Edward R. McPherson
Chief Executive Officer, InterSolve Group, Inc

Ted McPherson serves as a leader for chief executives of Fortune100 companies, Forbes 400 entrepreneurs, and major investors as Chief Executive Officer of InterSolve Group, Inc., the firm he founded in 1991 known for JUST-IN-TIME TALENT™.

The business of InterSolve Group, Inc. is executing the agenda of prominent leaders in the United States by taking ownership for results and leading high-performance teams of JUST-IN-TIME TALENT™. InterSolve Group is widely recognized as America’s first virtual service company that produces valuable results by leading the best available talent so as to execute “on demand.”

Mr. McPherson is called a pioneer by Tom Peters who featured him in his seminars, his book Crazy Times Call for Crazy Organizations and his newsletter On Achieving Excellence. Mr. McPherson was highlighted within Business Week’s cover story on the “Virtual Corporation” in 1993 for earning $14 million in 90 days for a client by leading project teams from four different companies totaling 26 people, only one of whom he had met before, in restructuring business processes and information technology and managing the human side of change.

He received special recognition in 2000 and 1999 for his personal contributions to advancing domestic outsourcing as a means of helping companies improve performance, profitability and shareholder value. He was nominated in 2000 for an Entrepreneur of the Year Award in Ernst & Young’s Southwestern Region.

Currently he serves on the National Aeronautics and Space Administration’s Advisory Council and its Audit and Finance Committee.

He is a frequent keynote speaker to business and educational groups focusing on leadership, character, and competitiveness with his insights appearing in Fast Company, on Reuters and in other media.

From 2001 through 2005 he achieved breakthrough results as an appointee by President George W. Bush confirmed twice by the United States Senate in two major national assignments in Washington, D.C.

As the Under Secretary of Education and Chief Operating Officer of the United States Department of Education from April 2004 through December 2005, he led the operating and investing effectiveness of an enterprise that provides in excess of $140 billion annually in loans, grants, and guarantees to instill accountability and competitiveness throughout America’s $1 trillion education industry. Mr. McPherson is credited for creating enormous value on behalf of children and taxpayers by assuring effective use of public resources in many states, large urban districts, for-profit schools and grant recipients, including Federal Student Aid’s portfolio of $400 billion for 22 million college students.

He is also recognized for transforming the Department of Education’s leadership processes, organizational structure, information technology and human capital in assisting America’s 92,000 schools, 3 million teachers, 50 million public elementary and secondary students, 16 million college students, and 6,600 institutions of higher education.

Earlier Mr. McPherson served from October 2001 until April 2004 as Chief Financial Officer of the United States Department of Agriculture where he was responsible for the financial leadership of an enterprise that, were it in the private sector, would be one of the largest and most diversified companies in the United States, with more than 100,000 employees, $123 billion in assets and $70 billion in annual spending. The Department of Agriculture provides $100 billion in direct loans, $29 billion in credit guarantees and $38 billion in reinsurance to support America’s farmers, promote global trade, protect America’s food and water, and conduct massive humanitarian nutrition programs.

A year after he took office, the Department of Agriculture for the first time ever received a “clean” audit opinion from the Office of the Inspector General for fiscal year 2002. This extraordinary achievement required massive changes in accountability and internal control and was recognized by the White House on www.results.gov and the Secretary of Agriculture through the department’s Honor Award. The department sustained this valuable result by subsequently receiving clean audits from 2003 through 2006. Mr. McPherson was also responsible for the National Finance Center in New Orleans, La., that administers the Federal retirement plan with $150 billion in investments for three million civilian and military personnel and processes $26 billion in payroll for more than 550,000 government employees.

Mr. McPherson testified several times in Congress on the results he led, was one of five members of the Executive Committee of the President’s Management Council, and held top-secret clearances so as to perform Homeland Security responsibilities.

With over 30 years experience in leadership, operating enhancement, business strategy and corporate finance, Mr. McPherson served as Chief Financial Officer for two large public holding companies, including SunAmerica in Los Angeles, now with over $100 billion of mutual funds, annuities, and investments as part of American International Group. Earlier, at age 37, he was Chief Financial Officer of First RepublicBank Corporation, with peaks of $140 million in earnings, $35 billion in assets and 17,000 people prior to its acquisition by Bank of America.

He has participated in 25 business acquisitions, issued debt and equity in the domestic and international capital markets, and served as a director of a venture capital fund. Mr. McPherson has received an award for excellence from the Financial Analysts Federation in New York City, gained recognition as a management consultant with Booz Allen and Hamilton, and was awarded the Joint Service Commendation Medal as an officer in the United States Navy with the Defense Intelligence Agency.

He graduated from Williams College, has a master’s degree in administration from George Washington University and completed an executive program at the Harvard University Graduate School of Business Administration.

Mr. McPherson served for a number of years as a trustee of the Hockaday School in Dallas, Texas – one of the largest private secondary schools for girls in the United States.

Residing in Dallas, Texas, and Gettysburg, Pa., he and his wife Sally have two children: Beth, a teacher in Austin, Texas, and Edward, a writer in Brooklyn, New York. Mr. McPherson is an advocate for excellence in academics and amateur athletics, plays in alumni basketball games and has completed a marathon race.