Ellington Churchill, Jr. was sworn in as Secretary of the Maryland Department of General Services on July 26, 2016. He previously served as Deputy Secretary at the Maryland Department of Housing and Community Development. He brings extensive experience in large-scale business development, property management, and contract negotiation to state government. As a proven manager and communicator able to guide collaborative efforts with both colleagues and clients, he oversees the department’s more than 600 skilled and talented civil servants that provide technical expertise and essential services to the state through procurements, construction, and real estate.
The department is often the first called for those agencies and citizens in need. Secretary Churchill leads a diverse operation supporting all other functions of state government — from the state’s emergency COVID-19 procurement response to build auxiliary medical facilities and hospitals to hold COVID patience in their recovery, to standing up testing site and vaccine sites, to acquiring hundreds of millions of dollars in personal protective equipment for our first responders.
Secretary Churchill currently leads the state's efforts to transform, modernize, and professionalize statewide procurement, standing up the Office of State Procurement, and onboarding the state’s new eMaryland Marketplace Advantage electronic procurement platform.
In addition, the secretary oversees the State Center redevelopment efforts, including the solicitation, analysis, award, and upfit of newly-leased commercial office spaces for government executive agencies which will provide critical support to Baltimore’s central business district, relocating more than 3000 state employees out of the State Center complex in Baltimore City.
Secretary Churchill began his professional career in 1994 as a project manager at Lewis Contractors, a Mid-Atlantic construction management company. He was responsible for overseeing multimillion dollar projects, including the restoration of the Baltimore Basilica. In 2006, he took a position as a senior project manager at the Maryland branch of Liberty Property Trust, a national developer of industrial and commercial office space.
He returned to Lewis Contractors in 2010 and, prior to joining the Hogan administration, he was Director of Business Development. Among his numerous responsibilities, he oversaw the preparation of all technical responses to client requests for proposals, and followed through as the lead in coordinating and facilitating company-wide responses to clients throughout project life-cycles. Secretary Churchill built closer relationships with existing customers and provided avenues to increase company support for clients. He successfully garnered more than $100 million in projects, including the expansion of the Maryland School for the Blind and the restoration of the Washington Monument in Baltimore.
Secretary Churchill is a graduate of Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University, where he received a Bachelor of Architecture and a Master of Science in Architecture.
Active in civic organizations, he has served as a trustee of Outward Bound (Baltimore Chesapeake Bay), the Peale Center for Baltimore History and Architecture, and Arundel Community Development Services, among others. He lives in Anne Arundel County with his wife and two children.