MMS names new national director

Petroleum News Alaska Staff

Walt Rosenbusch has been named director of the U.S. Department of the Interior’s Minerals Management Service, effective May 17. He replaces Cynthia Quarterman, who resigned in February.

“Walt Rosenbusch is no stranger to the issues of the department and in particular the Minerals Management Service,” Secretary of Interior Bruce Babbitt said in a May 3 statement. Babbitt said Rosenbusch “brings an impressive array of skills and experiences that will allow him to hit the ground running.”

Most recently, Rosenbusch was a senior tax manager for Ernst & Young’s Houston energy service team. Prior to that he was special assistant to the assistant secretary for land and minerals management at Interior, where his duties included serving as liaison for MMS, working to resolve federal oil, gas and mineral royalty issues involving federal onshore and offshore leasing. He was also Interior’s primary contact with the White House for oil and gas policy.

Prior to joining the Department of the Interior in 1993, Rosenbusch spent four years in the Texas General Land Office as deputy lands commissioner of energy resources, where he was responsible for the management and administration of 13.5 million mineral acres.

Rosenbusch, 43, is a native of Austin, Texas, and holds a bachelor’s degree in business administration from The University of Texas at Austin.