Darren Suarez is a director of government affairs, with responsibility for all advocacy on energy, environmental and Information Technology & Telecommunications.

Darren comes to The Business Council from Hinman Straub LLC, where he lobbied on behalf of a number of Fortune 500 companies on energy and environment issues. Before that, Darren was the program director for environmental and economic development for the New York State Senate, where he represented the Majority Leader in meetings and public event, and developed, amended, and negotiated economic development tax incentives. Previously, he was a government affairs representative for the City University of New York and Cornell University, and worked for the New York State Department of Labor as a job services representative working with employers to meet their workforce needs.

Darren holds a degree in Political Science from UMass-Dartmouth. He was the recipient of the 2006 Economic Development Service Award in recognition of work in attracting Global Foundries to construct a $3.2 billion 300 mm-wafer fab in New York State. He was awarded the 2005 New York Nature Conservancy's Salamander Award for working to protect New York's biodiversity and a joint recipient of the 2004 National Conference of State Legislatures Staff Chair Award for work as a primary author of New York's Brownfield Cleanup Program.