Contact: John Wright 202/208-6416

Secretary of the Interior Bruce Babbitt today said he is exceptionally pleased with President Clinton’s intention to nominate Eljay B. Bowron to serve as Inspector General for the Department of the Interior.

“I am exceptionally pleased with the President’s intention to nominate Eljay Bowron to be Inspector General,” said Babbitt. “Mr. Bowron will bring a unique breadth of knowledge and an impressive array of management and fiscal investigative skills that will serve the Department and the American people well.”

Bowron, 47, currently serves as Assistant Comptroller General in the Office of Special Investigations of the General Accounting Office, a position he has held since October 1997. Prior to that he served five months as the Deputy Inspector General of the Social Security Administration.

Bowron, a 22-year veteran Criminal Investigator for the U.S. Secret Service, also served as its Director (1993), where he led a management team that initiated a series of security improvements at the White House, before retiring from that position in 1997. Before that he served as Assistant Director for the Secret Service. His career with the Secret Service includes assignments in Chicago, Miami, Houston, Atlanta, and Washington, D.C.

He began his career in law enforcement as an officer with the Detroit Police Department.

After serving a one-year stint as a Detroit police officer, Bowron joined the U.S. Secret Service in 1974, as a Special Agent based in Chicago. During his 22 years with the Secret Service, he served in a variety of positions, including Special Agent/Miami, Assistant to the Special Agent in Charge/Houston, Deputy Special Agent in charge Intelligence Division/Washington, D.C., Deputy Assistant Director, Office of Investigations/Washington, D.C., Special Agent in Charge/Atlanta, and returned to Washington, D.C. as Assistant Director, Office of Protective Operations, and in 1993, served as Director.

A native of Detroit, Michigan, Bowron received a B.S. degree in criminal justice from Michigan State University in 1973. In 1988, he attended the George Washington University’s School of Government and Business Administration Contemporary Executive Development Program.

He and his wife Sandra have one son, Brandon, and reside in Northern Virginia.

- DOI -