Presidential Rank Award Winners Total 131 for 2018

The professional association for career senior federal executives earlier this week announced that 131 top-performing career federal executives will receive the prestigious Presidential Rank Award for 2018.

The 131 recipients—whose full titles and biographies are still being assembled—will be honored at the Mayflower Hotel in Washington in December, the Senior Executives Association announced. There are 43 Distinguished Executives, 3 Distinguished Professionals, 75 Meritorious Executives and 10 Meritorious Professionals.

Winners hail from the major departments as well as NASA, the National Transportation Safety Board and the Office of Management and Budget. Last year’s total of 151 rank award winners was slightly higher.

Distinguished Rank recipients represent only 1 percent of career SES employees, while Meritorious Rank recipients represent 5 percent, the association said.

The elite who receive the Distinguished Rank awards last year were granted a bonus of 35 percent of their base salary. Meritorious award winners received a 20 percent bonus. Review boards composed of current and former public- and private-sector officials choose finalists among the nominees, whose backgrounds are then vetted by the Office Personnel Management’s Federal Investigative Services.

The 2018 recipients will be celebrated during the daylong Presidential Rank Awards Leadership Summit on Dec. 13 at the Mayflower, SEA said. It will include panel discussions on policy and career education. The meritorious winners will be honored at a luncheon, and the distinguished recipients at an evening reception. Booked speakers include OMB Deputy Director for Management (and OPM acting Director) Margaret Weichert, along with Bill Eggers, executive director of Deloitte’s Center for Government Insights.

“Federal leadership is in dire need of modernization to meet 21st Century realities, including rapid disruptive change and increasing globalization,” says the program for the opening session. “This will require professionalizing the practice of leadership in the executive branch through the development of new leadership competencies, standards that ensure integrity and accountability, and support for a leadership pipeline that builds a cadre of public service leaders dedicated to delivering optimal value to American citizens.”