McCabe to step down as head of ASI Government

Kimberly McCabe is stepping down as president and CEO of ASI Government, FCW has learned.  She will be succeeded by Timothy Cooke, the president of ASI's consulting division, effective Feb. 18.  ASI employees were told of the change early on Jan. 22, and an official announcement is expected later today. 

McCabe confirmed to FCW that she had been discussing transition with ASI board members and funders for some time. "They brought me in to transform ASI," she said, "and we've done that. It's a completely different company today than it was four years ago."

The "next phase of strategy for ASI," McCabe said, requires a leader who is going to be at the helm to execute for several years. That long-term commitment did not mesh with her own career ideas, and "we were at this inflection point," she said. So she approached the board about crafting a smooth and proactive succession plan.

Cooke, McCabe said, "really wanted this opportunity, and he's ready for it. It's going to be great -- Tim's really a force for good in this community."

McCabe herself was brought to ASI as a designated successor, working with then-CEO Anne Reed before taking the reins in December 2011. Reed continues to chair ASI's board of directors, and McCabe will similarly stay involved as an ASI board member. 

"It's been a great experience," McCabe said, and a good example of how private firms can learn from the military's "left seat/right seat ride" approach to transitions, where an incoming unit shadows the outbound team for a time before taking over. "Succession plans really can work."

McCabe’s knowledge of military approaches is hands-on; before joining ASI, she was deputy director of the Army's Office of Business Transformation.  She also held executive positions with ICF International, the Carlyle Group and the Advanced Performance Consulting Group.

More recently, McCabe has been focused on Acquisition of the Future -- an informal collaboration among industry leaders, agency executives, academics and forward-looking acquisition professionals to reimagine the government's approach to acquiring goods and services. (McCabe has written in FCW about Acquisition of the Future's efforts and ambitions.) 

"Acquisition of the Future has been great," McCabe said -- adding that she was not stepping back from that effort as part of the ASI changes. "We've got almost every agency in government working on it, and starting to do pilots. ... I really believe that acquisition is the most powerful lever that government has."

As for future career plans, McCabe said, "I'm going to take a little bit of time.  For me personally, I don't really want to look for something else to do while I'm running a company."

"I'm not going to leave GovCon," she said, but "I'm ready to do something a bit different than I've been doing."