George Kovatch
Former Deputy Comptroller Department of Defense
George E. Kovatch joined The Roosevelt Group as a senior advisor in February 2022. Over his 30 year career he has earned the reputation for helping organizations achieve results. George previously served as the Deputy Comptroller (Budget & Appropriations Affairs) for the Department of Defense (DoD) where he led a team of senior military officers and civilians responsible for delivering and securing congressional support for DoD’s $700+ billion annual budget and advancing the Secretary of Defense’s readiness and lethality priorities. His success earned him the Distinguished Public Service Award, the highest award the Secretary of Defense can give, noting “the numerous Department of Defense funding wins in FY 2021 can be directly attributed to Mr. Kovatch’s leadership and well-orchestrated collaboration.”
Other positions include: Deputy Chief Management Officer/Deputy Under Secretary of the Navy. During his tenure the DON achieved $10 billion in savings over the Future Years Defense Program (FYDP), readiness for tactical aircraft increased from approximately 50% to 80%, and the Department completed two full-scope CFO audits. As Assistant Director, Federal Law Enforcement Training Centers (FLETC), he led their Washington, DC operations as the agency’s representative before 100 federal partners, state, local, tribal, international, and private sector customers. He headed both FLETC’s International Training division and Congressional relations team, and was responsible for achieving passage of FLETC’s first Congressional Authorization Law in their 45-year history. Before returning to Government service he worked for a Management and IT consulting company where he led business development efforts and successfully brought the company into two new markets: the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) and the Treasury. He served on Capitol Hill on the Senate Appropriations Committee, Subcommittee on Homeland Security. The Subcommittee has jurisdiction over DHS’ 22 agencies and appropriated over $45 billion annually.
George served on active duty in the U.S. Coast Guard for 20 years as a surface operations specialist (Cutterman) serving in several ships in positions up through Commanding Officer. He was also a financial manager selected by the Commandant to establish a new office (CG-85) responsible for implementing the Service’s financial management strategic plan. This set the stage for the Coast Guard and DHS to achieve an unqualified audit opinion for the first time in history.
A native of Massachusetts, he is a graduate of Boston College’s Carroll School of Management and Columbia Business School’s Executive MBA program.