Lisa W. Hershman (born November 13, 1963) is an American government official who served as the
chief management officer of the Department of Defense
The chief management officer (CMO) of the United States Department of Defense (DoD) was the third-in-command of the department after the Secretary of Defense and Deputy Secretary of Defense. The position's purpose was to reduce costs by improvin ...
from December 19, 2019, to January 1, 2021. She previously served as the Deputy Chief Management Officer of the Department of Defense from April 13, 2018, to December 19, 2019. On December 1, 2018, she became the acting chief management officer of the Department of Defense following the resignation of John H. Gibson. On July 22, 2019, Hershman was nominated for the position of
Chief Management Officer of the Department of Defense
The chief management officer (CMO) of the United States Department of Defense (DoD) was the third-in-command of the department after the Secretary of Defense and Deputy Secretary of Defense. The position's purpose was to reduce costs by improvin ...
br>
[3 /nowiki>">">[3 /nowiki>On_December_19,_2019,_this_nomination_was_approved_by_a_voice_vote_of_the_United_States_Senate.html" "title=" /nowiki>.html" ;"title="">[3 /nowiki>">">[3 /nowiki>On December 19, 2019, this nomination was approved by a voice vote of the United States Senate">U.S. Senate
The United States Senate is the upper chamber of the United States Congress, with the House of Representatives being the lower chamber. Together they compose the national bicameral legislature of the United States.
The composition and pow ...
, making her the highest-ranking woman ever confirmed by the U.S. Senate to a Pentagon position at the time.
Upon her departure from the Pentagon in January 2021, Hershman was awarded the Distinguished Public Service Medal, the highest civilian honor awarded by the Department of Defense. Hershman was further honored by having a room at the Pentagon named in her honor – the first room in the history of the Pentagon to be officially named after a woman.
Education
Hershman earned a Bachelor of Science degree in engineering and industrial distribution from Clarkson University. She has also studied innovation at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and International Institute for Management Development in Switzerland. She later received an executive certificate in finance from
Cornell University
Cornell University is a private statutory land-grant research university based in Ithaca, New York. It is a member of the Ivy League. Founded in 1865 by Ezra Cornell and Andrew Dickson White, Cornell was founded with the intention to tea ...
.
Career
As the chief management officer of the Department of Defense, Hershman worked with the Secretary of Defense on policy development, planning, resource management, and program evaluation responsibilities related to business transformation and reform throughout the department. Her role had direct oversight of a more than $160 billion budget and 120,000 employees of the 28 Defense Agencies and Field Activities known informally as the Fourth Estate, which includes the Defense Logistics Agency, the Defense Finance Accounting Service, the Defense Health Agency and the Defense Intelligence Agency, among others. Tasked by the Secretary of Defense to improve its fiscal planning process, Hershman successfully completed the first unified budget build of these agencies in the history of the department. Leading her Pentagon team, Hershman achieved more than $37 billion in reform savings, which was independently validated by the Government Accountability Office.
In response to the COVID-19 pandemic, Hershman served as the senior official in charge of COVID response for the Department of Defense office space in the National Capitol Region, which includes the Pentagon. She served in an oversight role in intelligence activities, with the designated
assistant to the secretary of defense for intelligence oversight The Assistant to the Secretary of Defense for Intelligence Oversight, formerly the Senior Intelligence Oversight Official, or SIOO, was responsible to the U.S. Secretary of Defense for the independent oversight of all intelligence, counterintellige ...
reporting to her.
In addition to these responsibilities, Hershman also served as the Department of Defense leader for implementation of the Women, Peace and Security (WPS) Act of 2017 - the first legislation of its kind globally.
Business career
Hershman was the founder and CEO of the DeNovo Group, a specialized global consulting, training, and research firm focused on leadership, innovation, and business turnarounds. Hershman co-authored her book with the Michael Hammer, a MIT professor who founded the field of business process reengineering. After Hammer's untimely death, Hershman was asked to assume the role as CEO of Hammer and Company, in which she led a team consulting and training a fortune 100 companies such as BMW, Pfizer, PepsiCo, State Farm Insurance, and USAA, as well as governmental units including the U.S. Air Force and Sandia National Labs.
Earlier in her career, Hershman was the Corporate Senior Vice President of Operational Excellence at Avnet, Inc., where she successfully managed initiatives in 72 countries. The cost reductions and increased efficiency she achieved led her to be honored with the Avnet Corporate Chairman's Award. Prior to that, Hershman led Process and Resource Development efforts at Brightpoint Inc., now a part of
Ingram Micro
Ingram Micro is an American distributor of information technology products and services. The company is based in Irvine, California, U.S. and has operations around the world.
History
Ingram Micro's origins trace back to the founding of distrib ...
, a global provider of integrated logistics services.
On April 29, 2021, Hershman was named to the board of directors at EchoStar.
Other work
Hershman has served as a board member and qualified as an audit committee financial expert under SEC guidelines for First Source Bank, a $7 billion institution.
In the nonprofit sector, she has served as Vice Chair of the Indiana Commission for Higher Education, overseeing the state's public universities, as National Secretary of the Business and Professional Women's Foundation (BPW USA), as a Commissioner of the Indiana Commission for Women, on the board of the Consortium for Advanced Management (CAM-I), and the board of the Richard G. Lugar Excellence in Public Service Series.
She has also served as a board member for the Center for Interactive Learning and Collaboration (CILC), as a member of Ball State University's Miller School of Business Entrepreneurial Education Advisory Council, and on the Leadership Council of the Indiana Chapter of the National Federation of Independent Business.
BusinessWeek
''Bloomberg Businessweek'', previously known as ''BusinessWeek'', is an American weekly business magazine published fifty times a year. Since 2009, the magazine is owned by New York City-based Bloomberg L.P. The magazine debuted in New York City ...