WASHINGTON — The Minerals Management Service announced on Oct. 29 that Acting Director Walter D. Cruickshank won the distinguished Presidential Rank Award as a Meritorious Executive.

Each year, the president recognizes an elite group of career members of the Senior Executive Service, senior-level, and scientific and professional corps with this award. To qualify, recipients must have demonstrated exceptional leadership, accomplishments and service over an extended period of time. 

The president awards the Meritorious Executive rank, which focus on leadership and results, to only 5 percent of the SES each year. The federal government chooses these award recipients through a rigorous selection process:  First, agency heads nominate eligible employees, then boards comprising private citizens evaluate those nominations, and finally the president designates the winners.

Cruickshank has been with MMS for 20 years. He served as associate director for Policy and Management Improvement before MMS appointed him to deputy director in 2002. As deputy director, Cruickshank assists the MMS director in administering the agency’s mineral-resource programs. This includes overseeing the management of energy and mineral resources on the nation’s Outer Continental Shelf and the collection and distribution of revenues from leases on Federal and Indian lands.

Cruickshank received a bachelor of arts in geological sciences from Cornell University and a doctorate in mineral economics from The Pennsylvania State University.