Secretary Bowles Announces Management Team for Energy and Environment

BOSTON–Friday, January 5, 2007–Secretary of Energy and Environmental Affairs Ian Bowles today announced additions to the management team at the Executive Office of Energy and Environmental Affairs.

Bowles has selected as Chief of Staff Jane Corr, who will focus on intergovernmental relations, serve as liaison to the governor’s office and oversee management of the Secretariat. Philip Griffiths will be Undersecretary for Environment and will play a lead role for the Secretariat on management with the state’s four environmental agencies and with implementing the Administration’s environmental agenda. David Cash will be Assistant Secretary for Policy, working on the development of policy initiatives across the environmental and energy domains. And Robert Keough will serve as Assistant Secretary for Communications and Public Affairs, managing strategic communications and overseeing media relations. Bowles had previously selected Ann Berwick, an environmental consultant and lawyer, to be Undersecretary of Energy.

“This management team represents a dynamic mix of agency experience and new perspectives,’ said Secretary Bowles. “I’m confident that this team will be highly effective in assisting me and Governor Patrick as we work to restore Massachusetts’s national leadership role on environmental protection and energy policy.”

Corr comes to the Executive Office of Energy and Environmental Affairs from the Deval Patrick Committee and the Patrick/Murray Transition Committee, where she was Deputy Finance Director, Special Projects Manager for the Field Department, and Deputy Transition Director. Corr practiced law at Lyne, Woodworth and Evarts in Boston and then worked on community and civic projects while raising her family. She holds a bachelor’s degree in economics from the College of the Holy Cross and a law degree from Cornell Law School. She lives in Winchester with her husband, Jim Wall, and their three children, Kevin, Colin, and Kate.

Griffiths is a Department of Environmental Protection career professional and currently serves as Acting Chief of Staff for the Executive Office of Environmental Affairs. In 10 years at DEP he held a variety of positions, including Assistant Commissioner and Chief of Staff. He holds a master’s degree in city and regional planning from the University of California at Berkeley and a bachelor’s degree in history from Tufts University. Griffiths lives with his wife, Maura Smith, in Watertown.

Cash most recently served as Director of Air, Energy & Waste Policy at the Executive Office of Environmental Affairs. Prior to EOEA he taught Environmental Science and Public Policy at Harvard and was a Research Associate at the Kennedy School of Government, where he earned a Ph.D. in public policy. He received an MAT in science education from Lewis and Clark College and a BS in biology from Yale University. Cash lives in Newton with his wife, Annie Weiss, a psychotherapist, and daughters Sophie and Eliza.

Keough is currently editor of CommonWealth, the quarterly magazine of politics, ideas, and civic life in Massachusetts published by MassINC, of which Bowles was formerly publisher. A veteran journalist, he has been news editor of the Worcester Phoenix, the Providence Phoenix, and state government reporter for the Boston Business Journal. His articles have appeared in The Boston Globe, Governing magazine, The New Republic Online, Education Week, and other publications. Keough is a graduate of Brown University. He lives in Brookline with his wife, Susan Goldberger. They have two daughters, Nina and Emma.

Secretary Bowles has also named three agency professionals to serve as acting commissioners for environmental departments under EOEEA.

Priscilla Geigis will be acting commissioner of the Department of Conservation and Recreation, where she is currently Director of the Division of State Parks and Recreation. Since 1992, Geigis has served in a variety of positions in the state’s environmental agencies, including Deputy General Counsel and Director of Community Preservation at the Executive Office of Environmental Affairs and Deputy General Counsel at the Department of Fisheries, Wildlife, and Environmental Law Enforcement (now the Department of Fish and Game). She holds a master’s degree in government administration and a juris doctor degree.

Scott Soares will be acting commissioner of the Department of Agricultural Resources. A marine biologist by training, he has served in a variety of positions at DAR since 1996, beginning as the state’s first Aquaculture Director.

Thomas French will serve as acting commissioner of the Department of Fish and Game, where he is currently Director of the Natural Heritage and Endangered Species Program. A 12-year veteran of the department, French holds degrees in biology and zoology, as well as a Ph.D. in ecology and systematics.

In addition, Arleen O’Donnell, who is currently acting commissioner of the Department of Environmental Protection, will continue to serve as acting commissioner.