To the people of the Commonwealth, above all, especially
those whose lives have been turned upside down by this economy,
you are not powerless. And you are not alone.
"Be angry, but channel it in a positive direction, it's easy to
be against things. It takes tough-mindedness and courage to be
for something.''
Governor Deval Patrick
Governor Deval Patrick was elected in November of 2006, bringing
a broad range of leadership experience at the top levels of
business, government, and non-profits. Hoping for the best and
working for it, as his grandmother used to counsel him, his life
has traced a trajectory from the South Side of Chicago to the
U.S. Justice Department, Fortune 500 boardrooms, and now the
Massachusetts State House.
Over the course of his first term, Governor Patrick worked with
the Legislature to preserve marriage equality, position
Massachusetts as a global leader in clean energy, and pass a
10-year, $1 billion package to promote the state's life sciences
industry. He has taken on reforms that have been talked about
for decades, such as replacing costly police details with
civilian flaggers at state construction sites, introducing
competition to the state’s auto insurance market, and
eliminating the Turnpike Authority.
Governor Patrick has also signed into law four major reform
bills, including education reform to improve public schools and
close the achievement gap, pension reform that eliminates the
most egregious abuses and special perks from the state’s pension
system, transportation reform to streamline our transportation
bureaucracy and save millions, and the most sweeping ethics,
lobbying, and campaign finance reforms in years.
These reforms will help change the status quo and restore the
public’s trust in government. Additionally, Governor Patrick
continues to work to address an unprecedented global economic
collapse through responsible management of the state budget,
difficult choices, and a continued commitment to investing in
key areas that will create jobs, improve infrastructure and
strengthen Commonwealth for the long term.
Patrick came to Massachusetts in 1970 at the age of 14. An
excellent student despite the difficult circumstances of poor
and sometimes violent Chicago schools, he was awarded a
scholarship to Milton Academy through A Better Chance, a
Boston-based organization.
After graduating from Milton, Deval Patrick went on to Harvard,
the first in his family to attend college. He received his
degree, with honors, in 1978 and spent a post-graduate year
working on a United Nations youth training project in the Darfur
region of Sudan. He returned to Cambridge to attend Harvard Law
School in the fall of 1979, where he led the Legal Aid Bureau,
the nation's oldest student-run legal services organization, and
won the Ames Moot Court competition.
Following law school, Deval Patrick served as a law clerk to a
federal appellate judge before joining the NAACP Legal Defense
and Education Fund. In 1986, he joined the Boston law firm of
Hill & Barlow and was named partner in 1990, at the age of 34.
In 1994, President Clinton appointed Deval Patrick Assistant
Attorney General for Civil Rights, the nation's top civil rights
post. At the Justice Department, Patrick worked on a wide range
of issues, including prosecution of hate crimes and abortion
clinic violence, and enforcement of employment discrimination,
fair lending and disabilities rights laws. During his tenure,
Deval Patrick led the largest federal criminal investigation
before September 11th, coordinating state, local and federal
agencies to investigate church burnings throughout the South in
the mid-1990s.
Deval Patrick returned to private practice in 1997 with the
Boston firm of Day, Berry & Howard. That same year, he was
appointed by a federal district court to serve as the first
chairperson of Texaco's Equality and Fairness Task Force.
Working with employees at all levels, Patrick and his Task Force
examined and reformed Texaco's complex corporate employment
culture, and created a model for fostering an equitable
workplace. Patrick was hired by Texaco in 1999 to serve as Vice
President and General Counsel leading the company's global legal
affairs.
In 2001, Deval Patrick joined The Coca-Cola Company as Executive
Vice President and General Counsel. He was elected to the
additional role of Corporate Secretary in 2002, and served as
part of the company's senior leadership team as a member of the
Executive Committee.
Governor Patrick has served on numerous charitable and corporate
boards, as well as the Federal Election Reform Commission under
Presidents Carter and Ford, and as Vice Chair of the
Massachusetts Judicial Nominating Council by appointment of
Governor Weld. He is the recipient of numerous awards and
honorary degrees, and is a Henry Crown Fellow of the Aspen
Institute.
Diane and Deval Patrick have been married for more than
twenty-five years and have two adult daughters, Sarah and
Katherine. The Patrick family has lived in Milton, in a house on
Deval's high school paper route, for the last 20 years.
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