Proctor Named Finance Vice President

This summer, after New York City Mayor Rudolph Giuliani had pushed his austere budget through the city council, he might have been expecting kind words from the head of the board which monitors city spending.

He didn't get them.

Instead, Allen J. Proctor '74, executive director of the New York State Financial Control Board and an advocate of conservative spending, gave a frank assessment of the problems of the budget. In his opinion, it contained millions of dollars in "risky assumptions."

"You betcha there are a lot of risks," Proctor told the Newsday newspaper. "The test will be whether they can manage their way through them."

Yesterday, Harvard announced that it had hired Proctor to give the University the same brand of frank, pull-no-punches financial advice he routinely offered New York City.

Proctor, who had left the Big Apple just this summer to become a lecturer at the Kennedy School, will give up that job and take office as the new vice president for finance on November 1.

"He was extremely bright and very innovative," said Jeffrey L. Sommer, Proctor's deputy and now the acting executive director of the control board. "He had a way of bringing out the best in people and allowing them the freedom of coming up with new ideas and reaching a consensus."

Proctor is the product of New York City's complex web of politics and finances. Inside it, he reached prominence as an economic killjoy, bringing rosy political assessments back down to firm, financial earth.

Harvard Years

At the College, Proctor, a native of Beaver Dam, Wisconsin, lived in Winthrop House and was a very serious economics student.

In his spare time, he played percussion for the Harvard-Radcliffe Orchestra and the Bach Society Orchestra. He also worked as a research assistant to Gund Professor of Economics and Business Administration Richard E. Caves.

"He's one of the few students I can remember having worked with that wasn't sure whether he wanted to be a professional economist or a musician," Caves recalled yesterday.

After Harvard, Proctor returned home and earned his Ph.D in international trade and finance at the University of Wisconsin at Madison.

He then took a job at the Federal Reserve, where the young economist quickly gained a reputation for professionalism and a serious manner in his analysis.

"He always had high standards and was demanding," said Paul B. Bennett, senior vice president at the Federal Reserve Bank of New York, where Proctor served as the chief of the regional economics staff from 1985 to 1986.

Mark A. Willis, president of Chase Manhattan Community Development and former colleague, said yesterday that even in those early days, Proctor was distinguished by a frank approach.

"He has kept us all honest because he told it as he thought," Willis said. "He has a high degree of personal integrity that drove him in what he did."

In 1987, Proctor became a deputy director of New York City's Office of Management and Budget. In city government, his honesty made him less than popular.

And conflict with New York mayors became a fact of life for Proctor when he took the executive director's job at the control board in 1990.

Bernard Rosen, first deputy director at the Office of Management and Budget, said Proctor's subsequent relationship with the office was sometimes marked with conflicts.

"He did his job, but there was some sort of tension at times," Rosen said. "The control board in its responsibilities can be critical of what you produce, and that can be adversarial."

In a 1991 Newsday column written in the midst of a city budget fight, reporter Dennis Duggan quoted an insider in then-New York City Mayor David N. Dinkins's administration as calling Proctor a "loose cannon."

"If we don't have a budget in place by Monday, [Proctor] will, in effect, become the first deputy mayor of the city," the insider told Newsday.

Colleagues said that despite the personal attacks, Proctor never let his criticism get personal. His reputation was so great that he was rumored to be a candidate for budget director in the Giuliani administration last November.

Joel Siegel, chief of the New York Daily News City Hall Bureau, said Proctor was unfailingly "fair and objective."

"He was bashed by Dinkins and Giuliani," Siegel said yesterday. "The mayors may not have found him very endearing, but that's his job, to provide sobering assessment."

He could be counted on to do that. Proctor routinely criticized efforts by the city council to circumvent its budget in order to give onetime bailouts to things like the City University of New York. He spoke out when budget numbers didn't add up.

And in October 1991, Proctor blasted the Dinkins administration after the mayor failed to get concessions from municipal unions.

"It isn't easy to negotiate when you don't know what your aim is," Proctor told Newsday.

Intellectual Bent

David Seifman, New York Post's city hall bureau chief, said Proctor lent an intellectual bent to the control board, as well as considerable "diplomacy and analytical skills."

"He knows his stuff," Seifman said. "He uses language that'll make you rush to the library sometimes."

