Skip to main content
Secretary of State Kate Brown will name Brian Shipley as her chief of staff when she takes over as governor on Wednesday from current Gov. John Kitzhaber, according to sources close to Brown.
Kitzhaber announced his resignation on Friday as questions about his role in an influence-peddling scandal centered on first lady Cylvia Hayes intensified. Brown takes office as governor on Wednesday.
Shipley, 39, is currently Oregon Health & Science University's top lobbyist, overseeing federal, state and local government relations. He took that position after serving as Brown's chief of staff for about a year following her re-election as secretary of state in 2012
Shipley is a longtime Salem insider, having worked as deputy chief of staff for former Gov. Ted Kulongoski and briefly for the Kitzhaber administration. Prior to going to work for Kulongoski, Shipley served as chief of staff to Oregon Senate majority office and also worked for Senate President Peter Courtney (D-Salem).
A graduate of Willamette University and Georgetown Law, Shipley also worked for Forest Capital Partners, a large Portland-based investment group, in 2011 and 2012. He returned to politics after that group sold its nearly two million acres of timber holdings in 2012.
WWeek 2015