Rejane “Johnnie” Burton of Wyoming Tapped to Head
Interior Department’s Minerals Management Service

WASHINGTON -- Secretary of the Interior Gale Norton today announced the appointment of Rejane Medinger “Johnnie” Burton as director of the Minerals Management Service. The appointment becomes effective March 15, 2002.

“Ms. Burton has the background and professional qualifications that are critical to this challenging position,” Norton said. ”Johnnie is the right person, at the right time, to lead this agency and the vital role it will play in helping the nation focus on its energy-related challenges.”

Burton’s background provides a solid mix of experience in state government, the oil and gas industry and education. Since 1995, she served on the governor of Wyoming’s cabinet, as director of the Department of Revenue. Before that, she served (1989-92) as vice-president of TCF Inc., a oil and gas exploration company based in Casper, Wyo.

Prior to that, she was vice president of Dwights Energydata Inc., an information company specializing in oil and gas databases. Ms. Burton was also president and founder of Hotline Energy Reports Inc., which later merged with Dwights Energydata Inc. Under her leadership, Hotline Energy Reports Inc. built a historical database of all wells drilled for oil and gas in the 11 Rocky Mountain States. Burton began her career in the oil and gas industry as an oil scout in Casper, Wyo., for Rinehart Oil News of San Antonio, Texas.

From 1982 through1988, Burton was a member of the Wyoming State House of Representatives. She served as a member of the Wyoming State Advisory Council of Education Grants (1986-88), and also as director of the First Wyoming Bank in Casper from 1981 through 1984. She served as a member of the Independent Petroleum Association of Mountain States Speaker’s Bureau from 1977 through1979.

Her career highlights also include positions as a lecturer and teacher of French at the university and high school levels, and as a translator and interpreter for the J. F. Pritchard Company in Paris, France, and Kansas City, Kan. In1987, she was honored as a “Friend of Education” by the Wyoming School Boards Association.

“I am excited about leading the Minerals Management Service at this critical time,” Burton said. “I look forward to the challenges of this very important position.”

Burton is a member of the National Order of Women Legislators and the American Association of Translators. She is also a member of the National Alcohol Beverage Control Association and served as its president, representing Wyoming from 2000 to 2001.

Born in French Algeria, Burton immigrated to the United States in 1963 and became an American citizen in 1968. In 1958, she completed the Baccalaureat de l’Enseignement Secondaire (option Philosophie) from the Lycee Fromentin in Algiers, Algeria. She completed the Licence-es-Lettres, English, Diplome d’Enseignment from the Universities of Algiers in Algeria and in Paris, France, in 1962. She holds a master’s degree (1974) from the University of Wyoming. She studied at the University of Arkansas and has completed management training by The Presidents Association and Duke University.

She has two grown children.

MMS is the federal agency in the U.S. Department of the Interior that manages the nation's oil, natural gas and other mineral resources on the outer continental shelf in federal offshore waters. The agency also collects, accounts for and disburses mineral revenues from federal and Indian leases. These revenues totaled nearly $10 billion in 2001 and more than $120 billion since the agency was created in 1982. Annually, nearly $1 billion from those revenues go into the Land and Water Conservation Fund for the acquisition and development of state and federal park and recreation lands.

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