Alcoa Vice President Michelle O'Neill Receives U.S. Presidential Award

Michelle O'Neill, Vice President Government Affairs and Trade Policy for Alcoa, was honored recently with a 2012 Presidential Distinguished Rank Award, the nation's highest civil service award, for outstanding achievement in public service. The award recognizes Ms. O'Neill's extraordinary success as the Deputy Undersecretary for International Trade – the position she held before joining Alcoa – in which she led more than 2,300 Commerce Department employees worldwide.

The annual awards are presented by the President to senior federal managers. Of the 6,800 senior executive service employees in the U.S. Federal Government, no more than 1 percent are recommended to the President by a panel of private citizens to receive the award each year.

Ms. O'Neill joined Alcoa in August 2012 and serves as the company's top government liaison executive in Washington, D.C. She leads Alcoa's federal and state government affairs activities and is responsible for international trade policy supporting Alcoa's global businesses. Throughout her career with the government, Ms. O'Neill had been active on critical trade and commercial issues affecting the U.S. economy, ranging from addressing market access barriers for U.S. firms in China, Russia and Europe to helping companies across the U.S. expand their export markets.

The 54 Distinguished Rank awardees were honored at a banquet hosted by the Senior Executive Association, the professional association for career federal employees, last week in Washington, D.C. These federal executives together saved the government approximately $94 billion. The Distinguished Rank awards have been given annually by the President of the United States since the establishment of the Senior Executive Service in 1978.