U.S. Department of Defense senior executive Tom Mooney is apparently becoming the new chief of staff at the Energy Department’s Office of Environmental Management.
Mooney is the current chief of staff for the Pentagon’s Office of the Chief Management Officer, according to a source who said the federal manager stopped by DOE headquarters in Washington, D.C., last week to meet several top staff members at the nuclear cleanup office.
Mooney was expected to start the chief of staff job this week, said the source, who didn’t know what day.
The chief management officer was established by Congress in fiscal 2018 as third highest civilian in the Defense Department, behind the secretary and deputy secretary, according to the CMO website. The same website lists Mooney as one of a half-dozen managers reporting to Lisa Hershman, the deputy chief management officer who is also serving as acting CMO.
Mooney has been in his current post since October 2017, and helps oversee business operations, including the department’s financial plan, according to his LinkedIn profile. Prior to working for the chief management officer, Mooney spent most of 2017 as a deputy White House liaison for the Defense Department. Between 2009 and 2017, Mooney was a project lead and analyst at Virginia-based LMI Management Consulting, working in policy, strategic planning, and communications. He also spent about two years as a special assistant at the Department of the Army headquarters.
The DOE Office of Environmental Management chief of staff post has been open since July, following the departure of Darcey Bolin. Bolin, who worked previously for nuclear cleanup contractor CH2M, reportedly opted to leave the federal workforce rather than accept transfer to another department job outside Washington, D.C. She had joined the Energy Department in 2018 as part of the leadership team for DOE Assistant Secretary for Environmental Management Anne Marie White, who was forced to resign last June following a disagreement with her boss, Energy Department Undersecretary for Science Paul Dabbar.
Current DOE Environmental Management Deputy Chief of Staff Joceline Nahigian is also expected to leave her post to become the office’s director of intergovernmental and stakeholder relations, the source said Monday.
The Office of Environmental Management did not comment by press time Friday.
