Born at the local Brigham and Women’s Hospital, Daniel Arrigg Koh ’03 grew up loving all things Boston. Now, more than ever, he can truly call Boston his city. Koh was appointed Chief of Staff for Boston’s new Mayor Martin “Marty” Walsh on January 4.
The announcement of Koh’s appointment was the first from the Walsh administration, which took office on January 6.
“The mayor called me with the offer, and I knew there were many people up for consideration, so I accepted on the spot. It was such an amazing opportunity to make a difference in my city,” said Koh.
As Chief of Staff to Mayor Walsh, Koh will be responsible for overseeing the city of Boston and its employees, helping to run the city and directly advising Mayor Walsh.
“The Mayor day-to-day has a vision that he wants to execute, and he also wants someone to advise him on the issues he’s facing any given day. It’s a lot, but it’s an honor and it’s fun,” said Koh. “The best part of the Walsh administration is that [Walsh is] very committed to openness and very committed to working with the City Council,” he continued.
With the Walsh administration, Koh hopes to tackle a number of prevalent issues in Boston. He cities education as a top priority, along with retaining highly-skilled college graduates in the city.
Prior to becoming Chief of Staff, Koh was the General Manager of HuffPost Live, a live-streaming network run by “The Huffington Post.” Koh will use this background in social media both to monitor the pulse of the city and deliver updates to Bostonians.
“[Social media] allows me to have a real-time pulse of the city by tracking activity on social media mediums such as Twitter. In addition, we can use social media to better inform the people of Boston,” said Koh.
Koh said of this time at Andover, “I think that Andover is almost a microcosm for Boston. It’s an incredibly diverse group of people who really care about each other. I very much identify with the culture of Andover because of the way I think Bostonians are.”
Koh’s advice to Andover students is to pursue unique experiences and not follow what others are doing. He thinks that students who are enthusiastic to learn and be a part of a community should consider futures in public service.
“I think there’s no more noble or more interesting opportunity than to dedicate all your mental energy into how to make a society, or in this case, a city, better,” said Koh.
While in college Koh worked as an intern for Senator Edward Kennedy. Koh then worked as an advisor to Boston’s former mayor, Tom Menino, from 2011 to 2012, as a Leadership Fellow at Harvard Business School.
Before being names Walsh’s Chief of Staff, Koh served as Chief of Staff to Arianna Huffington at the Huffington Post, where he also worked as General Manager. Koh is leaving his position at the Huffington Post to join the Walsh administration.
“I’m very sad to leave. Arianna [Huffington] has been an incredible mentor to me, as has Roy Sekoff, who is the president of HuffPost Live,” said Koh.
Koh graduated from Harvard College with a bachelor’s degree in government and earned an MBA from Harvard Business School.
