Secretary of Natural Resources
Doug Domenech
Doug Domenech (pronounced DOM-en-etch) was appointed Virginia’s Secretary of Natural Resources on January 17, 2010.
Prior to his appointment, Mr. Domenech was the Senior Vice President of Artemis Strategies; a Washington, DC based bipartisan government relations and strategic communications firm.
Domenech served in the George W. Bush Administration at the U.S. Department of Interior from 2001 to 2009. While there he held positions as Deputy Director of External and Intergovernmental Affairs, White House Liaison, and in 2005 he was appointed Deputy Chief of Staff to the Secretary of the Interior, the number two staff position in the Office of the Secretary. In this position he worked with senior managers for all nine Interior Bureaus, had senior oversight of the US/UNESCO World Heritage Program administered by the United Nations, and oversaw the Interior Crisis Action Team.
Mr. Domenech also served as the Acting Deputy Assistant Secretary of Insular Affairs where he managed U.S. relations with seven insular areas including US Territories of the Virgin Islands, Guam, American Samoa, the Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands and US Freely Associated States of Palau, Federated States of Micronesia, and the Marshall Islands. Policy issues addressed in this role included energy, security, economic development and health.
Prior to serving at the U.S. Department of the Interior, Mr. Domenech had a long career in natural resource management. Upon graduating from college in 1978 he served as the Acting Director of the Timber Harvesting Management Program at Alabama A&M University where he conducted field research funded by the USDA Forest Service and Tennessee Valley Authority. In 1981 he went to work for the Forest Resources Association, a national technical trade association which represents produces and consumers of raw wood material. He began as the Southwestern Division Forester in Jackson, MS, and then moved to become the Southeastern Division Forester in Charleston, SC. He later became the Director of Forestry Programs at the FRA's headquarters in Washington, DC from 1990-1993.
Mr. Domenech was appointed by Governor George Allen to the Goose Creek Scenic River Advisory Board and the Commonwealth Competition Council. Under Governor Jim Gilmore he was appointed to the Virginia Board of Forestry. He also formerly served on the Advisory Council of the Conservation Trust of Puerto Rico.
He received his Bachelors of Science in Forestry and Wildlife Management from Virginia Tech in 1978.
