JAMES A. DURKAY

Jim Durkay is a Senior Advisor with Dawson & Associates, providing government relations assistance to private and public sector clients. Prior to this, he served with the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, occupying managerial and executive positions with the Baltimore District, the North Atlantic Division, the Office of the Chief of Engineers, and Headquarters, Department of the Army.

His principal assignments included problem-solving efforts in policy and budget development for the Corps Civil Works Program and its Construction, General account. He played a leading role in the development of appropriations requests for the construction program, preparing recommendations for Federal policy changes addressing environmental restoration and enhancement, shore protection, and navigation, and formulating Executive Branch responses to congressional initiatives. Over $15 billion in appropriated funds resulted from these efforts. Specific actions included formulating responses to the Supplemental Appropriations Act of 1985, and its following legislation, the Water Resources Development Act of 1986. Other assignments included: organizational restructuring needed to implement the project management business process within the Corps; recovery from the 1993 flooding on the Mississippi River; management of the development of the Project Management Information System (at a total cost of $20 million); testimony as a witness before the Energy and Water Development Subcommittee of the House Committee on Appropriations, and management of the negotiations between the Corps and the Environmental Protection Agency which resulted in the present 404(b)(1) Guidelines.

During his period of service with the Baltimore District, he managed the Corps Regulatory Program in all or portions of six states and the District of Columbia.

His executive assignments include: Fiscal Program Management Officer, Headquarters, Department of the Army; Assistant Director of Civil Works, Office of the Chief of Engineers; and Chief, Programs Management Division, North Atlantic Division. He also served as Chairman, Data Architecture Control Committee and Executive Secretary, Civil Works Steering Committee for Automation Modernization.

Mr. Durkay graduated from the Johns Hopkins University with degrees in Chemistry, Biology, Civil Engineering, and Environmental Engineering. He is a member of the American Society of Civil Engineers, the Project Management Institute (and its Information Systems Special Interest Group), the Society of American Military Engineers, and the Society of Engineering Alumni of Johns Hopkins University.