Welcome to RELI Group’s Leadership Spotlight series! In this series, we’ll delve into the background, passions and philosophies of some of Team RELI’s best and brightest minds. Each post includes the same five questions, offering a comprehensive glimpse into the folks that make RELI great.
In today’s Leadership Spotlight, meet Patrick Thornton, Senior Program Manager at RELI Group. Patrick is a strategic and agile Senior Program Manager, with over eight years of experience leading cross-sector IT and business process initiatives, providing management oversight for multiple contracts supporting the Transportation Security Administration (TSA), Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS), and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). He brings expertise in analyzing customer environments to identify opportunities for innovation using the tools they already have, consistently delivering process improvements, enhancing team collaboration and driving measurable impact.
Can you share a pivotal moment in your career that influenced your path in public sector consulting?
When I joined RELI, I stepped into a Project Manager role supporting health programs, which provided a strong foundation. Moving into national security work soon after became the real turning point in my career, as it gave me an opportunity to manage a larger team and a more complex effort.
What made the biggest difference, though, was the level of autonomy and trust I was given. My mentors at RELI encouraged me to explore new ideas, test approaches and learn quickly, whether that meant succeeding or failing fast to find a better solution. Having the space to try things, paired with their guidance, has played a major role in my growth and confidence in the public consulting space.
What drives your passion for working in government contracting?
Using my strengths in problem solving and coordination to make a tangible impact is what keeps me motivated in this field. I enjoy the unique challenge of helping agencies overcome constraints, modernize and innovate despite the possibility of restraints and limitations.
What motivates me most is seeing how our work directly connects to everyday life, like improving TSA operations and realizing how those behind the scenes efforts affect millions of travelers. That sense of purpose and making that full circle connection is what keeps me engaged and invested in this field.
How do you approach leadership and team building?
I have always seen myself as a supporting leader. I focus on understanding my team’s ideas, creating space for them to showcase their strengths, and offering the same kind of autonomy and mentorship that I have experienced and appreciate at RELI. I contribute guidance and guardrails where needed, drawing from my own experience, but ultimately, I value working together to determine the best path forward. Especially in program and project management, where there’s always a clear goal, leading a team in a collaborative, strength-based way makes the work both effective and enjoyable.
What innovations or trends in the public sector excite you the most?
I’m most excited about innovations that center on smarter use of data and the expansion of agile practices across the public sector. Data-driven decision-making has always been an interest of mine and pairing that with agile approaches can create real momentum for government teams.
What I enjoy, especially in work across TSA programs, is applying agile principles in environments that aren’t traditionally technical areas with operational tasks rather than development teams or software testers. It’s exciting to take lessons learned from more technical work, like my experience with CMS, and scale those practices to operational settings where agile isn’t the default. Seeing those methods bring clarity, structure and adaptability to non‑technical government functions is something I find particularly rewarding.
Can you discuss a project or initiative you’re particularly proud of?
One project I’m especially proud of is having the opportunity to support several TSA programs across different offices, each with its own focus and operational needs. I’m proud of how we were able to take these small teams and scale their capabilities in meaningful ways.
Strategic Communications and Public Affairs (SCPA), for example, helped expand RELI’s footprint and past performance at TSA, while Requirements & Capabilities Analysis (RCA) stands out because, although it began as a communications and audit team, we quickly recognized the value of their data and were able to build automated solutions and empower team members with new skills. Seeing teammates grow and taking on more technical capabilities made the work especially rewarding. It’s been exciting to help transform these programs from small, operational efforts into teams delivering innovative, data driven solutions.
