Power Players | 9 - Paul Brubaker

Administrator of the Transportation Department’s Research and Innovative Technology Administration. The Senate confirmed his nomination Aug. 3. Not listed. Brubaker has demonstrated agility in moving between the public and private sectors. He worked for then-Sen. William Cohen (R-Maine) in the 1990s and helped him write the Clinger-Cohen Act. Brubaker later worked as the Defense Department’s deputy chief information officer when Cohen was Defense secretary. In his latest position, Brubaker is responsible for coordinating and reviewing DOT’s $1 billion investment in research, development and technology. As a political appointee joining a lame-duck administration, Brubaker is keenly aware that he has his work cut out for him. If you talk to him for even a short time, he will likely mention the number of days left in the Bush administration. But he also speaks passionately about his organization’s mission and the need to keep it from getting mired in bureaucracy. It’s a race against the clock.