Jerry Brown shuffles Cal HR leadership

Gov. Jerry Brown shuffled a pair of key appointees overseeing state employees during his final months in office.

He named Adria Jenkins-Jones as acting director of the state Human Resources Department, and appointed outgoing Cal HR Director Richard Gillihan to a post the Department of Finance’s chief operating officer.

Gillihan has led Cal HR since 2014 and sat on the CalPERS Board of Administration as one of the governor’s appointees.

Jenkins-Jones will succeed Gillihan on the CalPERS board, too. She has worked for Cal HR for three years, most recently overseeing state government’s civil service selection process.

Both Gillihan and Jenkins-Jones have previously worked for the Finance Department.

At Cal HR, Gillihan carried out parts of the Brown administration’s civil service improvement project, which aimed to modernize hiring and to clear out outdated state personnel practices.

“Richard has been my partner in our Civil Service Improvement efforts, and I can’t thank him enough for all of his help and dedication. Without his leadership and the commitment of the employees of CalHR, we would not have accomplished these reforms,” Government Operations Agency Marybel Batjer said in a news release announcing the appointments.