Agency Leadership

OGE is led by a director who is appointed by the President to a 5 year term. OGE’s Director is assisted by a team of three career government executives.

Keith Sonderling

Acting Director, U.S. Office of Government Ethics

James Biggins

Chief of Staff and Chief Counsel, U.S. Office of Government Ethics

Mr. James Biggins has served the federal government in the nuclear safety sector since 2007. Mr. Biggins became a member of the Senior Executive Service in September 2016 and has been practicing law for over 25 years.

Most recently, he held several executive positions with the Defense Nuclear Facilities Safety Board including Chief Security, Risk, and Compliance Officer, Deputy Executive Director for Risk and Strategy, General Manager, Special Assistant to the Chairman, and General Counsel.

At the Defense Nuclear Facilities Safety Board, Mr. Biggins worked with other senior leadership to further the DNFSB nuclear safety mission. In his various roles, he advised the Board on legal, ethics, and policy matters, crafted the agency Strategic Plan and strategic goals, managed agency operations in human resources, information technology, security, information management, and budget and finance.

While at the DNFSB, Mr. Biggins completed a two-year executive detail to the Department of the Navy as the Special Assistant to the Principal Deputy General Counsel. In this role, he advised on departmental management matters, ethics, nuclear safety, alternative dispute resolution, and strategic systems program matters.

Mr. Biggins began his federal career in 2007 at the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission as a staff attorney litigating the licensing of new nuclear power plants. He advanced in his career as a senior attorney leading legal teams until he transitioned into a management position in 2010 as the Deputy Assistant General Counsel for rulemaking and nuclear materials regulation. While serving in the Deputy AGC position, Mr. Biggins developed his professional knowledge and leadership skills through several developmental details. In addition, Mr. Biggins completed the NRC Senior Executive Service Candidate Development Program in 2016.

Prior to commencing his Federal service, Mr. Biggins practiced environmental litigation for the State of Texas for over six years handling complex air, water, and waste compliance cases. He was also in private practice in Illinois for two years.

Mr. Biggins holds a B.A. from Southern Illinois University (SIU) in Political Science with minors in history and economics. He received his law degree from SIU School of Law in 1998. He is licensed to practice law in Illinois and Texas and to appear before the U.S. Supreme Court. Mr. Biggins lives with his wife and four children in Virginia.

Scott A. de la Vega

Ethics Counsel, U.S. Office of Government Ethics

Scott de la Vega is an attorney with over three decades of leadership excellence in law and government operations. A member of the federal government’s career Senior Executive Service (SES), he has held numerous non-partisan, legal and operational senior positions across multiple administrations. He has served as Director of the U.S. Department of the Interior’s Departmental Ethics Office, the Department’s Designated Agency Ethics Official, Associate Solicitor for General Law and Acting Secretary of the Interior. He has also served as General Counsel for the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy, Ethics Counsel to the Vice President, supervisory Ethics Counsel in the White House Counsel’s Office and as Managing Counsel for Operations in the Office of Administration for the Executive Office of the President. While in these roles, he also served as DOI’s Director of Presidential Transition and as a government representative to the Administrative Conference of the United States (ACUS). In these roles, he has overseen the financial disclosure clearance process for White House and Cabinet officials; directly counseled senior White House staff, Cabinet officials, and nominees seeking Senate confirmation; and helped to manage conflicts of interest and formulate ethics law and policy across the Executive Branch.

Mr. de la Vega previously served in senior ethics and legal positions at other federal agencies, including the U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission and the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development. In the private sector, he has been a senior ethics and compliance counsel for various corporations in the financial services industry. He was a commissioned officer and served as both a trial and appellate criminal litigator and Special Assistant U.S. Attorney in the U.S. Army’s Judge Advocate General’s Corps where he concluded his active-duty service as the U.S. Supreme Court Coordinator for the Defense Appellate Division. He earned a B.A. from the Rockefeller College of Public Affairs & Policy at the University at Albany, SUNY and a J.D. from the Syracuse University College of Law.