Each year our Chairman of the Board, Aldo Tesi, awards an ES&S employee our highest honor – the Chairman’s Award for Leadership. The recipient of this award is a role model of our core values, influences our overall success, and can deliver future contributions.
This year’s recipient, Sue McKay – Director of Certification, represents all of this and more. Sue has been with the company for 26 years and has influenced several people during her years of service. Consistently bringing helpful knowledge to her team and having a drive that is second to none has had a huge impact on the successes of ES&S.
Please join us in congratulating Sue on this prestigious award and read our CEO’s letter below.
Earlier today we announced Sue McKay as the recipient of the 2019 Chairman’s Award. Below are some facts about Sue’s tenure and leadership leading up to this award.
- Sue joined the company in 1993, reporting to Dick Jablonski as the receptionist for AIS and served in this role for six months before transferring to Customer Service.
- Sue joined the Customer Services team reporting to Todd Urosevich from 1994 to 2001. Sue progressed from a Customer Service Representative to Customer Service Manager, and eventually Director of Customer Service following the AIS/BRC merger to form ES&S in 1999.
- During that period, Sue served as the primary interface to customers with responsibilities for User Group meetings, training, site support, election central support, entering all orders and everything else that needed to be done. In addition, Sue managed all site support coordination, assignments, and training for employees and contractors. As Director of Customer Service, Sue oversaw all customer service offices and their employees in the Omaha, Birmingham AL, St. Cloud MN, and Addison TX.
- During her time as Director of Customer Service, Sue played a leading role in the rollout of the Macola and NEWS systems along with the transition of the merger of the two companies and the establishment of the new customer service processes.
- In 2001, the Federal and State certification landscape was changing in the country with more states relying on federal testing under the testing program established and overseen by the National Association of Secretary of States (NASED). Sue served as Director of this new organization with responsibility for managing all federal and state certification activities for the company.
- With the establishment of the Election Assistance Commission in 2004, in the years following, Sue’s focus shifted toward the transition from the NASED testing and certification program to working directly with the EAC, and the EAC accredited test labs on the new and more stringent rules and requirements of a program in its infancy stage. The early years were very challenging as ES&S adapted to the newer standards, and these newer procedures and federal certifications became more difficult.
- Under Sue’s leadership, she built a world-class testing lab, team, and procedures that enabled us to realize the successes we now have in EAC and VSTL federal test campaigns. It was through her leadership and efforts that ES&S has become the unquestioned leader in the country in the certification of our products. Sue has managed over 60 successful EAC and VSTL voting system test campaigns that have positioned ES&S to achieve our annual financial goals year in and year out.
- Sue’s leadership, experience, and knowledge of the federal testing process are unrivaled. It’s her knowledge of the process, her leadership in managing large test campaigns, and her relentless drive and dedication to the company, her team, and co-workers that qualify her for this achievement.
- There are many milestone accomplishments along the way, but none was more important than the receipt of the EAC’s approval of our application for certification in advance of the July 7, 2017 deadline to allow EVS 6000 to be tested to the VVSG v1.0. Under Sue’s direction, we accomplished this with time to spare by receiving the EAC’s endorsement on June 5, 2017. What Sue and her team accomplished was not only an incredible achievement but critical to ES&S’ success in meeting our business objectives for 2018 while setting the stage to do the same the next two years potentially. Had we failed any portion of the EAC Application for Certification and TRR process and not met the July 7, 2017 deadline for approval, ES&S would have been left with very few options. For the next nine months, from July 2017 through March 2018, Sue committed herself seven days a week to accomplishing an on time and on budget test completion on April 5, 2018 and culminating in the receipt of the EAC’s final approval on July 2, 2018. This single accomplishment allowed us to be in a position to certify and deliver EVS 6000 to Utah, Kansas, and New Jersey in time to recognize revenue essential to meeting the 2018 revenue objectives. In addition, again under her leadership, ES&S was able to also successfully complete testing in 3 other EAC test campaigns (EVS 5230, EVS 5240, EVS 5410) and 6 VSTL (FL EVS 4530 V2, EVS 5321, EVS 5330, EVS 5340, EVS 5502, EVS 6010) certifications also positioning us to meet our 2018 and 2019 business objectives and deliver an important step toward achieving our BHAG goals. Despite the pressures of delivering these projects on time and overcoming so many challenges along the way, Sue’s team rated her with a perfect score of 5.0 in the most recent Employee Engagement Surveys.
- Under Sue’s leadership, ES&S has established a world-class certification test process, lab, and team. ES&S continues to be recognized as an industry leader in Federal certification testing. Sue is highly respected and valued by her team and peers and a valued member of ES&S.
Tom Burt
President and CEO
Election Systems & Software