Woods ends tour as secretary of Department of Veterans and Military Families

A search is underway for a new secretary for the Maryland Department of Veterans and Military Families to replace Anthony C. “Tony” Woods, who is leaving May 11 to take a job with a private sector technology startup.

Woods was one of Gov. Wes Moore’s earliest Cabinet appointments. Moore, an Army veteran, opened Wednesday’s Board of Public Works meeting by recognizing Woods, whom he said he first heard of when he returned from a tour in Afghanistan and “I kept on hearing this voice who was one of the strongest voices I’ve heard … advocating for me, my brothers and sisters and the people we serve.”

“When I became the governor-elect, and I was thinking about … this position, I was like, I know there’s no way I’m going to get Tony Woods. So let me at least call him to see if he has ideas about people who will take this role,” Moore said. “And I was so over the moon when I realized that the person I was calling, he’s a public servant through and through, and our administration has been better because of you. Our state is better because of you.”

Moore credited Woods with streamlining emergency assistance for veterans and helping rename the department to include families.

Woods’ early days as secretary included handling the failing Charlotte Hall Veteran’s Home, which was the subject of repeated citations for abuse of residents.

Prior to joining the Moore administration, Woods was executive director of the Quad Fellowship, a program he founded for 100 American, Japanese, Australian and Indian students pursuing advanced degrees in science, technology, engineering and mathematics to study at American universities. The fellowship part of the philanthropic Schmidt Futures — now called Schmidt Sciences — where he was director and head of talent.

Before that, Woods worked at Cisco Systems, The Boston Consulting Group and Capital One. A graduate of West Point, Woods spent more than a decade in the U.S. Army in military intelligence and achieved the rank of major.

In a statement from the governor’s office, Woods called his time as secretary “one of the greatest honors of my professional life,” and thanked the workers at the department for their service. The statement said Deputy Secretary Ross Cohen will serve as acting secretary during the search for a permanent replacement.