Given the unique chance to reshape the Cannabis Control Commission, Massachusetts Gov. Maura Healey has tapped a former revenue commissioner who more recently has been steering the Executive Office of Health and Human Services to chair the new-look, downsized panel.
The governor on Tuesday appointed Christopher Harding as chair of the new three-person CCC and also picked as commissioners western Mass. economic development official Xiomara DeLobato and cannabis law advisor Anthony Wilson. Healey in April signed a law dissolving the original, five-commissioner structure of the CCC and replacing it with a three-person panel appointed entirely by the state's executive.
"The cannabis industry plays an important role in our economy, and this law gives us an opportunity to strengthen the Commission so it can better support businesses, workers and consumers," Healey, who opposed the 2016 legalization of marijuana, said in a statement. "This industry supports thousands of jobs and small businesses across Massachusetts, and it’s important that we have a regulatory structure that is effective, accountable and built to meet the needs of a growing industry. These appointees bring strong leadership and management experience, and I’m confident they will help move the Commission and industry forward."
Harding was Department of Revenue commissioner during Gov. Charlie Baker's tenure and most recently has been working as chief of staff and undersecretary at EOHHS, the largest secretariat under the governor's executive arm.
DeLobato works as vice president and chief of staff at the Western Massachusetts Economic Development Council, where Healey's office said she helps lead regional economic initiatives, business partnerships and workforce development efforts.
Wilson has advised a range of cannabis operators, entrepreneurs and startups navigating Massachusetts’ regulatory landscape through a private practice, and has worked in local government, including as associate city solicitor and city clerk in Springfield and as city clerk in Cambridge.
The Healey administration noted in its announcement that Harding was a founding member of the Cannabis Advisory Board as revenue commissioner and that he chaired its industry subcommittee. The administration said his background in "operational leadership and organizational management will help guide the Commission through its next phase of reform and modernization."
Under the new CCC framework, the chair is to serve coterminous with the governor, meaning Harding could be on the job only through the end of the year unless Healey wins reelection this fall. Healey's office said Harding "will be sworn in and begin immediately overseeing implementation of the reforms signed into law earlier this year," including an increase in the possession limit and a raising of a common ownership license cap.
The CCC has a public meeting scheduled for Thursday at 10 a.m.
Cut out of the process now are the treasurer and attorney general, who each had an individual appointment and a say in two joint appointments from the CCC's 2017 launch until this year's shakeup.
The new CCC law designates the chair as the person responsible for personnel and administrative matters at the agency and makes explicit that the executive director is to report directly to the chairperson. Executive Director Travis Ahern was hired last year by a vote of commissioners active at the time.
The lawmakers who negotiated the new structure made clear in the legislation that Ahern "shall continue in their role with all the powers and duties authorized in statute or delegated by the commissioners and in place at the time of transfer" until or unless the newly-appointed chair takes other action.
Frustration with a slow pace of regulatory changes, headline-grabbing internal conflicts, and a plea from the inspector general for the Legislature to intervene at the "rudderless agency" combined over the last two years to get lawmakers to move for changes for the CCC, an agency created after voters in 2016 approved legal non-medical marijuana.
The CCC developed a reputation among lawmakers -- who were unanimous last year in voting to reorganize the agency -- as an ineffective regulator and as an organization beset with personnel conflicts and scandals.
From September 2023 until September 2025, Shannon O'Brien was exiled from the commission as chairwoman after Treasurer Deborah Goldberg suspended and then fired her based in part on clashes with the former executive director, who had previously worked for the treasurer. A Superior Court judge ruled last year that Goldberg acted unlawfully, and ordered O'Brien reinstated to her position with back pay. O'Brien's return revealed fresh clashes with Ahern, who was hired during O'Brien's absence.
Though the internal strife was what got the most attention, the CCC has also been busy in recent years trying to tailor policy to a maturing and evolving industry. The previous set of regulators -- which included Bruce Stebbins, Kimberly Roy and Carrie Benedon aside from O'Brien -- was working on issues related to fraud in the mandatory testing of legal marijuana sold here, tried to peel away some of the red tape that makes it tough to do business here and paid particular attention to supporting social equity programs. The agency is also in the midst of launching long-awaited venues where adults can buy and consume marijuana in a social setting.
In one of its final acts, the last iteration of the CCC voted last month to stop issuing cultivation licenses in a bid to help businesses that have struggled to stay afloat as oversupply sunk the price of an ounce of marijuana.
Those issues -- and others including ramifications of potential shifts at the federal level -- await Healey's new CCC.
