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Leo Mackay Jr.

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Leo Mackay Jr.
Mackay in 2002
4th United States Deputy Secretary of Veterans Affairs
In office
May 24, 2001 – September 30, 2003
PresidentGeorge W. Bush
Preceded byEdward A. Powell (Acting)
Succeeded byGordon H. Mansfield
Personal details
Born
Leo Sidney Mackay Jr.

(1961-08-15) August 15, 1961 (age 63)
San Antonio, Texas, U.S.
Political partyRepublican
EducationUnited States Naval Academy (BS)
Harvard University (MPP, PhD)
Military service
Allegiance United States
Branch/service United States Navy
Years of service1983–1995
Rank Lieutenant Commander
UnitVF-11
Battles/warsOperation Earnest Will

Leo Sidney Mackay Jr. (born August 15, 1961) is an American businessman, and a former deputy secretary of the United States Department of Veterans Affairs.

He is senior vice president, and an elected officer, of Lockheed Martin Corporation.[1] Currently, he is senior vice president - ethics and enterprise assurance, serving as the corporate audit executive (CAE); as well as leading the offices of Ethics and Business Conduct; Environment, Safety, and Health; enterprise risk; and serving as chief sustainability officer. The Lockheed Martin sustainability program has been perennially ranked among the world's best.[2]

He is a director, and investment committee member, of Lockheed Martin Ventures, the wholly owned venture capital arm of Lockheed Martin.[3] He reports to the CEO, the Audit Committee, and the Nominations and Corporate Governance Committee of the board of directors. He is an independent director of publicly-traded companies Ameren[4] and Cognizant Technology Solutions.[5] His work on Cognizant's audit committee has been highly praised.[6] He is also a former director (from 2016-2022) of the Federal Savings Bank of USAA and a former strategic advisor of Pegasus Capital Advisors. He was U.S. Black Engineer magazine's 2012 Black Engineer of the Year Awardee for Career Achievement, and the 2014 Lincoln-Douglass Award winner from the Republican National Committee.[7] He is a member, with term ending in September, 2023, of the Board of Regents of Concordia Theological Seminary.[8]

Previously, Mackay chaired the Board of Visitors at the Graduate School of Public Affairs of the University of Maryland (2008–2014). He was a board member, and chair of the Audit Committee, of the Center for a New American Security in Wahshington, DC (2007–2015), and continues on its Board of Advisors.[9] He was chair of the Lutheran Housing Support Corporation (2006–2011); Chair of the Secretary of Health and Human Services' Advisory Committee on Minority Health (2004–2005); and a board member of Cook's Children's Hospital in Fort Worth, Texas (1998–2001).

Government service

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Mackay was Deputy Secretary of Veterans Affairs from May 2001 to October 2003.[10] As the department's second in command and designated chief operating officer, he had operational authority over the department's three major agencies: the Veterans Health Administration (VHA), the nation's largest integrated healthcare system; the Veterans Benefits Administration (VBA); and the National Cemetery Administration. He concentrated on departmental management initiating a Strategic Management Council, reformulating the departmental budget process, and changing the internal merit system for GS/SES personnel. He was concentrated on the CARES project, a capital asset realignment of VHA; enhanced use leasing; lowering the backlog of pending veterans' claims; achievement and maintenance of a clean audit; the National Shrine Commitment, an effort to raise, and make standard, the condition of the national cemeteries; and VetFran, a program for transitioning veterans to aid them in starting franchise businesses. He was also, with David Chu, a founding co-chair of the VA-DoD Joint Executive Council to increase interdepartmental collaboration and sharing. Upon his departure, then-Secretary Anthony Principi stated, "Dr. Mackay brought to VA the discipline of the business world and the compassion of a man who cares deeply for America's veterans. His legacy is a more-focused VA better able to meet the needs of veterans."[11]

From 1993 to 1995, Mackay served as military assistant to then-Assistant Secretary of Defense for International Security Policy, Ashton Carter.[12] During this time, the office was re-organized to focus on cooperative de-nuclearization, execution of the Nunn-Lugar threat reduction program, nuclear weapons policy, and counter-proliferation. The office also was the Office of the Secretary of Defense (OSD) lead for the Nuclear Posture Review of 1994-95.[13]

2016 Presidential Transition

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On January 3, 2017, Mackay met with president-elect Donald Trump at Trump Tower in New York City to discuss the cabinet post of Secretary of Veterans Affairs. Though Mackay described their meeting as a "good discussion" he was not selected for the post.[14] Other reporting, citing sources internal to the campaign, said he had refused the post as he was "reluctant to leave the private sector."[15]

