New Jersey Lottery: NJ interim Gov. nominates new lottery director
Michellene Davis, a lawyer and veteran state policy adviser, has been nominated to be the next executive director of the New Jersey Lottery.
Acting Gov. Richard J. Codey announced the nomination Friday. Davis succeeds Virginia Bauer, a 9/11 widow tapped to head the lottery in 2003 and picked by former Gov. James E. McGreevey as commerce secretary in July. William T. Jourdain has been filling in at the lottery since Bauer moved to commerce.
Davis will serve as acting executive director, starting March 15, pending Senate confirmation.
"I'm honored and humbled by the fact that Governor Codey would consider me for the position," Davis said Friday. She called the lottery an efficiently run organization and said she looked forward to joining the team of 150 employees. "I love to take on new challenges," she said.
The lottery is the state's fourth-largest revenue producer, generating a record $2.2 billion in fiscal 2004.
In announcing the nomination, Codey called Davis "a perfect choice to lead the lottery to continued growth and success."
A resident of West Orange, Davis is a senior policy adviser in public health services within the Department of Health. She is a former public defender with a law degree from Seton Hall.