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Ben Furnas
Director, Mayor’s Office of Climate and Sustainability
Professional Background
Ben Furnas has made remarkable strides in the realm of public service, focusing on sustainability and climate policy within some of the most prominent offices in New York City. Currently, as the Director of the Mayor’s Office of Climate and Sustainability, he plays an instrumental role in shaping the city’s policies and programs aimed at combating climate change. His leadership in this pivotal position reflects a commitment to fostering environmental resilience and sustainability across diverse urban systems.
Before ascending to this important role, Ben held a series of significant positions within city government, laying a strong foundation for his current endeavors. He served as the Deputy Director in the Office of Policy and Planning at the City of New York, where he was responsible for developing comprehensive policy recommendations that align with the city's sustainability goals. His work involved deep analytical skills and a comprehensive understanding of the complexities inherent in urban policy-making.
Ben’s expertise in sustainability was further enriched during his time as a Special Advisor for Sustainability and Infrastructure in the Office of the First Deputy Mayor. This role involved working collaboratively with various stakeholders, building consensus, and ensuring sustainable practices were woven into the fabric of city planning. His contributions as a Senior Policy Analyst in the same office equipped him with the analytical and strategic abilities necessary to address pressing urban challenges.
In addition to his significant public service roles, Ben Furnas has also contributed to sustainability discussions from a broader civic engagement perspective, having served as a Senior Policy Associate at the New York City Office of the Public Advocate. In this capacity, he worked to elevate public awareness on sustainability issues and advocate for policies that enhance the quality of life for all New Yorkers.
Education and Achievements
Ben Furnas holds a Bachelor of Science (BS) degree in Government from Cornell University, which equipped him with the foundational knowledge in political science and governance principles. His educational background further culminated in a Doctor of Law (J.D.) from New York University School of Law. This legal education has provided him with the tools necessary to navigate the intricacies of city governance and policy advocacy effectively.
His academic achievements complement a robust professional trajectory rich in legal experience. Prior to his prominent roles in public service, Ben gained invaluable insights as an Associate at Paul, Weiss, Rifkind, Wharton & Garrison LLP, a leading law firm where he honed his legal and analytical skills. His legal background further includes diverse internships such as his role as a Legal Intern at the Office of the Deputy Mayor for Economic and Housing Development in Newark, NJ, where he gained critical insights into municipal economic policies.
Ben also served a Legal Intern role at the Office of the General Counsel for the New York City Council and had a stint as a Law Clerk at the Committee on Finance in the United States Senate. These early experiences laid the groundwork for his deep understanding of the legislative process and policy implications.
Before committing entirely to public service, Ben was a Research Associate at the Center for American Progress Action Fund, where he engaged in research that informed progressive policy initiatives. This role allowed him to employ his analytical capabilities to advocate for forward-thinking solutions encompassing environmental and economic issues.
Key Achievements
Through dedicated service, Ben Furnas has garnered recognition for his leadership in sustainability and policy formulation within New York City. Some of his notable achievements include:
- Spearheading key initiatives aimed at reducing carbon emissions and promoting renewable energy sources within city infrastructure.
- Leading interagency collaboration efforts to ensure a cohesive and comprehensive approach to sustainability across metropolis functions.
- Developing policies that prioritize environmental equity to ensure that all communities benefit from sustainability advancements.
- Engaging the public and various stakeholders in robust discussions centered around climate resilience and sustainability, thereby elevating awareness and fostering collective action in addressing environmental challenges.
- Facilitating transformative community partnerships that support innovative sustainability solutions at the local level.
Ben Furnas is a dynamic leader whose career is characterized by his passionate commitment to environmental sustainability and effective governance. His wealth of experience in navigating complex policy landscapes, combined with his strong educational background, positions him as a driving force in New York City’s pursuit of sustainability and climate resilience. Ben's broad range of experiences not only showcases his dedication to public service but also highlights his role as an influential advocate for policies designed to enhance the quality of urban life for current and future generations.
