Bob McDonald (businessman)
Robert Alan McDonald (born June 20, 1953) served as the eighth United States Secretary of Veterans Affairs. He is the retired chairman, president, and CEO of Procter & Gamble. In 2014 he became Secretary of Veterans Affairs. Early life and education. McDonald was born on June 20, 1953 in Gary, Indiana, and grew up in Chicago. He graduated from the U.S. Military Academy at West Point in 1975 in the top 2% of his class with a Bachelor of Science degree in Engineering. At West Point he served as the Brigade Adjutant for the Corps of Cadets and  was awarded the Silver Medal from the Royal Society for the Encouragement of Arts, Manufacturing and Commerce. After graduation, he served in the U.S. Army for five years, primarily in the 82nd Airborne Division, attaining the rank of captain, and earned an MBA from the University of Utah in 1978. Upon leaving the military he received the Meritorious Service Medal. Career. McDonald joined Procter & Gamble in 1980 and worked in various roles before becoming president and Chief Executive in 2009. He assumed the Chairman of the Board role 2010. As chief executive officer, McDonald oversaw a $10 billion restructuring  plan. Amid the 2008 economic downturn, investors criticized McDonald for being too loyal to P&G traditions, too slow to pursue layoffs and other cuts, and unable to produce new product innovations, particularly compared to his predecessor and replacement A.G. Lafley. He resigned from P&G in 2013 following pressure from the company board and activist investors such as Bill Ackman; he was replaced by his predecessor A.G. Lafley, who returned from retirement. In 2014 McDonald led a community-based task force to help the city of Cincinnati renovate its Museum Center, which succeeded when Hamilton County passed a tax levy to  fund the initiative. U.S. Secretary of Veterans Affairs. McDonald succeeded Eric Shinseki, who resigned in 2014, due to the Veterans Health Administration scandal of 2014. In 2014, U.S. President Obama nominated McDonald to the Cabinet position of United States Secretary of Veterans Affairs. Obama cited McDonald's business background with P&G and experience revitalizing organizations in his decision. Obama said, "[W]hat especially makes Bob the right choice to lead the VA now is his three decades of experience in building and managing one of the world's most recognized companies, Procter & Gamble. The VA is not a business, but it  is one of our largest departments... And the workload at the VHA alone is enormous..." Obama added, "Bob is an expert at making organizations better. In his career he's taken over struggling business units... putting an end to what doesn't work; adopting the best practices that do; restructuring, introducing innovations, making operations more efficient and effective. In short, he's about delivering better results." McDonald was approved by the United States Senate Committee on Veterans' Affairs and the full Senate by unanimous vote. One of McDonald's first decisions in September 2014 was to increase salaries for physicians  and dentists to close the pay gap with the private sector and to make VA an employer of choice. McDonald personally visited several medical schools to recruit new medical personnel in the early months of his tenure at VA. As of June 2015, VA had increased onboard staff by more 12,000 including over 1,000 physicians, 2,700 nurses, and 4,600 other select critical occupations. A major goal of McDonald was the reduction of homelessness among veterans. During his tenure, McDonald directed the VA to build new housing for disabled and elderly veterans and for female veterans with children. As of June  2019, the "master plan" for a housing first model McDonald wrote remains under construction, to be installed at the West Los Angeles campus of the Department of Veterans Affairs.McDonald opposed privatization of the VA. "I`ve never met a veteran who wants to privatize the VA," McDonald said. Privatization advocates usually have a stake in privatization, he said. The private sector couldn't absorb the 9 million veterans, with all their comorbidities, in the VA system. The VA trains 70% of the doctors in the country, and has relationships with 1,800 medical schools. Veteran's groups wanted McDonald to stay , but after a long delay, president Donald Trump replaced him with David Shulkin, who also opposed privatization, and was also replaced. McDonald created the Veterans Experience Office, and hired Tom Allin in 2015 as the agency's first chief veteran experience officer. The latter decision is said to have brought about organizational change. In 2015, McDonald admitted he misspoke trying to engage a homeless veteran about his serving in the U.S. Army Special Forces, a conversation that was recorded by a CBS television news crew accompanying him during a nationwide count of homeless veterans. "I have no excuse, I was  not in the special forces" he told "The Huffington Post", which first broke the story. "The Huffington Post" reported that "special operations forces" includes the Army Rangers and that McDonald "completed Army Ranger training and took courses in jungle, arctic and desert warfare. He qualified as a senior parachutist and airborne jumpmaster, and was assigned to the 82nd Airborne Division until he resigned his commission in 1980. While he earned a Ranger tab designating him as a graduate of Ranger School, he never served in a Ranger battalion or any other special operations unit. In 2016, Secretary McDonald stated that  Disney does not measure wait times at its amusement parks, arguing that VA wait times are not an important measure. This statement was viewed as both insensitive to patients and incorrect, as Disney does measure wait times. McDonald apologized the next day. Board work. McDonald is on the boards of RallyPoint Networks and serves on the Board of Directors of Partnership for Public Service, Audia International, the Association of Graduates of the United States Military Academy, the Boulder Crest Retreat Foundation, and the McCormick Research Institute. Philanthropy. McDonald and his wife, Diane, founded the McDonald Conference for Leaders of Character . Personal life. In July 2020, McDonald was appointed by the George W. Bush Institute as the April and Jay Graham Fellow where he serves as a key member of the Military Service Initiative team. In September 2020, McDonald was selected by presidential nominee Joe Biden to be a member of his transition team's advisory board. McDonald donated a statue of General Ulysses S. Grant that was unveiled on April 25, 2019 on The Plain at West Point. In 2007, McDonald received the inaugural Leadership Excellence Award from the U.S. Naval Academy and "Harvard Business Review". He serves on the  Board of Directors of Xerox, the McKinsey Advisory Council, and the Singapore International Advisory Council of the Economic Development Board. McDonald and his wife, Diane, have two children.