On August 10, Governor Gretchen Whitmer appointed several attorneys and others with legal connections to various state boards and commissions.
Brandon Hofmeister of Ann Arbor was named to the Council on Climate Solutions. Hoffmeister is the senior vice president of governmental, regulatory, and public affairs for Consumers Energy.
Prior to joining Consumers Energy, Hofmeister served as an assistant professor of law at Wayne State University and as visiting professor of law at the University of Michigan, focusing on energy and climate law and policy.
Previously, Hofmeister was an energy and climate policy advisor and deputy legal counsel to Michigan Gov. Jennifer Granholm. Hofmeister led comprehensive state energy policy reforms, helped implement the governor's clean energy economic development efforts and coordinated with Congress and the Obama Administration on federal energy and climate policies.
Hofmeister serves as a member of Governor Gretchen Whitmer’s Council on Climate Solutions, as the U.S. business representative on the Great Lakes Water Quality Board, and as a member of the Keystone Energy Board. He previously served on the University of Michigan’s President’s Commission on Carbon Neutrality.A graduate of Frankenmuth High School, Hofmeister holds a bachelor’s degree in government from Harvard College and is a magna cum laude Harvard Law School graduate.
In 2009, he was one of two Americans selected as a Chevening Fellow at the University of Edinburgh Business School, where he studied finance and investment in a low-carbon economy with policymakers from around the world.He was reappointed for a term that expires February 3, 2027.
Felipe Kairian-Tores of Royal Oak has been appointed to the State of Michigan Retirement Board. Kairian-Tores is an assistant prosecuting attorney for Wayne County and a judge advocate for the Michigan Army National Guard 46th Military Police Command. He holds a bachelor of science degree in aerospace engineering from the University of Michigan and a juris doctor from Wayne State University Law
School. Captain Karian-Tores is reappointed for a term that expires December 31, 2026.
Misti M. Rice of Rochester Hills has been appointed to the Michigan Women’s Commission. Rice serves as executive director of governmental affairs for Magna International, Inc. She holds a bachelor of arts in social work from Northeastern State University, a master of public administration from the University of Oklahoma, and a juris doctor from the University of Tulsa. Her term expires July 15, 2026.
Also named to the Michigan Women’s Commission was Faye Nelson of Grosse Pointe Woods. The Michigan director for the W.K. Kellogg Foundation, Nelson holds a bachelor of arts in political science from Mercy College of Detroit and a juris doctor from the University of Detroit School of Law. Her term also expires on July 15, 2026.
Stephen Pontoni of Brighton has been named to the Huron-Clinton Metropolitan Authority Board of Commissioners. Pontoni serves as executive director for the Michigan Association for Justice and the director of the Mid-American Global Education Council. He holds a bachelor of science from the University of Michigan-Dearborn. He was reappointed for a term that expires May 2, 2027.
