Biography
Brigham A. McCown has three decades of executive management, legal, and operational experience at the local, national, and international levels of government. Mr. McCown primarily advises private sector clients in matters pertaining to federal security and safety regulations, government enforcement of regulated industries, and risk mitigation, including areas relating to crisis response and complex private sector litigation.
Currently, McCown serves as the Chairman and CEO of Nouveau Inc., a Managing Shareholder of Kilgore / McCown, PLLC, and Chairman and Founder of a non-profit, the Alliance for Innovation and Infrastructure.
Mr. McCown has served in three presidential administrations, two presidential transitions, and has advised two presidential candidates and three cabinet secretaries. Mr. McCown retired from public life in 2007 after serving as a member of the United States Senior Executive Service during both terms of George W. Bush’s presidency. Appointed by Transportation Secretary, Norman Y. Mineta (D-CA), McCown helped shape the nation’s laws, regulations, and policies pertaining to transportation safety and security for the surface, maritime, pipeline, rail, and aviation industries.
During his tenure, Mr. McCown served as the first acting administrator (interim CEO) and first Deputy Administrator (COO) of the Pipeline and Hazardous Materials Safety Administration (PHMSA). While in this position, McCown was in charge of the federal government’s oversight of more than one million daily shipments of hazardous materials by all modes of transportation, including pipeline.
It was also during his time with PHMSA that he was given the task of coordinating the federal government’s response to the largest oil spill on Alaska’s North Slope. He also oversaw the restoration process of the Gulf Coast’s energy infrastructure following Hurricanes Rita and Katrina and ensured the evacuation of over 1,000 elderly and disadvantaged from the Texas Gulf Coast in the hours leading up to Hurricane Rita. He helped author the PIPES Act of 2006, which improved safety and increased government oversight of the pipeline industry while also providing additional operational flexibility to pipeline operators.
Mr. McCown also served as the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration’s first chief counsel (general Counsel). While managing a staff of 55 attorneys, legislative affairs specialists, and support staff, Mr. McCown was responsible for ensuring implementation of the nation’s laws and regulations for the motor carrier, motor coach, and moving industries where he called for tougher regulations over the motor carrier industry and called for seat belts on buses some ten years before they were eventually mandated.
McCown has written as a contributor to several prominent publications including Forbes, National Journal, Huffington Post, and Fuel Fix on matters pertaining to transportation safety, energy, and public policy. He serves on the Salmon P. Chase College of Law’s Board of Visitors, and is Co-Chair of the American Bar Association’s Transportation Committee of the Administrative and Regulatory Law Section. Additionally, Mr. McCown serves as a Program Council Member for the Warsaw Security Forum in Warsaw, Poland. McCown graduated from Miami University in 1988 with a degree in diplomacy and foreign affairs. He later went on to receive his law degree from Northern Kentucky University in 1997, and earned a graduate certificate in Energy Innovation and Emerging Technologies from Stanford University. He also served in the U.S. Navy as a naval officer and Naval Aviator.