Pre Vizsla, serving as governor of Concordia, which is a moon orbiting Mandalore
Throughout the galaxy, a governor held the position of governmental leader for a colony, province, or another type of sub-national political entity. The term saw various applications across the eras of the Galactic Republic, the Galactic Empire, the New Republic, and the Galactic Alliance.
The Galactic Republic included governors, but because it operated as a federal system, local systems and sectors generally maintained their own governing bodies. It appears the Old Republic primarily used governors on a temporary basis for unstable systems or newly integrated systems lacking established governance. Mousul aimed to be appointed as the sector governor overseeing the Ansion's region of space.
During the Jedi Civil War period, Taris had a Governor installed to supervise the Sith presence there. He was ultimately killed by Revan, who was trying to secure passage off the planet.
One notable instance of an Old Republic governor existed in the Seswenna sector, which was governed by both a governor and a lieutenant governor from at least 33 BBY until the Republic's collapse. The governor and lieutenant governor of this sector also concurrently served as the governor and lieutenant governor of its primary world, Eriadu.
The Empire generally allowed planets to govern themselves, especially those that supported or were neutral towards the New Order (for example, Naboo and Corellia). Governments were changed on fewer than 1/80th of all planets. Governors were assigned to planets that had rebelled, were considered hostile to the New Order, or had been recently annexed by the Empire. Even when their senators opposed the decision, certain worlds with senators deemed disloyal to the Emperor were sometimes assigned governors. This happened on Chandrila, where Jesco Comark was appointed Imperial Governor to monitor Senator [Mon Mothma](/article/mon_mothma-legends]. However, Comark abandoned his position as a result of pressure from the populace, who supported the more experienced Mothma.
Other planets, such as Bakura, which were more distant from Coruscant, maintained their governments with only minor adjustments but were also assigned a governor. The Empire also maintained the position of Lieutenant Governor. With a few exceptions of governors hand-picked by Palpatine, the Imperial Ruling Council selected Imperial Governors and the Diplomatic Services issued most of their directives. Emperor Palpatine had preliminary plans to eventually replace the planetary governors with Dark Side Adepts, thus establishing a "Dark Empire".
For Imperial governors holding authority over sectors and oversectors, refer to Moff.
The New Republic's approach to governors (referred to as Governors-General) mirrored that of the Old Republic. Both Corellia and Rhinnal had Governors-General, with Corellia's being elected by its population. The Galactic Alliance continued this system, but it eliminated the Governor-General system from Corellia several years after the Yuuzhan Vong War.