NJ F1 race chief takes another job

Dennis Robinson, who served more than five years overseeing the Meadowlands Sports Complex, has been named as chief of staff to NJ Lt. Gov. Kim Guadagno.

Robinson, a Ridgewood resident, was the New Jersey Sports and Exposition Authority president for the last 18 months of a 10-year stint at the agency from 1990-99. He spent the next eight years as a senior executive with the National Basketball Association before returning to the sports authority for a four-year second term as its president until 2011.

After that departure, Robinson became chief operating officer for the Formula 1 Grand Prix of America, a group that had sought to produce a major auto race in 2013 on the streets of Weehawken adjacent to the Hudson River. A lack of funding and environmental permitting issues led to numerous delays, however, lessening the likelihood that the race will ever take place.

Robinson followed in the footsteps of his mentor, Robert E. Mulcahy III, who spent two decades running the sports authority before becoming athletic director at Rutgers University in 1998. After returning to the authority in 2007, Robinson oversaw a scaling-down of the once-powerful agency that has continued under successor Wayne Hasenbalg.

As Guadagno's chief of staff, Robinson is responsible for managing her role both as lieutenant governor and secretary of state, according to the website of Governor Christie's office. Robinson declined a request for comment.