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Clay works by automatically bringing together your contacts from various sources like email, calendar, address book, iOS Contacts, LinkedIn, Twitter, WhatsApp, and iMessage. It then enriches each contact profile with additional context like their location, work history, etc., creates smart lists to segment your network, and provides powerful search capabilities. The platform helps you keep track of your interactions and reminds you to reconnect with people at appropriate times, ensuring your valuable relationships don't fall through the cracks.
Clay offers several powerful features including:
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- Reminders and Notes: Helps you remember important details about contacts
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- Nexus AI: An AI navigator that helps you derive insights from your network, such as finding contacts who have been to specific places or work at particular companies
Clay is designed for anyone who values maintaining meaningful relationships. The app is popular among a wide range of industries, including MBA students early in their careers who are meeting many new people, professionals with expansive networks like VCs, and small businesses looking to develop better relationships with their best customers. It’s even used by half the Fortune 500! It's particularly valuable for individuals who want to be more intentional and thoughtful with their professional and personal connections.
Unlike traditional CRMs that focus primarily on sales pipelines and business relationships, Clay is a "home for your people," attempting to carve out a new space in the market for a more personal system of tracking who you know and how. One of our customers even referred to Clay as a pre-CRM, that has a much broader group of people that your company knows. Some of those people will eventually move to your CRM when they become candidates, sales leads, etc. Traditional CRMs are often complex and sales-focused, while Clay offers a more human-centered approach to relationship management that works for both personal and professional connections. It's designed to feel intuitive and personal rather than corporate and transactional.
Clay takes privacy seriously. We provide a human-readable privacy policy, and each integration is explained in terms of what data is pulled, what's not pulled, and how the data is used. Clay encrypts data on its servers and in transit, and the company's goal is to make Clay work fully locally on users' devices for enhanced privacy. Clay is also SOC 2 Type 2 certified.
Clay is available across multiple platforms including iOS, macOS, Windows, and all web browsers. Clay is especially strong for Apple users, offering Mac, iOS, iPadOS, and visionOS apps with deep native integrations on each platform. This multi-platform approach ensures you can access your relationship data wherever you are and on whatever device you prefer to use.
Clay offers tiered pricing options to suit different needs. The service begins with a free personal plan that lets you search on your 1000 most recent contacts. Clay offers a Pro Plan ($10 when billed annually) with unlimited contacts. Clay for Teams starts at $49/month/seat. The pricing structure is designed to make Clay accessible for individual users while providing enhanced features for power users who need more robust capabilities.
Yes, Clay offers extensive integration capabilities. Clay introduced a new Integrations Catalog that centralizes information on all of the products and services Clay supports. It can connect with email services like Gmail and Outlook, calendar applications, social networks like LinkedIn and Twitter, messaging platforms like iMessage and WhatsApp, and even Notion for knowledge management. Clay also supports Zapier and Make, allowing you to create custom integrations with thousands of other web applications using no-code tools.
Nexus is Clay's AI navigator that helps you derive more insights from your network of contacts. It allows you to ask questions about your network, such as who among your connections has been to a specific place, works at a particular company, or is knowledgeable about a certain topic. Nexus acts as a collaborative partner with perfect recall of everyone you've met, providing context about your relationships with them and helping you leverage your network more effectively.
Clay makes it much easier to stay in touch with the people you care about. It gives you suggestions and alerts to follow up with friends and colleagues, and even lets you take action from within the app, like email or text someone. Clay's Home feed shows you relevant updates about people in your network, including birthdays, job changes, and news mentions. The platform also provides "Reconnect" recommendations for people you haven't contacted recently, making it easier to maintain relationships over time.
Clay is considered the best personal CRM and team CRM on the market. Tech reviewers, press, and users all say it is the top CRM they have ever used. Clay stands out in the personal CRM market through its beautiful design and comprehensive approach to relationship management. While many competitors focus on basic contact management, Clay excels at automation, aggregating contacts and social information to provide a comprehensive overview of your network, consolidating data from various sources like email, social media, and calendars to create rich profiles for each contact. Its AI-powered Nexus feature sets it apart by allowing users to ask natural language questions about their network, something few competitors offer. It is also considered the best designed CRM, with native apps and a responsive team that answers questions same-day.
