State gaming regulators tapped Gov. Charlie Baker's former deputy chief of staff for operations and administration to serve as the next executive director of the Mass. Gaming Commission, offering the job Monday to Dean Serpa.
Commissioners said they were drawn to Serpa because of what Commissioner Eileen O'Brien referred to as his "unparalleled operations experience," and Commissioner Brad Hill said he favored Serpa because he wants "a manager in that position."
The other finalist who interviewed in public for the job Monday was Clinton Dick, the general counsel at the Office of Consumer Affairs and Business Regulation.
After brief deliberations and a vote to offer the job to Serpa, the commission went into executive session to handle the nuts and bolts of actually extending that offer.
"I consider myself a manager of people and projects more than anything else ... and that's what I like to do. I like to move projects from A to Z, and I like to lead teams that are moving projects from A to Z," Serpa told commissioners during his public interview Monday. "And I think I'm very good at it. I think there's a lot of people who would agree that I'm very good at it."
Assuming he accepts the job, Serpa will take over at an agency that has seen its mission expand in the last year and a half with the addition of legal sports betting. The Gaming Commission oversees activities at the state's one slots parlor (Plainridge Park Casino in Plainville) and two resort-style casinos (MGM Springfield and Encore Boston Harbor in Everett), supervises live horse racing at Plainridge and could play a critical role in the resurrection of live Thoroughbred horse racing in Massachusetts, and now has oversight of sports betting both at physical sportsbooks and through a handful of mobile/online platforms.
Some of the issues on the commission's plate include repeated instances of sportsbooks taking illegal bets (often on college contests that are off-limits because they involve a Massachusetts school), issues surrounding sports betting advertisements and promotions, the proposal to develop the area around Encore Boston Harbor to include additional gambling spaces, and concerns about the low level of uptake on responsible gambling tools. Though the commission has largely left the topic on the back burner, there is still one casino license authorized by the state's 2011 expanded gaming law that has not been issued.
The commission's general counsel, Todd Grossman, has filled the executive director's role on an interim basis since mid-July, when former commission head Karen Wells departed. Wells was the commission's chief investigator for about seven years before ascending to the executive director post in January 2020 initially on an interim basis. Wells was tapped to fill the vacancy created when Edward Bedrosian resigned as executive director to work in private practice at the start of 2020. Rick Day was the commission's first executive director.
Serpa's experience in state government began in the 1990s with Gov. William Weld's administration, when he managed all advance, travel, and event planning operations, foreign dignitary visits, gubernatorial ceremonies and trade missions to Asia and Europe. He was then deputy chief of staff for MassDevelopment, chief of staff at the Executive Office of Economic Development and director of the Massachusetts Office of Business Development.
Upon departing state government, Serpa founded and managed Full Impact Productions, Inc., overseeing a company that organized and executed inaugural galas, fundraisers, press conferences, and events for world leaders and major corporations. He returned to state government in 2008 as chief marketing officer for the Massachusetts Convention Center Authority.
Serpa was part of Baker's first gubernatorial campaign, working in 2009 and 2010 as chief operating officer of the campaign, a role in which his resume says he "established and managed all operations for statewide gubernatorial effort" and "developed and managed a $14M budget."
When Baker was elected in 2014 and took office in early 2015, Serpa joined the administration as director of operations. He spent Baker's second term as deputy chief of staff for operations and administration. During Baker's two terms, Serpa was a familiar face around the State House and at the governor's events.
In his final days in office last year, Baker appointed Serpa to chair the Gaming Policy Advisory Committee, a group that makes non-binding recommendations to the Gaming Commission.
At the start of Monday's meeting, commission Chairwoman Cathy Judd-Stein announced that she would recuse herself from the interview, deliberation and selection processes since her final day on the commission is this Thursday and she will not have an opportunity to work with the next executive director.
"I want to thank all of those who submitted applications for the role of executive director and wish the person selected the very best of luck," Judd-Stein said before leaving the room where interviews were to be held. "The selected candidate will inherit a committed and talented team as they begin their new position."
Commissioner Jordan Maynard, one of two commissioners who served on the screening committee that whittled the field of 74 executive director applicants down to the two finalists, announced at the outset of the meeting that he planned to file a disclosure "in a cautionary measure" to make clear that he has previously worked with both of the finalists.
"I am confident that I can perform my official duties objectively and fairly today and not let my previous work history with these two candidates influence my decision," Maynard said.
In some ways, Maynard ended up being the deciding vote Monday. During the commission's public deliberations, O'Brien and Hill both said they were leaning towards selecting Serpa for the job and Commissioner Nakisha Skinner said her preference was to offer the job to Dick. Maynard was the fourth of four commissioners to share his thoughts and his preference.
"You know, I have to think about this. Not just in relation of these two candidates, which by the way, I think either one of them could do the job," Maynard said. He added, "I understand why the chair recused herself, but that means that we have four people here. Having heard everything that came before me -- if I were to lean one way, it goes to a draw, if I were to lean the other, it settles this issue for the agency. And for those reasons, I will join the majority in forming a consensus to not deprive the agency of the leadership that's needed, and perhaps have weeks or months longer where we are without an executive director for the commission."
