Politics & Government

Northford Resident Gets The Nod From Gov. Malloy To Head Economic Agency

Foote Hill Road resident Catherine Smith, a longtime insurance executive, will be the new commissioner of the Department of Economic and Community Development.

Northford resident Catherine Smith was appointed Thursday by Gov. Dannel P. Malloy to head the state Department of Economic and Community Development (DECD).

Smith will be leaving her post as the CEO of ING U.S. Retirement Services, a position she has held since Dec. 2008, to spearhead a more refined approach to Connecticut job-creation as the new commissioner of the DECD.

“Catherine will be fully empowered to create a new organization with a new approach, calling on the best tools on a national level that can be applied here in Connecticut,” Malloy said in a statement. “I’m looking forward to working with her.”

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“Governor Malloy’s reorganization plan is a huge step in the right direction – what sense does it make to have seven separate economic development and marketing bureaus all charged with the same task, but going about it in different, and sometimes, disorganized ways?” Smith said in a statement.

As CEO of ING U.S. Retirement Services, which is one of the largest defined contribution plan managers in the country with about $285 billion in assets under management and administration, Smith managed 3,000 employees and had oversight of sales, risk management and finance, among other departments.

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Prior to ING, Smith was an executive at Aetna Financial Services, where she started in 1983. Smith has a master’s in public and private management from Yale University. She serves on the board of Connecticut Fund for the Environment, The Trust for Public Land and Outward Bound USA

“I am looking forward to the challenges that lie ahead and working with the governor to put Connecticut residents back to work,” she said.


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