Beth McDonald
Founder and President
The Wheelhouse Group

Beth McDonald founded The Wheelhouse Group, a consortium of business and management consultants, after 13 years of consulting in the public and private sector. Ms. McDonald’s background includes a wide range of business consulting experience, including organization development; change management; organization assessments; organization design and implementation; executive development; process improvement; and large-scale project management.

Prior to forming The Wheelhouse Group, Ms. McDonald was a Senior Principal at American Management Systems (AMS). At AMS, Ms. McDonald managed corporate-wide change initiatives aimed at improving organizational effectiveness. Ms. McDonald’s experience in project management led to the successful implementation of several corporate-wide initiatives as well as helped public sector clients implement large-scale systems aimed at improving operational performance. Ms. McDonald is experienced in all stages of the software development lifecycle and is knowledgeable in the implementation of the Software Engineering Institute (SEI) Capability Maturity Model (CMM) for software process improvement.

Prior to her work at AMS, Ms. McDonald was an analyst for a Visa and MasterCard marketing company. In this role, she was responsible for designing marketing campaigns aimed at demographically defined cardholder groups. Ms. McDonald also worked as an operations manager for a small commercial real estate company, and served in a similar capacity for over 8 years in a traffic and site engineering company.

Ms. McDonald received her BA in Business Administration from the College of Mt. St. Vincent in New York City. She also received a Graduate Certificate in Organization Development and Change Management from Georgetown University. Her Masters Degree is in Organization Development and Human Resources Development from The Johns Hopkins University.

Selected Accomplishments

Over the past 13 years, Ms. McDonald has performed a wide variety of consulting tasks for a variety of clients. The following highlights demonstrate Ms. McDonald’s deep expertise in business and management consulting:

	Performed organization assessments for various project teams; designed interventions to improve team performance and coached managers on management effectiveness
	Performed organization analysis and facilitated the structural redesign of many groups; worked with group members on process improvement strategies and redesign
	Managed the company’s cultural and structural transformation in order to achieve an aggressive business strategy; new business model moved from traditional “stovepipe” structure to integrated matrix, which warranted the design of new internal programs and processes to support a new culture
	Designed the company’s first formal succession plan and targeted talent development; worked with HR Strategic Business Partners to identify criteria for successors and top talent; designed program to develop talented high potential employees according to competency model
	Designed and implemented the company’s first annual employee satisfaction survey for over 8,000 employees worldwide; worked with executives to analyze the results and implement action plans to sustain excellence and improve opportunity areas
	Managed human capital components of acquisitions from pre-deal negotiations to post merger integration. Negotiated key executive deals and dealt with a variety of complexities involving ESOPs, Deferred Comp plans, and retention and change of control issues. Developed project and communications plans, compensation and benefit packages, and retention strategies.
	Led the change management effort in centralizing corporate functions dispersed throughout 60 offices and across 3 continents; the successful reorganization changed the jobs of over 1,000 employees worldwide and the business processes that impacted 8,000 employees worldwide
	Worked with global executives on the integration of consulting practices for selected North American and European industry groups; the integration streamlined the indirect functions and merged the solution centers, delivery organizations, and sales function by creating one global business unit with over 2,000 employees
	Developed an executive development program using adult learning theory; defined executive competencies, produced a gap analysis, gathered data about other executive development curriculum; managed the implementation of new employee development program for new and experienced hires
	Worked with a large investor-owned utility to implement a shared services business model for its 75+ subsidiaries; new business model reduced annual company operating costs by approximately $30 million
	Managed a training and support team in designing, developing, and testing user procedures used by over 250 sites; developing training courses for over 1000 users and providing on-site support to new user groups at over 25 international field sites
	Successfully implemented AMS’s Federal Financial System (FFS) at several federal agencies; responsible for several interfaces, client-specific modifications, extensive analytical tasks, and functional support; responsible for overseeing coding and testing of software modifications and interfaces, user support, operations support, and training

Selected Client Experience

Ms. McDonald has had the opportunity to work with the following clients:

	Administrative Office of the U.S. Courts (AOUSC)
	Affinity Health Plan
	American Management Systems, Inc. (AMS)
	Booz Allen and Hamilton Inc.
	CACI International Inc
	The George Washington University
	Hudson View Appraisals, LLC
	NiSource Inc.
	The Pennsylvania State University
	RTKL Associates Inc.
	Saint Stephen’s and Saint Agnes Middle School
	U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA)
	U.S. Department of Defense: U.S. Army
	U.S. Department of the Treasury: Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco & Firearms (ATF)
	U.S. Department of the Treasury: Financial Management Service (FMS)
	U.S. Department of the Treasury: Internal Revenue Service (IRS)
	U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs (VA)

Ms. McDonald also serves as a guest lecturer and facilitator for a variety of venues. Most recently she has worked with the Women’s Leadership Initiative and Penn State University and the Manager’s Forum for New York City’s local chapter of the Society for Human Resources Management (SHRM). Ms. McDonald is also a member of the Human Resources Planning Society (HRPS).