Charles O. Rossotti (born January 17, 1941) is an American businessman, and former

Commissioner of Internal Revenue The Commissioner of Internal Revenue is the head of the Internal Revenue Service (IRS), an agency within the United States Department of the Treasury. The office of Commissioner was created by United States Congress, Congress as part of the Reven ...

Early career

Rossotti was born in 1941 in

New York City New York, often called New York City (NYC), is the most populous city in the United States, located at the southern tip of New York State on one of the world's largest natural harbors. The city comprises five boroughs, each coextensive w ...

and graduated from St. Cecilia High School in

Englewood, New Jersey Englewood is a city in Bergen County, in the U.S. state of New Jersey. Englewood was incorporated as a city by an act of the New Jersey Legislature on March 17, 1899, from portions of Ridgefield Township and the remaining portions of Engle ...

in 1958, before earning a

Bachelor of Arts A Bachelor of Arts (abbreviated B.A., BA, A.B. or AB; from the Latin ', ', or ') is the holder of a bachelor's degree awarded for an undergraduate program in the liberal arts, or, in some cases, other disciplines. A Bachelor of Arts deg ...

degree in

economics Economics () is a behavioral science that studies the Production (economics), production, distribution (economics), distribution, and Consumption (economics), consumption of goods and services. Economics focuses on the behaviour and interac ...

from

Georgetown University Georgetown University is a private university, private Jesuit research university in Washington, D.C., United States. Founded by Bishop John Carroll (archbishop of Baltimore), John Carroll in 1789, it is the oldest Catholic higher education, Ca ...

(1962) and a

M.B.A. A Master of Business Administration (MBA) is a professional degree focused on business administration. The core courses in an MBA program cover various areas of business administration; elective courses may allow further study in a particular a ...

from

Harvard Business School Harvard Business School (HBS) is the graduate school, graduate business school of Harvard University, a Private university, private Ivy League research university. Located in Allston, Massachusetts, HBS owns Harvard Business Publishing, which p ...

(1964). Rossotti was the first ever MBA hire for the

Boston Consulting Group Boston Consulting Group, Inc. (BCG) is an American global management consulting firm founded in 1963 and headquartered in Boston, Massachusetts. It is one of the "Big Three (management consultancies), Big Three" (or MBB, the world's three large ...

. But after only a year, Rossotti went to work for the Office of the

Secretary of Defense A ministry of defence or defense (see spelling differences), also known as a department of defence or defense, is the part of a government responsible for matters of defence and military forces, found in states where the government is divided ...

. From 1965 to 1969, Rossotti worked for

Robert McNamara Robert Strange McNamara (; June 9, 1916 – July 6, 2009) was an American businessman and government official who served as the eighth United States secretary of defense from 1961 to 1968 under presidents John F. Kennedy and Lyndon B. Johnson ...

, becoming Deputy Assistant Secretary of Defense for Systems Analysis at age 29. In 1970, Rossotti and several DOD colleagues co-founded

American Management Systems American Management Systems, Inc., was a high-technology and management consulting firm, founded in 1970 by a group of five former United States Department of Defense, Defense Department officials who had worked under Robert McNamara in the John F ...

, a technology and management consulting firm. Rossotti served as Chief Executive Officer from the late 1980s to the mid-1990s. Rossotti also sits on the Atlantic Council's Board of Directors.

IRS years

In 1997, Rossotti was named

by then President

Bill Clinton William Jefferson Clinton (né Blythe III; born August 19, 1946) is an American politician and lawyer who was the 42nd president of the United States from 1993 to 2001. A member of the Democratic Party (United States), Democratic Party, ...

where he served for 5 years. He was considered a reformer, upgrading the agency's technology, as well as turning the IRS into a more customer service-oriented agency. Rossotti received a waiver from the Clinton administration that allowed him to retain his AMS stock in a blind trust. After leaving the IRS, Rossotti joined The

Carlyle Group The Carlyle Group Inc. is an American multinational company with operations in private equity, alternative asset management and financial services. As of 2023, the company had $426 billion of assets under management. Carlyle specializes in ...

, a global private equity firm in Washington, D.C., as a Senior Advisor.

Publications

Rossotti is the author of two books: * ''Modernizing America's Tax Agency'' (2000) * ''Many Unhappy Returns: One Man's Quest To Turn Around The Most Unpopular Organization In America (Leadership for the Common Good)'' (Cambridge: Harvard Business School Press, 2005) In addition, he provided a foreword to

Al Gore Albert Arnold Gore Jr. (born March 31, 1948) is an American former politician, businessman, and environmentalist who served as the 45th vice president of the United States from 1993 to 2001 under President Bill Clinton. He previously served as ...

's ''Reinventing Service At The IRS: Report Of The Customer Service Task Force National Performance Review'' (1997). He has also authored government publications and contributed to other works, including a proposal published in '' Tax Notes Federal'' to reduce the tax gap in the United States.

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Rossotti, Charles O. 1941 births Businesspeople from New York City The Carlyle Group people Clinton administration personnel Commissioners of Internal Revenue Directors of Bank of America Georgetown University alumni Harvard Business School alumni Living people St. Cecilia High School (New Jersey) alumni United States Department of Defense officials