Brian P. Golden

Brian Paul Golden (born February 2, 1965) is an American politician and attorney who served as a member of the Massachusetts House of Representatives from 1999 to 2004 and was the director of the Boston Planning & Development Agency from 2014 to 2022.

Golden was born on February 2, 1965, in Boston.

Golden is the son of a career police officer and civic leader.

He was raised in the Allston neighborhood of Boston and he has one brother and two sisters.

He graduated from Boston Latin School, Harvard College, William & Mary Law School and the US Army War College, master's degree in Strategic Studies.

During his tenure Boston completed the first general city plan since 1965, Imagine Boston 2030, and conducted specific planning exercises for 30% of the city’s land mass.

In 1990, Golden was an unsuccessful candidate for the Massachusetts House of Representatives seat in Boston's 19th Suffolk district.

He finished second in a four-candidate Democratic primary

behind Susan Tracy and ahead of Steven Tolman and John J. McLaughlin.

After returning to law

He served in the United States Army from 1993 to 1996 and has been in the United States Army Reserve since 1997.

His position in the Army was with the JAG Corps.

His military awards include the Bronze Star Medal for service in Iraq and the Defense Meritorious Service Medal for service in Jerusalem and the West Bank.

school and serving in the US Army for more than three years, he was elected to the House in 1998.

From 1999 to 2005, he represented Boston’s 18th Suffolk district.

His career in the state legislature was interrupted twice when he was deployed into war zones.

In the legislature, Golden played a key role in defeating an attempt to restore the death penalty in 1999 at a time when the legislature was closely divided on the matter.

He was an advocate for public charter schools as an alternative to poorly performing traditional public school systems.

He also served as Co-Chair of the Special Commission on School Building Assistance, which worked to improve state law governing the funding for public school construction.

In 2001, he was deployed to Bosnia and then deployed to Iraq in 2005.

In 2005, Golden was appointed commissioner of the Department of Telecommunications and Energy by Republican Governor Mitt Romney.

He also served as New England's Regional Director for the Department of Health and Human Services, where he worked with states on federal Medicaid waivers to expand health insurance coverage.

In 2009, Golden became the Executive Director/Secretary for the Boston Redevelopment Authority when he was appointed by Democratic Mayor Thomas M. Menino.

The Democratic caucus in the Massachusetts legislature was split on the issue at the time, while Democratic President Barack Obama opposed same sex marriage until 2012.

In 2014, newly elected Democratic Mayor Martin J. Walsh, appointed Golden head of the Boston Redevelopment Authority” (later renamed the Boston Planning & Development Agency) when Peter Meade departed.

His focus at the agency was to modernize operations, improve transparency, provide neighborhoods with more input into city planning and development decisions, and support economic development.

In 2019, he was a finalist for CEO of the Massachusetts Port Authority.

Boston Port Director Lisa Wieland was chosen over Golden by a 5 to 2 vote.

Golden initiated Boston’s candidacy for Singapore’s Lee Kuan Yew (LKY) World City Prize when the international competition kicked off in 2019.

In 2022, Boston was one of four cities to be recognized by the LKY Prize, receiving a Special Mention.

Boston was the only city in the United States to be singled out.

The Prize Council saluted Boston for its “holistic and cumulative effort on climate resilience, improving housing affordability and mobility options, and fostering civic participation.”

In 2020, Golden announced the creation of the BPDA's first-ever Office of Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion (ODEI).

Golden left the BPDA in 2022.

His eight-year tenure as Director was the longest in the agency's history.

During his tenure, the BPDA approved some 11,000 new income-restricted affordable residential units and a total of 46,000 new units.

He oversaw an historic building boom with 90 million square feet of new development permitted, which was valued at approximately $43 billion.

New construction during his tenure yielded more than $300 million in new property taxes.

The approved projects from this period were expected to yield, in total, 90,000 construction jobs and 80,000 permanent jobs.

As chief executive of the agency, Golden was responsible for city planning and 20 million square feet of agency-owned property, primarily located at the Charlestown Navy Yard and Raymond L. Flynn Marine Park.