Senior Executive Service Standouts Receive Secretarial Executive Leadership Award

(WASHINGTON) - Secretary of the Interior Gale Norton today honored 14 members of the Senior Executive Service at the Department of the Interior with Executive Leadership Awards, which recognize extraordinary performance and excellence in leadership.

The recipients in the Gold Category are Abraham Haspel, assistant deputy secretary in the Office of the Secretary; Robert W. Johnson, regional director of the Lower Colorado Region, Bureau of Reclamation; Brian O'Neill, superintendent, Golden Gate National Recreation Area, National Park Service; and Steve P. Thompson, manager of the California-Nevada Operations Office, U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service.

Recipients in the Silver Category are Norma Campbell, director of the Office of Planning and Performance Management in the Office of the Secretary; Walter D. Cruickshank, deputy director of the Minerals Management Service; J. William McDonald, regional director, Pacific Northwest Region, Bureau of Reclamation; and John D. Trezise, director, Office of Budget, Office of the Secretary.

In the Bronze Category, the recipients are Robert V. Abbey, state director, Nevada, Bureau of Land Management; Nina Rose Hatfield, deputy assistant secretary for Budget and Finance, Office of the Secretary; Pamela K. Haze, deputy director, Office of the Budget in the Office of the Secretary; Suzanne Lewis, superintendent, Yellowstone National Park, National Park Service; Larry R. Parkinson, deputy assistant secretary for Law Enforcement and Security, Office of the Secretary; and Timothy G. Vigotsky, director, National Business Center, Office of the Secretary.

"Creativity, initiative and leadership are the hallmarks of the senior management team at the Department of the Interior," Secretary Norton said in congratulating the recipients. "We have a talented and dedicated Senior Executive Service, an exceptionally capable group whose members have extremely challenging assignments.

"Today we honor a number of career managers who have made outstanding contributions in serving not only the department, but also the American people. They are an inspiration and a true example of dedicated public servants, and we are proud to serve with them," Norton said.

The award winners were joined by families, friends and colleagues at the 4:30 p.m. ceremony in the South Penthouse of the Main Interior Building in Washington, D.C.

The Secretary's Executive Leadership Award, an annual career SES performance honor, was established by the department's Executive Resources Board to recognize superior accomplishment of performance objectives and excellence in leadership.

Career SES members are nominated for the Secretary's Executive Leadership Award by their bureau/office director, with the concurrence of the appropriate assistant secretary and the Performance Review Board. Final selections are made by the Executive Resources Board.
Criteria for the award include extraordinary accomplishment of the performance elements comprising the SES member's annual performance plan; and demonstration of excellence in the five executive core qualifications.

Benchmarks of excellence in the executive core qualifications include the following: 1) leading change: displayed the highest level of creativity, initiative, flexibility and innovation to produce results critical to the mission of the department; 2) results driven: Has an exceptional record of achieving important program results; 3) leading people: demonstrated unusual success in building and maintaining a workforce that is diverse, well-trained, highly motivated and productive; 4) business acumen: managed the programs' human, fiscal, material and information resources in a manner which instilled the utmost trust by higher management and advanced the department's mission; 5) building coalitions/communication: showed an unusual level of cooperative effort with others, including those in other federal agencies, state/local governments and private and nonprofit sectors.