Brad Crowell is a corporate strategy consultant, former ship's officer, and marine engineer. He is a 14th-generation resident of Dennis (or more, counting his 0.1% Wampanoag heritage). He has been involved in community service for eight years.
Brad was appointed to represent the town of Dennis at the Cape Cod Commission in 2002. A strong supporter of the mission of the Commission, he was nonetheless troubled by the expense and complexity of the Commission's regulatory process, its lack of predictability, its unintended consequences, and the Commission's insufficient interest in the economic health of the region.
As both chair of the Cape Cod Commission (2006-2007), and chair of the Task Force Steering Committee at the Commission, Brad oversaw efforts to improve the processes by which it operates, and overhaul its regulations. The goal of both efforts has been to make the Commission more responsive to the citizens it serves, while making it more predictable and transparent to those it regulates.
He has also served on the Barnstable County Economic Development Council, where he advocated for a more systematic approach to understanding and supporting high-growth/high-wage jobs in the region.
Brad also served as a representative to the Cape Cod Metropolitan Planning Organization (MPO)—the federal/state/local consortium tasked with planning and budgeting state highway projects. He was the first member to anticipate that the Sagamore "flyover" was only an eastbound solution, and succeeded in advancing a solution to this problem: reconfiguration of the exit 1 on-ramp, now a high-priority project.
Recently, Brad was also the chair of the building committee for Dennis Union Church, which moved and rehabilitated this historic 19th century meetinghouse. This role involved significant consensus building, as hundreds of individual opinions were melded into one plan. To be responsive to the future, as well as the past, this project also incorporated a community WiFi node and an 8.2 kilowatt solar array. It also incorporated a number of features to advance the social mission of the church, including showers to improve the experience of homeless participants in the "Overnights of Hospitality" program. This project recently received a award from the U.S. Department of Energy—one of three churches nationwide so honored—for its energy conservation achievements.
Brad advises senior management of companies on a variety of issues, typically relating to the future direction of their companies: new markets, strategic acquisition, performance improvement, cost reduction, etc. In this capacity he has been fortunate to work on a variety of projects around the world:
- Improving the environmental performance of the notoriously irresponsible shipbreaking industry
- Promoting environmentally-sound PCB disposal solutions in China
- Reducing accidents at the largest refinery in the Americas
Prior to this, Brad served as an engineering and deck officer in the U.S. Merchant Marine, primarily aboard liquefied natural gas vessels, and travelled extensively in this capacity around Europe and Asia. He is a former member of MEBA-District 1.
Brad holds an undergraduate degree from the United States Merchant Merchant Marine Academy, and two master's degrees from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. He also attended Duke University.
Brad and his wife Kim are residents of Dennis, raising three children in a house once owned by his great-great grandfather in the shadow of Scargo Hill.
He comes from a long line of independent-minded community servants, including great-grandfather "Mr. Willie" Crowell, who ran for the Massachusetts legislature in 1912 as a member of Theodore Roosevelt's "Bull Moose" Progressive Party.
Unfortunately Teddy lost, and so did Mr. Willie.
William B. Crowell Jr. (Will) and William B. Crowell Sr. (Brad).