DHS Human Capital Chief To Retire

Jeff Neal, chief human capital officer at the Homeland Security Department, has told his staff he's retiring as of Aug. 3, Federal News Radio's Jason Miller reports. Neal has been at DHS since 2009, and also has held leading HR positions at the Defense Logistics Agency and the Commerce Department. He's been a major player at the governmentwide Chief Human Capital Officers Council.

Last year, Government Executive named Neal CHCO of the Year in our annual special Chiefs issue of the magazine. Here's what we said about him then:

Jeff Neal knows from long experience how complicated federal human resources issues can be. A career senior executive, he jokes he "burrowed out" to a political appointment, serving as chief human capital officer at the Defense Logistics Agency before coming to his current post. ...At DHS, Neal faces the challenge of creating a coherent community out of a department cobbled together like Frankenstein's monster out of different organizations - and a wholly new one, the Transportation Security Administration, which he says was invented by "a handful of people who were stuck in a conference room and told to build an agency."

Among the issues he's attacking head on are what he says is an overreliance on contractors and the need for a deep, comprehensive leadership development program. One of his first moves as CHCO was to expand the department's Senior Executive Service corps and to tap talented executives to work on broader issues.