Posted on September 4, 2018
Gov. John Bel Edwards has appointed a new executive director of the state’s coastal protection agency.
The new appointee, Michael Ellison, comes to the Coastal Protection and Restoration Authority from North Carolina, where he was the founder of Arrowwood Research Inc. in Cary, according to a news release.
He will begin work on Sept. 10 and earn $160,000 to oversee the CPRA’s 181 employees and $600 million to $800 million in projects every year.
Ellison will replace the similarly named Michael Ellis, who has been the CPRA’s executive director since 2016. Ellis is leaving the agency to take a position in Florida, a CPRA spokesman said. His last day is Aug. 31.
Before founding Arrowwood, Ellison worked for the North Carolina Department of Environmental Quality and a handful of environmental consulting firms, according to his LinkedIn page.
He is a graduate of the University of Alabama.
In an unrelated move, the CPRA also announced it has moved Bren Haase, the agency’s chief of planning and research, into the job of deputy executive director. He will replace Jason Lanclos, who is taking a job with the state’s Department of Natural Resources.
Haase has been one of the chief architects of the CPRA’s Coastal Master Plan, a 50-year blueprint for helping slow the pace of coastal land loss. A new master plan was approved in 2017. It will be revised every six years.
This year, the Legislature appropriated $644 million for projects in the master plan.
Source: The Advocate
