The Texas Commission on Environmental Quality (TCEQ) appointed Zak Covar executive director for the agency effective May 1. Covar has served as deputy executive director since August 2009. He succeeds Mark Vickery, who is retiring from state government after 25 years of service. From 2005 to 2007, Covar worked as the environmental and natural resource adviser to Gov. Rick Perry and was responsible for advising the governor and senior staff on all major budget and policy issues pertaining to the TCEQ, the Railroad Commission of Texas and Texas Parks and Wildlife.

Railroad Commission of Texas (RRC) Executive Director John Tintera is to retire April 1 after 22 years of service to the RRC. Tintera has been with the RRC since 1990 and was appointed executive director in February 2009. Polly McDonald will serve as interim executive director while the commission begins the search for a permanent executive director. McDonald was the director of the RRC’s Pipeline Safety Division. Before joining the commission in 1992, McDonald spent 10 years at the Public Utility Commission of Texas, where she held the positions of hearings examiner, administrative law judge, assistant director of hearings, and director of hearings and secretary of the commission.

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