Biography for Trent Hargrove
Trent Hargrove was appointed Pennsylvania’s first Chief Diversity Officer in June 2007. In this position, he is charged with the management of a major new initiative to evaluate the Commonwealth’s current diversity programs and implement best practices. His responsibilities include working with the Office of Administration and agencies across the Commonwealth to develop programs to recruit, hire, and retain a diverse workforce, to increase participation in Commonwealth contracts and to coordinate diversity and inclusiveness in all aspects of Commonwealth work.
Mr. Hargrove previously served as the Chief Counsel to the Department of General Services from March 2003 through June 2007. In this capacity, Mr. Hargrove served as the chief legal advisor to Secretary James P. Creedon and other Department personnel on complex legal matters involving the Department and other Commonwealth agencies. Mr. Hargrove has held positions in both the public and private practice of law and has served in some capacity for every Governor and Attorney General since 1979.
Mr. Hargrove has worked as a Chief Deputy Attorney General for Civil Rights Enforcement and in that capacity served on the United States Attorney General’s Hate Crimes Working Group for State and Local Law Enforcement Training. He has assisted the Municipal Police Officers Education and Training Commission and conducted training for the Federal Law Enforcement Training Center. Mr. Hargrove has served with the Governor’s Office of General Counsel at the Offices of Chief Counsel at both the Pennsylvania Department of Transportation and the Pennsylvania Housing Finance Agency working in the areas of real estate finance and acquisitions, leasing and public contracting, public and municipal finance transactions, bid protests, and utility law.
In private practice, Mr. Hargrove worked for the law firm of McNees, Wallace and Nurick in its Harrisburg office where he concentrated in the areas of real estate, municipal and public land development and finance, administrative law, zoning, planning and subdivision law, real estate tax assessment, commercial and retail leasing, and mortgage law.
Mr. Hargrove has served as the Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of the Harrisburg Authority, as a volunteer member of the Board of Directors of the Harrisburg Senators Baseball Club, and he chaired the Harrisburg City School District Board of Control and continues to serve on this Board. Mr. Hargrove was the founding president of the Harrisburg Public School Foundation. He has also been named one of the 50 most influential African American and minority lawyers in Pennsylvania by the Legal Intelligencer.
Mr. Hargrove is a native of Harrisburg and attended Harrisburg public schools and the McDonogh School. He is a graduate of Bucknell University where he earned a Bachelor of Arts degree and the Dickinson School of Law where he earned a Juris Doctor degree. Mr. Hargrove is licensed by the Pennsylvania Supreme Court, the United States District Court for the Middle District of Pennsylvania, and the United States Supreme Court. He is a member of the Pennsylvania Bar Association.
