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Segun Idowu, prominent economic leader in Wu administration, is stepping down
Idowu, a key figure in City Hall, said that he is resigning to care for his aging grandmother.
Segun Idowu, a notable member of Boston Mayor Michelle Wu’s leadership team, is stepping down from his role in City Hall.
Idowu has served as the city’s chief of economic opportunity and inclusion since early 2022. His last day will be Feb. 27. Idowu said in a statement this week that he is leaving the Wu administration in order to care for his aging grandmother.
“For the last 1,477 days, I have had the privilege of serving the city I grew up in as the Chief of Economic Opportunity and Inclusion. During this time, my 98-year old grandmother has been rapidly declining, leaving me as the only family member in the city to take care of her,” he said. “After 4 years, having to balance her care with the duties of my office has taken its toll. Therefore, I have made the difficult decision to step away from my role and to fully focus on her well-being in this final stretch of her life.”
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Idowu is a Boston native who graduated from Morehouse College in Atlanta, where he began organizing protests against police violence. After moving back to Boston, Idowu helped form a group that led the push to get Boston police officers to wear body cameras.
Idowu served as the leader of the Black Economic Council of Massachusetts prior to joining the Wu administration, advocating for Black businesses across the state. He oversaw a 300% membership growth there, earning praise for expanding the organization’s scope and public voice in the aftermath of the murder of George Floyd.
When he assumed his current role, Idowu was tasked with leading Boston’s economic recovery in the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic. He spearheaded the creation of the SPACE grant program, which used federal funds to help small business owners secure new retail spaces. Idowu advocated for the creation of hundreds of new liquor licenses for restaurants, helped boost the number of contracts awarded to minority-owned businesses, and attracted major businesses to Boston like Lego and Hasbro.
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Idowu also served as a crucial liaison between Wu and the city’s Black leaders during the mayor’s first term.
Wu praised Idowu in a statement.
“Under Chief Idowu’s leadership, Boston’s neighborhoods have become more vibrant, inclusive, and connected. Over the last four years, his efforts helped transform systems and make opportunities accessible to all, from filling vacant storefronts through innovative programs to support local businesses, to boosting supplier diversity in City contracting and bolstering wealth building and entrepreneurship throughout Boston’s neighborhoods and Downtown,” Wu said. “His work has helped Boston rebound from the pandemic as a thriving city where companies and their employees want to work and live. I’m thankful for his service to the city of Boston and dedication to our community.”
Rumors had been swirling in recent weeks that Idowu was growing discontent with Wu’s leadership after two incidents: the election of Liz Breadon as City Council president over Brian Worrell with the backing of Wu allies and the death of a laboratory and affordable housing project in Roxbury, Boston Globe columnist Shirley Leung reported.
Idowu told Leung that these were not factors in his departure and that he had communicated to Wu a year ago that he would likely not serve out a full second term with her.
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Wu stood by Idowu last year, when he became wrapped up in a controversy involving City Hall staffers. The two staffers, who were in a relationship, were arrested and fired after a domestic incident. One of them has since claimed that she was fired to protect Idowu and is suing the city and Wu. Idowu allegedly propositioned her despite knowing that he was one of her boyfriend’s superiors in City Hall.
Idowu has denied any misconduct, and an outside investigation found no instances of wrongdoing. He told Globe columnist Adrian Walker this week that the incident played no role in his decision to step down.
“If I was going to leave as a result of all that, I would have left when it was all happening. But, I had no desire to go anywhere, and the mayor had no desire for me to go anywhere, because I did nothing wrong,” he said.
Idowu did not rule out the possibility that he might run for political office in the future but also said that he “doesn’t need elected office” to make Boston a better place. In 2018, Idowu unsuccessfully ran to represent a district that includes Hyde Park in the Massachusetts House of Representatives.
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In his statement, Idowu praised those he worked with and highlighted some of his major achievements over the past four years.
“As a son of Boston, it has been the honor of my life to bring about the type of change I have wanted to see,” he said. “Alongside the best team of public servants, I appreciated the opportunity to lead efforts to double the value of city contracts awarded to diverse firms, launch innovative programs like the ARPA-funded SPACE program, secure and disperse the largest amount of liquor licenses since Prohibition, establish the most expansive Legacy Business program in the nation, and play a role in attracting global companies like LEGO, Hasbro, and QBlox as new neighbors.”
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