Snohomish County Executive Bob Drewel has been named as the new executive director of the Puget Sound Regional Council (PSRC). Drewel emerged as the leading candidate from a nationwide search launched last summer and was named to the position by the PSRC’s 26- member executive board in a unanimous vote.

The PSRC coordinates long-range growth, economic and transportation planning for Kitsap, King, Pierce, and Snohomish counties, its 82 cities and towns, transit agencies, ports and state agencies. It is a conduit for federal funding for transportation projects, a regional resource for data and forecasting, and it supports the work of the region’s Economic Development District.

The agency was created in 1991 and has had one previous Executive Director, Mary McCumber, who retired in December 2003.