President Barack Obama has nominated Sally Jewell, president and CEO of outdoor-apparel company REI and a former oil and bank executive, as the next secretary of the U.S. Department of the Interior.
Jewell will replace Ken Salazar, who announced last month that he will step down from the post at the end of March.
In the nomination speech, Obama said Jewell is an expert on energy, climate and conservation.
‘[Jewell] is committed to building our nation-to-nation relationship with Indian Country,’ he said. "She knows the link between conservation and good jobs. She knows that there's no contradiction between being good stewards of the land and our economic progress – that, in fact, those two things need to go hand in hand. She has shown that a company with more than $1 billion in sales can do the right thing for our planet."
