Brad Markell is a Senior Advisor in DOE’s Loan Program Office, joining the DOE in September 2023 after a long career in the labor movement. In this role he works with applicants to derisk projects through labor planning and labor-management dialogue and helps LPO assess applications in clean-energy manufacturing.

Before coming to DOE, Brad was the Executive Director of the AFL-CIO Industrial Union Council (IUC), the manufacturing arm of the AFL-CIO, with 11 unions representing over 1 million members in manufacturing. He worked with Congress to provide labor input into the energy and manufacturing provisions in IIJA, CHIPS and the IRA. Brad was a cleared trade advisor to AFL-CIO presidents Richard Trumka and Elizabeth Shuler and helped develop the USMCA labor and automotive rules of origin language.

Brad also led the federation’s national and international climate and energy policy workstream, coordinating labor participation in UNFCCC meetings and working with the State Department to include Just Transition language in the Paris Agreement. He helped found the AFL-CIO’s partnership with former Secretary of Energy Ernie Moniz, the Labor Energy Partnership.

Prior to the AFL-CIO, Brad was at the UAW for 15 years. He worked closely with the Obama administration to establish new fuel-economy regulations and led the UAW’s efforts to develop programs to boost clean vehicle manufacturing, including the ATVM and conversion grant programs administered by DOE. Brad is an experienced labor negotiator and participated in several rounds of national bargaining in the automobile, aerospace and heavy truck industries.

Brad’s board and committee service includes the Biden-Harris transition team, the Secretary of Energy Advisory Board, the Labor and Employment Relations Association, the National Academy of Engineering, the Information Technology and Innovation Foundation, the Export-Import Bank Advisory Council, the International Labor Organization’s Expert Committee on Just Transition and the International Energy Agency.

Brad has degrees from the University of Michigan and Wayne State University and is a long-time member of UAW Local 14 in Toledo Ohio.