Caryn McGarry
Chief Human Resources Officer, ICF
Guiding the organization through the challenges posed by the coronavirus pandemic was Caryn McGarry’s biggest recent achievement. This unprecedented situation demanded rapid and effective decision-making, clear and compassionate communication and strong collaboration among teams and stakeholders.
In close partnership with her team and organizational leaders, McGarry leveraged the existing culture of flexibility to reinforce resilience and adaptability and encouraged employees to embrace new approaches to working, learning and collaborating. ICF was able to maintain productivity and retain both its workforce and valued customers during this time.
“We did this while building the credibility and influence of HR within the business, proving ourselves to be trusted advisors and people consultants,” McGarry said. “I take great pride in what we achieved as a team and am deeply grateful for the opportunity to lead such an exceptional group of individuals.”
McGarry also serves on the advisory board of Think Big for Kids, a national nonprofit dedicated to breaking the cycle of poverty among middle and high school students.
Why Watch
In 2023, McGarry and her team are focused on ensuring their people strategy continues supporting the company’s growth goals by continuing to engage and attract top talent, evolve talent practices and programs to enable continued growth, embrace technology to drive automation and review and adjust internal processes to help make the company more efficient and effective overall.
For the rest of this year and into next year, her team will keep working on making the company more diverse, inclusive and engaging for all employees. They will also look closely at the employee experience to find ways to make it better, especially as expectations and market conditions change. Additionally, they will use data to understand the skills and backgrounds of their current leaders and plan training to prepare the next generation of leaders for success.