U.S. Postmaster General Megan J. Brennan to retire

By Bill McAllister, Washington Correspondent

Megan J. Brennan, who joined the United States Postal Service as a letter carrier 33 years ago, will retire as the nation’s 74th postmaster general on Jan. 31.

Her retirement, a surprise to many, will come at the end of her fifth year as the Postal Service’s chief executive officer.

“When I was appointed Postmaster General, I made a commitment to the Board of Governors that I would serve for five years and it has been my absolute honor to do so,” she said in an Oct. 16 letter to postal workers.

The 57-year-old Pennsylvania native, the first woman to head the Postal Service, said she was announcing her retirement early to give the board time to conduct a search for her replacement.

Brennan’s tenure was marked by clashes with President Donald Trump over prices the agency charges Amazon for delivery of its packages and a constant struggle to deal with declining first-class mail volumes and the resulting sea of red ink in which her agency has been trapped.

Congress continued to ignore her repeated appeals for financial help and for the restructuring of a Congressional mandate to fund the anticipated health care costs of future postal retirees.

In her letter to employees, Brennan was upbeat about her accomplishments.

“Despite the constraints on our business, we have shaped a brighter future for the Postal Service, while remaining a responsible employer, and always putting the customer at the center of our strategies,” she said.

Robert M. Duncan, chairman of the postal governors, said, “Megan Brennan is a devoted public servant who has helped lead the United States Postal Service through some very challenging circumstances.”

He praised her recent role in helping force the Universal Postal Union to allow the USPS to set the rates on incoming parcels. The debate, led by Trump, threatened to undermine the international mail organization’s administration of global mail rates.

Michael Plunkett, president of the Association for Postal Commerce, said Brennan “deserves credit for guiding the Postal Service through an extremely challenging period in its history, having served much of her tenure without a functioning board of governors.

“Though the legislative reforms she championed never materialized, her term of service saw impressive growth in the Postal Service’s shipping business to the point where USPS is a legitimate player in eCommerce,” Plunkett added.

Brennan holds a Master of Business Administration from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and is a graduate of Immaculata University in Pennsylvania.

Prior to her selection as postmaster general, she served four years as chief operating officer of the USPS and had been a vice president of both the Eastern and Northeastern area operations.

As postmaster general her salary was $290,566 last year. With pension and other benefits added, her total compensation was $662,804, according to USPS financial statements.

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