Ken Girardin is a special advisor to the Empire Center, following several years of work guiding the organization’s research agenda and communications strategy. He joined the Manhattan Institute as a fellow in March 2025.
Ken’s work for the Empire Center included The Micron Test, which compared how New York treats large new business operations with those already here, and Green Guardrails, a critical analysis of New York’s 2019 Climate Leadership and Community Protection Act.
He previously worked with E.J. McMahon to produce the first independent analysis of New York’s property tax cap, which demonstrated the cap’s effectiveness and boosted efforts to extend the cap and ultimately make it permanent. He also authored The Janus Stakes, a quantitative analysis of the influence New York’s public-sector unions have over public policy in the Empire State.
Ken has a bachelor’s degree and a master’s degree in materials engineering from Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute (RPI) in Troy, New York. He was previously an aide in the New York State Legislature.
