Charlie Baker announces transition team leaders

Massachusetts Gov.-elect Charlie Baker announced Monday his appointment of Matt Beaton as secretary of the Massachusetts Executive Office of Energy and Environmental Affairs, according to a Monday press release.

“[Massachusetts] Representative Matt Beaton has the right experience to carry out our administration’s green energy initiatives and to protect the Commonwealth’s open spaces,” Baker said in the release. “Through greater efficiency and a diversified approach, we can bring down the cost of energy and reduce our carbon footprint. Representative Beaton’s leadership will be vital to accomplish these ambitious goals and all of the office’s charges.”

Beaton’s role will include pushing the Commonwealth to be more energy efficient, and to also spearhead the administration’s conservation and outdoor recreation efforts, according to the release.

Baker on Thursday also announced the names of his appointed leaders to various transition committees focused on human resources, the State of the State and five additional advisory committees.

“I am honored to serve as chair of the team, and today is a major step toward hitting the ground running in January,” said Massachusetts Lt. Gov.-elect Karyn Polito, who is chairing the transition team, in a Thursday press release. “Consistent with our bipartisan and idea-driven campaign, the transition team is tackling hugely important and specific policy areas vital to the success of Massachusetts as a Commonwealth.”

Baker appointed a team that will inspect a variety of cabinet positions within the state government, said John Carroll, a professor of mass communication at Boston University.

“A transition team is basically an organizing tool for the governor-elect to try to get his administration in some kind of working order in advance of taking office,” he said. “So the better the transition team works, the smoother the transition goes.”

Linda Carlisle, former commissioner of the Massachusetts Department of Social Services, now the Department of Children and Families, and Michael O’Brien, executive vice president at WinnCompanies and former city manager of Worcester, are co-chairs of the State of the State committee.

The State of the State committee will oversee state government operations and progress within the Commonwealth.

“Charlie Baker is doing something a bit different here,” Carroll said. “Normally, the transition team is structured along the lines of cabinet secretaries. You have someone for finance, someone for transportation. You have different people who are going to focus on specific areas of state government. What Charlie Baker has done is create some sort of umbrella group that is looking at areas of the state government that he wants to influence.”

Deb Hicks, chief human resources officer at the Dana-Farber Cancer Institute, and Danroy Henry Sr., chief HR officer at Bright Horizons, will chair the HR Committee.

In addition to these transition committees, there will be five advisory committees: the Better Government, Community, Schools, Healthcare and Jobs and the Economy Committees.

“What he’s trying to do is to have a comprehensive approach to forming a government and administration,” Carroll said. “It looks like he’s moving in the right direction, but the only way to know that is to look back 6 months in the future.”

Stephen Goldsmith, Daniel Paul professor of the practice of government and the director of the Innovations in Government program at the John F. Kennedy School of Government, along with Steve Poftak, executive director of the Rappaport Institute for Greater Boston at the Harvard Kennedy School, will lead the Better Government Committee. Robert Lewis Jr., who works with urban youth to combat violence, and Chrystal Kornegay, president and CEO at Urban Edge, are in charge of Community.

Fred Bayles, a BU journalism professor and director of the BU State House Program, said he expects Baker’s transition team will play a role in helping Baker prepare for a successful term.

“He’s sort of a centrist,” he said. “He’s bringing in a number of Democrats. He’s bringing in a number of people he’s worked with, and that’s not unusual either. The thing to remember is that Baker has worked through two gubernatorial administrations, so he knows his way around the organization of the executive office. I’m not surprised by anything I see here. It’s what’s to be expected. They’re looking at the standard stuff that any transition team would be looking at.”

Chancellor Marty Meehan, from the University of Massachusetts-Lowell, is chairing the Schools committee along with Beth Anderson, founder and CEO of the Phoenix Charter Academy Network.

The chairs of the Healthcare committee are Deborah Enos, who works with the Board of Directors and the Senior Leadership Team, and Keith Hovan, president and CEO of Southcoast Health System, Inc. and Southcoast Hospitals Group, Inc.

“There’s a lot of details to look at and be decided on well in advance to Charlie Baker moving into office,” Bayles said. “Basically consider this hiring a whole bunch of people to help you cram for a test. They’ll come across some things they’ll think are weird and want to change.”

Finally, leading the Jobs and the Economy committee are Jay Ash, the longest-serving city manager of Chelsea; Karen Kaplan, CEO of Hill Holiday and whom Business Insider and Advertising Age has declared one of the most influential women in advertising; and Roger Crandall, chairman, president and CEO of Massachusetts Mutual Life Insurance Company.

Several students and residents were divided on which issues should be the primary focus of Baker’s team.

Chelsea Beytas, a senior in Sargent College of Health and Rehabilitation Sciences, said the diversity of expertise on the governor-elect’s transition team should be beneficial.

“If you know the scope of the issues, it’s easier to address and change them positively,” she said. “If the governor is spending less time learning about the issues, then he has more time to be productive.”

Scott McGowan, 24, of Fenway, said there are certain areas he believes Baker’s administration should be paying more attention to.

“I’m a little biased for education because I come from a family of teachers, but I think education is definitely an underrated one,” he said. “I’m all about bipartisanship, and the fact that he’s trying to reach across the aisle is encouraging to hear. It’s a big issue, and it’s getting more difficult in today’s government.”