he and his wife, Elisa, a corporate recruiter, plan to move to the city soon from Coventry. Local ordinances require that department directors reside in Hartford.

Auker, a graduate of Brown University with a doctorate in philosophy (mind, language and science) said he enjoys hiking and camping as well as live music performances.

What follows is a condensed conversation with Auker, edited for length and clarity:

Q: What will you bring to the city’s push to become a hub of 21st-century innovation, especially as it relates to financial services and insurance?

A: Insurance and financial services are always going to be the beating heart of what we do here. The companies have earned that reputation. That is a huge engine of our economy. Here in Hartford we’re really focused in on insurance and financial services.

While manufacturing is big throughout the state, there’s some great opportunities with precision manufacturing here. And then, just obviously, the insurance companies want the data as much as anybody. So there’s some technology aspects of it that we can really pull out here.

We just need to look at what’s emerging, but we’re going to have to set some pillars because we’re not going to be able to do everything.

Q: What are the biggest public policy issues you see as you take this new job?

A: We have to have a sustained team and mechanism for quickly and reasonably and aggressively going after some of the big economic development items to grow the grand list and all that.

To do that, we need to do that in a couple of important ways. One, we can’t do that at the expense of the ease of doing business with us. We can’t grow too quickly. Already Connecticut, and Hartford are not at the top of the list nationally in terms of services provided.

So we want to be – and this is straight from the mayor – the easiest city for businesses to do business with. We need to make critical roles [in city government] desirable. As we staff up the team, we want people who are doing economic development, planning, zoning to say, ‘Hey, Hartford is the place for me to go, to learn, to contribute, to move on with my career.’

We’re not just filling open roles, but filling roles with people that bring energy and vitality.

An important piece that I need to learn a lot more about, in terms of developing the economy, is we need to stay true to the neighborhoods. We need to stay true to the culture that is here. There is so much diversity. It’s a wonderful blessing, but it brings with it a bit of complexity in terms of management.

Q: In what ways will you deal with the reality and reputation of a slow, conflicting and frustrating license, permitting and inspection process?

A:  So my time in consulting was primarily spent around customer experience, development in messy, highly-regulated industries, like health care. I mean, the path through [the city’s] system varies person by person, and the urgency varies. There’s a lot of research you can do.

Some things, like the approval window for certain things, like something gets approved on the last day of a cycle, and now, the next one to pick it up is another 30, 40, 60 days. You move that up 15 days. So there are some things that are incumbent upon us and basically, it’s our job to do those.

In terms of technology, there’s some pretty powerful things you can do to organize the data that makes up the history of the city, especially in development. There is the potential to use AI, not as an authoritative source but it’s better than weeding through 15 years of zoning minutes.

If there’s something in there that just doesn’t work, and that’s causing a lot of issues, and you can show that you;ve done what you can to work around it, you’ve earned the right to ask for some resources. Define that it’s this piece that’s missing, maybe someone to fill that role or adjust other roles.

Obviously, that takes approvals and checks and balances are in place for a reason. And I don’t want to make it sound like I have all the answers.

Q: How do you view the challenges of high office vacancy downtown?

A: From a real estate and investment approach, I need to learn a lot more, but the mixed-use approach seems to be going in the right direction.

I struggle to believe businesses will ever come back to the work from the office like they once were. But I truly believe that, when you’re talking about the youngest folks in your organization, they benefited vastly and disproportionately from being in the office with their peers. So they can ask the right questions of each other and have the right mentors.

Q: How do you describe your style?

A:  A cautious optimist. My first reaction to things is generally, let’s figure it out.

We can all agree that this is the right thing to do, but here are the resources we have available right now, and here are the priorities.

We want to make sure we don’t lose the idea but keep people moving forward.

I’m highly collaborative, and I have no problem telling you what I don’t know. And I’m happy when people point out that even when I think I know because this isn’t going to be one person’s decision on any of these things. There’s a lot of people who need to be lined up.

Kenneth R. Gosselin can be reached at kgosselin@courant.com.