ALBANY -- An expert in finances and economic development who has been heavily involved in Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo’s "energy highway" plans is resigning from his post as vice chairman of the New York Power Authority.
John Dyson, a millionaire who heads an investment firm and owns a winery in Millbrook in Dutchess County, submitted his letter of resignation Monday to Cuomo, who appointed Dyson to the NYPA post only a year ago.
Dyson said with Cuomo’s new team now in place at NYPA -– including Buffalo banker John Koelmel as chairman –- it is now time for him to leave what has been a nearly full-time job in the non-paying post.
"It is time for me to return my attention to my private and business lives," Dyson wrote Cuomo. He said his last day on the job will be Aug. 5.
Dyson, who ran the Power Authority when Cuomo’s father, Mario, was governor, has been one of the point players in the current governor’s plans to improve the state’s aging power infrastructure. More than 80 ideas were recently submitted to NYPA by industry and other groups to add new generation capacity and update power lines that are increasingly faced with bottlenecks preventing upstate-produced power from reaching downstate.
Dyson’s involvement with top state government posts goes back to the days of Gov. Hugh Carey; he was Carey’s top economic development director and later became chairman of NYPA, a position he continued under Mario Cuomo. Dyson was also a top advisor to former New York City Mayor Rudolph and ran unsuccessfully for the U.S. Senate in the Democratic primary in 1986.
NYPA’s assets in New York are vast, and include the Niagara Power Project.
--Tom Precious
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Albany | Andrew Cuomo
