Jerry McGinn, Ph.D.

Dr. Jerry McGinn is the Executive Director of the Center for Government Contracting in the School of Business at George Mason University (GMU). In this role, he has established and is leading the first-of-its-kind university center for research, education and training, and collaboration on issues facing the $500B+ government contracting community. The Center has published impactful research and held events on topics such as DoD budget reform, intellectual property policy, industrial base resilience, and defense acquisition best practices.

Prior to joining GMU, Jerry served as the senior career official in the Office of Manufacturing and Industrial Base Policy in the Department of Defense, leading efforts to analyze the capabilities and overall health of the defense industrial base, including the presidentially-directed 2017-2018 interagency review of the manufacturing and defense industrial base. He also directed hundreds of reviews of high-profile mergers and acquisitions as well as transactions before the Committee on Foreign Investment in the United States.

Previous to DoD, Dr. McGinn spent a decade in senior defense industry roles at McGinn Defense Consulting LLC, Deloitte Consulting LLP, QinetiQ North America, and Northrop Grumman. Before industry, Dr. McGinn served in DoD as Special Assistant to the Principal Deputy Undersecretary (Policy) and as a political scientist at the RAND Corporation. 

Dr. McGinn was commissioned into the U.S. Army and served with distinction as an infantry officer and is a graduate of Ranger and Airborne Schools. He has received numerous civilian and military awards and has earned a Ph.D., M.S., and M.A. from Georgetown University as well as a B.S. from the United States Military Academy.