Sean McDonald 
Booz Allen Hamilton
Excellence in Execution
Sean McDonald is a leader in national workforce development strategies and technology modernizations for national workforce systems for Booz Allen Hamilton. He recently helped oversee a major IT modernization effort for the U.S. Department of Labor, for which inefficient and costly paper-based processes were revamped and replaced with new businesses processes and methods.
Over his 20-year professional career, McDonald has been devoted to consulting with U.S. Federal Government clients focused on enterprise technology modernization efforts that provide significant improvements to the efficiency and effectiveness of its services to citizens and companies.
"Personally, I'm grateful for the recognition of the impact we have achieved with the U.S. Department of Labor (DOL) in creating lasting change and improving the digital interactions citizens and companies have with their Federal government. The direct impact our support has had in helping citizens gain meaningful employment, ensuring workers are protected, and maintaining and improving the retiree welfare fuel my passion for this work."
As for what it means to clients and his firm to be named a 2021 Global Leader in Consulting, McDonald says it's an opportunity to advance awareness of contributions to federal consulting projects, which he says are essential to recruiting talent to the sector of the profession.
"Through greater awareness of the successes of Federal systems modernizations, there is an opportunity for broader support in investing in U.S. government to citizen experience modernizations, striving to reach a point where government services match the quality of commercial services for the critical government functions and services many of our fellow citizens depend on in their time of need."
Ask McDonald about his greatest professional achievements in his career so far, and he points to two digital transformation efforts he's been part of that had a positive impact on citizens.
"In 2008, I had the privilege of leading the team of consultants charged with designing and launching www.DisasterAssistance.gov in partnership with FEMA and DOL. In the wake of Hurricane Katrina and struggles delivering Federal aid to survivors, DisasterAssistance.gov was created to provide disaster survivors with information, support, services, and a means to access and apply for disaster assistance."
The second transformation he cited came a decade later.
"In 2018, the U.S. had over 8 million job openings and only 6 million job seekers. This shortage of job seekers had the potential to stall a growing economy. DOL's antiquated systems were unable to quickly adapt to changing legislation and policies, and were burdensome to applicants, many who were small business owners. DOL kicked off the Foreign Labor Application Gateway (FLAG) modernization efforts in 2018 and launched the modernized system in January 2019 replacing the 10-year old legacy system."
Q&A: What has been the biggest key to your success so far?
"The biggest key to my success has been teamwork and collaboration– transitioning between team leader and team member, often many times a day. As consultants, we work in many cross-functional teams with members including clients, colleagues, and impacted customers. Collaboration allows for individual strengths to lift the entire team to heights not possible as individuals."
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