Governor Jay Inslee has named Jay Manning as Chair of the Puget Sound Partnership’s Leadership Council. Originally appointed to the Leadership Council in 2013, Manning succeeds Martha Kongsgaard in the lead role. The Puget Sound Partnership is a non-regulatory state agency charged with mobilizing community, regional, state and federal efforts to protect and restore Puget Sound. The Leadership Council serves as the state agency’s seven-member governing body. 

“I appreciate Martha’s leadership on the Council and thank her for being part of this incredible effort and organization. We still have so much important work to do, and I know Jay Manning will be a direct, pragmatic and action-oriented leader who will help us accelerate our collective effort to protect and restore Puget Sound,” said Governor Inslee. “Jay also understands the importance of documenting our results to ensure accountability to the people of Washington. I look forward to working with him in his new role.”

Manning earned his law degree from the University of Oregon and is currently a partner with Cascadia Law Group. Previously he spent many years working for the State of Washington, first in the Ecology Division of the Washington Attorney General’s Office and then as Director of the Department of Ecology. Later, as Chief of Staff for Governor Gregoire’s administration, Manning worked to maintain the administration’s focus on Puget Sound as the state went through the recession.  

In recent years, Manning has been increasingly recognized for contributions in the field of climate change mitigation and adaptation. He led the Governor’s Climate Change Action Team beginning in 2007, which developed and helped enact legislation establishing greenhouse gas emission reduction targets for Washington, and a number of other emission reduction, energy efficiency and climate change adaptation policies that are in place today. More recently, Manning supported the Pacific Coast Collaborative – whose members are the states of Washington, Oregon, and California, and the Province of British Columbia – at the United Nations (COP) climate negotiations to reduce international emissions of greenhouse gases and limit global warming.