President Barack Obama is set to nominate Robert McDonald as the next secretary for the Department of Veterans Affairs. McDonald, a former CEO of Procter & Gamble Co., would succeed Eric Shinseki following the latter's resignation from the department in May.

According to The New York Times, White House officials considered three options for Shinseki's replacement: "someone with deep management experience, someone with a military background similar to the department's former leader or someone with a track record of running a sprawling hospital system." With the decision to nominate McDonald, it appears the Obama administration selected someone with "deep management" experience.

McDonald is also a veteran and a West Point graduate but has "limited" military experience. The former chief executive of Proctor & Gamble served five years in the U.S. army before leaving as a captain for an entry-level position for the company. The role of secretary for the Department of Veterans Affairs has traditionally been given to an individual with military experience, such as a former colonel or general. In Shinseki's case, he retired as a four-star general and served as the Army's chief of staff. Before Shinseki, previous Secretary James Peake was a retired general.

Following Shinseki's resignation, Sloan Gibson and Rob Nabors were named Acting Veterans Affairs Secretaries and have reported to the Obama administration about how to reform the department following scandals involving falsified waiting lists for military patients. Administrators and scheduling employees were told a patient should not be placed on a waiting list for more than 14 days, but investigations revealed cover-ups and long appointment delays.

According to a statement from the White House, acting secretaries Gibson and Nabors completed a nationwide Access Audit and have taken "aggressive" steps to improve access to care and issues within the Veteran Affairs health care system. The White House stated 135,000 veterans were contacted and scheduled nearly 182,000 additional appointments over the last month. In addition to training approximately 10,000 schedulers, $393 million was allocated to "accelerate" care.

Despite the nomination by a Democratic president, records showed McDonald contributing to the Republican Party, notably $5,000 to Mitt Romney's 2012 Republican presidential campaign and $11,000 to the Romney Victory Committee. McDonald has also provided contributions to Speaker of the House John Boehner and Ohio Senator Rob Portman.

In a statement, Boehner described McDonald as a "good man, a veteran, and a strong leader."

"With those traits, he's the kind of person who is capable of implementing the kind of dramatic systemic change that is badly needed and long overdue at the [Department of Veteran Affairs]," the House Speaker added.

Boehner noted McDonald could only succeed if Obama "first commits to doing whatever it takes to give our veterans the world-class health care system they deserve by articulating a vision for sweeping reform. Our nation's veterans deserve nothing less."

Obama's announcement is scheduled for 4:30 p.m. EST.