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New Atlanticist

Mar 11, 2016

Cautious Optimism Defines Argentina’s Future

By Mitch Hulse

Foreign investment, local support from communities to push policy reform, increased involvement of the international business community, and continued partnership between the United States and Argentina will lead to positive and sustainable political stability and economic growth in Argentina, according to Daniel Poneman, a former US Deputy Secretary of Energy. Poneman spoke at an event […]

Latin America

Press Release

May 30, 2012

International Leaders to Converge on Poland for Wroclaw Global Forum and Freedom Awards

WROCLAW, POLAND – Between May 31 and June 2, Wrocław, the capital city of Lower Silesia, will be host to, among others, three incumbent presidents, four prime ministers, an EU commissioner and ministers responsible for shaping foreign policy. Among the many renowned leaders who have confirmed their attendance, Wrocław will be visited by Foreign Minister […]

Event Recap

Jan 31, 2012

Twenty Years of Kazakhstan Independence and US-Kazakhstan Relations: 1/31/2012 – Poneman Prepared Remarks

By Jason Harmala

Back to event page U.S. Deputy Secretary of Energy Daniel Poneman Atlantic Council Conference on the 20th Anniversary of Kazakhstan’s Independence Ritz-Carlton in Washington, DC January 31, 2012 Remarks as prepared for delivery  Thank you, Ambassador Wilson, for the kind introduction. Thanks also to you and your colleagues at the Atlantic Council for organizing today’s […]

Daniel B. Poneman is a distinguished fellow of the Atlantic Council’s Global Energy Center. He is also a distinguished fellow of the Council’s Scowcroft Center for Strategy and Security and a member of its advisory council. Poneman is the former president and chief executive officer of Centrus Energy Corp., which he led from 2015 to 2023.

Prior to joining Centrus Energy Corp., Poneman served as US deputy secretary of energy and as chief operating officer of the department from 2009 to 2014. Between April 2013 and May 2013, Poneman was the acting secretary of energy.

Before assuming his responsibilities as deputy secretary, Poneman served as a principal of The Scowcroft Group for eight years, and from 1993 through 1996, he served as special assistant to the president and senior director for nonproliferation and export controls at the National Security Council. His responsibilities included the development and implementation of US policy in such areas as peaceful nuclear cooperation, missile technology, space-launch activities, sanctions determinations, chemical and biological arms control efforts, and conventional arms transfer policy.

Poneman first joined the Department of Energy in 1989 as a White House fellow. In 1990, he joined the National Security Council staff as director of defense policy and arms control.

Between tours of government service, Poneman practiced law for nine years in Washington, DC, as an associate at Covington & Burling and as a partner at Hogan & Hartson.

Poneman has published widely on national security issues. He 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.

After leaving government, Poneman was a senior fellow at the Belfer Center for Science and International Affairs at the Harvard Kennedy School.  He is a distinguished fellow at the Paulson Institute and a member of the Council on Foreign Relations.

Poneman received AB and JD degrees with honors from Harvard University and an MLitt in politics from Oxford University.