Matt Baker, a commissioner with the Colorado Public Utilities Commission, is leaving the post to join the William and Flora Hewlett Foundation in late spring.
A former executive director of environmental advocacy group Environment Colorado, Baker’s four-year term at the PUC ended in January and he had not been reappointed to the position, a decision that lies with Gov. John Hickenlooper.
“Matt Baker served Colorado well and we are sorry to see him go,” Hickenlooper said in a press release today.
PUC spokesman Terry Bote said Baker is “involved in several cases that are still pending that he hopes to wrap up” before he leaves for the Hewlett Foundation in California. The foundation issues grants to “solve social and environmental problems,” according to its website.
Baker founded and served as executive director of Environment Colorado from 2000 to 2008.
“The Hewlett Foundation’s grantmaking nicely brings together the various facets of my career,” Baker said a press release. “I’m excited to be joining an organization with a focus on making grants that make a difference.”
Last year, Hickenlooper named Joshua Epel, a natural-gas-industry attorney and head of the state oil-and-gas commission, as chairman of the three-member PUC commission.
Former Holland & Hart regulatory lawyer Jim Tarpey is in the final year of his four-year term as a PUC commissioner.
Andy Vuong : 303-954-1209 or
