$re = '/^\d+\t\K(.+?)(?=\t)/m';
$str = '2012 Mark Dept other
2010 Louanne Dept other
2009 Jannett Dept other';
$subst = "[url=http://www.website.com/personell/$1]$1[/url]";
$result = preg_replace($re, $subst, $str);
echo "The result of the substitution is ".$result;
Please keep in mind that these code samples are automatically generated and are not guaranteed to work. If you find any syntax errors, feel free to submit a bug report. For a full regex reference for PHP, please visit: http://php.net/manual/en/ref.pcre.php