A 2006 Fellow of the National Academy of Public Administration and a decorated, 20-year member of the US government’s Senior Executive Service, Ron Sanders is now President and CEO of Publica.Virtú, an organization dedicated to helping public servants develop smart strategies for their agencies and themselves.

As a Federal civil servant, Dr. Sanders served as the US Intelligence Community’s first Associate Director of National Intelligence for Human Capital (2005-2010), where he earned one of Harvard University’s Innovations in American Government Awards and the National Intelligence Distinguished Service Medal; the first Associate Director of the US Office of Personnel Management for Policy (2002 to 2005); the Internal Revenue Service’s first Chief Human Resource Officer (1998 to 2002); and the US Defense Department’s Director of Civilian Personnel and founding Director of its Defense Civilian Personnel Service (1991 to 1998).

After he retired from Federal service, Dr. Sanders served as Vice President of the consulting firm Booz Allen Hamilton and was named the firm’s very first Fellow (2010 to 2017). After retiring from that company, he joined the University of South Florida, first as the Director of the University’s School of Public Affairs (2017-2020), and then as Staff Director for the Florida Center for Cybersecurity (2020 to 2022), where he built and managed a budget of over $80M.

Among his many honors, he is the recipient of three Presidential Rank awards—for service in three different agencies—and two Theodore Roosevelt Distinguished Public Service awards from OPM.  He has also served on the faculties of Syracuse University’s Maxwell School of Citizenship and Public Affairs (1995-1996) and the George Washington University’s School of Business and Public Management (1997-1998) and directed research centers at both institutions, and he has co-authored or edited five books, including two published by the Brookings Institution and one by NAPA, as well as numerous articles and monographs in both academic and professional outlets.

In addition, until his resignation in October of 2020 (reported by NPR), he chaired the Federal Salary Council by Presidential appointment. The Council makes recommendations on pay raises for the Federal government’s 2M+ white-collar employees. He has also served on the Advisory Boards of the National Security Agency, the American Society for Training and Development (ASTD, now ATD), the Senior Executives Association, the Federal training company Management Concepts, the Public Manager journal, and the National Intelligence University Foundation.