Gov. JB Pritzker’s newly appointed head of the Illinois Department of Natural Resources previously led a state conservation department in Massachusetts — but most recently served in an executive position to help the Illinois Prisoner Review Board after it faced calls for change.

Jim Montgomery, whose IDNR appointment takes effect Monday but won’t be permanent until state Senate confirmation, served as a director and commissioner of the Massachusetts Department of Conservation and Recreation until 2021, according to the governor’s office and a LinkedIn profile.

In 2024, Pritzker appointed Montgomery, who was previously a Massachusetts sheriff’s office official and Illinois mayor, to the newly created position of executive director of the Prisoner Review Board, with a mandate to expand domestic violence training for board members. The appointment followed the PRB’s controversial decision to allow a man to be released from state custody just a day before he stabbed a pregnant woman with whom he had recently rekindled a relationship and killed her 11-year-old son, Jayden Perkins, in Chicago.

Criticism of the PRB has not reached that same fever pitch since the chair and a board member resigned, and Pritzker appointed Montgomery in 2024. But the controversies that preceded Montgomery’s appointment were still fresh on the minds of some state senators this spring as they considered the appointment of new PRB members.

“Jim is an exceptionally qualified candidate to lead Illinois’ conservation work, as he brings a deep wealth of experience in public leadership and operations,” Pritzker said in a statement Friday. A spokesperson for the governor declined to comment further on Montgomery’s PRB tenure or why he was chosen to lead IDNR. A spokesperson for the PRB did not respond to requests for comment.

Montgomery was elected mayor of the downstate Taylorville in 1997 and remained in that post until 2005. In addition to his time at the conservation department in Massachusetts, he also served as the director of administrative services with the sheriff’s department of Suffolk County, Massachusetts.

At the time of Montgomery’s appointment to the PRB, the board and Pritzker faced intense criticism after allowing Crosetti Brand to be released from state custody just before he attacked Laterria Smith and fatally stabbed Jayden. Brand was convicted and sentenced to life in prison last year.

In addition to expanding domestic violence training for board members, Montgomery was tasked with organizing the board’s “equity-based” training, overseeing its administrative functions and reducing the board chair’s workload. He was not considered a board member.

IDNR’s previous director, Natalie Phelps Finnie, departed at the end of June and was replaced by an interim director, Renee Snow, according to the governor’s office. The director’s role includes overseeing legislative affairs, land management and mines, among other responsibilities, according to IDNR.

Like many other parts of Illinois government, IDNR has clashed with the administration of President Donald Trump in recent years — perhaps most notably over an infrastructure project to build defenses against invasive carp at the Brandon Road Lock and Dam on the Des Plaines River in Joliet.

As director, Montgomery may also oversee the implementation of Illinois’ new law recognizing the conservation tactic of “rewilding” land.

“As a native central Illinoisan with a lifelong passion for conservation and outdoor recreation, I’m thrilled to accept Governor Pritzker’s invitation to lead the Illinois Department of Natural Resources,” Montgomery said in the statement from the governor’s office Friday. “I look forward to working with staff, constituents, the governor, lawmakers, and other stakeholders to ensure IDNR continues to be the best natural resources agency in the nation.”