California Air Resources Board

RIVERSIDE—The California Air Resources Board salutes Deputy Executive Officer Annette Hebert as she retires after an extraordinary 35 years with the agency.

“We are, of course, happy for Annette in her retirement,” said CARB Board Chair Liane M. Randolph. “But her breadth of experience, depth of knowledge, and quiet, supportive, people and management skills make her nearly irreplaceable. I will miss her, and I suspect the rest of the board and the staff feel the same way.”

Annette directed the first Advanced Clean Cars regulation and oversaw the Haagen-Smit Laboratory. Her oversight of the laboratory and her wealth of knowledge about vehicles and their emissions helped crack open one of the biggest scandals in automotive history.

In 2015, Annette was a major player in CARB’s discovery of the “cheating device” that allowed Volkswagen to bypass emissions control equipment in its diesel passenger cars. The experts at the Haagen-Smit lab uncovered the actual software and determined how it worked. Annette helped guide the continuous testing and verification that finally made Volkswagen end sales of diesel passenger vehicles in the United States, and ultimately cost the company more than $21 billion dollars in penalties and court settlements around the world, as well as prompting the recall of hundreds of thousands of vehicles.

“Annette was the commander of the CARB troops who brought Volkswagen to justice in the ‘Dieselgate’ cheating scandal,” says former Board Chair Mary D. Nichols. “She skillfully coordinated the various teams of experts and kept the process moving, while constantly fielding questions about the possibility of a ‘fix’ for the already sold vehicles with illegal software settings. She was unflappable and efficient amid multiple conflicting agendas. There is nobody I would rather have by my side in a real environmental crisis.”

Annette came to CARB from Kaplan, in Louisiana’s Cajun country, where her grandparents still speak Cajun-French. When she was young, she worked on a rice farm tending crawfish traps.

Southern Louisiana is oil country, and after six semesters of pre-med at Louisiana State University, Annette transferred to the University of Southwestern Louisiana and earned a Bachelor of Science degree in Petroleum Engineering. She says jobs in oil and gas were “the best jobs in Louisiana.”

She then went to work for the Conoco oil company. She was a troubleshooter on an oil platform in the Gulf of Mexico. And for a while, the only woman. She also became a certified heavy-duty crane operator, loading and offloading heavy equipment and other cargo.

“There’s a craft to it,” says Annette. “I was loading onto and off of boats that were rocking in pretty rough seas.”

The dangers of the job required specialized safety training. Annette remembers the Water Survival Training.

“They put me in a cage like the interior of a helicopter and dropped me upside down into a large pool. I had to find my way out while blindfolded.”

In the end, Annette says her interest in public health and environmental questions drew her to CARB. So, she accepted a job as an air pollution specialist to determine the types of emissions in vehicle exhaust. She helped standardize operating procedures for that task.

Annette’s plan was to stay in California three to five years and then go home where her very close family wanted her back.

“My Grandma sits down by me, pats my hand and cries every time I go home,” Annette says.

But instead, she stayed with CARB for 35 years. She says, “Most people are here every day to save lives. That gives us fulfillment.”

Annette went from air pollution specialist to air resources engineer. Then she began to climb the executive ladder.

Annette was a supervisor in the Monitoring and Laboratory Division, then the Heavy-Duty Vehicles section, becoming head of the Mobile Source Operations Division. By then, she headed three separate divisions at once with duties that included overseeing vehicle certification, validation and testing, as well as aftermarket parts emissions impacts.

Annette also took on a big project specific to CARB, air quality and the climate fight in California. That was much of the oversight for relocating the Haagen-Smit lab and all CARB’s Southern California operations onto the Mary D. Nichols Campus at the University of California, Riverside. The facility is considered the global gold standard for vehicle testing operations. The facility earned Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED) Platinum certification, zero-net energy (ZNE) performance, and California Green Building Standards Code (CALGreen) Tier 2 standards. At 402,000 square feet, it is the largest ZNE building in the United States.

Annette prides herself on the relationships she’s been able to foster with industry and other stakeholders, “I understand their pressures and priorities,” she says. “And I know when to back off a little! You could say we’ve developed a certain level of trust.”

Industry leaders say Annette earned that trust by listening and remaining open to different solutions.

“Annette Hebert is a force of nature,” says Jed Mandel, President of the Truck and Engine Manufacturers Association. “She always has been open to finding solutions that make rules more practical and implementable without ever undermining their overall effectiveness -- and she has a tremendous track record of success in doing so.”

“Annette worked with the auto industry countless times over the past three decades leaving a legacy of hard work, integrity and knowledge,” says Steve Douglas, who led major auto industry initiatives for 25 years. “She had a rare ability to sort the important from the trivial to develop a reasonable path forward that balanced the needs of the industry with those of the environment and public health. Annette represents the very best of CARB, and she enjoys unparalleled respect and the sincere appreciation of the auto industry.”

Annette says she’s most grateful for the support and family she has found at CARB.

“I want to say thank you to all the bosses along the way who empowered me and the staff to move ahead,” she says. “CARB has so many opportunities. There’s no time to get tired of a project because there’s always another one. I feel so appreciated, respected and trusted here.”

“Annette’s extensive knowledge, experience and connections have made her instrumental in CARB’s development, and California would be a much less healthy place without her,” said CARB Executive Officer Dr. Steven Cliff. “For 35 years she has worked tirelessly without public recognition to literally change the world. She came to CARB for all the right reasons and made it a better place.”

For now, Annette says she plans to travel, do some fishing and spend time with the family waiting for her in Cajun country. But it is unlikely she’s done making the world a better place.