Agencies

Fred Wooton
Commissioner

Governor Jim Justice appointed Fred Wooton commissioner of the West Virginia Alcohol Beverage Control Administration February 2017.

Wooton has been with the ABCA for more than 25 years serving in a variety of roles including inspector, enforcement agent and enforcement supervisor. He has instructed officers and cadets at the West Virginia State Police Academy on the state’s Alcohol Beverage Control laws, rules and regulations since 2004, and for a number of years, Wooton served on the Policies and Procedures Executive Committee at the agency.

Prior to joining ABCA, Wooton worked 12 years in the lodging, food and beverage industry in southern West Virginia. He is a 1984 graduate of the West Virginia University College of Business and Economics with a Bachelor of Science in Business Administration. He resides in Beckley with his wife, Debra.

Dawn Holstein
Commissioner

Governor Justice appointed Dawn Holstein commissioner of the Division of Financial Institutions in March 2017. She had been serving as acting commissioner for 18 months.

Holstein has more than 20 years of experience with the agency, serving in the roles of safety and soundness examiner, information technology examiner, staff analyst, director of Depository Institutions, and acting commissioner. She is responsible for the supervision, continuity, and quality control of all examination programs for depository institutions in all operational areas including safety and soundness, trust operations, information technology operations, and bank holding company oversight.  Holstein continues to be responsible for the depository unit’s applications and chartering function as well as formulating policies and procedures related to a wide range of examination and administrative issues.  She represents the division at meetings with financial institution executives and federal and state regulators. 

Holstein earned her Bachelor of Science in Business Administration from Marshall University where she majored in accounting. She is also a certified information systems auditor.

Michael Cook
Director

Michael Cook was named Director of the State Budget Office effective August 4, 2018, where he works closely with the Governor and the Legislature in all aspects of the budget process. Most recently, Cook served as Senior Budget and Policy Analyst for the West Virginia Senate. He brings fifteen years of experience and an excellent rapport with both the Executive and Legislative branches.

Cook graduated from Concord University in 1992 with an education degree and began his career in State government as a public information officer with the Legislative Office of Reference and Information in 1997. He grew up in Raleigh County, and moved to Charleston after starting work for the Legislature.

Allan L. McVey
Insurance Commissioner

Allan L. McVey was reappointed by Governor Jim Justice to the role of Insurance Commissioner on September 22, 2021, a position he previously held from March 21, 2017, until January 2019. During this break of service, he was appointed by Governor Justice to serve as the Cabinet Secretary of the West Virginia Department of Administration, a position he held until his reappointment to Insurance Commissioner.

Prior to his appointment, Mr. McVey was a licensed insurance agent who served in several capacities during his long tenure in the insurance industry. His experience includes Medical Claims Examiner with the WV Workers’ Compensation Fund, underwriter with a large national insurance company, and since 1976, a licensed insurance agent and broker with several firms, both local and national. His latest assignment included both sales and management of West Virginia operations for a national insurance brokerage firm.

A graduate of West Virginia State University Bachelor of Science Business Administration degree, Mr. McVey also has several post-graduate insurance designations.
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Prior to his appointment as Secretary of Administration, he worked at the West Virginia Lottery as the Assistant Director from 2008-2017 and served as Acting Lottery Director from 2015-2017.

Before he started his career in public service, Myers managed corporate administration for Toyota Motor Manufacturing in Buffalo, West Virginia.

A graduate of The Ohio State University with a business degree, Director Myers previously served as the chairman of the Board of Directors for the Putnam County Chamber of Commerce and as President of the Point Pleasant and Logan Lions Clubs.

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  Sara Rogers
  Executive Director
  ​Municipal Bond Commission
  900 Pennsylvania Avenue Suite 1117
  Charleston, WV 25302
  304-558-3971
  mbc.wv.gov
  

   

  The Municipal Bond Commission’s mission is to serve as fiscal agent for state and local governmental bond issues.  As fiscal agent, it is to provide the bond issuers and holders with economic, financial, and managerial services. In the role as fiscal agent, the commission receives deposits of the various issuers, invests them for returns consistent with State statute and bond ordinance requirements, disburses funds to appropriate agent banks or bondholders to meet debt service.  This agency maintains and reports the financial accounts of each depositor, while aiding the issuers in the management of their resources.

