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6 n e w h a v e n B I Z | M a r c h 2 0 2 0 | n e w h a v e n b i z . c o m By Michael C. Bingham O N T H E R E C O R D | Q & A Can DECD's new sheriff restore Hartford's credibility with the business community? I n December Gov. Ned Lamont named David Lehman, 42, of Greenwich to head the Department of Economic & Community Development — the state's top economic post and point person to restore confidence in state government on the part of the business community — a group that under the Malloy administration had often felt like a pin cushion for policies that seemed David Lehman Commisioner, Department of Economic & Community Development New Player, New Playbook uniquely craed to drive them out of Connecticut. Lamont's chose Lehman, a registered Republican, to add some Wall Street cred to his administration. His private-sector bona fides are unassailable: a 15-year career at Goldman Sachs, most recently as global head of real estate finance for the investment- banking behemoth. Lehman has made stabilizing the state's fiscal situation, improving infrastructure, workforce development and retooling Connecticut's economic- incentives approach to business attraction and retention the cornerstone of the Lamont administration's new economic playbook. What's a nice Republican like you doing in an administration like this? I spent 20 years in the private sector focused on financial markets and real estate. I've been a Con- necticut resident for a little over 10 years now. Having seen the state's economic performance and some of the fiscal issues that the state is trying to overcome, I wanted to see if I could help. I thought I could be useful to Gov. Lamont, so I raised my hand. At the time I didn't know what DECD was or what it did — didn't even know the acronym. What was your understanding of what the challenge of this position was? To assist the governor in getting Connecticut growing again. e three easiest metrics [by which to measure that] are GDP, income

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