Former Paul LePage adviser shall be Maine chamber’s subsequent CEO
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AUGUSTA, Maine — A member of a widely known household who suggested former Gov. Paul LePage on vitality coverage would be the subsequent chief of the Maine State Chamber of Commerce.
Patrick Woodcock, who led the governor’s vitality workplace from 2013 to 2016 and not too long ago served in an analogous Massachusetts place, shall be introduced because the chamber’s new chief on Thursday, in keeping with sources accustomed to the choice. A chamber spokesperson didn’t instantly reply to a request for remark.
Woodcock will hope to offer stability on the prime of Maine’s largest business group. Longtime chief Dana Connors retired on the finish of 2022, and Julia Munsey, his substitute as CEO, lasted just a few months earlier than resigning attributable to private causes in June.
Even a number of months is a very long time to go with no everlasting chief at a big group just like the chamber, which lobbies on behalf of a large and sophisticated constituency of 5,000 companies in Augusta and works intently with governors and the congressional delegation.
The chamber is conservative on financial points, usually main the struggle in opposition to Democratic efforts to extend the minimal wage and increase unions. Nevertheless it additionally helps initiatives aimed toward rising the workforce by supporting immigrants, which has drawn criticism from hard-line conservatives.
Since Gov. Janet Mills and Democrats took management of Augusta within the 2018 election, the chamber has maintained a big stage of affect. It labored with Mills to craft a paid depart compromise with progressives in 2019, though it broke with the governor earlier than she signed a sweeping paid household and medical depart program into legislation this 12 months.
Although he labored for the stridently conservative LePage, Woodcock is consistent with the center-right orientation of the chamber. He was revered throughout celebration strains in that position and later labored underneath average former Massachusetts Gov. Charlie Baker. Woodcock left his place as commissioner of the Division of Vitality Sources there this 12 months.
Patrick Woodcock’s father, John A. Woodcock Jr., is a semi-retired federal choose who was born in Bangor to a distinguished physician. The household has produced extra attorneys and others who’ve been lively in civic life.
