Obama’s Interior Pick Owns Shares in Companies With U.S. Leases

March 5 (Bloomberg) -- Sally Jewell, President Barack Obama’s nominee to head the Interior Department, owns shares in dozens of companies such as Exxon Mobil Corp., Chevron Corp. and ConocoPhillips that hold federal leases managed by the agency.

Jewell, the chief executive officer of Recreational Equipment Inc., disclosed more than $2 million in investments in stocks and mutual funds to the Office of Government Ethics before her U.S. Senate confirmation hearing in two days.

The shares include about three dozen oil, gas and related companies which Jewell, 57, said she will sell before taking office.

The executive owns more than $50,000 in Exxon, Apple Inc. and International Business Machines Corp. stock, and is expecting millions of dollars in deferred compensation and bonus from REI, her disclosure forms show. The other individual stocks she owns are of lower value, most less than $1,000.

Her total REI compensation in 2011 was $2 million, including $754,307 in base pay and $895,093 in a long-term incentive plan, according to a document on the company’s website.

The Interior Department has about 70,000 employees who run the national parks, handle Indian affairs, lease public lands for oil, gas and coal mining -- and police the safety of those operations.

--Editors: Steve Geimann, Daniel Enoch