In 2013, when John Burnett, a financial services executive, decided to step into citywide politics as the Republican candidate for New York City Comptroller, I was immediately impressed by him and believed he was the best qualified person to run for City Comptroller in a long, long time.
So when I joined The Bronx Chronicle last month, I reached out to John because I wanted to build a cadre of smart, talented new voices for our news service around his star. Our readership will benefit enormously from the financial expertise and political insights that John Burnett has to offer.
John has over 20 years of experience in risk management, governance and compliance at some of the world’s top financial services and business information companies.
John is a natural entrepreneur with an innate business sense. At six years old, he started selling candy to classmates, optimizing the opportunity to sell sweets before and after lunch. A few years later, he honed his culinary skills and baked oatmeal cookies from scratch, hiring his mother and three sisters to sell the homemade goodies to their coworkers and friends.
John’s first encounter with investing money began while growing up in East New York and Jamaica, Queens. His mother insisted he tithe 10 percent of his snack allowance at the church his family attended in Brooklyn. “Don’t rob God,” she’d say. “If you sow good seed, it will come back to you.” That moral voice has guided John throughout his personal and professional life.
After one year at Borough of Manhattan Community College – “I was bored and itching to go where the money is – Wall Street “ – John started his 20-year career in finance as a margin analyst at then, Dean Witter Reynolds, which became Morgan Stanley. “They invested in a 20-year-old kid who, at the time, had only a dream and a willingness to work hard.”
John went on to earn an MBA at Cornell University and continued to climb the corporate ladder at Merrill Lynch and The McGraw-Hill companies.
Follow him on Twitter: @IamJohnBurnett and Facebook Fan Page: /IamJohnBurnett
On behalf of the Management and Staff of The Bronx Chronicle, I welcome John Burnett aboard as a member of our news family.
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