Federal 100: Derek Herbert

Name: Derek Herbert
Title: Deputy Director, Office of Transition and Economic Development, Veterans Benefits Administration
Organization: Department of Veterans Affairs

Mission-driven AI. Herbert spearheaded VBA’s transformation of the mail-based intake process for veterans’ benefits claims. He fostered unparalleled government/industry collaboration and used robotic process automation to reduce the processing time for veterans’ claims from 20 days to 30 minutes. His leadership of the Mail Automation System initiative directly contributed to VBA’s ability to accomplish this feat in less than one year and achieve full authority to operate in an unprecedented 11 months. In addition, Herbert was instrumental in deploying a customer-centric approach to claims processing, fully eliminating a mail-processing backlog and reassigning over 300 VA employees to more complex claims-processing responsibilities.

Click here for the full list