Adrian Benepe

On September 9, 2020, the Brooklyn Botanic Garden announced that it selected Benepe as its new president and CEO. In an email newsletter announcing the move, Brooklyn Botanic Garden board chair Diane Steinberg wrote that Benepe “is a visionary horticultural leader whose work embodies a belief that access to plants, green spaces, and nature should be available to all, especially neighborhoods and communities that have historically been neglected in urban planning.”

Adrian Benepe was the 14th Commissioner of the New York City Department of Parks & Recreation, serving in that role from February 4, 2002, to August 29, 2012, under Mayor Michael Bloomberg. During his tenure, he oversaw 7,000 parks' staff, the expenditure of over $3 billion in funding park maintenance, the expansion of new parks across New York City, and the inclusion of schoolyards for public access after school.

Benepe was the Parks Commissioner for New York City from February 4, 2002, to August 29, 2012, the longest to serve in that position since Robert Moses.

Benepe lived most of his life in Manhattan in New York City. He received a B.A. in English Literature from Middlebury College, Vermont, in 1979, and an M.A. in journalism at Columbia University in 1981, among many family members who attended the university.

Benepe held numerous positions with the Urban Park Rangers in the New York City department Parks and Recreation from 1979 to 1990. This included the ranger station in New York City's Central Park. He went on to work at the New York Botanical Garden, where, with a colleague, he developed the idea that became the annual winter train show. He then went to the Municipal Art Society.