Jarrett Out, Jugovic In as President & CEO of PennFuture

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PennFuture logoStop the presses. Jan Jarrett, long-time President and CEO of PennFuture, has resigned her position. PennFuture is Pennsylvania’s largest environmental lobbying organization, and also a largely anti-drilling organization. Her departure is sudden and unexpected after leading the organization for the past 13 years.

Why the sudden departure? Jeanne Clarke, spokesperson for PennFuture says that Jarrett plans to take a “breather” and focus on her grandchildren. However, her departure may be related to trouble that cropped up last December over how a state grant was spent by the organization:

Pen­n­Fu­ture ran into some trou­ble back in Decem­ber when the orga­ni­za­tion returned a $138,000 state grant it received from the Depart­ment of Com­mu­nity and Eco­nomic Devel­op­ment. Some of the money had not been spent prop­erly. Jan Jar­rett said at the time she took full responsibility.(1)

Equally big news is that George Jugovic, Jr., former southwest regional director for the Pennsylvania Department of Environmental Protection during the Ed Rendell administration, has been appointed to replace her. From the PennFuture press release:

Citizens for Pennsylvania’s Future (PennFuture) announced today the appointment of George Jugovic Jr. as president and CEO of the organization. Jugovic replaces Jan Jarrett, who resigned after 13 years of service to PennFuture.

Jugovic previously served as a senior attorney and law staff chair at PennFuture, during which time he worked as a citizen advocate on energy and environmental enforcement matters. Prior to joining PennFuture, Jugovic served as the southwest regional director for the Pennsylvania Department of Environmental Protection (DEP) in Pittsburgh. At the DEP, he was responsible for over two hundred employees administering eight major program areas in a ten-county area.

“We truly value the service Jan Jarrett provided to PennFuture and the citizens of Pennsylvania and wish her the very best in all future endeavors,” said David Lane, board chair of PennFuture. “We are excited to forward our mission under the leadership of George Jugovic. George brings an outstanding record in law and government, as well as a staunch commitment to a safe and clean environment.”

“I’m honored to lead PennFuture, and grateful for the visionary leadership Jan provided,” said Jugovic. “PennFuture will emphasize its core mission of rigorously protecting Pennsylvania’s environment and advocating for clean energy in boardrooms and, if necessary, in court rooms.”

Jugovic graduated from The Pennsylvania State University with a B.S. in Environmental Resource Management and earned a JD from Lewis and Clark Law School in Portland, Oregon. He resides in Sarver, Butler County.(2)

The appointment of Jugovic may mean more litigation ahead for PA drillers:

A spokes­woman for Pen­n­Fu­ture, Jeanne Clarke, says the board of direc­tors wanted to focus the orga­ni­za­tion on lit­i­ga­tion. “They wanted to get back to the core mis­sion,” said Clarke. “And Jugovic has an enor­mous amount of expe­ri­ence as a court­room litigator.”(1)

With a B.S. in envi­ron­men­tal resource man­age­ment from Penn State and a law degree from Lewis and Clark Uni­ver­sity, Jugovic looks to be a good fit for the organization. However, some on the anti-drilling side are a bit suspicious of Jugovic’s anti-drilling creds. In the embedded video below, Jugovic is interviewed by Oil and Gas IQ and he sounds like his views align more with the drilling industry rather than against it. We shall see!

(1) StateImpact (Mar 5, 2012) – PennFuture Hires Former DEP Official as New President

(2) PennFuture (Mar 5, 2012) – PennFuture appoints George Jugovic Jr. President and CEO

One Comment

  1. If this interview is an accurate depiction of his true opinion and feeling about fracking, it appears to me that he is all for recovering the resource,  but will be a fly on the wall to make sure that it is done responsibly. Hooray, Hooray, this is an Anti, us pros can sit down with and talk to. Mr. Jugovic seems to be a reasonable fellow, and all he wants is drilling to be safely done. Well, so do all of us pro’s, how about that. I guess, it doesn’t hurt either that he probably has a lease and steady income coming in from it either. See all you Anti’s out there you can actually get the best of both worlds, if you don’t have any land you can still receive the benefits of cheaper cleaner fuel. Your ” New” fight (most of you all need to fight about something) is to get our government to make policy to change over engines, home heating and all municipalities over to NG. Then you’ll see NG gas stations pop up everywhere,might I add at around $1.65 per gallon. Then it would be advantageous for the drilling companies to start drilling again because the demand will be there from us not overseas. Oh,, by the way,I don’t want to throw stones at Grandma Jan Jarret, but I would like to know how and where that money was spent and who it went to. As a non-profit shouldn’t that have been disclosed Jim ?