Energy Department veteran Mark Gilbertson has officially been named principal deputy assistant secretary (PDAS) for the agency’s Office of Environmental Management.
The move was announced in a Tuesday email to Energy Department representatives from Assistant Secretary of Energy for Environmental Management Anne Marie White.
“Mark has excellent skills, temperament, and knowledge that compliment mine and I am certain that the EM-1/EM-2 combination will drive success in the EM program as we continue to lead in an environment of empowering and enabling our HQ and field site staff,” White wrote in the email. “Thanks Mark for stepping up to the plate.”
Gilbertson had been acting as the DOE’s No. 2 cleanup official, commonly called EM-2, since late August. At the same time, he served as assistant secretary for EM’s Office of Regulatory and Policy Affairs. Gilbertson assumed the EM-2 duties on an interim basis from another longtime DOE hand, Jim Owendoff, who now serves as department-wide chief risk officer.
Gilbertson has 35 years of public and private sector experience in environmental remediation and joined DOE’s cleanup office in 2003.
“Mark has been a member of the Senior Executive Service (SES) for over 25 years and has served as the EM Deputy Assistant Secretary for Site Restoration; Program and Site Support; and Environmental Cleanup and Restoration,” White said in the email.
Gilbertson also spent four years at the Environmental Protection Agency working on Resource Conservation and Recovery Act rules after having worked as an engineering consultant.
Elizabeth “Betsy” Connell will step in to fill Gilbertson’s prior role with Regulatory and Policy Affairs on an acting basis, White said.
