The Agency of Commerce and Community Development is bracing itself for the departure of its deputy secretary, Patricia Moulton Powden.
Moulton Powden has accepted the position of director of workforce development for the Brattleboro Development Credit Corp. (BDCC); at the end of 2013, she will take over as executive director.
Moulton Powden is leaving the agency after a lengthy stint in state government — prior to working for the Shumlin administration, she served as commissioner of Labor under the Douglas administration and was chair of both the Vermont Environmental Board and its reincarnation, the Vermont Natural Resources Board.
Moulton Powden said she had dropped a hint to Jeff Lewis, current executive director of BDCC, that she would be interested in the position if he retired, but she hadn’t expected an offer so promptly. “I frankly thought that might be a couple years from now… but it’s an opportunity that I really couldn’t pass up.”
Moulton Powden, who lives in Londonderry, said her two-hour commute to Montpelier was a major factor in her decision. “That’s been my dilemma. I absolutely love my work in state government but the geography has been the problem.”
Commerce Secretary Lawrence Miller said he had known Moulton Powden was eyeing the position, but, he added, “one would have preferred he [Jeff Lewis] waited a little longer.”
Moulton Powden was working as both the director of economic development and the deputy secretary, which makes the task of replacing her all the more difficult, Miller said.
“I started scrambling right away. … Obviously with her experience, you don’t replace that type of position quickly.” But Miller said he is optimistic that he can line up a replacement without a drawn-out search process. “There’s a number of very good prospects on my existing list so it won’t be a long process.”
Moulton Powden said she is leaving the agency on solid ground, though there several projects she would have liked to have seen further along. One is a cross-marketing arrangement with partners including the Department of Tourism and Marketing and Vermont Life magazine; another is a strategic economic planning effort for which the agency recently won a grant. Still, Moulton Powden said, she sees the transition as a “win-win situation.”
