Anthony “Tony” Zakel serves as DFC’s Inspector General with a mission to strengthen the integrity, efficiency and effectiveness of DFC U.S. foreign assistance programs and operations. He was selected as DFC’s first Inspector General in August 2020 and previously served as the Deputy Assistant Inspector General for Aviation Audits at the U. S. Department of Transportation Office of Inspector General (DOT OIG), managing audits of a wide range of Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) programs. The office’s significant accomplishments included an audit, which found FAA allowed Southwest Airlines to operate aircraft without ensuring compliance with regulations, putting the lives of 17.2 million passengers at risk, and a timeline of activities leading to the certification of the Boeing 737 MAX8 Aircraft and actions taken after the October 2018 Lion Air accident.
Tony served as a Program Director in DOT’s Office of Surface Transportation Audits, managing audits of the Federal Transit Administration’s (FTA) and Federal Highway Administration’s oversight of transportation infrastructure investments. He was also a director in FTA’s Office of Oversight and Program Guidance. In addition, he served as a director in the Directorate of Installations and Logistics at the National Security Agency, leading major capital improvement projects. Before his federal service, Tony worked for 15 years as an engineer and program manager at Morrison Knudsen, Booz Allen & Hamilton, and Parsons Transportation Group on transportation and infrastructure projects in the United States and England.
A graduate of Saint Bonaventure University with a bachelor’s degree in physics and Binghamton University with a master’s degree in electrical engineering, Tony also graduated from Loyola University of Maryland with a master’s in business administration, with a concentration in executive management.