Local man nominated to be DOT executive

By DAVID SKOLNICK

VINDICATOR POLITICS WRITER

YOUNGSTOWN — President Bush nominated an Austintown native to serve in his administration at the U.S. Department of Transportation.

The president nominated Paul R. Brubaker to be the head of the DOT’s research and innovative technology administration. That office shapes and advances the nation’s research, engineering and education agenda for the president and the secretary of transportation, according to its Web site.

The Senate Committee on Commerce, Science and Transportation needs to approve the president’s nomination of Brubaker. Because of that, Brubaker declined to comment Tuesday on the nomination. A spokeswoman from the DOT also declined to comment.

It isn’t known how long it will take the Senate committee to consider Brubaker’s nomination.

Brubaker, 46, grew up in Austintown and is a 1979 Austintown Fitch High School graduate. He received a bachelor’s degree in political science in 1983 from Youngstown State University. He earned a master’s degree in public administration from Kent State University in 1985.

After receiving his master’s degree, Brubaker worked for the U.S. Senate’s Governmental Affairs Committee and the General Accounting Office.

Moving up

In the late 1990s, Brubaker served as deputy assistant secretary and deputy chief information officer at the U.S. Department of Defense under Defense Secretary William Cohen during the Clinton administration. Brubaker also worked for Cohen when Cohen, a Maine Republican, served in the Senate.

Brubaker was the department’s second highest ranking technology official there, supervising its $50 billion annual technology budget and was responsible for strategy of its information-related activities, according to his biography.

In recent years, Brubaker served as a principal of ICG Government, a firm that advises technology companies on how to market their services to the federal government. He then was executive vice president and chief marketing officer at SI International, a provider of professional services to federal agencies, according to the White House.

He quit that job last year to become chief executive officer and chairman of the board for Procentrix, a consulting firm that focuses on helping organizations with information technology.

Those three companies are in the Washington, D.C., area.

skolnick@vindy.com