*EPF302 12/20/00
Oilman Donald Evans Nominated for Secretary of Commerce
(Brings free trade agenda, friendship with Bush, to post) (450 )
By Jon Schaffer
Washington File Staff Writer

Donald Evans, a long-term friend of President-elect Bush and a businessman with extensive background in the petroleum industry, has been nominated to head the U.S. Department of Commerce.

More important than the business contacts Evans will bring to the job, Bush will have in his inner circle a close friend and confident who has been at the president-elect's side throughout his political life.

"Evans has been my lifelong friend," Bush said in Austin, Texas, December 20 in announcing the nomination. "He has been the chairman of my campaign. He has been a valuable adviser. He is a free enterpriser. He understands free trade. And he'll do a fabulous job as the secretary of commerce."

Evans is chairman of the board, president, and chief executive officer of Tom Brown, Inc., an independent energy company engaged in the domestic exploration, development, marketing and production of natural gas and crude oil. The company also has operations in Canada. Evans became president of Tom Brown in 1979 when he was just 33. He is also a director of TMBR/Sharp Drilling, Inc., and a member of the Independent Petroleum Association of. America.

"Since our founding, we have been a nation of free men and free markets," Evan said at the December 20 briefing. "Our business in America is truly business, and, as a result, our economy is the envy of the world."

If confirmed by the Senate, Evans said, his first priority will be "the promotion of free enterprise, first in America and then abroad ... free flow of capital, free and open competition."

A native of Houston, Evans holds two degrees from the University of Texas -- a bachelor of science degree in mechanical engineering and a master of business of administration in 1973. Born in July 1946, the same month and year as Bush, Evans has known the president-elect for nearly 25 years. He helped raise money for several of Bush's political campaigns, beginning with the president-elect's failed bid for Congress in 1978. Evans was appointed by Bush to the University of Texas' Board of Regents in 1995 and was selected to chair the Board in 1997.

Evans is married to Susan Marinis Evans and has three children, including a daughter who was born with mental retardation. Partly as a result of his daughter's condition, Evans has ended up on the boards of various organizations that help disabled individuals.

(The Washington File is a product of the Office of International Information Programs, U.S. Department of State. Web site: http://usinfo.state.gov)
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