News: New Leadership Coming to U.S. Department of Commerce
Recently, President Obama announced the nomination of John Bryson as the next Commerce Secretary and Terry D. Garcia as Deputy Secretary.
John Bryson: Nominee for U.S. Department of Commerce Secretary
Previously, John Bryson was Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of Edison International, the parent company of Southern California Edison and Edison Mission Group, from 1990 to 2008. He is a director of The Boeing Company, The Walt Disney Company and Coda Automotive, Inc., and is a senior advisor to KKR. He is chairman of the board of BrightSource Energy, the Public Policy Institute of California (PPIC), and the Keck School of Medicine of the University of Southern California (USC) Board of Overseers. He also serves as co-chairman of the Pacific Council on International Policy (PCIP).
Mr. Bryson is a trustee of the California Institute of Technology and a director of The California Endowment and the W. M. Keck Foundation. He serves on the Advisory Board of Deutsche Bank Americas. He also previously served on a number of educational and environmental boards, including as chairman of the California Business Roundtable, co-chairman of the Electric Drive Transportation Association (EDTA), trustee of Stanford University, and as a member of the U.N. Secretary-General's Advisory Group on Energy and Climate Change (AGECC). Bryson also served as president of the California Public Utilities Commission, chairman of the California State Water Resources Control Board, and on the board of the Council on Foreign Relations. At the start of his career, he was a co-founder and attorney for the Natural Resources Defense Council (NRDC), a national and international environmental group. He is a graduate of Stanford University and Yale Law School.
Terry D. Garcia: Nominee for Deputy Secretary, Department of Commerce
Terry D. Garcia is currently Executive Vice President for Mission Programs at the National Geographic Society. In that role, he is responsible for the annual management of more than 400 scientific, conservation and exploration projects. In June 2010, Mr. Garcia was appointed by President Obama to serve on the National Commission on the BP Deepwater Horizon Oil Spill and Deepwater Drilling. Prior to joining the National Geographic Society in 1999, Mr. Garcia was Assistant Secretary of Commerce for Oceans and Atmosphere and Deputy Administrator of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) at the U.S. Department of Commerce. He also served as General Counsel of NOAA. Before entering government service, Mr. Garcia was a partner in the law firms of Manatt, Phelps & Phillips and Hughes Hubbard & Reed. Mr. Garcia has served on various boards and commissions, including the Institute for Exploration/Mystic Aquarium, the Amazonian Center for Environmental Education and Research, the U.S. National Committee for the Census of Marine Life and the Harte Research Institute of Gulf of Mexico Studies at Texas A&M University. He is also a trustee emeritus of the National Marine Sanctuary Foundation and has served on panels convened by the National Academy of Sciences and the National Academy of Public Administration. He holds a B.A. from American University and a J.D. from The George Washington University.