State House News Service / MASSterList | A conversation with incoming Cannabis Control Commission Executive Director Travis Ahern

JAN. 10, 2025…..There’s a new face in Massachusetts’s fluctuating cannabis industry: Travis Ahern, the existing Holliston town administrator, will take on the Cannabis Control Commission’s executive director role in March.

Ahern — who accepted the role after the commission’s former pick, David Lakeman, backed out of an initial offer in December — comes to the commission as it works on new regulations and its first governance charter. The agency has been at that work for months, while facing upheaval stemming from unresolved leadership and commissioner turnover, legal disputes, and a watchdog’s call last June to place the CCC into receivership. The commission is still without a permanent chair.

Ahern has worked for the town of Holliston since 2020, and earlier in his career worked in policy and finance at the Massachusetts Water Resource Authority Advisory Board and in financial roles for the towns of Danvers and Weston. In a recent interview with the News Service, Ahern talked about how he’ll approach the role, his priorities on Day One, and what he would consider an effective CCC.

This interview has been edited and condensed for clarity and length.

Q: You’re coming from a mainly administrative role. How do you plan on approaching the policy aspect of this CCC role — how hands-on do you plan on being in that respect?

A: Getting through the [Master of Public Administration] program at Northeastern, where former Governor Dukakis was my advisor, public policy was always my interest. One of the things that I excelled at in public administration was the finance side … Public policy, between my education background and my MWRA experience, is something that I wasn’t getting in municipal government. I wasn’t feeling like I was going to, and that’s what led me to this. So I do intend to be involved in that. But I would say overall, my approach will always be to support the subject-matter experts within the organization and try to alleviate or mitigate any barriers that they have for success. There is a research team, there is a legal team, there is the day-to-day licensing and permitting and enforcement — my stance on all of those things, whether it be policy or planning, is to ensure that we are putting CCC staff and commissioners in position to be successful. That’s [been] my approach at the MWRA, [that’s been] my approach in Holliston — that’s just how I will always tackle most of these items. I don’t have a problem being at the forefront of any particular issue, but certainly being the face of cannabis is not my end game, it’s not my default setting.

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The Massachusetts Cannabis Control Commission announced on Dec. 23 that Travis Ahern has accepted the agency’s offer to serve as its next Executive Director starting in 2025.

Read the full interview with the incoming Executive Director on State House News Service here: https://www.statehousenews.com/news/regulatedindustries/cannabis/q-a-a-conversation-with-incoming-ccc-executive-director-travis-ahern/article_e62809ca-cec6-11ef-86bd-479ad088b529.html