Home » Gov-elect Bevin appoints personnel secretary

Gov-elect Bevin appoints personnel secretary

Thomas Stephens
Thomas Stephens

Frankfort, Ky. – Governor-Elect Matt Bevin announced Thomas B. Stephens as Secretary of the Personnel Cabinet. Stephens, a former general counsel of the cabinet, joins the administration with an extensive legal and business background.

“From his extensive knowledge of the cabinet to his entrepreneurial approach to business, Tom has all of the right credentials to manage Personnel with transparency and excellence,” Governor-elect Bevin said.

Stephens is an attorney and entrepreneur focused on new business development. He is a graduate of Tulane University and the Loyola University School of Law. Upon graduating law school, Tom was awarded a Presidential Management Fellowship in Washington, DC and focused his work on regulatory compliance, antitrust regulation, and alternative dispute resolution of international maritime common carriers.

Stephens has held various positions in government, including service as General Counsel to the Kentucky Personnel Cabinet where he led a cross-functional team of Cabinet’s attorneys, support staff, and outside legal counsel in trial and appellate practice. He earned designation as Cabinet’s Custodian of Records and Ethics Officer. He also served on the Kentucky Registry of Election Finance for four years and was staff attorney at the Justice and Public Safety Cabinet.

“I am honored by the opportunity to join the Bevin Administration,” Stephens said. “We will be running an honest, open system focused on providing the best service to our stakeholders: employees, applicants, agencies, and insureds.”

Stephens’ corporate experience includes a tenure as Corporate Counsel for Alltech, an international animal health and nutrition company, where he also served as a Manager of Alltech’s title sponsorship of the Alltech FEI World Equestrian Games at the Kentucky Horse Park.  Additionally, Tom served for three years as Director of the Alltech Fortnight Festival during which he produced numerous ticketed concerts across the state with artists ranging in diversity from the Vienna Philharmonic Orchestra to the Beach Boys.

Tom resides in Lexington with his wife Leigh and their young daughter.