Leadership rooted in public service and civic impact
A highly sought after expert on city leadership, Steve Benjamin is the President & CEO of The Benjamin Firm, LLC.
Benjamin most recently served as Senior Advisor to the President and Director of the White House Office of Public Engagement. The Office of Public Engagement is responsible for creating and coordinating direct dialogue between the Executive Office of the President, business, labor, the civil rights community and the diverse American public.
Elected mayor of Columbia, South Carolina in 2010, Mayor Benjamin entered office a vision of transforming South Carolina’s capital city into a talented, educated & entrepreneurial city of the New South. He served as Mayor until January of 2022.
Prior to his service as mayor, Benjamin served in South Carolina Governor Jim Hodges’ Cabinet as the Chief Executive of a $43 million, 950 employee state agency.
Mayor Benjamin served as President of the U.S. Conference of Mayors, President of the African American Mayors Association, Vice Chairman of the Global Parliament of Mayors, Executive Chairman of Municipal Bonds for America, a Member of the Federal Communications Commission’s Intergovernmental Advisory Committee, Member of the Accelerator for America Advisory Council, a member of the Federal Home Loan Bank of Atlanta, Affordable Housing Advisory Council, as Co-Chair of the Sierra Club’s Mayors for 100% Clean Energy, Chair-Elect of the Greater Columbia Chamber of Commerce and was awarded the U.S. Small Business Administration (SBA) 2017 Phoenix Award for Outstanding Contributions to Disaster Recovery by a Public Official for his leadership during the October 2015 flood & the 2018 USGLC Leading Globally Matters Locally Award.
As President of the U.S. Conference of Mayors, Mayor Benjamin established the Mayors Leadership Institute on Smart Cities at the Robert F. Wagner Graduate School of Public Service at NYU.
This Institute allows Mayors to immerse themselves in smart cities work. Its curriculum is expert-facilitated and peer-driven and offers a framework for approaching smart city opportunities, providing Mayors with guiding principles, best practices and a clear path forward.
Mayor Benjamin also established the Mayors and Business Leaders Center for Inclusive and Compassionate Cities. The establishment of this Center supports mayors’ efforts to make cities across the nation more equitable, more inclusive and more compassionate.
Benjamin is a graduate of the University of South Carolina and the University of South Carolina School of Law, where he served as President of Student Government and as President of the Student Bar Association.
Mayor Benjamin has completed coursework through the Bloomberg Harvard City Leadership Initiative, is an Aspen Institute Rodel & Liberty Fellow and has participated in the Yale Chief Executive Leadership Institute Mayors College.
Benjamin has lectured and served as a guest speaker on numerous topics including public finance, smart city growth, public private partnerships, economic development and leadership.
Mayor Benjamin also served as Senior Fellow for the Center for Financial Markets at the Milken Institute and as the Spring 2022 Richard L. and Ronay A. Menschel Senior Leadership Fellow at the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health. He has served as an Adjunct Professor at the University of South Carolina’s top ranked Honors College teaching a course titled “Columbia, South Carolina: Building a Great City” and is a member of Kappa Alpha Psi and Sigma Pi Phi fraternities.
Benjamin served as Chairman of the FirstNet Authority Board of Directors, the nationwide broadband network developed between AT&T and the U.S. Government that provides communication tools for public safety agencies; Chairman of FLEX-the voice of the app-based economy, as Co-Chair of The BGR Group Advisory Board, Co-Chairman of the U.S. Global Leadership Coalition, Honorary Co-Chair of the New Deal Leaders and served as a member of the Boards of Trustees of The National Judicial College and Benedict College. He holds an Honorary Doctor of Humanities Degree from Francis Marion University and is a Life Member of the NAACP.
An experienced corporate director, Benjamin has also served on the Boards of Directors of both publicly listed and privately held corporations focused on financial services, risk management, healthcare & the biopharmaceutical industry. He currently holds Top Secret Security Clearance (TS/SCI) with the United States Government.
Married to the Honorable DeAndrea Gist Benjamin, a Judge on the United States Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit, the Benjamins are the proud parents of two daughters.
Our Vision
Creatively weaving proven tactics and expertise into strategies that yield desired results. The Benjamin Firm brings a wealth of wisdom and human capital to ensure assignments are executed with excellence.