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John P. DeVillars
Biography
[EPA Office of Brownfields Cleanup and Redevelopment]
John P. DeVillars has served as the New England Administrator of the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency since 1994. As New England's senior environmental official, he directs the operations of 800 employees and manages an annual budget of $400 million. Before assuming his current responsibilities, he directed the Environmental Services Group at Coopers and Lybrand, an international accounting consulting firm located in Boston, Massachusetts. Earlier, he served as Secretary of the Environment for the Commonwealth of Massachusetts. In that position, he garnered national attention for spearheading the nation's first toxic use reduction law, acquiring record amounts of open space, greatly strengthening coastal and air quality protection laws, and launching the country's first privatization of a major environmental program -- cleanup of waste sites. While serving as environmental secretary, Mr. DeVillars also was chairman of the board of directors of the Massachusetts Water Resources Authority, which is responsible for the delivery of drinking water and sewer services to the 2.5 million people of metropolitan Boston and for managing the $6 billion cleanup of Boston Harbor. Mr. DeVillars has received numerous awards for his service on behalf of the environment, including the President's Award of The Nature Conservancy, given annually for national leadership in environmental affairs.
Mr. DeVillars holds a bachelor's degree in United States history from the University of Pennsylvania and a master's degree in public administration from Harvard University.