Thursday, 4:30 PM
Patrick names energy and housing secretaries
(Tom Landers for The Boston Globe/file)
Governor-elect Deval L. Patrick today named Ian Bowles his Secretary of Energy and Environmental Affairs.
By Andrew Ryan, Globe Correspondent
Governor-elect Deval L. Patrick this afternoon announced the appointment of two key cabinet posts, naming a fellow former Clinton administration official to be the energy and environment secretary, and tapping a real estate developer to head up housing and economic affairs.
Ian Bowles, the current President and CEO of MassINC. and publisher of CommonWealth magazine, will be Patrick's Secretary of Energy and Environmental Affairs. The Cape Cod native served as the Associate Director of the White House Council on Environmental Quality under President Bill Clinton.
For Secretary of Housing and Economic Development, Patrick chose Dan O'Connell, an attorney and Executive Vice President with Meredith & Grew's Development and Advisory Services Group. O'Connell was the Director of Planning and Development for the Massachusetts Port Authority and served as chief of staff to Congressman Ed Markey.
"Energy independence is going to be a top focus in the coming years, and we need coordination to achieve smarter energy outcomes and protect our environment," said Patrick in a statement. "Similarly, we need close coordination between housing and economic policy because so many workers are unable to afford to live in Massachusetts."
The appointments are the second and third cabinet slots filed by the incoming administration.
In the official announcement, Bowles said: "We have an extraordinary opportunity to build on our state's rich history of leadership on the environment—and chart a balanced, new long-term path toward a clean energy future."
Bowles has an economics degree from Harvard College and a Masters degree from Oxford University, where he remains an adjunct faculty member at the graduate school of the Environment and Geography. He also serves on the Board of Overseers of the Museum of Science, where he chairs a committee on green building issues, and is an advisor to several clean energy technology companies.
O'Connell also went to Harvard College and earned a degree from Harvard Law School. With Massport, he oversaw the completion of the 10-acre Piers Park on Boston Harbor. As a developer, he has also supervised several large-scale projects, including North Point in Boston, Cambridge, and Somerville, and the Puerto Rico Convention Center District Authority.
"It is our hope that an increased focus on housing will help the Commonwealth retain and attract the best and brightest we have to offer," O'Connell said in a statement.
To read the official announcement, click here.