Seifman said yesterday that the economic reports Proctor produced were those of the highest quality and expertise.

"They were really the finest examples of in-depth financial reports you can hope for," Seifman said. "From what I know, he'll do quite a good job at Harvard."

Joshua A. Kaufman contributed to the reporting of this story.

Yesterday, Harvard announced that it had hired Proctor to give the University the same brand of frank, pull-no-punches financial advice he routinely offered New York City.

Proctor, who had left the Big Apple just this summer to become a lecturer at the Kennedy School, will give up that job and take office as the new vice president for finance on November 1.

"He was extremely bright and very innovative," said Jeffrey L. Sommer, Proctor's deputy and now the acting executive director of the control board. "He had a way of bringing out the best in people and allowing them the freedom of coming up with new ideas and reaching a consensus."

Proctor is the product of New York City's complex web of politics and finances. Inside it, he reached prominence as an economic killjoy, bringing rosy political assessments back down to firm, financial earth.

Harvard Years

At the College, Proctor, a native of Beaver Dam, Wisconsin, lived in Winthrop House and was a very serious economics student.

In his spare time, he played percussion for the Harvard-Radcliffe Orchestra and the Bach Society Orchestra. He also worked as a research assistant to Gund Professor of Economics and Business Administration Richard E. Caves.

"He's one of the few students I can remember having worked with that wasn't sure whether he wanted to be a professional economist or a musician," Caves recalled yesterday.

After Harvard, Proctor returned home and earned his Ph.D in international trade and finance at the University of Wisconsin at Madison.

He then took a job at the Federal Reserve, where the young economist quickly gained a reputation for professionalism and a serious manner in his analysis.

"He always had high standards and was demanding," said Paul B. Bennett, senior vice president at the Federal Reserve Bank of New York, where Proctor served as the chief of the regional economics staff from 1985 to 1986.

Mark A. Willis, president of Chase Manhattan Community Development and former colleague, said yesterday that even in those early days, Proctor was distinguished by a frank approach.

"He has kept us all honest because he told it as he thought," Willis said. "He has a high degree of personal integrity that drove him in what he did."

In 1987, Proctor became a deputy director of New York City's Office of Management and Budget. In city government, his honesty made him less than popular.

And conflict with New York mayors became a fact of life for Proctor when he took the executive director's job at the control board in 1990.

Bernard Rosen, first deputy director at the Office of Management and Budget, said Proctor's subsequent relationship with the office was sometimes marked with conflicts.

"He did his job, but there was some sort of tension at times," Rosen said. "The control board in its responsibilities can be critical of what you produce, and that can be adversarial."

In a 1991 Newsday column written in the midst of a city budget fight, reporter Dennis Duggan quoted an insider in then-New York City Mayor David N. Dinkins's administration as calling Proctor a "loose cannon."

"If we don't have a budget in place by Monday, [Proctor] will, in effect, become the first deputy mayor of the city," the insider told Newsday.

Colleagues said that despite the personal attacks, Proctor never let his criticism get personal. His reputation was so great that he was rumored to be a candidate for budget director in the Giuliani administration last November.

Joel Siegel, chief of the New York Daily News City Hall Bureau, said Proctor was unfailingly "fair and objective."

"He was bashed by Dinkins and Giuliani," Siegel said yesterday. "The mayors may not have found him very endearing, but that's his job, to provide sobering assessment."

He could be counted on to do that. Proctor routinely criticized efforts by the city council to circumvent its budget in order to give onetime bailouts to things like the City University of New York. He spoke out when budget numbers didn't add up.

And in October 1991, Proctor blasted the Dinkins administration after the mayor failed to get concessions from municipal unions.

"It isn't easy to negotiate when you don't know what your aim is," Proctor told Newsday.

Intellectual Bent

David Seifman, New York Post's city hall bureau chief, said Proctor lent an intellectual bent to the control board, as well as considerable "diplomacy and analytical skills."

"He knows his stuff," Seifman said. "He uses language that'll make you rush to the library sometimes."

Seifman said yesterday that the economic reports Proctor produced were those of the highest quality and expertise.

"They were really the finest examples of in-depth financial reports you can hope for," Seifman said. "From what I know, he'll do quite a good job at Harvard."

Joshua A. Kaufman contributed to the reporting of this story.