John Berry

Director, Office of Personnel Management (since April 2009)

(Jonathan Newton/the Washington Post)

Why He Matters

Berry oversees the the 1.9 million civilian employees of the federal workforce, a post that he describes less formally as "chief people person" for the U.S. government. President Barack Obama nominated Berry as OPM director in March 2009 and charged him at the time with making civil service "cool again."

A Washington-area native, Berry has had a long career in management. His path started in the office of Rep. Steny H. Hoyer (D-Md.) and continued through senior posts in the Treasury and Interior departments. Following service in the Clinton administration, Berry headed up both the National Fish and Wildlife Foundation and the National Zoo.

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Background

At a Glance

Career History: Director, Smithsonian Zoological Park (2005-2009); Director, National Fish and Wildlife Foundation (2000-2005); Assistant secretary for policy, U.S. Department of the Interior (1997-2000); Director of government relations, Smithsonian Institution (1995-1997); Deputy assistant secretary/acting assistant secretary for law enforcement, Department of Treasury (1994-1995); Legislative Director, Rep. Steny Hoyer (1985-1994); Staff Director, Maryland state Senate Finance Committee (1984-1985)
Birthday: February 10, 1959
Hometown: Rockville, Md.
Alma Mater: University of Maryland, B.A. 1980; Syracuse University, M.A. 1981

Spouse: Curtis Yee
Religion: Episcopalian
DC Office: Theodore Roosevelt Building1900 E St. NW; 202-606-1000
Web site

Path to Power

Born in 1959, Berry grew up near the nation's capital, in Rockville, Md. He said his parents instilled in him and his siblings an appreciation for public service from a young age.

Berry's father served in World War II and was a member of the first Marine division to go ashore in the Battle of Guadalcanal in the Pacific theater. An uncle for whom Berry was named was fatally shot down in the war. Later, when Berry was a child, he recalled how his family would make the short drive from Maryland to Washington, D.C., and as they passed the imposing and distinctive federal buildings, his father would say, "Kids, people in these buildings are serving our country."

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Berry represented the first generation of his family to graduate from college; he earned a degree in government and politics from the University of Maryland in 1980, as well as a master's in public administration from Syracuse University the following year.

He began work in the state legislature in the mid-1980s and later spent a decade as a top aide to Hoyer, now the House majority leader. It was in Hoyer's office that Berry gained an expertise in issues affecting federal employees - experience that would contribute to his appointment to lead that workforce nearly two decades later.

'Turnaround Guy'

After leaving Hoyer's office, Berry began his first of two stints in the Clinton administration. He served as a deputy assistant secretary for law enforcement at the Treasury Department, a post that gave him oversight over the Secret Service, the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives, and the Internal Revenue Service.

It was also the first in what Berry described as a series of jobs in which he was hired to be the "turnaround guy." Treasury's law enforcement arm had been reeling following the Waco incident in 1993, where ATF shared much of the blame for a siege that led to the deaths of 26 people. Berry was charged with improving the unit in the years prior to the creation of the Department of Homeland Security, which took over the Secret Service and ATF.

In 1995, Berry moved to the Smithsonian Institution, taking his burgeoning reputation as a "go-to-guy for problem solving" to an organization still dealing with the fallout from its controversial Enola Gay exhibit in 1994, which was criticized by veterans' groups for its portrayal of the U.S. decision to drop atomic bombs on Japan in World War II.

In 1997, Berry returned to the Clinton administration as an assistant secretary in the Interior Department, a job that combined his passion for conservation with his skills as a personnel manager.

He helped expand the department's budget by $3 billion during his tenure and instituted a number of programs popular with federal employees, including renovations to the fitness center, cafeteria and snack rooms, and the reopening of a building health clinic. Berry's official bio also boasts that the job took him all over the world, from climbing volcanoes to diving under coral reef.

Berry left the department in 2000 to a glowing profile in the Washington Post, which described an outpouring of support from his employees and quoted Hoyer as saying that Berry "makes Norman Vincent Peale look like a cynical, negative person."

Conservationist

Berry went from Interior to the nation's most prominent conservation organization, the National Fish and Wildlife Foundation. He served as director of the non-profit from 2000-2005, at which point he left to become head of the National Zoo.

Berry described the position - officially titled director of the Smithsonian Zoological Park - as a "dream job," but once again he was called upon to repair an organization whose reputation had suffered. Amid a series of animal deaths and critical reports, the zoo had been plagued by charges of mismanagement. Its previous director, Lucy Spelman, had resigned. "That was the dream job of my life," Berry said. "The reason I got it was because no one else wanted it." As director, Berry instituted reforms and pushed a 10-year plan to make the zoo the best in the world. Proposals included a major expansion of exhibits and the expensive addition of an aerial tram.

