Gov. Mitt Romney has appointed a senior lecturer in the Sloan School of Management to serve as Massachusetts secretary for environmental affairs. Ellen Roy, 43, joined Romney's executive cabinet last week.
"It all happened so quickly. This is an exciting opportunity to maintain and to improve on the leadership Massachusetts already provides in stewardship of our natural resources," Roy said.
Roy began teaching at the MIT Entrepreneurship Center in the Sloan School in spring 2002, and she is still "looking forward to teaching the spring's course, 'Entrepreneurs in High Technology, IT, Energy and Biotechnology,'" she said.
Romney made a "very compelling case for taking this appointment. His vision is to make environmental management and economic development work together. That's a goal we share," said Roy.
ENERGY BUSINESS EXPERIENCE
Roy is an experienced manager and energy-business innovator; she is a founder and a former owner and senior manager of the International Energy Co., an electric generation supply company that owned and operated electric power plants. International Energy was sold to Florida Power and Light in 1998.
"It was a very green company. I was very conscious of the environmental impact of the energy business," said Roy, an outdoor enthusiast.
Roy received the B.A. from Harvard University, the M.P.P. from the Kennedy School of Government and the M.B.A. from Sloan. She lives in Cohasset with her husband and their two children.
A version of this article appeared in MIT Tech Talk on January 8, 2003.
