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Suffolk City Manager Albert Moor II on Tuesday appointed two long-time staff members as deputy city managers effective Aug. 22.

Kevin Hughes, initially appointed as acting deputy city manager effective Nov. 12, 2020, was previously the director of economic development, and served in that role since February 2010.

Hughes first joined the Suffolk team in 2005 as a senior business development manager, and has assisted more than 500 projects totaling more than $1 billion in capital investment and over 7,000 new jobs in the city. Hughes’ responsibilities also included the supervision of the Division of Tourism and the Suffolk Executive Airport, as well as serving as the deputy secretary treasurer for the Suffolk Economic Development Authority.

Hughes received his Bachelor of Arts degree from James Madison University and has completed the Economic Development Institute at the University of Oklahoma. Hughes was named as a national recipient of the economic development industry’s “40 under 40” award from Development Counselors International.

Azeez Felder was initially appointed as acting chief of staff effective Jan. 1, 2021, and the position was reclassified during the July 7, 2021, City Council meeting to deputy city manager.

Felder previously served as the director of the Suffolk Department of Social Services since June 2013. Felder has more than 30 years of experience in the human services field, which includes 14 years of working for the Administration for Children’s Services in New York City. Upon relocating to Virginia, Felder served as the Child Protective Services Sexual Abuse Unit Supervisor for the Chesapeake Department of Human Services. For more than 16 years, he served the citizens of Suffolk in various supervisory and administrative capacities while at the department. In 2008, he was selected as the assistant director of financial services and was responsible for Social Services Benefit Programs, the Workforce Development Center, and all local CPS appeals as the local appeals hearing officer. Under his leadership in 2011 and 2012, the Suffolk DSS Benefit Program area was named among the Top 15 Best-In-Class Social Service agencies out of 120 in the Commonwealth, and one of the top five in the state among large agencies.

Felder entered college at age 16, and completed his Bachelor of Arts degree in psychology at Binghamton University in upstate New York and earned his Master of Arts degree in industrial and organizational psychology at Brooklyn College at age 22.