Soon-to-retire Department of Energy senior executive Jim Owendoff is not worried about there being enough management talent around the nuclear cleanup complex to make up for seasoned hands departing in the near future.
In a Friday Feb. 21 afternoon telephone interview with Exchange Monitor Owendoff confirmed he plans to leave government, after about a half-century of combined service at DOE and the U.S. Air Force. Owendoff is currently chief risk officer in the DOE chief financial officer office.
“I have told the folks here that I plan to leave,” Owendoff said, adding he has not settled upon a date.
Asked if the much-discussed exit of longtime managers hurts DOE’s institutional knowledge in the weapons complex, Owendoff did not sound worried.
Managers have retired in the past, Owendoff said. “People take over and they do very, very well.” There is ample expertise around the DOE cleanup complex to “fill the shoes” of those departing. “The talent is there,” Owendoff said.
Owendoff has served more than once as the acting head of DOE’s multi-billion-dollar Office of Environmental Management, including early during the first Trump administration. Owendoff has also experienced government downsizings in the past, and acknowledged it makes employees “anxious.”
Given there are “a limited number of slots” for managers, Owendoff also said his retirement would create an opportunity for someone else. “Everybody has a time and when you feel that the time is right” that is the time to end a career, Owendoff said.
When asked if was going through standard retirement procedures or accepting a deferred resignation offer, Owendoff said. “I am still working my way through that.”
Owendoff said he feels “blessed” by the quality of people he has worked with and worked for during his government tenure. The departing DOE executive said he has no immediate post-retirement plans. He added that he and his wife have already done much travel over the years.
