"It gives me great pleasure to officially nominate Tom Burack to serve as Environmental Services Commissioner, and I look forward to talking further with the councilors about his nomination," Gov. Lynch said. "Tom Burack, with his broad experience in both business and environmental issues, will be an Environmental Services Commissioner who can act to protect New Hampshire's environment and to help build New Hampshire's economy.

"I believe that the Councilors will find, as I have found, that Tom Burack is knowledgeable about all sides of these important issues and that he is committed to bringing people together to find common-sense solutions," Gov. Lynch said. "Tom Burack understands that New Hampshire's beautiful environment and natural resources are among our state's most important economic assets, and that economic development and environmental protection must go hand-in-hand."

Burack is a partner at Sheehan Phinney Bass + Green in Manchester, where he specializes in environmental, real estate and corporate law. From 1988 to 1989, Burack served as a law clerk for then-Associate New Hampshire Supreme Court Justice David Souter. From 1982 to 1984, he served as legislative assistant for environmental matters for former U.S. Senator Gordon Humphrey.

Since 1990, Burack has served as chair of the Business & Industry Association of New Hampshire's WasteCap Program Steering committee, which works to help New Hampshire business save money by reducing solid waste, conserving energy and water, and preventing pollution. As a member of the BIA's Environmental Affairs Committee, Burack assisted in the drafting of the state's Brownfields Program, a law enacted in 1996 that helps promote the cleanup and redevelopment of contaminated properties.

Burack is chair of the New Hampshire Land and Community Heritage Investment Authority, and served as a member and chairman of the commission that recommended the creation of LCHIP. He is a former member of the board of trustees for the Audubon Society of New Hampshire and now serves as an honorary trustee. He also served from 1992 to 1996 as the vice chairman of the New Hampshire Superfund Task Force established by former Congressman Bill Zeliff and as a member of the New Hampshire Recycling Markets Development Steering Committee.

Burack is a member of the Board of Advisers for the George C. Marshall Foundation; a former president and chair of the board of trustees of the Truman Scholars Association; a former chairman of the New Hampshire Bar Association's section on environmental and natural resources law; and a former legal counsel to the New Hampshire Republican State Committee.

In 2001, Business NH Magazine named Burack one of the 10 state leaders on environmental matters.

Burack graduated from Dartmouth College in 1982 and received his law degree from the University of Virginia in 1988.

Burack was raised in Jackson, where his parents still live. His wife, Emilie Christie, is a Lancaster native. They live with their two children in Hopkinton.