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COLLIN O’MARA
Secretary of Natural Resources & Environmental Control
State of Delaware, Wilmington, DE
Collin O’Mara serves in the Cabinet of Delaware Governor Jack A. Markell as Secretary of the Department of Natural Resources and Environmental Control. In this role, Secretary O’Mara is responsible for carrying out the department’s mission and overseeing the department’s five major divisions – Air and Waste Management, Fish and Wildlife, Parks and Recreation, Soil and Water Conservation and Water Resources – and the Office of the Secretary, which encompasses the Delaware Energy Office, as well as leading the Governor’s efforts to create a thriving green economy and sustainable natural environment.
Sec. O’Mara was appointed by Governor Markell at age 29 and is the youngest State Cabinet member in the nation. In his first legislative session, he led the Governor’s ambitious energy agenda for the state and secured passage of legislation implementing energy efficiency standards, utility decoupling requirements, a loading order mandating efficiency measures and renewable sources to be exhausted before expanding fossil fuel generation, energy efficient building codes, renewable energy rights for solar and wind, net-metering for renewable energy systems and vehicle-to-grid technology.
Sec. O’Mara serves as a Governor’s appointee on State Boards and Commissions including: the Delaware Cancer Consortium, Open Space Council, Nutrient Management Commission, Center for the Inland Bays Board, Partnership for the Delaware Estuary, Sustainable Energy Utility Oversight Board, State Water Supply Coordinating Council, Ozone Transport Commission, Regional Greenhouse Gas Initiative and the Chesapeake Bay Program Executive Council. He also serves on the Board of Directors of Climate Prosperity, Inc.
Prior to his service in Delaware, Sec. O’Mara served as the Clean Tech Strategist for the City of San Jose, Calif. In 2007, he was a primary architect of San Jose’s Green Vision, an ambitious 15-year plan to transform the Silicon Valley into a world center of clean technology innovation and demonstrate that goals of economic growth and environmental sustainability are inextricably linked. O’Mara provided strategic leadership for the Green Vision plan and was also responsible for implementing San Jose’s Clean Tech Strategy, which combined innovative policies and incentives to create a business environment in which clean tech companies can thrive and create well-paying jobs. He helped the city of San Jose attract more than 50 clean technology companies, creating more than 3,000 new jobs and generating nearly $2 billion of new investment. He also served as a key author of Joint Venture Silicon Valley’s Climate Prosperity Strategy: The Silicon Valley Greenprint.
A native of Syracuse, N.Y., O’Mara also led a division of Syracuse city government where he was responsible for overseeing the modernization of City services and leading the cutting-edge accountability and efficiency program as Director of SyraStat.
Sec. O’Mara was a Marshall Scholar at the University of Oxford, a University Fellow at the Maxwell School of Citizenship and Public Affairs, and a Presidential Scholar at Dartmouth College. O’Mara is a U.S. Green Building Council Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design Accredited Professional (LEED AP) and completed Stanford Business School’s Executive Management Program in Business Strategies for Environmental Sustainability
He lives in Wilmington with his wife, Lindsay Crawford.