The finalists for WashingtonExec’s Chief Officer Awards were announced March 25, and we’ll be highlighting some of them until the event takes place live, in-person May 11 at the The Ritz-Carlton in McLean, Virginia.
Next is Chief Information Officer (Private & Public) finalist Rebecca McHale, who’s CIO at Peraton. Here, she talks key recent achievements, learning from failures, proud career moments and more.
What key achievements did you have in 2021/2022? What was a turning point or inflection point in your career?
Accepting the role as chief information officer at Peraton was both a key achievement and turning point in my career. I entered the company in the middle of its transformative growth year amidst a fully remote workforce. Integrating three heritage system architectures in a virtual environment challenged my ability to effectively communicate across the company to meet project milestones.
In the end, we emerged with a unified architecture, but the greater success was gaining the trust of my team and seeing the results of our collaborative work.
What has made you successful in your current role?
Intentionality. As leaders, we can impact how employees view their workplace, influence the future and affect business development. I strive to create a culture where the people I work with feel fulfilled with what they do and proud of where they work. If I provide a high-quality experience for our employees, then they will deliver incredible solutions for our clients which impacts the world.
What are your primary focus areas going forward, and why are those so important to the future of the nation?
We will continue to advance our digital and data analytics capabilities and modernize our infrastructure as we consolidate data centers. We’re using the integration activities as an opportunity to develop an ideal end-state architecture that will enable an innovative and productive workforce, empower a data-driven culture and maintain our competitive advantage. We continue to adapt to evolving threats of attack, strengthen our safeguards and protect our data and that which our customers entrust to us.
What’s one key thing you learned from a failure you had?
Create an environment where it is safe to fail fast and recover fast.
Looking back at your career, what are you most proud of?
Being present for my people and my family. A common misconception is that women can’t have both a career and home life. In this recent chapter, I’ve managed to build a culture within my Peraton team where there’s healthy conflict and trust and we build upon each other’s strength to achieve mission success for customers while not missing milestones in the lives of our children.