Governor-elect Rick Snyder announced this week that John Nixon will play a key role in his administration as the new budget director. Mr. Nixon currently serves in a similar capacity for the Utah Governor’s Office of Planning and Budget.

The budget director announcement was one of several key appointments made this week, as the Governor-elect named his first department directors and other administration personnel. Mr. Snyder gave the first glimpse of how his vision to reinvent Michigan will take shape as he announced that Dan Wyant will be group executive for Quality of Life, a new role that will bring a more streamlined business management model to state government for the departments of Environmental Quality, Natural Resources and Agriculture & Rural Development.

Governor-elect Snyder said that Keith Creagh will head the Department of Agriculture & Rural Development and Rodney Stokes will serve as director of the Department of Natural Resources. Mr. Wyant will also serve as director of the Department of Environmental Quality in addition to his role as group executive.

Additional staff appointments announced this week were Bill McBride as director of the State of Michigan Washington, D.C. office; Marsha Quebbeman as director of administration overseeing finance, information technology and office administration and Norm Saari as the manager of appointments.

Mr. Nixon will play a critical role in implementing Governor-elect Snyder’s call to create an understandable and accessible presentation of state spending that is designed to give the public a greater insight into government operations and spending. Mr. Nixon currently serves as president of the National Association of State Budget Officers. He is a certified public accountant and was named CFO of the year in 2008 by Utah business Magazine.

The group executive concept is expected to be the template for Mr. Snyder’s governing organization. He said the model was taken from his experiences in corporate governance and will be used to implement other areas of his cabinet.

The Governor-elect said he expects to have a total of six group executives. In addition to Mr. Wyant, treasurer-designate Andy Dillon and Mr. Nixon also are expected to serve as group leaders.

Mr. Snyder said he will still have regular discussions with his leadership team, but the group executives will be meeting more frequently with the governor on policy development and implementation.