Patrick McConnell
Senior Vice President, Health Engineering Solutions, ICF
Patrick McConnell’s biggest recent achievement was leading ICF’s nearly 450-person health engineering team through a transformation that reshaped how the company uses AI to design, build and deliver systems for federal clients. By embedding AI across client delivery, the team is building software faster, more accurately and more securely, while improving the user experience. The shift has accelerated operational and cost efficiencies and delivered measurable outcomes for federal customers.
McConnell’s team has also expanded its support for the American health care system through work with the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services, increasing cloud transformation efforts in Medicaid while continuing to support Medicare programs.
ICF is bringing the right mix of cloud technologies and AI innovations to customers through flexible, production-ready solutions such as ICF Fathom, which allows teams to apply proven patterns and agentic AI solutions once and reuse them across programs rather than building from scratch. This approach shortens delivery cycles, lowers total cost of ownership and strengthens reliability, resiliency and security from day one.
For many agencies, these frameworks meet most core requirements out of the box, with the service layer used to tailor remaining needs. These advances form the foundation for stronger decision-making and continuous improvement, with AI and automation applied where they add value.
“Patrick has rewritten our engineering playbook, operationalizing AI and cloud technologies that improve time to value and deliver measurable outcomes across complex federal health portfolios,” said Tonia Bleecher, ICF senior vice president for health technology. “The result is faster delivery, more efficient spend, and resilient systems that readily scale to meet the needs of large federal health programs.”
Why Watch
In 2026, McConnell and his team will prioritize responsible adoption of AI agents and accelerators so teams can build once and deploy across programs to deliver high-value outcomes quickly, safely and securely. The team is also helping agencies reduce risk and control costs through multicloud strategies, particularly as recent industry disruptions have highlighted the risks of overinvesting in a single cloud provider. The approach supports greater resilience, flexibility and agility as organizations adapt to changing needs and emerging technologies.
“I’m incredibly proud of how my team has leaned into AI and cloud technologies to deliver modern, resilient systems for federal health clients during a time of rapid change,” he said. “They’ve really stepped up to help our clients meet their challenges head on and have stayed focused on creating better experiences for the people our clients’ programs serve.”
Fun fact: About 15 years ago, McConnell and his wife spent three years traveling around the world through Europe, Asia, Africa and Australia. They combined backpacking with stays in hostels and short-term rentals, sometimes traveling with their dogs. He said the experience taught him to be resourceful, curious and adaptable, traits he brings to his work with teams and clients.