Obama to Pick REI Honcho for Interior Secretary

President Obama will make an unconventional Cabinet pick today, naming REI Equipment Inc. CEO Sally Jewell as his new secretary of the Interior, a source tells the Washington Post. Jewell has had an interesting career path: She started out as an engineer for Mobil Oil, then became a commercial banker, before finally landing her spot at REI. She has little policy experience, though she has occasionally dipped her toe into politics, introducing Obama at the White House's 2011 Great Outdoors Initiative and taking part in Obama's 2009 CEO health care summit.

But Jewell isn't a partisan Democrat; she made a high-profile appearance in support of John McCain in 2008. The pick is also unusual, the Post points out, because the Interior secretary position is often reserved for a Western politician. But Jewell would give Obama another woman in his Cabinet, countering critics who complained that his early second-term nominees were all men. (More Barack Obama stories.)