The IRS is clearly serious about moving its Strategic Operating Plan forward. The plan, which was released in April, has been described by the agency as an “ambitious effort to transform the tax agency and dramatically improve service to taxpayers and the nation during the next decade.” This week, the IRS announced the appointment of David Padrino to serve in a recently created role that will spearhead those improvement efforts.
Padrino will serve as the Chief Transformation and Strategy Officer. He joins the IRS after serving as Chief Transformation Officer at the federal Office of Personnel Management (OPM). If that resume sounds a bit familiar, IRS Commissioner Danny Werfel began his career in public service at the OMB in the late 1990s, and served under nine directors of both political parties. That experience, Werfel said, reinforced the importance of having a “true north” for how to best serve the American people.
Padrino’s role at OPM was Chief Transformation Officer, where his work included rolling out an agency-wide transformation effort—a bit familiar sounding, no?
Clearly Werfel thinks so, saying, “David brings critical experience and insight that the IRS needs to help transform the agency and make improvements for taxpayers at a critical time for our nation’s tax system.”
Padrino also served as the Chief Recovery Officer for the Colorado Attorney General in 2020 and 2021, working on pandemic response efforts including broadband access issues for Colorado schools. Before that, Padrino worked with then Colorado Gov. John W. Hickenlooper, serving as Chief Performance Officer as well as Chief of Staff to the Lieutenant Governor and Chief Operating Officer. Padrino led a number of initiatives to improve government service delivery, which ultimately led national non-profit Results for America to name Colorado one of the best states at using data and evidence to deliver results for residents. Like Werfel, Padrino also spent time in the private sector working with the Boston Consulting Group where he served clients across the private, public and non-profit sectors.
Padrino graduated from the Wharton School at the University of Pennsylvania with a Master of Business Administration and received a Bachelor of Arts degree from Vassar College.
As for Padrino’s new role? Werfel says, “He will work closely with our IRS leadership teams to focus on making short-term and long-term improvements called for under our new Strategic Operating Plan. With his long track record of success, David will be a key part of our efforts to help the IRS move forward on essential taxpayer service improvements, compliance changes to ensure fairness and strengthening IRS technology to serve taxpayers.”