MSPB veteran heads to nonprofit world to promote public service

After 22 years at the Merit Systems Protection Board, John M. Palguta has left for the nonprofit world.

Palguta is the new vice president for policy and research at the Partnership for Public Service, an organization dedicated to renewing the appeal of government service.

Palguta, 55, spent the bulk of his career at MSPB. After about nine years with the U.S. Civil Service Commission, he joined the then-new organization in 1979 as a senior research analyst. He steadily worked his way up the ranks, taking the helm as director of the Office of Policy and Evaluation in 1997. His mission: to report to Congress and the President on the state of the federal workforce.

Palguta says he has seen the workforce change "dramatically" in two decades, going from a centralized system with one employment commission to a decentralized system with hundreds of different hiring units.

Although Palguta admits that going to a new office is "strange," he's confident he'll get to interact with his former colleagues at the board.

"The partnership has pretty much the same goals," he says.