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Updated: April 20, 2020 / 2020 Power 50

12: Paul Mounds and Josh Geballe

Paul Mounds, Chief of Staff, Gov. Ned Lamont

A new governor’s earliest hires are usually for consequential, inner-circle roles.

Among Gov. Ned Lamont’s initial batch of appointments in Dec. 2018, was Paul Mounds, who he named chief operating officer, a newly created government role envisioned as an overseer and coordinator of state agencies.

Josh Geballe, Chief Operating Officer, State of CT

Just over a month later, Lamont named software entrepreneur Josh Geballe as commissioner of the Department of Administrative Services, which, despite its dry name, is a crucial overseer of state contracts and purchasing.

Lamont would promote each man about 16 months later.

Mounds had reported to Lamont’s chief of staff Ryan Drajewicz, but in February, Drajewicz departed the administration and Lamont named Mounds as his successor, placing him in perhaps the most key paid role in the governor’s office.

Soon after, Lamont tapped Geballe to fill Mounds’ former role, even as Geballe continued to lead DAS.

The promotions saw both men thrust into coordinating Lamont’s strategy and interagency response to the COVID-19 coronavirus outbreak, a pandemic that quickly brought the state and national economies to their knees.

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