Gov. Inslee announces new leaders for DOT, Revenue

Governor Jay Inslee Tuesday announced his appointments to head the departments of Transportation, Revenue and Financial Institutions as well as his choice of a new General Counsel.

Inslee appointed Lynn Peterson to serve as Secretary of the Washington State Department of Transportation (WSDOT). Peterson, a former highway engineer, currently serves as the Sustainable Communities and Transportation Advisor to Oregon Governor John Kitzhaber. Peterson helped manage several of Oregon’s statewide transportation initiatives including the Willamette Valley Passenger Rail Plan, Kitzhaber’s 10-year Energy Action Plan including Oregon’s portion of the Electric Highway from B.C. to Baja and acceleration of commercial fleet turnover to alternative fuels, and more.

Peterson replaces Paula Hammond, who served as Secretary of WSDOT for nearly six years.

Inslee appointed bank executive Carol Kobuke Nelson to lead the Department of Revenue. Nelson has more than 25 years of executive experience in the banking sector, including at Bank of America, Cascade Financial Corporation and Opus Bank. For five consecutive years she was named one of the nation’s “25 Most Powerful Women and Women to Watch in Banking.”

Scott Jarvis was reappointed as Director of the Department of Financial Institutions where he has served since 2005. DFI is responsible for regulating Washington’s financial service providers including banks, credit unions, the state’s securities industry, and other lenders.

Inslee also announced that he is appointing Nicholas Brown to be his new General Counsel, providing legal counsel to the Office of the Governor. Brown currently works for the U.S. Attorney’s Office as an Assistant U.S. Attorney in the Terrorist & Violent Crimes Division. An experienced trial attorney, Brown has extensive practice trying firearms cases, violent crimes, and offenses arising from local Indian Reservations. Brown previously worked as a JAG attorney for the U.S. Army, which included a year of service in Iraq in 2005. He earned his J.D. at Harvard Law School.