evans

Secretary of Commerce, Don Evans
Evans: Bush’s best friend tabbed as commerce secretary
Texas roughneck ran Bush’s campaign
ASSOCIATED PRESS
AUSTIN, Dec. 20 — Don Evans was a West Texas roughneck who rose through the ranks to run an oil and gas company. It was his friendship and loyalty to a future president, however, that has put him on a national stage. President-elect Bush nominated Evans on Wednesday as his secretary of commerce, putting his campaign manager and former drinking buddy in position to promote U.S. business interests abroad and at home.
       “I VIEW HIM as somebody who knows me well, is not afraid to give me his opinion, has my best interest at heart,” Bush said of Evans early this year.
       Like Bush, Evans was born in July 1946. A native of Houston, he received a mechanical engineering degree from the University of Texas in 1969 and a master’s in business administration from the school in 1973.
       Evans’ move to dusty Midland, Texas, where he worked on a drilling rig for Tom Brown Inc., the company he leads today, introduced him to Bush and eventually became his path to Washington.
       Bush too moved to Midland in the early 1970s, and he and Evans quickly became friends. In those days, bachelor Bush used to hang out with Evans while Evans’ wife, Susan, washed Bush’s clothes.
       That relationship blossomed into one of Bush’s closest friendships.
       Like Bush, Evans is a Methodist. It was Evans who counseled Bush to read the Bible, at one point giving him a Bible divided into 365 readings, one for each day of the year.
       Evans partied with Bush the night the president-elect says he swore off drinking. It was 1986 and both men were celebrating their 40th birthdays. The lingering hangover from that night prompted Bush to abandon the bottle altogether, he says.
EVANS’ QUICK RISE
       Evans’ rise in Denver-based Tom Brown Inc. was quick.
       His father worked for Shell Oil Co., and Evans went to work for Tom Brown in Midland as a roughneck, determined to learn the industry from the ground up.
       Within five years he was company president, and he became chief executive in 1985.
       According to the company’s annual filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission, Tom Brown Inc. had an interest in 1,351 oil and gas wells as of Dec. 31, 1999. Its largest operations are in Wyoming, Texas and Colorado.
       The company had a revenue of $214.9 million in 1999 with profits of $5 million.
       Evans was paid a salary of $355,698 last year and earned a $275,000 bonus. As of April 10, he owned 937,570 shares of stock in the company with an additional 50,000 stock options.
       Company officials did not return phone calls from The Associated Press on Tuesday.
       Rich Griebling, state regulatory director for the Colorado Oil and Gas Conservation Commission, called Tom Brown a “model company for following state regulations.”
       “We would definitely describe them as a model operator,” Griebling said. “They’re one of the handful of top responsible gas operators in the state.”
LONG-TIME BUSH OPERATIVE
       Evans has been part of Bush’s political career from the start, as a fund-raiser for his losing congressional campaign in 1978. When Bush returned to politics to run for governor, Evans chaired his winning campaigns in 1994 and 1998.
       In 1997, Bush appointed Evans to the University of Texas System Board of Regents. He now is its chairman, and his term expires Feb. 1.
       When Bush ran for president, Evans, as national finance chairman, raised more than $100 million. He was appointed campaign chairman in April.
       Evans had a high profile near the end of the presidential campaign as Bush’s lead negotiator on the fall presidential debates and one of the spokesmen for the recount effort in Florida.

Online Newshour Bio
SECRETARY OF COMMERCE-DESIGNATE DON EVANS
George W. Bush has tapped his boyhood friend and campaign manager to serve as the next U.S. Secretary of Commerce.
A boyhood friend of Governor George W. Bush's, Donald Evans served as the campaign chairman during Bush's presidential run.
Mr. Evans' career has focused on the oil industry. He is chairman of the board, president, and chief executive officer of Tom Brown, Inc., an oil company and also is a director of TMBR/Sharp Drilling, Inc.
He is a member of the Independent Petroleum Association of America, co-chairman of the Midland Wildcat Committee, and a director of the Permian Basin Petroleum Association and the Permian Basin Petroleum Museum. He also is a member of the Young Presidents’ Organization-49ers and the Rocky Mountain Oil and Gas Association. Mr. Evans, a native of Houston, is a graduate of Memorial High School in that city. He holds two degrees from U.T. Austin -- a bachelor of science degree in mechanical engineering (1969) and a master of business administration degree (1973).
Mr. Evans has been active in numerous civic groups and non-profit organizations. He is a member of the board of governors of Bynum School in Midland.
From 1990 to 1994 he served as a trustee of Memorial Hospital and Medical Center in Midland. He serves on the board of the Scleroderma Research Foundation of Santa Barbara, California.
He was chairman of the 1995 Texas Inaugural Committee, which organized the inauguration activities for Governor Bush.
In February of 1995, Bush appointed him to the Board of Regents of the University of Texas. The Board named him Chairman in 1997 and reelected him in 1999.
Mr. Evans is active in First United Methodist Church of Midland. He has been chairman of the church’s finance committee, administrative board, and staff/parish relations committee.
Mr. Evans is married to Susan Marinis Evans. They have three children.

CNN bio
A longtime friend of George W. Bush, Don Evans, 54, is Bush's pick to be the next Secretary of Commerce.
A Texas native, he was the chair of the Bush campaign and Bush's national finance chairman. As Bush's chief fund-raiser since 1978, Evans raised money for Bush's unsuccessful race for Congress 1978 and both of his gubernatorial runs in 1994 and 1998.
He is the longtime chairman and CEO of Tom Brown Inc., a Midland, Texas based oil and gas company. Evans received a mechanical engineering degree from the University of Texas in 1969 and an MBA from UT four years later.