Caryn McGarry
Chief Human Resources Officer, ICF
At ICF, Caryn McGarry leads the development and implementation of the firm’s global people strategy to foster engagement, retention and growth. Her biggest recent achievement has been sharpening how ICF prepares its workforce for where the business and its clients are headed, rather than simply for where they are today.
“We’re connecting workforce planning, development, and recruiting so we can anticipate critical capabilities earlier, build and move talent internally, and enter external talent markets before demand becomes urgent,” McGarry said.
At the same time, McGarry and her team are strengthening ICF’s leadership pipeline and preparing its people for a workplace where AI is changing how work gets done. These actions will strengthen ICF’s ability to deliver exceptional outcomes for clients, enabling its workforce to respond faster, solve more complex challenges, and bring the right capabilities to each client engagement.
“Emerging technology will continue to change what work looks like, but its greatest value comes from how it amplifies the expertise people already bring to the table,” McGarry said. “As leaders, our job is to help our organizations use AI as a force multiplier, giving people the skills and confidence to apply it responsibly, while staying clear about where human judgment and accountability matter most.
“Organizations that get this right will not simply move faster. They will strengthen decision-making, create more capacity for meaningful work and deliver greater value for clients, while giving people opportunities to grow alongside the work. That is the kind of organization my team and I are working to build.”
ICF is also helping government customers move AI from experimentation to scalable implementation by redesigning roles and workflows around the combination of deep domain expertise, advanced technology and human judgment.
This approach, McGarry said, embeds AI where it can improve speed, quality and capacity, supported by responsible-use guardrails and leaders equipped to manage change. For agencies facing growing demands and constrained resources, it means applying the trusted expertise they already rely on from ICF in more efficient and scalable ways, helping them address complex challenges faster without compromising quality or accountability.
Why Watch
In 2026, McGarry and her team are focused on making ICF more future-ready across three connected areas: skills, AI and culture. ICF already has deep technology and AI expertise across the company; the opportunity now is to further bring those capabilities into how work gets done across ICF, applying AI to specific roles and workflows where it can improve speed, quality, capacity and client value.
That also means building the skills ICF’s people need and preparing leaders to manage changes in work responsibly. “The goal is not simply broader adoption of AI, but using it deliberately to evolve how we work while preserving the expertise, judgment, trust and collaboration that differentiate ICF,” McGarry said.
Fun fact: McGarry’s husband has turned her into a devoted Buffalo Bills fan. She dresses the part, decorates the house during Bills season, and plans weekends and meals around the games. “Football season has become my favorite season,” she said. “If you’re a Bills fan, you know that comes with a certain amount of patience and a very good sense of humor.”