Governor Appoints Economic Development Secretary
BOSTON — Governor Maura Healey announced that she is appointing Eric Paley as Secretary of the Executive Office of Economic Development (EOED).
Paley is a successful entrepreneur and leader who is stepping away from managing one of the world's highest-performing seed-stage venture capital funds, Founder Collective.
"Eric Paley has dedicated his career to starting and growing businesses in Massachusetts. Most recently, he has focused on providing startups with the early support and resources they need to succeed. This is exactly the type of leadership, experience and dedication we need in a new Economic Development Secretary," said Governor Healey. "I look forward to working with Eric to build on the work we have been doing to support businesses and entrepreneurs, lower costs, grow our economy and increase our competitiveness."
Eric Paley has worked to shape the innovation economy for more than 25 years as both a successful entrepreneur and a leading venture capitalist. As co-founder and Managing Partner of Founder Collective, Paley helped build one of the world's highest-performing seed-stage venture capital funds. His investment portfolio includes groundbreaking technology companies across diverse sectors such as transportation, media, healthcare, robotics consumer, advanced manufacturing and enterprise software, including Uber, The Trade Desk, Omada Health, Cruise Automation, Whoop, Formlabs and Airtable. Paley served on the Board of Directors of The Trade Desk from its founding until 2023, including as a public director after the company's IPO in 2016. At Founder Collective, Paley also launched Collective Future, an annual Boston conference bringing together the state's most influential innovators across technology, government, media, cultural and non-profit sectors to collaboratively shape the future of the innovation economy.
"I've been extremely fortunate to benefit from the unique strengths of Massachusetts throughout my career. Massachusetts is overflowing with world-class talent, driven by top-tier research institutions, a thriving business landscape, and boundless entrepreneurial energy. I'm grateful for the opportunity to build on these strengths," said Paley. "Governor Healey and her team have done incredible work to make it easier to do business in the state, grow our global leadership in cutting-edge sectors, and make life more affordable for people and businesses. I look forward to diving into the role to extend on this progress, partnering with our business community each step of the way."
Before Founder Collective, Paley founded and led two companies. Most notably, he was CEO of Brontes Technologies, a hard-tech startup which commercialized novel 3D imaging technology spun out of MIT to enable advanced manufacturing in dentistry. Paley continued to lead the company after its acquisition by 3M in 2006.
Paley's industry recognition includes five appearances on the Forbes Midas List of top venture capital investors, reaching as high as #9 overall—making him the world's highest-ranked seed investor that year. He has also been recognized as a Technology Power Player by the Boston Globe for the past four years and among Boston's Most Influential People by Boston Magazine in 2025.
Paley holds an MBA from Harvard Business School and a bachelor's degree from Dartmouth College. He lives in Lexington with his wife, Shirley, and two children. He serves on the Board of Directors of the YMCA of Greater Boston. He and Shirley focus their philanthropic efforts primarily on the alleviation of food insecurity in Massachusetts.
Paley will start his new role in September. He succeeds Yvonne Hao, who stepped down as Economic Development Secretary earlier this year. Ashley Stolba, who has served as Interim Secretary of Economic Development since Hao's departure, will return to a senior leadership position at EOED. Under the leadership of Governor Healey and Secretary Hao, the office developed and passed the $4 billion Mass Leads Act to grow Massachusetts' leadership in life sciences, climatetech and AI while supporting business growth and job creation, secured major federal wins including ARPA-H, the Northeast Microelectronics Hub, and CHIPS and Science Act awards, and launched the Massachusetts AI Hub.
