WASHINGTON, D.C.-- Interior Secretary Gale Norton today named Matthew J. Hogan as a Deputy Assistant Secretary of Interior for Fish and Wildlife and Parks. Hogan will serve in the capacity of Assistant Secretary for Fish and Wildlife and Parks until President Bush nominates and the Senate confirms a successor to Craig Manson, who resigned from the position at the end of last year to teach at the University of the Pacific's McGeorge School of Law in Sacramento. Hogan has served as the deputy director for the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service for the past four years. In March 2005 he also assumed the duties of acting director of the Service until Dale Hall was confirmed as director in October 2005. 

"Matt Hogan has proven his ability to effectively manage in an interim role at the Fish and Wildlife Service," said Norton.  "I have every confidence that he will fill this assistant secretary's position and provide the continuity and skillful leadership needed during the transition period."

Before joining the Service in 2002, Hogan, 38, spent four years as conservation policy director of the Congressional Sportsmen's Foundation, serving as a liaison between the hunting, fishing and conservation communities and the Congressional Sportsmen's Caucus. Prior to that, he was government affairs manager for Safari Club International and legislative director for Congressman Pete Geren of Texas.

He graduated from LeMoyne College in Syracuse, New York in 1990.