Aqua Dad to Environmental Resilience: Meet Senior Manager Benjamin Martinez Newman 

“Impactful work doesn’t just happen quickly. I think understanding systems and stakeholders and finding a way through is the exciting part about managing these projects.”

Joined Public Works Partners: 2022

Hometown: Zurich, Switzerland

Interests: Basketball, Cooking, Pool time with Jonathan (my son)

Benjamin Martinez Newman, a senior manager with our Client Services team, has over 10 years of experience working in New York City government, supporting nonprofits and small businesses, and fostering public-private partnerships. Public Works Project Coordinator, Tallulah Lintern, recently chatted with Benjamin about his journey to Public Works. He shared insights into his work and how he brings his open-mindedness and eagerness to learn to every client engagement.

Public Works Partners has been on my radar for the past decade. While at the NYC Department of Small Business Services (SBS), I managed a portfolio of programs helping small businesses grow and thrive, including the Women Entrepreneurs New York City (WE NYC) initiative. We brought in Public Works Partners to conduct the Five-Year analysis report assessing the program’s success and impact on women across the city. Through a competitive RFP process, we selected Public Works Partners, and I negotiated a contract with Celeste and Allison. When you negotiate a contract with someone, you get a real sense of how they’re structured and work, and then of course, I saw the work product that they delivered. 

Years later, when I decided to leave City government, Public Works Partners was one of the firms I was looking at. I reached out to Celeste for her perspective on the next step in my journey. Coincidentally, a senior manager position opened up at Public Works at the same time, so I applied and got the position. My conclusion is that things come full circle. It’s why it’s very important to have touch points and authentic interactions with people and know that it’s not always for the immediate return you might get. You never know when you might work together in the future.

One project I’m working on is the Volvo, “The Bronx is Breathing” project, which is building a charging hub for electric vehicles in Hunts Point in the Bronx. It’s a large multi-year project where we helped Volvo win a grant from New York State, and we are now helping them manage the implementation of the project, coordinating subcontractor partners and ensuring that the work complies with the grants. We’re managing a Project Management Office (PMO) for the grant and leading community engagement to get community input on the design of this project. It’s one of those projects that encompasses many of the different aspects of work we do. My work is not about me; it’s work that has a purpose. We call it mission-driven work, and there’s potential for great impact on the communities these projects are happening in. I approach it with an open mind, so I get exposed to different viewpoints and learn new things. I also get to work with great people. Both in terms of clients and internal team members, we get exposed to inspiring and dedicated people.

If I had to choose two sectors to work in, I would choose the intersection of Economic and Community Development and Environment and Climate Resilience. What does it mean to support people on their journey towards economic self-sufficiency? How do you support industries as well as job seekers? How can this align with the need to build economic and environmental resiliency in communities? 

I studied sustainable energy policy as part of my master’s program, and it’s one of the great gaps. There’s just not enough momentum in projects worldwide right now to push towards making climate resilience a reality. I have a four-year-old son and a newborn daughter, and it’s sometimes daunting to think about the world they’ll live in if we are not proactive.

Impactful work doesn’t just happen quickly. I think understanding systems and stakeholders and finding a way through is the exciting part of managing these projects. There is a century’s worth of modern industrial infrastructure that leads to these individual choices we can make between convenience and sustainability, and right now, convenience is prioritized. Decades of infrastructure have gone into developing the power grid and the oil supply system as it currently stands, and we have to consistently invest money over decades to come to build more sustainable alternatives. So you wonder, how does that balance out and where? That’s why I chose those two sectors. 

Growing up, I always went back and forth between different cultures. As a foreigner growing up in Switzerland, I spoke English at home and learned German in school. At the same time, my mom is Latina, and my father is Jewish. Through it all, I began to understand that there are many similarities across cultures, as well as differences. That respect for commonalities and differences and the joy I take from learning about different cultures helps my work at Public Works Partners. We’re a multicultural staff. Everybody has a different background, and I always like to understand where people on my team and our clients come from. Working in different communities across different cities and states, you can’t expect people to be from the same background as yourself.  Everyone has their journey. I think it’s part of our job as consultants to take the time and effort to understand where our clients are coming from. What do they need? How can we best focus our time to ensure we’re meeting those needs and understanding the cultural context of the work we’re being asked to tackle?

Fun Facts

1. Benjamin plays piano and trumpet and is learning guitar.
2. Benjamin loves grilling, and is building on his grilling repertoire.
3. Benjamin is an avid reader of fantasy books, and has read Dune multiple times.