Patrick names outsider as chief of staff

Governor-elect Deval L. Patrick announced yesterday that Joan Wallace-Benjamin, chief executive officer of The Home for Little Wanderers and former head of the Urban League of Massachusetts, will be his chief of staff, one of the most powerful positions on his emerging State House team.

Wallace-Benjamin, 53, has years of nonprofit service and a doctorate in public policy but no experience in the rough and tumble of Massachusetts politics. She said yesterday that she had the skills to help steer Patrick's agenda.

"I think the challenges I've met running pretty significant nonprofits [such as] the Urban League had political dynamics to it, as does The Home for Little Wanderers," Wallace-Benjamin said in a conference call yesterday with reporters. "Political -- big P, little P -- . . . working with people moving an agenda forward have all been part of what I've done."

She started immediately, joining Patrick yesterday on a trip to West Virginia for a National Governors Association conference that takes place this weekend.

The appointment is the latest indication that Patrick and his campaign team will rely heavily on people outside political circles in building the state's first Democratic administration in 16 years. The selection of Wallace-Benjamin, who is black, also further signals that Patrick intends to fulfill a pledge to build a diverse leadership team.

Patrick also announced yesterday that Ben Clements, a former federal prosecutor in Boston who worked as legal adviser for the Patrick campaign, would be his chief legal counsel. Patrick also named a 24-member transition team, including a fourth to help chair it, Kristin Demong, who worked in the administration of former governor Michael S. Dukakis and helped raise money for Patrick's gubernatorial bid.

The transition team includes Charlotte Golar Richie, director of Boston's Department of Neighborhood Development; Robert Reynolds, vice chairman and chief operating officer at Fidelity Investments who was a finalist this summer for NFL commissioner; Kathleen Kelley, former president of the American Federation of Teachers Massachusetts; and Patricia McGovern, a former Senate Ways and Means Committee chairwoman now an executive at Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center.

Patrick said that while he's seeking input from the Legislature before he takes office, he intentionally did not name any current legislators to the transition team.

"I did not think, and do not think, that appointing sitting elected officials to the transition committee is very helpful, because the one you appoint is happy and the ones you don't are not," he said.

Wallace-Benjamin, who graduated from Wellesley College and earned a doctorate in policy from Brandeis University, has led The Home for Little Wanderers, New England's largest human services agency, since February 2003. She headed the Urban League from 1989 to 2000 and has worked as the director of operations for the Boys and Girls Clubs of Boston and as a consultant with Whitehead Mann, an international executive recruitment firm.

In general, the chief of staff runs the day-to-day operation of the governor's office, helping to set his schedule, shape policy, make major personnel decisions, and craft his message to the media.

Patrick transition officials did not say how much Wallace-Benjamin will earn. Beth Myers, Governor Mitt Romney's former chief of staff, was paid roughly $125,000 a year.

"I am honored and flattered for the opportunity to serve the Commonwealth and to work with the governor," Wallace-Benjamin said yesterday. "The campaign was an inspiration. I've known Deval for over 15 years. Our governor is open, honest, a man of integrity, and, frankly, very smart."

Patrick recalled that he met Wallace-Benjamin at a party and that he and his family have known her socially for several years. He said he also encountered her when he was active in civil rights issues and she headed the Urban League.

She said she informed the staff at The Home for Little Wanderers she was leaving yesterday morning, and that there "was a roomful of tears, both mine and others."

John Hailer, chairman of the board of directors at The Home for Little Wanderers, said Wallace-Benjamin is a gifted executive who established a new unit at the agency dedicated to accountability. Under her leadership, he said, the agency put an emphasis on evaluating specific results of its programs.

"She's a firm believer in 'you can't manage if you can't measure,' " Hailer said. "She wouldn't just spend money on a program. You'd have to say, 'OK, this is why it's going to help . . . and this is the payback.' "

George A. Russell Jr., who was chairman of the board at the Urban League during Wallace-Benjamin's tenure, said she had vision and superior management skills. Despite her lack of political experience, Russell said, she has developed sharp elbows in her many years in civic life.

"I will tell everybody: Don't underestimate Joan Wallace-Benjamin in that regard," said Russell, executive vice president at State Street Corp. and president of the State Street Foundation. "She's tough-minded. She's not a political novice."

Patrick called Wallace-Benjamin "a person I trust and respect."

"She will tell me candidly and honestly what I need to know to be an effective governor, and she will manage the team that we are composing together very, very well," he said.

Patrick called Clements, 41, who will be the governor's legal counsel, a personal confidant whom he consulted when first deciding to mount a campaign for governor.

"He brings a strong personal and professional relationship to the governor . . . and has a very, very strong ethical core," said Patrick, who met Clements when both worked at the law firm Hill & Barlow in the 1990s.

Former US attorney Donald Stern, for whom Clements worked as a prosecutor, described him yesterday as a lawyer of "impeccable integrity and excellent judgment."

Patrick's transition team -- which, in addition to Demong, is chaired by former Weld administration official Gloria Larson, banker Ronald Homer, and lawyer Michael Angelina of Worcester -- will include Zamia Arenas , a marketing and media expert with Argus Communications, a Latino-owned firm specializing in multicultural marketing. Arenas is also a trustee of the Boston Public Library.

The team also includes Leveret Wing, an Asian-American community activist who worked for former Senate president Thomas F. Birmingham and started the Massachusetts Younger Asian American Caucus; Michael Grunion, president of SEIU Local 509, whose members include state human services workers; and Greg Torres, chairman of the board of directors of the MENTOR Network in Boston and the staff director for McGovern when she served in the state Senate.

The transition team has a website, patrickmurraytransition.org, where job applicants can submit resumes and residents can share suggestions about state government.

Several of Patrick's top campaign aides will play key roles during the transition, including campaign manager John Walsh, who will serve as transition director.

The Globe reported earlier this week that Patrick had wanted his senior campaign strategist, Doug Rubin, to be chief of staff, but that Rubin was reluctant to take the post.

Wallace's appointment means that Rubin is likely to remain outside state government.

Estes can be reached at estes@globe.com; Helman at shelman@globe.com.