President's Award

Governor Deval Patrick

Governor Deval Patrick was elected in November of 2006, bringing a broad range of leadership experience at the top levels of business, government, and non-profits. Hoping for the best and working for it, as his grandmother used to counsel him, his life has traced a trajectory from the South Side of Chicago to the U.S. Justice Department, Fortune 500 boardrooms, and now the Massachusetts State House.

Over the course of his first term, Governor Patrick worked with the Legislature to preserve marriage equality, position Massachusetts as a global leader in clean energy, and pass a 10-year, $1 billion package to promote the state's life sciences industry. He has taken on reforms that have been talked about for decades, such as replacing costly police details with civilian flaggers at state construction sites, introducing competition to the state’s auto insurance market, and eliminating the Turnpike Authority. Governor Patrick has also signed into law four major reform bills, including education reform to improve public schools and close the achievement gap, pension reform that eliminates the most egregious abuses and special perks from the state’s pension system, transportation reform to streamline our transportation bureaucracy and save millions, and the most sweeping ethics, lobbying, and campaign finance reforms in years.

These reforms will help change the status quo and restore the public’s trust in government. Additionally, the Governor continues to work to address an unprecedented global economic collapse through responsible management of the state budget, difficult choices, and a continued commitment to investing in key areas that will create jobs, improve infrastructure and strengthen Commonwealth for the long term.

Patrick went on to Harvard, the first in his family to attend college. He received his degree, with honors, in 1978 and spent a post-graduate year working on a United Nations youth training project in the Darfur region of Sudan. He returned to Cambridge to attend Harvard Law School in the fall of 1979, where he led the Legal Aid Bureau, the nation's oldest student-run legal services organization, and won the Ames Moot Court competition.

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