WASHINGTON — After leading the National Transportation Safety Board for four and a half years, Mark V. Rosenker has announced that he will resign his position as Acting Chairman and Member.
He submitted his letter of resignation to President Obama July 21.
Rosenker said he will delay his departure until a new chairman and an additional Board Member are confirmed to ensure a quorum remains at the Board.
In his letter to the President, Rosenker said that the opportunity to serve in and lead the NTSB “has been the highlight of my entire 40-year professional life. It is an agency that truly makes a positive difference every day, saving lives by preventing accidents, not only in our great Nation, but around the world.”
Rosenker became a Member and the Vice Chairman of the NTSB in March 2003 and became Acting Chairman two years later. He was sworn in as the 11th Chairman of the Safety Board in August 2006, and was renominated by President Bush for a second term as Chairman in October 2007.
Before joining the Board, Rosenker was deputy assistant to the President and director of the White House Military Office under President George W. Bush. In that capacity, he was traveling with President Bush onboard Air Force One during the events of Sept. 11, 2001.
During his Chairmanship of the Board, the agency marked a number of major transportation safety achievements. With Congressional passage of the Rail Safety Act of 2008, two rail items were removed from the list: Positive Train Control, designed to prevent collisions if engineers fail to operate their trains in accordance with signal indications, and Rail Fatigue, whereby hours of service rules will be revised to set work hour limits based on fatigue research, circadian rhythms and sleep and rest requirements.
