President Barack Obama has chosen former Procter & Gamble Chief Executive Bob McDonald, an Army veteran, as his nominee to be the next secretary of veterans affairs, a senior Obama administration official said on Sunday, according to The Associated Press.
Obama's announcement of McDonald, 61, will be made on Monday, the AP reported. If confirmed by the Senate, McDonald would be tasked with repairing the Veterans Administration after widespread evidence of delays in military veterans getting health care at VA facilities.
The VA operates the largest integrated healthcare system in the country, with more than 300,000 full time employees and nearly 9 million veterans enrolled for care, but the agency has come under intense scrutiny in recent months amid reports of patients dying while waiting for appointments and of treatment delays in VA facilities nationwide, according to the AP.
The announcement will come days after a White House review found significant and chronic failures across the board at the VA and evidence that a "corrosive culture" prevails, according to the AP.
A senior administration official said Obama was attracted to McDonald by his corporate background and military service, the AP reported. He would succeed Eric Shinseki, who resigned late in May after the depth of the VA's problems became clear.
McDonald is the former chairman, president and CEO of Procter & Gamble, having retired a year ago after 33 years with the Fortune 500 company, where he started as a brand assistant in 1980 and rose through the ranks, according to the AP.
He served on the McKinsey Advisory Council, the Singapore International Advisory Council of the Economic Development Board, the AP reported.
Officials believe his lengthy tenure at P&G prepares him well for a huge agency with management challenges in providing services to more 8 million veterans a year, according to the AP. At P&G, he oversaw more than 120,000 employees, with operations around the world, selling products in more than 180 countries.
