Robert Shea

Robert Shea is Chief Executive Officer of GovNavigators, a consultancy offering organizations public policy analysis and advocacy, marketing and communications, and business development support. Before launching GovNavigators, Robert was National Managing Principal, Public Policy, at Grant Thornton. He provided strategy, performance management, and evidence-based policymaking consulting services to federal, state, and local government clients while leading the firm’s public policy function. He also led the DEI&A Solutions Team. Among the clients he served were the U.S. Departments of Agriculture, Homeland Security, Transportation, Treasury, U.S. Patent and Trademark Office, Navy, Space Force, Customs and Border Protection, Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency, New York State Department of Budget, New York State Department of Transportation ,California Environmental Protection Agency, Harris County, South Carolina Department of Motor Vehicles, Michigan Office of Management and Budget, etc.

Robert has a more than 25 year history of working to improve government performance, 12 of them at Grant Thornton and 15 in the federal government. He recently served on the Commission for Evidence-based Policymaking.

Before joining Grant Thornton, Robert served for six years as associate director for the U. S. Office of Management and Budget (OMB) leading, among other things, an initiative to measure government programs using its Program Assessment Rating Tool. The effort received an Innovations in American Government Award from Harvard University. He lso oversaw programs to implement large-scale personnel reform at the Departments of Defense and Homeland Security, launched a government-wide effort to measure and reduce improper payments, and built the financial transparency website, USASpending.gov.

Prior to OMB, Robert served as senior management counsel for the Senate Committee on Governmental Affairs, and, before that, as legislative director for Congressman Pete Sessions and as a professional staff member for the House Committee on Government Reform. He has a J.D. from South Texas College of Law and a B.A. from Connecticut College.