Lamont taps two top officials under 40

Gov.-elect Ned Lamont has named Melissa McCaw, the acting chief financial officer for the City of Hartford, as his top budget and policy official, succeeding Ben Barnes, who has held the job for eight years under Gov. Dannel P. Malloy.

Lamont also appointed Ryan Drajewicz, a Fairfield resident and one-time aid to former U.S. Sen. Chris Dodd and an executive at Westport-based Bridgewater Associates, as chief of staff for his administration. Drajewicz has been executive director of the Lamont transition team after taking a leave of absence from Bridgewater, the world’s largest hedge fund.

Drajewicz has been part of top management at Bridgewater, which has $162 billion under management. He was part of the team that was planning for the succession of founder and CEO Ray Dalio,

Connecticut’s richest resident, who still runs the firm.

Both appointees, arguably the most important of Lamont’s transition, are age 39.

“We’re trying to recruit from the broadest cross section of folks that want to serve our state,” Lamont said, adding McCaw was his first choice for the secretary of Office and Policy Management.

“I like the fact that Melissa has been on the front lines,” Lamont said, referring to the city of Hartford’s well-documented budget woes that will require oversight from the state. “She’s battle tested.”

McCaw, of Hartford, will be the first African-American to serve as the governor’s top budget aide.

She previously worked as a budget manager for OPM under both Gov. John Rowland and Gov. Jodi Rell’s administrations, and a budget director for the University of Hartford.

More recently, she worked closely with OPM as a state oversight board took partial control of Hartford municipal finances. The’s a great person for the job,” said Barnes, who has been working with McCaw in the state oversight of Hartford finances.

McCaw has held the “interim” position in Hartford for three years. She helped negotiate a highly controversial arrangement earlier this year under which the state agreed to pay the city’s $550 million in long-term, outstanding debt.

Critics called it an outrageous bailout. Defenders said it was the best mechanism for stabilizing the capital city. They said they expect the city to pay much of the debt after a few years.

McCaw will take office facing an immediate projected shortfall of $1.7 billion for the fiscal year that starts July 1 — and will be Lamont’s chief adviser on how to balance the budget. Though her experience has been primarily apolitical and numbers-driven, McCaw’s new role will require her to work closely with politicians as she negotiates with the state Legislature.

Lamont joked he now owes Hartford Mayor Luke Bronin a favor for taking McCaw from the city. Bronin hugged McCaw after the announcement in the halls of the Capitol building, and offered his congratulations.

The Office of Policy and Management oversees policy in a broad swath of state initiatives such as criminal justice planning, hiring and management methods in addition to crafting and directing the governor’s budget. Barnes, a former budget director in the city of Stamford. Barnes will move to a job as chief financial officer for the Connecticut community colleges and state universities, not including UConn.

Drajewicz has managed teams of up to 60 people at Bridgewater, he said. The hedge fund is known for its unusual and aggressive corporate culture of “radical transparency,” including tactics such as publicly ranking employees.

Lamont said he was impressed with Drajewicz’s ideas.

“I really like the importance he puts upon the performance metrics and thinking about how we reorganize government and thinking about how our government departments work together in a more collaborative way so we get to more effectiveness and perhaps some cost savings,” Lamont said.

His experience in the financial sector — a critical industry in the Connecticut economy thanks to its high paid employees that call the state home, and who the Lamont administration hopes to keep on the tax rolls — is no doubt an attempt to bridge the gap between the government and the financial services sector.

“I returned to public service because this is a critical time for Connecticut,” Drajewicz said.

Emilie Munson/Hearst Connecticut Media Ryan Drajewicz, left, and Melissa McCaw were named chief of staff and secretary of the Office of Management and Budget, respectively, by Gov.-elect Ned Lamont on Tuesday.