Luke Bronin, a Rhodes Scholar with undergraduate and law degrees from Yale, a master’s from Oxford and a resume packed with high-level jobs in government, was introduced Tuesday as Gov. Dannel P. Malloy’s new general counsel.
Bronin will succeed Andrew J. McDonald, who is awaiting confirmation by the General Assembly as a justice of the Connecticut Supreme Court.
The new gubernatorial consigliere comes to the administration via the U.S. Treasury Department, where he was deputy assistant secretary for terrorist financing and financial crimes. He passed when asked if that would help assess the state budget.
Malloy called him a friend and adviser, though not an old friend.
Bronin is 33 years old.
He served in Afghanistan from September 2010 to April 2011 as a Naval reservist assigned to an anti-corruption task force. He previously was chief of staff to the president of The Hartford’s property and casualty operations. He also managed to find time to pass the Connecticut bar.
Bronin has personal reasons to land a job in Connecticut: His wife, Sara Galvan, is a law professor at the University of Connecticut.
They are parents of two pre-school children, including a daughter who upstaged the governor during the press conference, walking back and forth behind him.
Aside from the gold-plated resume, Bronin has two other noteworthy biographical notes: His wedding was featured in the New York Times’ weekly “Vows” column, closely followed by a mocking account in Gawker that overlooked he also is a graduate of Greenwich Country Day School.
He will be paid $160,000 a year, the same as McDonald.