Steve Marks, the longtime executive director of the Oregon Liquor and Cannabis Commission, says he will resign effective Wednesday.

Marks on Monday morning submitted his one-paragraph resignation letter to Paul Rosenbaum, chairman of the liquor commission, and the other six members, saying his resignation is effective at 5 p.m. Wednesday.

“Because I believe that the Governor is entitled to have her own management team, I will honor that request,” he wrote.

Earlier this month, Gov. Tina Kotek sought Marks’ resignation. At the time, he said he would go, but offered no timeline. Marks receives a salary of $222,804 a year.

Last week, after news outlets revealed an internal investigation at the agency found top officials, including Marks, had diverted scarce Kentucky bourbon for their own use or for use as gifts, Marks continued to report to work and no one at the agency would say when he was leaving, even as Kotek’s office made clear the governor wanted him out.

Marks did not immediately respond to a message from The Oregonian on Monday. Neither did Rosenbaum.

The Oregon Department of Justice on Friday announced it would open a criminal investigation into the diversion of Kentucky bourbon by Oregon Liquor and Cannabis Commission officials for their own use. The practice was longstanding and common at the agency, which has been led by Marks, a Gov. John Kitzhaber appointee, for a decade. Kotek called the conduct of Marks and the other managers involved “wholly unacceptable.”

In the course of the investigation, which concluded in August, one liquor agency manager disclosed that he also fulfilled hundreds of requests for distilled spirits over the past four years, including those from unnamed lawmakers. The agency last week did not respond to questions about which Oregon lawmakers asked the commission officials to set aside the bottles.

The agency’s human resources investigation began June 3, more than a month after a departing employee reported that the liquor warehouse supervisor set aside bottles of bourbon “and has them sent to stores so higher ups” can pick them up.

In each case, the state employees purchased the liquor; each of them denied selling the liquor, which can go for thousands of dollars on the so-called secondary market, and said they kept them for their personal use or gave them as gifts. In interviews last year, each of the officials, including Marks, said they did not sell the liquor they obtained.

The other employees implicated are: Will Higlin, deputy director; Bill Schuette, the budget manager; Chris Mayton, the director of the distilled spirits program; Boba Subasic, the chief information officer; and Kai Nakashima, director of the office of information services. They make from $114,816 to $163,932 a year. All were on the job as of Friday. A message to Mark Pettinger, spokesperson for the liquor commission, about their status as of Monday was not immediately returned.

It appears Kotek may be laying the groundwork to take action against those employees. On Monday morning, the Oregon Department of Administrative Services sent an email to human resources managers in state agencies, announcing a policy that says executive branch management staff serve at the pleasure of the governor. Until now, those employees answered to agency heads and commissions.

That new policy goes into effect immediately.