W. Scott Gould

Deputy Secretary at the Department of Veterans Affairs (since April 2009)

(VA)

Why He Matters

If the Obama administration was designing their ideal deputy secretary of Veterans Affairs from scratch, the result might well look a lot like Gould.

The Navy reservist served aboard a guided missile destroyer for eight years before earning his doctorate in administration and finance. He has since developed an expertise in making governments, non-profits and companies more efficient and innovative, focusing particularly on building a better workforce. He has even co-authored a book called The People Factor on ways to better utilize the civil service.

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Background

At a Glance

Career History: IBM (2004 to 2009); CEO, The O'Gara Company (2002 to 2004)Deputy to the Director of the Naval Criminal Investigative Service, U.S. Navy (2001 to 2002)
Hometown: Topsfield, Mass.
Alma Mater: Cornell University, B.A. (philosophy); University of Rochester, MBA and Ed.D

Spouse: Michele Flournoy
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Path to Power

Gould was born in Topsfield, Mass. His father, who worked as a stockbroker and teacher in Boston, was a veteran naval officer. Gould said his dad's love of the armed forces inspired him to join. "Long after he had forgotten many things," Gould said in 2009, "my father remembered a few very important things: my mother's face, fragments of prayers, and the belief that somehow the Navy would come to save him."

Gould received his undergraduate degree in philosophy from Cornell University, where he also participated in ROTC. He enlisted in the Navy soon after, and his first assignment was aboard the destroyer USS Richard E. Byrd.

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After eight years of service, he returned to school, earning an MBA and an Ed.D in administration and finance from the University of Rochester. After graduating, Gould took a consulting job with Theodore Barry and Associates in New York.

In 1991, he was tapped to run the bankrupt city of Chelsea, Mass. as a member of a three-person receivership. The city was the poorest city in the state, with more bars per capita than any other community. Gould helped clamp the flow of overtime to firefighters, cut unnecessary staff and led the effort to privatize various city services, like enforcement of parking regulations. Officials predicted the change would quadruple the city's revenue from fines. In one year, Manning helped turn a $10 million deficit into a $2 million surplus.

The efforts were widely praised, though they were criticized by some immigrant leaders who said that the receivership did not do enough to include residents in decision about government.

The Clinton Administration

Gould joined the Clinton administration as a White House fellow in 1993. He served as special assistant to the chairman of the Export-Import Bank, reviewing its efforts to reinvest in government. He moved to deputy assistant secretary of the Treasury. In that position, he oversaw a $10.5 billion budget and helped downsize the department's 165,000 workforce.

In 1997, Gould was tapped to serve as chief financial officer and assistant secretary for administration at the Department of Commerce. He was responsible for overseeing the development and implementation of personnel-management policies. "President Clinton has challenged the Federal workforce to change the way we do our work: to improve the delivery of services to our customers, to do more, to do it better and to do it with less," he said at his 1997 confirmation hearing before the Senate Committee on Commerce, Science and Transportation. "I look forward to [making] the best contribution I can to the practice of good government at Commerce."

Gould was recalled to the navy after Sept. 11, and spent several months in Afghanistan as deputy to the director of the Naval Criminal Investigative Service. He said the experience offered him a unique window into the challenges of rapid transition. "We need to take care of our military families," he said at his 2009 hearing.

When Gould returned home, he entered the private sector. He served as CEO for The O'Gara Company, a strategic investment firm in the homeland security market, among other jobs. In 2004, he joined a team of thinkers to help IBM develop a long-term strategy and innovation plan.

The Obama Campaign

In 2007, Gould joined the Obama campaign's National Veterans Advisory Committee, which advised the future president on veterans' issues and helped the campaign build support among military veterans. He co-chaired the Health and Human Services Agency Review Team after Obama was elected.

In April 2009, Gould was confirmed as deputy secretary of Veterans Affairs. The job will require him to serve as chief operating officer of the federal government's second-largest department, which provides health care to more than one million patients per week and 3.7 million benefits checks a month.

The Issues

Gould has spent most of his career thinking about how to make things -cities, companies, and government bureaucracies - more efficient.

In his testimony before the Senate Committee on Veterans Affairs in March 2009, Gould said his job description could be boiled down to this: he is responsible for transforming the VA into a 21st century organization. "I'm acutely aware that the transformation is a challenging task," he said. "I will work to refine and implement a basic strategy to create a people-centric, results-oriented, forward-looking organization."

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In his first months in office, Gould intends to begin transforming the management infrastructure so that VA employees are better trained and empowered to think more innovatively; streamline the disability claims process; ensure adequate health access and resources for all veterans; and better utilize information technology. He has said one of his biggest challenges will be implementing the 2008 G.I. bill, which covers the college tuition of former armed services members.

Gould called for an overhaul of the current system of rating veterans' injuries and disabilities upon their return from war, saying that the current system is too complex. He would also like the VA to move towards a paperless monitoring system.

Civil Servants

In his 2008 book, The People Factor, Gould paints a picture of a federal government with "antiquated hiring systems, a wave of baby-boomer retirements and talented young people's lack of interest in civil-service jobs." If government doesn't take action, Gould predicts that Americans will be faced with a low-innovation, low-tech government.

The federal government has not learned how to manage its employees by turning them into an asset instead of an expense. In The People Factor, Gould and co-author Linda Bilmes explain how the government can reinvigorate the public sector.

In a 2009 essay in the National Journal, Gould outlined some of the reasons why civil servants often struggle to reach their potential. Among the problems, Gould lists a dispersed decision-making ability, constant scrutiny and second guessing, a lack of consensus about goals and objectives, bad information systems and a poor flow of information.

The solution, he writes, is that the government should act like companies such as Proctor & Gamble and Pfizer, investing in people.Gould calls for a $10 billion program to improve recruiting, training and management of the federal workforce. He predicts this strategy could generate as much as $300 to $600 billion in productivity gains. He also suggests reforming the recruiting and hiring system to attract top talent through internships, mentoring, mid-career exchange programs and an innovative human resources strategy.

He has also proposed a "Civil Service GI Bill" that would provide leadership and training for students at community colleges and universities interested in working in government.

The Network

Working in the Obama administration runs in Gould's family - his wife, Michele Flournoy, was tapped as Undersecretary of Defense.

Gould has ties to several other Obama-ites. He sat on Obama's National Veterans Advisory Committee with former Sen. Tom Daschle (D-S.D.), Rep. Neil Abercrombie (D-Hawaii), Rep. Sanford Bishop (D-Ga.), Rep. John Conyers (D-Mich.), Rep. Phil Hare (D-Ill.), Rep. Bobby Rush (D-Ill.), Rep. Patrick J. Murphy (D-Pa.), Rep. Adam Smith (D-Wash.), Illinois Governor Patrick Quinn (D), and Major General Scott Gration, the president's special envoy to Sudan.

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Additional Resources