Glendowlyn L. H. Thames, a Hartford city council leader who the last three years has helped Connecticut’s business startups launch and innovate, has been named deputy commissioner at the state Department of Economic and Community Development.
Thames formally assumes her DECD duties on Wednesday, but will remain in her current post as interim executive director of CTNext, the state’s innovations-ecosystem unit of Connecticut Innovations, until a permanent successor is found, DECD said Monday.
She will report to David Lehman, a former Wall Street finance executive from Greenwich whom Gov. Ned Lamont tapped as his DECD commissioner and senior economic adviser.
A Hartford native, Thomas in 2016 was named CTNext’s founding executive director. That same year, she was elected to Hartford City Council, becoming council president in Jan. 2018.
The married mother has a bachelor’s degree in business administration from New York’s Hofstra University, and a master’s in public policy from Hartford’s Trinity College.
