Demanue Millard is one of the most powerful political players in Baltimore, but the chief of staff to Mayor Sheila Dixon (D-Baltimore) keeps a low-key profile - mostly working behind the scenes.

Millard, 35, currently wears two hats in the Dixon administration. He's been serving as director of the Office of Governmental Relations since January 2007, but in July, Millard took on an even more challenging role - serving as chief of staff in the Dixon administration in the midst of an ongoing investigation into the mayor's relationship with a prominent city developer.

However, Millard says the investigation, rather than serving as a distraction, caused Dixon to intensify her level of focus. It's a response he called "a true sign of a leader."

Millard may work mostly behind the scenes, but his loyalty to the mayor is quite public.

"He's tremendously loyal," Bill Henry, who represents the Baltimore city council's 4th District, told PolitickerMD.com. "If he disagreed with Dixon, he would share that with her privately."

Millard's loyalty and character seem to have played a key role in Dixon's decision to bring him on as chief of staff. She described Millard as calm, professional, diplomatic and said he hit the ground running as soon as he took on the new responsibilities.

"I gained a lot of trust in Demanue over the last two years," Dixon told PolitickerMD.com. "I'm a person who pays very close attention to detail."

Born and raised in Baltimore, Millard is a young bachelor, an avid sports fan and a self- described "fanatic" of the Law and Order television show. His parents were divorced when he was six and his father passed away at 78.

In conversation, Millard frequently mentions his mother's influence on his career.

"My mom is probably one of the most effective and convincing lobbyists that I know," Millard said, while describing a tough internship decision he was faced with in college.

While attending Howard University in Washington, D.C. as a finance major, Millard was offered two summer internships. One was with U.S. Sen. Ted Kennedy (D-Mass.) and the other with U.S. Sen. Barbara Mikulski (D-Md.).

"The big catch to it was that Senator Kennedy's internship was paid and Senator Mikulski's office was not," Millard said, adding he was also intrigued by the "fully stocked bar" in Kennedy's office.

"Just finishing my junior year of college and living in Washington, D.C. - as a young man of course - the paid internship struck out to me to be a little more entertaining," he said.

Millard's mother was the one who convinced him that an opportunity to work for a Maryland Senator, opposed to an out-of-state Senator, had weighted benefits.

Millard's internship with Mikulski launched him into the Maryland political scene. The internship led him to his first post-college career - serving as a staff assistant to Mikulski, a job Millard jokingly described as "the glorious beholdings of working in the mail room."

But Millard also described the job as an invaluable experience where he learned about the issues facing Maryland and the state's political dynamics.

"It really just gave me a very keen education in terms of how diverse the state is," Millard said.

By 1994, Millard was serving as a field worker for former Gov. Parris Glendenning's (D-Prince George's County) gubernatorial campaign alongside a man named Ken Ulman, now-executive of the Howard County commission. Glendenning's victory catapulted Millard into the role of legislative liaison for the Maryland Department of Transportation and eventually landed him a job at the American Public Transportation Association following Glendenning's retirement.

Millard first met Dixon in 2006 when he sat down for lunch with the then-city council president.

"After that... that was it. I never heard back from her," Millard said.

But on Election Day 2007, Millard ran into Dixon again. The two struck up a conversation and before he knew it, Millard was heading Dixon's government relations team.

Millard said his "sole responsibility" as chief of staff is to work with city agencies, city government officials and members of the city council in order to promote and implement the mayor's vision.

"And that is to create a cleaner greener, healthier and safer Baltimore - plain and simple," Millard said.

Inside the Dixon administration, Millard is "very much a behind the scenes kind of player" and is "collaborative rather than confrontational" according to Henry. Millard said he plays a "significant role" in advising the mayor, supporting her and helping her carry out initiatives on both political and policy related items.

"They go hand and hand," Millard said.

Robert Curran, who represents the Baltimore city council's 3rd District, said Millard avoids knee-jerk reactions. Curran described him as insightful, calm and "not easily rattled." In addition, he pointed to a mutual and perhaps vital respect between Millard and Dixon.

"You can see he's maturing even more in multiple responsibilities," Dixon said.