DOD vet Jerry McGinn named George Mason University's GovCon school exec director

Longtime defense sector veteran and former top Pentagon official Jerry McGinn has joined George Mason University as executive director of the school’s government contracting initiative.

The move officially took effect on June 11 and McGinn will help spearhead efforts by GMU’s school of business to develop its academic competency in the GovCon arena.

His responsibilities will include fundraising for research scholarships, operations and outreach; as well as work with faculty across the university to develop contracting-specific offerings for undergraduate and graduate programs, certificate programs and executive development.

McGinn was more recently head of the Defense Department’s office of manufacturing and industrial base policy.

He joins GMU nearly five years after the university hired industry veteran and former State Department official Dr. John Hillen as executive-in-residence and professor of practice in the school of business to focus on the creation of GovCon-focused academia.

“This appointment takes the development of a GovCon Center to the next level and will allow us to really accelerate our programmatic activity, scholarship, and produce real content that can usefully shape the industry,” Hillen said in a release.

“This will elevate the school on both sides of this half a trillion dollar a year market -- government and business -- as well as advance the opportunities for our faculty and students to research and work in this industry.”

McGinn’s private sector career includes roles at his own firm McGinn Defense Consulting LLC as well as at Deloitte, QinetiQ North America and Northrop Grumman. Before industry, McGinn served in DoD as special assistant to the principal deputy defense undersecretary for policy and as a political scientist at RAND Corp.