David J Hayes

David J. Hayes was confirmed as deputy secretary of the Department of the Interior on May 20, 2009. He was nominated for the position on February 27, 2009, after serving as a leader in President Obama’s Transition Team, heading the agency review process for the Department of Energy, Department of Agriculture, Department of the Interior, and Environmental Protection Agency. Deputy Secretary Hayes is the second highest ranking official at the Department of the Interior. By statute, he serves as the Department’s chief operating officer and has authority over all of the Department’s bureaus and agencies. He previously served as the deputy secretary and counselor to the Secretary of the Interior in the Clinton Administration. He is a former chairman of the board of the Environmental Law Institute, served as a senior fellow for the World Wildlife Fund, and was the vice-chair of the board of American Rivers. Hayes was a consulting professor at Stanford University’s Woods Institute for the Environment, and he has written and lectured widely in the environmental and natural resources field. He also worked for a number of years in the private sector where he chaired the Environment, Land and Resources Department at Latham and Watkins, an international law firm. Hayes is a native of Rochester, New York. He graduated summa cum laude from the University of Notre Dame and received his J.D. from Stanford University, where he was an editor of the Stanford Law Review. He is the former chairman of the Board of Visitors for Stanford Law School.