As an entrepreneur, executive, and civic leader, Mr. Hale has a servant leader philosophy, whereby leadership, team members, and colleagues are mutually accountable to themselves and the organization’s missions and priorities. In addition, he believes that for organizations to prosper, their leadership must ensure that employees possess the resources to succeed, be intentional listeners and communicate in a sincere and direct way.

In 2017, Mr. Hale founded The Cornerstone Group LLC (TCSG) to assist entrepreneurs and CEOs to overcome challenges, barriers, and obstacles preventing them from growing and scaling their businesses. TCSG expanded its clientele to include commercial real estate and energy developers who were facing similar challenges. TCSG developed the CPR (Capital, Partnerships, and Revenue) suite of strategic services to enable businesses to realize their growth potential.

Prior to launching TCSG, Mr. Hale served as a senior political appointee in the Obama Administration. He first served as the Deputy Associate Administrator for the Office of Capital Access at the U.S. Small Business Administration, where his accomplishments included the development of the Office of Capital Access Dashboard of key performance indicators to track risk factors, program performance and successes; revitalizing the Office of Credit Risk Management (OCRM) which is accountable for an approximately $50 billion portfolio of U.S. SBA outstanding loan guarantees; and partnering with the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation and the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency to provide complimentary risk management training and modeling to improve the U.S. SBA’s  portfolio oversight and off-site monitoring of 4,500 lenders.

He later served as the Director of the Office of Small and Disadvantaged Business Utilization (OSDBU) at the U.S. Energy Department (DOE), a political Senior Executive Service position. As a result of Mr. Hale’s leadership, the DOE’s small business-grade improved from four consecutive “F” (FY11-FY14) grades to three consecutive “A” (FY15-FY17) grades. DOE continues to earn “A” grades on its U.S. SBA Scorecard based upon the methodologies, strategies, and policies he established. His efforts translated to an additional $1.2 billion of prime small business obligations and additionally converted over $500 million of large business contract awards to small business set-aside awards. Mr. Hale held the Department of Energy’s Q security clearance, which is its Top-Secret designation and includes access to Restricted Data and Special Nuclear Material. Mr. Hale earned the United States Department of Energy – Secretary’s Meritorious Service Award for his distinguished service as OSDBU Director.

Prior to his government service, Mr. Hale had a successful financial services career focused on servicing mid-market companies. Among other roles, he frequently served as a Chief Financial Officer and a Chief Restructuring Officer charged with the financial turnaround of under-performing mid-market companies. He also provided crisis management services to, and advised distressed industrial, distribution, and consumer companies in out-of-court workouts and the Chapter 11 bankruptcy process.