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
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 ...
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