"The future of Managing Water in the West is a bright one, full of many rewarding challenges," said Gold. "I will miss Reclamation a great deal, but it's time for me to move on to a new chapter in my life. It has been a great privilege to work with such wonderful and dedicated people over all these years."

Throughout his stellar career, Rick Gold has seen many changes and faced many challenges in managing water in the West. Gold began his career at Reclamation in 1969 working on the Central Utah Project. After stints in Reclamation's Upper Missouri Regional Office in Billings, Montana, and Reclamation's headquarters in Washington, D.C., Gold returned to the Upper Colorado Region in Durango, Colorado in 1983. In 1990, he was named assistant regional director, and assumed the role of regional director in December 2000.

Gold points to many accomplishments during his career, including the ongoing construction on the Animas La Plata Project (ALP), which began in 2002. When completed, the project will fulfill the water rights settlement of the Ute Mountain Ute Tribe and the Southern Ute Indian Tribe. Gold said he also worked on the ALP in 1983 while in Reclamations Durango Project's Office, working on issues related to Indian water rights settlement and cost-sharing agreements to allow the project to move forward.

Gold is a registered professional engineer in Utah, Colorado, and Montana. His extensive career experiences include being a Regional Hydrologist, a Projects Manager, a Regional Planning Officer, and a Deputy Regional Director, prior to serving as the 10th Regional Director of the Upper Colorado Region. In the mid-1990's, Gold was the principle manager responsible for the environmental studies leading to and the completion of the EIS on the Operation of Glen Canyon Dam.

Gold is a native of the Upper Snake River Valley in Idaho. His formal education includes a Bachelor of Science in Civil Engineering in 1968 and a Master of Science in Civil Engineering  Water Resources in 1970 from Utah State University.