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BOSTON (State House News Service) — About three weeks from her swearing-in, Governor-elect Maura Healey began assembling her senior staff Tuesday, naming her chief of staff and first Cabinet secretariat.
First Assistant Attorney General Kate Cook was named chief of staff and Matt Gorzkowicz secretary of administration and finance.
Healey also appointed Gabrielle Viator, chief deputy attorney general, as her senior advisor.
"Gabe has been a close and trusted advisor to me for many years, and I'm thrilled to have her guidance with us in the Governor's Office," Healey said in a statement. "She has outstanding legal and policy experience, a strong commitment to public service and a passion for teamwork, all of which will be invaluable for our team."
Cook and Gorzkowicz both have built long careers in government, and both worked for former Gov. Deval Patrick.
Gorzkowicz has worked for more than a decade at UMass, where he is associate vice president for administration and finance. He previously worked as budget director in the Senate Ways and Means Committee (2001-2004), the state Department of Mental Health, as CFO at the Mass. School Building Authority, and as assistant secretary for budget in the Executive Office of Administration and Finance, a secretariat he will now lead. In 1995 and 1996, Gorzkowicz got his Beacon Hill career started as an aide to former Sen. Robert Wetmore.
A graduate of Harvard University and Brown University, Cook previously worked for seven years at Sugarman Rogers, chairing its government law and election law practice groups. In Patrick's administration, she worked as chief legal counsel, and she has also worked as general counsel to the Senate Ways and Means Committee (2010) and assistant corporation counsel to the City of Boston from 2003 until early 2007.
Viator also has ties to Beacon Hill. She was a top aide to Tom McGee of Lynn when he served in the House and then the Senate. She then worked for three years as a litigation associate at Ropes & Gray before joining the attorney general's office in 2009. A 2000 Boston College graduate, she earned her law degree over four years attending "evening division" courses at Suffolk University Law School.
According to Healey's transition team, Viator lives in Beverly with her husband and two daughters, Gorzkowicz lives in Winthrop with his wife and two children, and Cook lives in Marblehead with her husband and daughter.
Written by Michael Norton/SHNS
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