Gregory Sullivan Joins Pioneer Institute as Research Director
Gregory Sullivan Joins Pioneer Institute as Research Director
Influential think tank welcomes former Massachusetts Inspector General
BOSTON, MA – Pioneer Institute announced today that Gregory W. Sullivan will become the organization’s new Research Director. Sullivan begins his position on April 2nd.
“We are pleased to have Greg Sullivan join the Pioneer team,” said Stephen D. Fantone, the Institute’s Chairman and CEO of Optikos Corporation. “His experience and integrity further build Pioneer’s brand as an above-the-fray institute focused on policies that improve the quality of life in Massachusetts and ensure an accountable and effective government.”
“The Pioneer team is really excited to have Greg on board,” said Jim Stergios, the Institute’s Executive Director. “Greg is a creative policy thinker and someone who brings broad experience and a sterling record of protecting the public trust. Whether helping craft the state’s pro-growth policies like the Research and Development tax credit or digging into Big Dig cost overruns, the education bureaucracy and healthcare overbilling, Greg has always thought first about what is right for Massachusetts. That’s what Pioneer is all about.”
Sullivan brings over three decades of public sector experience, as a state legislator working to promote fiscal responsibility, and most recently, as the state’s two-term Inspector General. In that role, he investigated government waste and abuse in healthcare, education, public construction, and other policy areas aligned with Pioneer’s work.
“From my days as a state representative working with Pioneer to pass welfare reform legislation, I have been an admirer of the organization’s mission and work,” said Sullivan. “Pioneer is such a unique institution on the Massachusetts landscape. It has led on a remarkable list of reforms that have improved the quality of life in the Commonwealth. My experience investigating state agencies and offices, and identifying financial mismanagement is uniquely suited to Pioneer’s critical watchdog role in Massachusetts.”
As Pioneer’s new Research Director, Sullivan will help define the Institute’s research strategy, oversee the Centers for Better Government and Economic Opportunity, and lead outreach efforts to educate legislators on innovations in public policy.
Sullivan fills a vacancy created in 2012, when Steve Poftak, after seven years at the Institute, left to become the Executive Director of the Rappaport Institute for Greater Boston at Harvard’s John F. Kennedy School of Government.
About Gregory Sullivan
Gregory W. Sullivan served two five-year terms as Inspector General of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts by appointment of the Governor, Attorney General, and Auditor. As Inspector General, Greg directed many significant cases, including an investigation that led to the conviction of House Speaker Salvatore DiMasi, a forensic audit that uncovered substantial over-billing by health-care providers to the state uncompensated care pool, a study that identified irregularities in the approval process of the state charter school program, and a review that identified systemic inefficiencies in the state public construction bidding system.
Prior to serving as Inspector General, Greg held several positions within the state Office of Inspector General; his work included leading a project that identified systematic under-reporting of Big Dig cost-to-complete estimates, an investigation that led to the state’s recovering a misappropriated patent on an invention made in the state Biologic Laboratories, and an investigation that led to the conviction of the former budget director of the committee on ways and means of the Massachusetts State Senate for receiving kick-backs as financial advisor to the Massachusetts Water Resource Authority.
Prior to serving in the Office of Inspector General, Greg was a 17-year member of the Massachusetts House of Representatives, serving on the committees of Ways and Means, Human Services, and Post-Audit and Oversight. As a legislator, Greg was a fiscal conservative. Working with the Pioneer Institute, he introduced legislation that was passed by the House of Representatives and State Senate to institute a workfare requirement in Massachusetts. He also sponsored legislation that resulted in the establishment of the Massachusetts research and development tax credit.
Greg is a Certified Fraud Investigator, and holds a bachelor’s degree from Harvard College, a master’s degree in public administration from The Kennedy School of Public Administration at Harvard, and a master’s degree from the Sloan School at M.I.T., with a concentration in finance. Greg and his wife Marion live in Norwood and have four children and one grandchild.
Pioneer Institute is an independent, non-partisan, privately funded research organization that seeks to improve the quality of life in Massachusetts through civic discourse and intellectually rigorous, data-driven public policy solutions based on free market principles, individual liberty and responsibility, and the ideal of effective, limited and accountable government.
