FDNY to name security firm CEO as new commissioner to replace embattled Laura Kavanagh
Security firm CEO Robert Tucker will be na꧋med the next commissioner of the FDNY on Monday, sources told The Post Sunday night.
Tucker, who leads as CEO and chairman, is expected to get the nod from Mayor Eric Adams to replace Laura Kavanagh after she stepped down earlier this month amid multiple controversies and tension with the department over her ဣleader🌜ship.
Tucker, who was widely seen as a top contender f🤡or the job, also sits on the board of the FDNY Foundation and has long circled the FDNY during his career dating back decades, though he has never served as a firefighter.
He once described himself as a “fire buff” dating back to his childhood.
“When I was a young boy growing up in Manhattan, I was a fire buff,” Tucker said, according to a “I used to chase fire engines on my bicycle. I had the opportunity to meet Commissioner [Joseph] Spinnato🍸 and I told him about my interest in the Department.”
Spinnato served as c𒆙ommissioner f🔜or the department for some of the 1980s.
As 🗹a teenager, he worked in the FDNY’s Manhattan Coℱmmunications Office, which he called the “best job offer I would ever receive.”
A graduate of George Washington University and Pace University School of Law, Tucker worked as a special assistant to tꩲhe Queens District Attorney’s Office for years before he joined T&M in 1999, according to the member spotlight.
The security firm has been in business since 1981꧒ and focus༒es on providing integrated security, cyber, intelligence and investigative solutions, according to its website.
City Hall spokesperso෴n Fabien Levy declined to confirm or deny the planne𝓀d appointment Sunday night.
“As we always say, no🌜 appo🌞intment is made until it is announced,” he said in a text message.
Adams had previously considered appointing Tucker, a member of the mayor’s Public Safety and Justice tran💙sition committee, to replace then-Commissioner Daniel Nigro.
But the mayor ultimately passed over Tucker in favor of Ka🎉vanagh, who was the first woman to ever lead the department.
Kavanagh, 42, faced a long line of problems during her tenure, including numerous clashes with o🐻ther 𝔉department bigwigs. The department was ൲slapped with an age discrimination lawsuit brought by department honchos she demo🀅ted.
She also faced heat after she sought to discipline members that booed New York Attorney Gen𒐪eral Letitia James during a department promotion ceremony ༒earlier this year.
Tucker, who is the board secretary of thꦏe FDNY Foundation, was named an honorary fire commissioner in 2014. He got involved🥂 with the official non-profit of the department following 9/11.
“I figured the best way to do ൲that was to become a part of tℱhe Foundation’s Board of Directors,” he said in the spotlight article.
“A😼s a security company owner, having protected high-rise buildings all over this city, I know first hand: we have to have apparatus, we have to have fire fighters that are trained in high-rise safety, we have to have communica♑tion equipment that works in high-rise buildings. All of that can happen because of money we raise as trustees of the Foundation.”
He is also sits on the board of trustees and served as secretary/treasurer fo𓆉r the New York City Police Foundation and other non-profits, according to his T&M bio.
