Dave Lebryk’s recent retirement came at the end of a long line of achievements. Over the course of his more than 30-year career, he was responsible for developing policy and overseeing the operations of the financial infrastructure of the federal government in the areas of payments; collections; debt financing; cash management, reporting and accounting; delinquent debt collection and shared services. In his capacity as fiscal assistant secretary, he was responsible for the world’s largest collections, payments, cash management and financing operations, totaling about $6 trillion in disbursements annually. Widely recognized as a pre-eminent leader in the federal financial management community, he was a transformational force behind many critical government initiatives: the delivery of economic impact payments in response to the pandemic crisis; improved transparency and efficiency through the implementation of the Digital Accountability and Transparency Act of 2014; and the building of a government-wide fraud detection and prevention program.

Dave was and continues to be a consummate professional, having championed collective solutions that benefitted all Americans while assisting federal agencies in better serving the public. When asked to participate in AGA events, Dave’s answer was always, “Yes — when and where?” whether that was to talk about new programs that would impact the community or to share his thoughts about legacy, leadership and accountability. Throughout his career, Dave demonstrated for all to see what it meant to be ethical and how to do the right thing, in the right way, at the right time. In no small part due to his integrity, he was named the federal employee of the year by the nonpartisan Partnership for Public Service soon after his retirement. Although ending his chapter in public service, he will always be a credit to the government accountability profession.