Office of Personnel Management

When President Barack Obama offered Berry the job of OPM director in early 2009, Berry said the president was clear about what he wanted: a restoration of the dignity of public service. "'John, we've just got to make it cool again,'" Berry said Obama told him.

Berry said the president wants the rejuvenation of national service to be "one of his legacy accomplishments," much in the way it was for President John F. Kennedy. He said his reputation as a "turnaround guy" and his solid relationship with unions and other key factions of the federal workforce got him the job. Berry faced few tough questions and no opposition during his confirmation process in the Senate, which approved his appointment unanimously in April 2009.

The Issues

Berry has had in some sense a dual role in the Obama administration - he is both the official head of the federal workforce, and he is the most prominent and highest-ranked openly gay appointee in the administration.

He has used that distinction to support new policies affecting gay federal employees and to occasionally serve as an unofficial spokesman for the administration on gay issues, such as when he delivered a well-received speech to the Justice Department's annual Pride Awards in June 2009.

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OPM Goals

Berry set three broad goals upon taking over as OPM director. First, he wanted to fulfill Obama's mission of making public service "cool" again, particularly by removing the stigma of "red tape" and "bureaucracy" often associated with the federal workforce.

Berry also cited the need to improve labor-management relations, which he suggested had deteriorated during recent years. "It's essential that labor and government be one team," he said. To that end, he has restored a labor-management partnership council that was first created by President Bill Clinton but shut down by President George W. Bush shortly after he took office. Obama signed an order creating the National Council on Federal Labor-Management in December 2009.

Finally, Berry is eyeing a far-reaching overhaul of OPM policies and practices, with the aim of making the federal government the "model workforce" in the 21st century. That includes changing the government's recruitment and hiring practices, as well as the politically-thorny prospect of altering how employees are paid and evaluated.

Berry said that while he has accomplished many of the first-year goals he set for OPM, including the launch of a campaign to hire more military veterans, he missed a self-imposed deadline to issue a proposal for hiring and recruitment reform. He said that proposal is on track to be unveiled in 2010.

Gay Rights

Berry has embraced the notion that as the administration's highest-ranked gay appointee, he "wears two hats," including one as an LGBT leader. "I am very proud to be a gay man, and I have always been open," he said. In his speech to the Justice Department in June 2009, Berry paid tribute to Dr. Frank Kameny, an astronomer who in 1957 was fired from his civil service job for being gay.

Berry also spoke movingly about a partner he lost to AIDS, and he urged fellow gay advocates to keep pushing for expanded rights. "With the help of a president who supports our cause, the aid of courageous fellow country men and women who love liberty; and with God's grace, we shall prevail," he said.

Berry touts the Obama administration's decision to push for extending benefits to same-sex partners of federal employees. Legislation implementing the move passed a key Senate committee in December 2009. At the same time, Berry is sympathetic to the criticism from gay rights advocates that Obama has not moved fast enough on priorities like ending the military's "Don't Ask, Don't Tell" policy and repealing the Defense of Marriage Act. "Clearly, there's a sense of urgency," Berry said. "I share that sense of urgency."

Still, he defended the administration's approach. "Progress doesn't happen overnight in this country," he said. "These things don't happen by waving a wand." In a nod to the sensitivity of the issue nationwide, Berry warned against moving too quickly, saying that "at the end of the day, we don't want to make things worse."

Expanded Health Care Role

OPM is in line for a major expansion of its portfolio with the expected passage of a health-care overhaul. OPM currently administers the Federal Employees Health Benefits Program, but under the health-care proposal that passed the Senate in December 2009, the agency would negotiate premiums for millions of additional non-federal employees consumers as part of a new insurance exchange envisioned by the bill. The proposal drew criticism from the OPM chief under President George W. Bush, Linda Springer, who told Federal News Radio that OPM "doesn't have the capacity to do this type of role."

Berry acknowledged that the new responsibilities would require a dramatic increase in agency budget and staff, but he said OPM would answer the call if needed. "I have every confidence in our staff that if given this responsibility, we would deliver," he said, adding that OPM had in the past proven itself as "a little agency that can."

The Network

Berry's closest ally throughout his long Washington career has been his former boss and the current House majority leader, Rep. Steny H. Hoyer (D-Md.). Hoyer has vouched for him in newspaper profiles and testified on his behalf during his Senate confirmation hearing.

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