Daniel Poneman

Daniel Bruce Poneman (born March 12, 1956) is an American lawyer and businessman. He served as United States Deputy Secretary of Energy from 2009 to 2014. He is also a Distinguished Fellow at the Paulson Institute at the University of Chicago and a Senior Fellow at the Belfer Center for Science and International Affairs at the Harvard Kennedy School. Poneman was Acting Secretary of Energy in 2013 following the resignation of Steven Chu until Ernest Moniz was confirmed and sworn in.

Career Poneman first joined the Department of Energy as a White House Fellow in 1989. In 1990, he joined the National Security Council as the director of defense policy and arms control. Between 1993 and 1996, Poneman served as special assistant to the president and senior director for nonproliferation and export controls at the NSC. In 2013, Poneman served as acting secretary of energy following the resignation of Secretary Chu until his successor, Ernest Moniz was confirmed by the Senate and was sworn in.

He served as president and chief executive officer of Centrus Energy, a publicly traded energy company, (LEU) from 2015 to 2023.

Poneman currently sits on the Atlantic Council's Board of Directors. Poneman is a member of the Council of Foreign Relations.

Publications Poneman has published widely on national security issues and is the author of Nuclear Power in the Developing World, Argentina: Democracy on Trial and Double Jeopardy: Combating Nuclear Terror and Climate Change. His third book, Going Critical: The First North Korean Nuclear Crisis (coauthored with Joel Wit and Robert Gallucci), received the 2005 Douglas Dillon Award for Distinguished Writing on American Diplomacy.

Honors

Bronze Tower Order of Industrial Service Merit Award