  Sara Rogers was appointed executive director for the West Virginia Municipal Bond Commission in November 2004.  Prior to this appointment, Rogers served as acting executive director for the commission.  She began with the West Virginia Municipal Bond Commission as the Accountant in September 1998.

  Rogers is a graduate of West Virginia State University where she earned a Bachelor of Science degree in Business Administration with a major in accounting and minor in finance. Rogers resides in St. Albans with her husband. They enjoy volunteering in their community and serving to benefit local parks.  She has one daughter, Jessie.
  
  

A.M. Fenway Pollack
Chief Administrative Law Judge

Governor Jim Justice appointed A.M. “Fenway” Pollack to serve as Chief Administrative Law Judge for the Office of Tax Appeals in late December 2017. Judge Pollack previously served in the position from March 2011 to February 2015, when he left to serve as General Counsel for the West Virginia Bureau for Children and Families.

Previously, Pollack was senior counsel with the West Virginia Department of Environmental Protection, where he practiced coal mining related litigation in Circuit Court, Federal Court, the West Virginia Supreme Court of Appeals and before the West Virginia Surface Mine Board and the Environmental Quality Board.
 
Prior to that, he was an Assistant Attorney General with the West Virginia Attorney General’s Office. There, he represented the Tax Division of the West Virginia Department of Revenue in both state and federal court.

Pollack was in private practice at a small firm in Summersville, West Viriginia, for six years. His practice areas included general civil litigation, criminal defense, abuse and neglect, workers compensation, collections, family law, wills and estate administration. He graduated from the State University of New York at Purchase in 1984 with a Bachelor of Fine Arts degree in Film and pursued a career in broadcast journalism. He earned his law degree from West Virginia University in 1998. He is married and has two children, a daughter and a son.

Joe Moore
Executive Director

Joe Moore was named executive director of the West Virginia Racing Commission in June 2015.

He works to support the mission of the commission by assuring patrons of thoroughbred and greyhound racing that the laws and rules of racing are enforced through regulation and supervision to provide a high degree of confidence in the integrity of the races.

Prior to being appointed executive director, Moore has served as the commission’s accountant and auditor since 2010. With more than 10 years of accounting experience and eight years with the Racing Commission, he has been instrumental in advancing the commission’s efforts for increased integrity while navigating the its financial position during declining economic conditions facing the thoroughbred and greyhound racing industries.

Moore earned Bachelor of Business Administration Degree in Accounting from Marshall University.  He lives in St. Albans with his wife and daughters and serves on the board of the Nitro Church of the Nazarene, is involved in many church ministries and is the sound technician for a regional southern gospel singing ministry.

Matt Irby
Tax Commissioner

The State Tax Division administers, collects, and enforces the major taxes imposed by the State of West Virginia. These include: personal income tax; consumer sales and use taxes; corporate income tax; motor fuel taxes; and, other excise taxes. The division processes nearly 1.6 million tax returns annually and also administers a variety of tax credit programs.

Matt Irby was appointed Acting Tax Commissioner for West Virginia by Governor Jim Justice on January 29, 2021, and was officially named Tax Commissioner on June 29, 2021.​​

He brings nearly two decades of public service experience in tax and law to the Tax Division in service to West Virginia as the Deputy Tax Commissioner, Director of the Tax Account Administration Division, Administrative Law Judge at the West Virginia Office of Tax Appeals, and as an attorney for the State Tax Division. He has also worked for Legal Aid of West Virginia and the Kentucky Department of Public Advocacy.

Commissioner Irby earned a Bachelor of Arts degree from Marshall University and a law degree from Chase College of Law. ​