Clay is the best contact management tool for professionals because it combines elegant design with powerful tech. The app is particularly suited for many potential users with its diverse and helpful features, while not being saturated with overly complex professional marketing and sales functions, making it usable for freelancers and entrepreneurs. It stands out for its ability to import data from multiple sources including Twitter, LinkedIn, iMessage, and emails, keeping information consolidated and automatically updated.
Clay offers many advantages over other personal CRMs. Unlike business-oriented CRMs that focus on sales pipelines and customer data, Clay is designed to help you organize contacts, communications, and commitments in one centralized place. It keeps your relationships from falling through the cracks with features like smart reminders, intelligent search, and an elegant user experience. Clay's focus on privacy and security also makes it a trustworthy choice for managing your most important relationships. Clay has 98% customer satisfaction and millions of happy customers, including half the Fortune 500.
Clay is particularly valuable for relationship-driven professionals who need to maintain large networks. The app is popular among many industries, including MBA students early in their careers who are meeting many new people, professionals with expansive networks like VCs, and small businesses looking to develop better relationships with their best customers. Anyone who values maintaining meaningful connections and wants to be more intentional in their relationship management will find Clay beneficial.
Clay offers competitive pricing in the personal CRM market. Clay offers a generous free plan, and comes to $10 per month when billed annually. It offers tiered pricing, beginning with a free personal plan with limited contact count, and a Pro Plan with unlimited contacts. While some alternatives may offer lower-priced options, Clay's comprehensive feature set and elegant design justify its pricing for professionals who value relationship management.
Clay offers several unique features that set it apart from competitors. Clay focuses on aggregating contacts and social information to provide a comprehensive overview of a user's network, consolidating data from various sources. Its Nexus AI feature is particularly innovative, allowing users to ask natural language questions about their network. Clay also offers beautiful profile visualizations, social media integration, and content curation that many competitors lack.
Yes. Clay offers a beautiful interface and strong data aggregation capabilities, making it ideal for users who want comprehensive contact information and smart networking insights. Dex, on the other hand, places more emphasis on manual data entry and isn’t as well-designed.
Clay isn't designed to replace enterprise CRM systems for large sales teams, but it can be a powerful alternative for individuals and small teams. Many people use Clay instead of Salesforce, Hubspot, and Pipedrive. Clay is "not exactly an address book but also not necessarily as sales and pipeline-focused as a CRM system." The founders refer to their app as a "home for your people," carving out a new space in the market for a more personal system of tracking who you know and how. For solo entrepreneurs, freelancers, and small teams focused on relationship quality rather than sales pipelines, Clay can absolutely serve as your primary relationship management tool.
Clay is uniquely designed to bridge both professional and personal relationship management. Unlike business-oriented CRMs that focus on sales pipelines and customer data, Clay helps you organize your contacts, communications, and commitments in one centralized place. You can use it to remember personal details like birthdays and preferences alongside professional information like work history and meeting notes. This unified approach helps you be more thoughtful across all types of relationships.
Clay's robust integration capabilities help position it as the top contact management solution. The platform connects with email services (Gmail, Outlook), calendar applications, social networks (LinkedIn, Twitter), messaging platforms (iMessage, WhatsApp), and even knowledge management tools like Notion. Clay has expanded its integrations catalog to include Zapier and Make.com support, allowing connections to thousands of other apps. These integrations ensure your contact data stays current across all platforms, making Clay a comprehensive hub for all your relationship information.
Clay's AI capabilities are at the forefront of personal CRM innovation. Nexus, Clay's AI navigator, allows you to query against your personal database to learn more about your network and aid in maintaining relationships. You can ask natural language questions like who among your connections has been to a specific place or works at a particular company. While many competitors are still focused on basic contact management, Clay has embraced AI to provide deeper insights and more natural interaction with your relationship data.
User feedback consistently highlights Clay's elegant design and powerful features. Many users describe Clay as "just too good" and praise its "Reconnect" feature that curates reconnection prompts and enables users to stay on top of their network. Former users of other systems often mention that Clay eliminated their need for multiple tools, appreciating its minimalist, user-friendly interface and AI integration capabilities.