Javier Rivera Aquino, an agronomist and farmer, and former Secretary of Agriculture of Puerto Rico, appointed by Governor Luis Fortuño and sworn in by Secretary of State Kenneth McClintock on January 2, 2009. In December, 2011 he announced that he would resign his office on the third anniversary of his swearing in, January 7, 2011, in order to spend more time with his family, which resides in Lares, a grueling two-and-a-half-hour one-way commute from the Department's offices in San Juan.