Swank reception honors notable federal executives
Winners of Presidential Rank Award recognized for career achievements.
Fifty-five senior federal employees were honored Thursday night beneath chandeliers in the State Department's diplomatic reception rooms for achievements that saved the government more than $50 billion.
The Senior Executives Association and its Professional Development League hosted the annual event, where the executives, surrounded by colleagues from their agencies, received Presidential Rank Awards. Winners, who must be longtime civil servants, are nominated by their agency and evaluated by a panel of private citizens before being approved by the president. The award comes with a cash prize of more than $35,000.
SEA president Carol Bonosaro highlighted some of winners' accomplishments, including those of James Falls, deputy assistant secretary for technical assistance policy at the Treasury Department, who played "a critical role in introducing a new Iraqi currency and in ensuring the successful opening of the Trade Bank of Iraq and the issuance of the first letters of credit there in over 13 years."
Bonosaro also applauded Commerce Department employee William Phillips, a fellow at the National Institute of Standards and Technology, who coordinated "a major international effort … exploring the possibility of using neutral atoms to build a quantum computer," and won a Nobel Prize in physics.
Winners also included Deborah Nolan, a commissioner at the Internal Revenue Service, who created an office to curb corporations' abuse of tax shelters, which helped reclaim more than $6 billion of understated tax revenue.
Environmental Protection Agency administrator Stephen Johnson delivered the keynote speech, in which he encouraged senior federal employees to serve as mentors.
"As leaders, the best of the best, we need to take advantage of the opportunities that have been given to us and take somebody with you," Johnson said.
The winners were: