Mr. Owen Barwell joins the agency having recently served as the CFO for Independence Hydrogen, an early-stage company processing industrial waste gas streams to produce low carbon hydrogen. He will continue to serve as a Board member and Treasurer for the NREL Foundation.

Previously, Barwell served as the CFO for the National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL) for nearly nine years. NREL is one of the U.S. Department of Energy's 17 National Laboratories with the primary focus on renewable energy research. He was responsible for the full range of fiscal operations, budget formulation and execution, financial planning and analysis, and acquisition services for the Lab. During his time at NREL, Barwell also served on the Board of Managers of the Idaho National Laboratory, the nation's leading center for nuclear energy research and development.”

Barwell joined the Senior Executive Service in November 2007, as Deputy Chief Financial Officer of the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE). In this role, Barwell served as the senior career official responsible for the fiscal governance and financial integrity of DOE's programs by providing functional leadership of the Department's budget formulation and execution process, finance and accounting operations, maintaining internal controls, operating corporate business systems, and developing the strategic plan and performance measurement framework.

Barwell has held other management consulting and accounting roles with Grant Thornton, PricewaterhouseCoopers, and KPMG in addition to business transformation roles at ANSER and the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA)

A native of Derby in the United Kingdom, Barwell graduated from Lancaster University with a bachelor's degree in Economics. He is also an associate member of the Chartered Institute of Management Accountants in the U.K.