ELIZABETH A. McGRATH

Assistant Deputy Chief Management Officer Department of Defense

Ms. Elizabeth (Beth) McGrath is the Department of Defense Assistant Deputy Chief Management Officer and the Department’s Performance Improvement Officer.  In these roles, Ms. McGrath leads the Department’s effort to better synchronize, integrate, and coordinate DoD business operations and serves as the Principal Staff Assistant (PSA) and advisor to the Secretary and Deputy Secretary of Defense for matters relating to management and the improvement of business operations.  Ms. McGrath is focused on achieving increased efficiency, greater effectiveness, and improved performance in the Department’s enterprise policies, processes, and systems.  She is also responsible for the generation of the DoD Strategic Management Plan.

As part of her duties, Ms. McGrath executes the Department’s primary governance body for business transformation, the Defense Business Systems Management Committee (DBSMC), serves as the Capability Portfolio Co-Manager for the Corporate Management and Support Portfolio, establishes performance goals and measurements for the Department’s business operations, is responsible for implementing DoD’s Continuous Process Improvement/Lean Six Sigma efforts, and is co-leading, with the Director of National Intelligence, an initiative to reform the government-wide security clearance process. Additionally, Ms. McGrath was instrumental in the establishment of the Business Transformation Agency (BTA) in 2005. Her responsibilities require integration and coordination with the other PSA organizations as well as other inter-governmental agencies, such as the Office of Management and Budget and the Government Accountability Office.  Preceding her current position, Ms. McGrath served as the Principal Deputy Under Secretary of Defense for Business Transformation.

Previously, Ms. McGrath served as the Deputy Director for Systems Integration, Defense Finance and Accounting Service (DFAS).  At DFAS, she created financial migration strategy that was executed with a collective budget of approximately $1B over the lifecycle.  She managed the entire financial architecture supporting DOD-wide standard financial systems, integrating it with the DoD’s evolving target, enterprise architecture.  The project scope included logistics, personnel, medical, acquisition and financial missions including many information technology solutions.

Prior to joining DFAS, Ms. McGrath served in a variety of Program Management roles culminating in Program Executive Office (PEO) level oversight responsibility.  She possesses extensive knowledge of acquisition-related statutes, regulations and policies with over 18 years applied acquisition experience with Major Defense Acquisition Programs (MDAP) and Major Automated Information Systems (MAIS).  She served as the Business and Acquisition Manager on an international program with the United Kingdom and held numerous other financial, acquisition and program management positions within the US Department of the Navy.

Ms. McGrath holds a bachelor’s degree in Economics from George Mason University and is a graduate of the Federal Executive Institute (FEI). She is certified Acquisition Level III in Program Management, Financial Management and Logistics, is a member of the DoD Acquisition Professional Community.