A first-generation, Panamanian American born and raised in the East New York neighborhood of Brooklyn, Richard R. Buery, Jr. has spent his career fighting to advance equal opportunities for families and communities often left behind. In September 2021, Richard became the CEO of Robin Hood, one of the nation’s leading anti-poverty organizations.

At 16 years old, Richard graduated from Stuyvesant High School and attended Harvard. He later earned a law degree from Yale and brought his talent and skills home to put them to work immediately. Most recently, Richard served as the CEO of Robin Hood’s community partner Achievement First, a network of 41 charter schools across New York, Connecticut, and Rhode Island.

Richard has extensive experience as a leader, manager, and social innovator within local government, as well as New York’s vast social service nonprofit sector.

As Deputy Mayor for Strategic Policy Initiatives for the City of New York, Richard was the key architect of the City’s Pre-K for All initiative, establishing New York’s free, full-day universal Pre-K program for four-year-olds and growing enrollment by 50,000 additional children within 18 months. He also launched Schools Out NYC, offering free after school programs to all NYC middle school students, stood up 200 new community school partnerships, and led the City’s effort to recruit 1,000 men of color to become public school teachers.

Additionally, Richard launched the mental health reform initiative, ThriveNYC, and managed the City’s relationship with the 250,000 student City University of New York System (CUNY), stewarding significant investments that improved college persistence for NYC students. Richard also managed a range of city agencies, including the Departments of Probation, Aging, Youth and Community Development, People with Disabilities, and Immigrant Affairs, and founded the New York City Children’s Cabinet, the Department of Veterans Affairs, and the Mayor’s Office of Minority and Women Business Enterprises.

As a leader in the nonprofit sector, Richard served as CEO of Children’s Aid, one of New York City’s oldest and largest child-welfare organizations and led policy and public affairs for KIPP, the country’s largest network of charter schools. Earlier in his career, Richard founded Groundwork to support the educational aspirations of public housing residents in Brooklyn, and co-founded and led the national nonprofit iMentor, which pairs high school students with mentors to help them navigate to and through college. He also co-founded South Bronx Rising Together and the Children’s Aid College Prep Charter School.

Richard launched his first nonprofit, serving families in a housing development in the Roxbury neighborhood of Boston, while still in college. Early in his career, he was a teacher at an orphanage school in Zimbabwe, a campaign manager to former Cambridge Mayor Ken Reeves, a law clerk on the Federal Court of Appeals in New York, and a staff attorney at the Brennan Center for Justice working campaign finance reform and economic justice.

A member of the Council on Foreign Relations, Richard also serves as a Public Service Fellow at the NYU Wagner Graduate School of Public Service, where he was the Distinguished Visiting Urbanist during the Spring of 2019. He serves on the boards of the Kresge Foundation, iMentor, United to Protect Democracy, Atria Health Collaborative, and on the Alumni Advisory Council of the Tsai Leadership Program at Yale Law School. He has continued to serve the public through public advisory boards, including as co-Chair of the New New York Panel convened by Governor Hochul and Mayor Adams to address the revitalization of New York’s business districts after the pandemic, chair of the 2025 New York City Charter Revision Commission, and by serving on the State’s Child Poverty Reduction Advisory Council and Emerging Technology Advisory Board, and the City’s Workforce Development Council.

A recipient of the Ellis Island Medal of Honor, a member of the Aspen Global Leadership Network, and a fellow of Pahara and the British American Project, Richard has previously taught courses in social entrepreneurship, leadership, New York City affairs, and the financial management of nonprofit organizations at Yale Law School, the NYU Tandon School of Engineering, New York Law School, and the Baruch School of Public Affairs.

A husband and father, Richard lives in Manhattan with his wife Deborah and their two sons.