U.S. Postmaster General Donahoe to retire; Megan Brennan to succeed

By Elvina Nawaguna WASHINGTON (Reuters) - United States Postmaster General, Patrick Donahoe, who has led the financially troubled U.S. Postal Service for four years, will retire in February, paving the way for the service's first female postmaster general. Megan Brennan, a 28-year veteran who is the agency's chief operating officer, will succeed Donahoe to become the 74th postmaster general and chief executive, the Postal Service Board of Governors said on Friday. Donahoe has worked at the agency for 39 years, starting as a clerk in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. He stepped into the top job in 2010 in the middle of the financial crisis that hit the agency hard. While its finances have improved recently, the agency has spent most of the last six years in financial trouble as electronic bill payment and communication have overshadowed the use of postal services. The agency said separately on Friday it ended fiscal 2014 with a loss of 5.5 billion, following a $5-billion loss last year. First class mail, the agency's most profitable product, fell by 2.2 billion in 2014. A 2006 Congressional mandate to prefund the healthcare of its future retires has also taken a toll on the agency, causing it to default several times on the required installments. Donahoe has faced numerous calls for his resignation and has butted heads with Congress as he attempted to overhaul the agency and return it to profitability. He led some drastic cost-cutting moves, including cutting the postal workforce by about 220,000 people, eliminating some delivery routes and consolidating processing centers, and has attempted to eliminate Saturday delivery. "Pat was the calm in the financial storm. He ignored the naysayers and went forward with his team and built a comprehensive plan for the future of the organization, made tough decisions, and executed against those decisions," Mickey Barnett, chairman of the postal Board of Governors said in a statement. "Working for a brand that touches every citizen of this great country every day has been a tremendous honor," Donahoe said. "It's always difficult to walk away from something you love and have a lot of passion for, but knowing that the organization is moving forward with a strong plan and lot of momentum makes it easier." Brennan, who began at the service as a letter carrier in 1986 to later progress to management positions, became chief operating officer in 2010. (Reporting by Elvina Nawaguna; Editing by Bernadette Baum)