Ranch C. Kimball

Secretary, Economic Development

Ranch C. Kimball is the Secretary of Economic Development for the Commonwealth of Massachusetts. As Governor Mitt Romney’s chief economic advisor, he oversees 22 agencies, 4 cabinet secretaries, and more than 2500 employees, including those at the Department of Labor, the Department of Workforce Development, the Department of Business & Technology, and the Office of Consumer Affairs & Business Regulation.

In 2004, Kimball created the “Business Resource Team,” the state’s one-stop model for businesses seeking to grow in Massachusetts. In June 2006, the BRT celebrated its 219th and most significant victory, bringing Bristol Myers Squibb’s billion dollar bio-manufacturing plant to Fort Devens. Kimball also helped write the Governor’s Economic Stimulus Bill, took a role in promoting the Governor’s health care reform package, and toured more than 180 companies. In 2006 he launched Massachusetts Business Connect, an initiative The Boston Globe described as “critical to the Boston area brainpower.”

In 2006, he received the Biotech Industry Organization’s award for top state executive in the nation. The Massachusetts Network Communications Council named Kimball one of its “Policy Makers of the Year” for 2005.

Kimball is Chair of Mass Development, the state’s finance authority that controls $650 million in land for redevelopment and issues $2 billion a year in bonds and sits on the Massport board. Active in the community, he also serves on the board of the Museum of Science and Wheelock College.

Previously, Kimball spent 25 years in the private sector helping businesses grow. He ran a private equity firm for Kissinger McLarty Associates and was a partner at Boston Consulting Group, working extensively with technology, telecommunications, manufacturing, media and health care companies during his 16 year tenure.

Kimball received an A.B. in Economics from Princeton University in 1980, and lives in Brookline with his wife and two sons.