Thursday, September 2 2010

Errol Cockfield, who was born in Guyana and also lived in Trinidad before emigrating to the US at age 10, will run communications for Democrats in the New York State Senate, beginning early September.

Senator John Sampson, the Democrat Majority Conference Leader, who also has Guyanese heritage, has recruited the 36 year-old Cockfield as Communications Director of the Senate Democratic Majority. Cockfield holds a Bachelor’s in English with a minor in Journalism from SUNY Stony Brook and went on to head Newsday’s Albany Bureau and worked as a staff writer at the Los Angeles Times.

In recent years, he served as chief spokesperson and advisor for Governor David Paterson and his predecessor, Eliot Spitzer during the largest fiscal downturn in state history. During this two-year assignment, he provided steady crisis management leadership during the historic transition from Spitzer to Paterson. In his new role, Cockfield will not only handle the communications needs of Senator Sampson, but will also serve the other members of the Democratic majority in Albany.

Cockfield has also served as press secretary at the Empire State Development Corporation. He joins Senator Sampson from the Lower Manhattan Development Corporation where he currently works as Vice President for Communications and Community Affairs.