This is a clip from the the January 31, 2022 episode of the FourBlock Podcast with FourBlock Founder Mike Abrams and the former Under Secretary for Benefits in the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs and U.S. Army Veteran, Dr. Paul R. Lawrence.

In the episode, Lawrence generously shares details of his background and upbringing, his military career and transition, and his post-military career in the private sector before giving us a behind the scenes look at his time as the Under Secretary for Benefits at the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs.

Listen to the full episode: https://fourblock.org/resource/podcast/pursuing-performance-excellence-at-the-veterans-benefits-administration
Find all episodes and subscribe to the FourBlock Podcast: https://fourblock.org/podcast

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About Paul R. Lawrence, PhD

A businessman, author, and passionate veteran advocate with 35 years of experience solving management problems in large, complex organizations, Lawrence also shares what he continues to do to advocate for veterans today.

As a private sector executive, Lawrence was a consulting Partner at two Big-Four accounting firms and a Vice President in two Fortune 500 companies. He is a government management thought leader, having written several books on the subject.

For almost three years, Lawrence served as Under Secretary of Benefits at the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs, unanimously confirmed by the Senate on April 26, 2018. As Under Secretary, he was in charge of the Veterans Benefits Administration (VBA) leading a team of 25,000 people with an operating budget of $4 billion, administering $120 billion in benefits annually. He implemented proven business practices, streamlined the bureaucracy, and created a public presence rebranding VBA as an organization successfully supporting Veterans.

Prior to becoming a political appointee, Lawrence was a Vice President at Kaiser Associates, a Partner at Ernst & Young, a Vice President at Accenture, a Senior Director at the MITRE Corporation, a Vice President with IBM, and a Partner at PricewaterhouseCoopers.

He has written extensively on management, government, and technology. He is the co-author of Succeeding as a Political Executive: 50 Insights from Experience, What Government Does: How Political Executives Manage, Paths to Making a Difference: Leading in Government and the co-editor of Transforming Organizations and Learning the Ropes: Insights for Political Appointees.

He serves on the Board of Directors of Vets2Industry, a non-profit organization helping Veterans pursue a career in the private sector. He is also a Senior Advisor to Search & Acquire, a non-profit focused on helping Veterans become CEOs via Entrepreneurship through Acquisition.

He was selected three times by Federal Computer Week as one of the top 100 public service leaders. In 2019 he was recognized as Government Executive of the Year by Service to the Citizen. He is a Fellow of the National Academy of Public Administration.

Lawrence earned his Master of Arts and Ph.D. in economics from Virginia Tech. He earned his Bachelor of Arts degree in economics from the University of Massachusetts, Amherst, graduating Phi Beta Kappa. He is an Army Veteran. He completed his ROTC requirement as an Airborne-qualified Captain.

Find Paul Lawrence on LinkedIn at https://www.linkedin.com/in/drpaullawrence/.

Lawrence’s book, “Transforming Service to Veterans: How I Pursued Performance Excellence at the Veterans Benefits Administration in the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs is available here: https://www.amazon.com/Transforming-Service-Veterans-Performance-Administration/dp/B09DMQZN4N/