Personal history

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Mackay resides in Northern Virginia. He was born into a military family in San Antonio, Texas, and grew up on, and around, military installations. He lived in Japan as a child and spent a year and a half of high school in Tehran, Iran. His family was evacuated in December 1978 as the Shah's government disintegrated. He served in the Navy as a naval aviator. He completed pilot training in 1985, graduating at the top of his class. He spent three years in Fighter Squadron Eleven flying the F-14, attended Fighter Weapons School (Topgun), and compiled 235 carrier landings and 1,000 hours in the F-14. He is a veteran of Operation Earnest Will earning the Armed Forces Expeditionary Medal. He taught western civilization and modern military history during his service as an instructor at the Naval Academy.

Affiliations

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Mackay is a former member of the Aspen Strategy Group,[16] and the Council on Foreign Relations,[17] and a life member of the U.S. Naval Institute. He was a Research Fellow at the Belfer Center for Science and International Affairs, and was a Special Guest Fellow at the Brookings Institution. He is a past independent director of the Henry L. Stimson Center in Washington, DC.

Education

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Mackay was a 1983 graduate of the U.S. Naval Academy, and a recipient of the Secretary of the Navy Distinguished Midshipman Graduate Award. He holds a master's degree in public policy, and Ph.D. in public policy from Harvard University. He was a Kennedy Fellow, Harvard MacArthur Scholar, and Graduate Prize Fellow at Harvard. In 2005, Mackay was awarded a Doctor of Laws, honoris causa from Concordia Seminary, and served as the commencement speaker for its graduation that year.[18] In 2023, he was awarded a Doctor of Humane Letters, honoris causa from Concordia Theological Seminary.[19] He is the first layman to be awarded an honorary doctorate from each of the two seminaries of the Lutheran Church–Missouri Synod.

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References

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  1. ^ [1] Lockheed Martin, Corporation, retrieved April 15, 2016
  2. ^ "Lockheed Martin Recognized as Best-in-Class on Dow Jones Sustainability Index". www.3blmedia.com. 2019-08-26. Retrieved 2024-06-07.
  3. ^ "Lockheed Martin Ventures". Lockheed Martin. Retrieved 2023-05-20.
  4. ^ [2] Ameren, Inc., retrieved January 17, 2021.
  5. ^ [3] Cognizant Technology Solutions, retrieved April 15, 2016
  6. ^ "More Cognizant FCPA Lessons". Radical Compliance. 2019-02-18. Retrieved 2019-04-20.
  7. ^ [4] Black Engineer of the Year 2012 STEM Global Conference, retrieved April 15, 2016
  8. ^ [5] LCMS Convention, 2010, retrieved April 15, 2016
  9. ^ [6] Archived 2016-04-03 at the Wayback Machine Center for a New American Security, retrieved April 15, 2016
  10. ^ [7] Archived 2009-06-05 at the Wayback Machine Department of Veterans Affairs, retrieved April 15, 2016
  11. ^ [8] Archived 2009-06-05 at the Wayback Machine Department of Veterans Affairs, retrieved April 15, 2016
  12. ^ [9] Belfer Center, Spring 2008, p. 6, retrieved April 15, 2016
  13. ^ [10] "An Elusive Consensus" Janne Nolan, Brookings Institution Press, 1999, p. 52-54
  14. ^ [11] "Trump weighing Lockheed Martin executive to lead Veterans Affairs" Washington Examiner, January 3, 2017, by Sarah Westwood, retrieved January 14, 2017
  15. ^ [12]"Why Trump still hasn't named a leader for the Department of Veterans Affairs" Washington Post, January 9, 2017, Lisa Rein, retrieved 14 January 2017
  16. ^ "Aspen Strategy Group Members | the Aspen Institute". Archived from the original on 2016-04-25. Retrieved 2016-04-15. Aspen Institute, retrieved April 15, 2016
  17. ^ [13] Archived 2014-10-06 at the Wayback Machine Council on Foreign Relations, retrieved April 15, 2016
  18. ^ [14] Concordia Seminary - St. Louis, Respublica, retrieved April 15, 2016
  19. ^ "Event: Commencement 2023 - CTSFW". 2023-04-17. Retrieved 2023-05-20.
Political offices
Preceded by United States Deputy Secretary of Veterans Affairs
2001–2003
Succeeded by