William Gregory Burel: Public, private partnerships can make gov’t more efficient

William Gregory Burel, the director of the Division of Strategic National Stockpile for the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention at the Department of Heal...

William Gregory Burel, director of the Division of Strategic National Stockpile for the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention at the Department of Health and Human Services. was recently named a fellow by the National Academy of Public Administration.

How will you use your NAPA fellowship to promote/influence good government?

William Gregory Burel is the director of the Division of Strategic National Stockpile for the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention at the Department of Health and Human Services.
William Gregory Burel is the director of the Division of Strategic National Stockpile for the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention at the Department of Health and Human Services.

As a NAPA fellow, I hope to bring to the table expertise I’ve acquired in all aspects of federal management services, including financial management, facilities management, safety/security, acquisition and information technology. I hope to engage in ways to help restore public confidence in government. The federal government needs to focus on strategic business planning, financial management and improvement, change management, quality improvement, organizational design and leadership to help regain the public trust.

What’s the best management-related advice you ever received?

The best advice I have received is to make an effort every day to build solid relationships because none of us succeeds on our own. I know that in my work as director of the Strategic National Stockpile at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), identifying and maintaining positive relationships with my counterparts at other federal agencies, with our industry partners, with my colleagues at CDC, and with my staff contribute to my success as a manager and the success of the stockpile as a whole. You truly never know who you will need to partner with tomorrow to get the job done.

What do you think is the most important change the government needs to make in the next 5 years?

I am particularly interested in finding ways to promote and implement effective partnerships between government and private industry as a way to do our work better and faster. This is certainly a strategy that government needs to continue to pursue during the next five years. As director of the stockpile where I am responsible for a $7 billion inventory of medicines and supplies, I know the beneficial role that partners can play to make government initiatives more efficient. These partnerships are so important for our government to leverage in order to best serve the people of the United States.

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