David R. Jones, Esq.

David R. Jones has been President and Chief Executive Officer of the Community Service Society of New York, a nonpartisan, not-for-profit organization that promotes economic advancement and full civic participation for low-income New Yorkers, since 1986. He writes a bi-weekly newspaper column in the New York Amsterdam News, “The Urban Agenda,” that serves to educate the public and government officials on issues of importance to minority and poor communities. Prior to joining CSS, Mr. Jones served as Executive Director of the New York City Youth Bureau and, from 1979 to 1983, as Special Advisor to Mayor Koch. He has been appointed by Mayor Bloomberg to several committees, including the
Commission for Economic Opportunity, a task force to address poverty and unemployment. From 1996 to 2000, Mr. Jones was Chairman of the Board of Carver Federal Savings Bank, the largest African-American managed bank in the nation.

Mr. Jones was co-chairman of the Commission on School Governance. He was also chairman of the National Committee for Responsive Philanthropy, a leading philanthropic watchdog organization. He was co-chairman of the New York City Council Commission on the Campaign for Fiscal Equity. While receiving his Bachelor of Arts degree from Wesleyan University, Mr. Jones interned for the late Senator Robert F. Kennedy in Washington, D.C. He received a Juris Doctor degree from the Yale Law School, afterwards clerking for Judge Constance Baker Motley of the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York. Mr. Jones was a recipient of the Thomas J. Watson Fellowship. He served for 12 years on the board of trustees of Wesleyan University and is now a Trustee Emeritus. Prior to his nonprofit and public service careers, he specialized in corporate antitrust cases and contract litigation at the law firm of Cravath, Swaine & Moore.