Simmons Announces New Director Of Administration

STAMFORD, CT — Stamford Mayor Caroline Simmons on Monday announced that she has picked Benjamin Barnes to fill the role of director of administration. Barnes most recently served as the vice president for operations and chief financial officer at Connecticut State Colleges and Universities (CSCU).

He joins the city of Stamford filling the position previously held by Sandy Dennies, who retired in June.

"I am grateful to Mayor Simmons for this exciting opportunity," said Barnes in a news release. "I am eager to return to the city of Stamford and I look forward to serving the community as director of administration."

Simmons said she was "thrilled" to welcome Barnes back to Stamford.

"Ben has extensive leadership and policy experience serving in municipal and state government, including as director of administration under Mayor [Dannel] Malloy. His expertise will be invaluable as we continue to ensure prudent financial management of our city."

Since 2019, Barnes has served as VP for operations and CFO for CSCU, managing the overall financial risk of the system comprising four state universities, 12 community colleges, and one online college.

In this role, he supervised the compilation of the annual and biennial budgets, annual financial statements, and periodic analyses. Additionally, he provided operational and strategic support to the CSCU President and served as the management liaison to the finance and infrastructure committee and the audit committee of the Board of Regents for Higher Education.

During Gov. Malloy’s administration, Barnes previously served as the secretary of the Connecticut office of policy and management from 2011 to 2019, where he oversaw an over $18 billion annual operating budget, labor relations for over 40,000 state employees, and intergovernmental relations and agency operations.

Before this, he served the city of Stamford as director of operations from 2007 to 2009, and director of administration from 2003 to 2007.

Barnes received his Master of Urban Planning from New York University and holds a bachelor's degree of arts in history from Swarthmore College.