Thanks to our speakers, panelists, partner organizations and the attendees for making the 2008 Massachusetts Biz/Bio Event a success!
Suzanne M. Bump was appointed Secretary of Labor and Workforce Development by Governor Deval Patrick. She brings more than two decades of leadership experience in government, non-profits and business to the position. She is a member of the Governor’s Cabinet, and is also one of the five members of Governor Patrick’s “development cabinet,” which works across agency and department lines to spur economic and job growth.
Bump represented Braintree from 1985 to 1993 in the House of Representatives, and co-chaired the Committee on Commerce and Labor. Responsible for passing laws on a variety of labor and economic issues, Chairman Bump sponsored many bills on wages, hours, working conditions and job creation. Her most notable success there was the reform of the state’s industrial accidents program with the Workers’ Compensation Reform Act of 1991, of which she was the principal legislative author. She held other leadership positions, chairing the Caucus of Women Legislators and serving as Vice-Chairman of the Committee on Transportation. She also served on the MassJobs Council, the principal advisory board to the governor on workforce investment.
Since then, Bump has served on the boards of a wide range of non-profit and civic organizations, from the South Shore Chamber of Commerce to the St. Francis House in Boston. She has also served as an advisory member of the Boston Symphony Orchestra’s government relations committee and as treasurer of EMH Recovery, a residential program for women recovering from drug and alcohol dependencies in Brockton. She was also the president of a non-profit providing language and skills training to workers in the hotel industry for a labor-management trust fund.
In her business career, Bump served as Assistant Vice President for law and government relations at the American Insurance Association. More recently, she was a regional Vice President and General Counsel at Citigroup. Prior to her appointment as Director, she was a partner in the law firm of McDevitt & Bump, P.C., providing legal services to small businesses and non-profits.
Bump has also received numerous honors for her work from labor and business organizations. A native of Whitman, she earned an A.B. in English from Boston College and a J.D. from Suffolk University Law School. She lives in Great Barrington with her husband, Paul McDevitt.
