BOSTON (BRAIN) — The Massachusetts Bicycle Coalition has hired Galen Mook as the organization's new executive director. Mook will take over helm of the statewide advocacy organization in July. Mook was most recently been marketing and advocacy specialist for Landry's Bicycles and has a background as a grassroots organizer.
The organization said the appointment comes as the state is experiencing "an explosion" of bike use.
"The board is delighted to welcome Galen Mook as the next executive director of MassBike," said MassBike board president John Siemiatkoski. "Galen's experience as an organizer, advocate, instructor, and in the bike industry make him uniquely qualified to lead MassBike. We look forward to working with Galen and our chapters to provide more opportunities for bicycling across Massachusetts."
Mook was co-founder of the CommonWheels Bicycle Collective in Allston, co-host of the biweekly radio program BikeTalk881 and co-founder of BU Bikes when he was a student at Boston University. He has also been active in the Allston community advocating for safer bike infrastructure, helped lead the campaign for a protected bike lane along BU's campus as part of the Commonwealth Avenue reconstruction, and is helping to lead an effort to encourage MassDOT to develop a multimodal and more sustainable design for the I-90 Allston Interchange Project.
"I'm approaching this position as 'building community,'" said Mook. "I am excited for the opportunity to get to know the bicycle riders across the Commonwealth and to steer MassBike to serve all communities."
Mook has worked for Landry's for the last five years.
Jack Johnson, Landry's marketing and advocacy director, said, "Nobody lives and breathes all-things-bicycling as much as Galen, and we have appreciated his huge and positive impact both for our local business and for our cycling community. ... Everyone at Landry's will miss him greatly, and we wish him all the best in his leadership role at MassBike."
