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Virginia Business// August 29, 2020//
FOUNDER AND PRESIDENT, CARAHSOFT TECHNOLOGY CORP., RESTON
The former president of Herndon-based DLT Solutions Inc., Abod founded Carahsoft in 2004. With roughly $5 billion in annual revenue, the defense contractor offers software, hardware and IT consulting services in the fields of cybersecurity, accounting, business intelligence and data analysis and storage. This year marked Carahsoft’s 13th straight year on the Inc. 5000 list.
In May, Carahsoft landed an $81 million Air Force contract for its Space Command and Control Division. In 2019, the U.S. Navy brought Carahsoft in on a $1.5 billion purchase agreement to provide software products and licenses. The U.S. Army also contracted with the company for $247.7 million in cloud computing support services.
Carahsoft is one of several companies selected by the U.S. General Services Administration and the National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency (NGA) to provide geospatial earth observation data and services. It was also instrumental in implementing NewPay, a GSA initiative to modernize federal payroll IT and services.
This year marked the sixth time Abod has been named to Executive Mosaic’s annual Wash100 list, which recognizes the top 100 GovCon executives in the Washington, D.C., region. Abod holds a computer science degree from the University of Maryland.
FOUNDER AND CEO, CVENT INC., MCLEAN
Aggarwal started his career in law shortly after graduating from Washington and Lee University Law School. A few years later, he co-founded the Indian CEO Tech Council at Washington, D.C.-based entrepreneurship nonprofit TiE DC, which has grown to represent and support thousands of top D.C. executives.
Aggarwal is regularly recognized as one of the top SaaS (software-as-a-service) CEOs and entrepreneurs in the Washington, D.C., area.
In the late 1990s, he founded event technology giant Cvent after having spent years planning events for the network of Indian CEOs. In 2016, Cvent was acquired by Vista Equity Partners for $1.65 billion.
These days, the Cvent platform offers automated event planning services for 30,000 customers and 300,000 users worldwide, bringing in about $640 million in sales last year.
After COVID-19 pushed most in-person conventions, conferences and meetings online, the McLean-based software company saw its business plummet. In May, Cvent laid off or furloughed about 10% of its 4,300-person worldwide workforce.
Aggarwal holds degrees from the University of Virginia, the Washington & Lee University Law School and Georgetown University Law School.
PRESIDENT AND CEO, CENTER FOR INNOVATIVE TECHNOLOGY, HERNDON
Albrigo knows about fostering tech startups. As the head of CIT, which he joined in 2015, he’s been the spark behind the nonprofit business accelerator’s flagship fund, GAP, which has invested $50 million and attracted more than $1 billion in private capital for fledgling Virginia technology firms.
He also fostered the Virginia Founders Fund, a venture stream for business startups led by women, minorities and veterans. Last June, Albrigo was recognized as a “Fearless Champion of the Year” by Uniting Women in Cyber, an advocacy group for female cybersecurity professionals.
CIT also has promoted numerous regional tech hubs throughout Virginia, including RVATech, Innovate Lynchburg and the Charlottesville, Southern Piedmont and Shenandoah Valley technology councils.
Albrigo’s professional life began at NASA and he branched out into management positions with Booz Allen Hamilton, CSC and Freddie Mac. Before CIT, the Syracuse, New York, native served as chief operating officer of Tysons-based The Hilltop Cos., a professional services firm and business management consultancy.
PRESIDENT AND CEO, BAE SYSTEMS INC., ARLINGTON
Arseneault leads the independent U.S. arm of one of Europe’s largest defense contractors, England-based BAE Systems plc.
The U.S. subsidiary, BAE Systems Inc., generated almost $11.5 billion in 2019 annual revenue. Arseneault oversees more than 35,000 employees working for the defense, aerospace and security company in the U.S., the United Kingdom and Sweden. In August, BAE landed $355.6 million in Navy and Air Force contracts and announced plans to build a $150 million campus in Austin, Texas.
Arseneault, who serves on the parent company’s board of directors, became CEO in April 2020 after being appointed president last year. He had previously served as the company’s chief operating officer.
He joined BAE in 2000 after the company he was working for, Sanders, a division of Lockheed Martin, was acquired by BAE. He previously held engineering and program management positions at General Electric and Total Administrative Services Corp.
Arseneault earned his bachelor’s and master’s degrees in electrical engineering from Worcester Polytechnic Institute in Massachusetts. He holds an MBA from Boston University.
He has twice been named to Executive Mosaic’s Wash100 list of the top leaders among government contractors in the Washington, D.C., region.
PRESIDENT, RAYTHEON INTELLIGENCE & SPACE (RAYTHEON TECHNOLOGIES INC.) ARLINGTON
In April, Raytheon Co. and United Technologies Corp. completed a merger of equals to create Massachusetts-based Raytheon Technologies. Raytheon Intelligence & Space is one of its four key divisions. Azevedo has been with Raytheon for 31 years, working first as an electrical engineer on antenna technology for its electronic warfare group. Prior to the merger, he was the president of Raytheon’s space and airborne systems division. He also served as vice president and general manager of the company’s intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance systems area. He earned his bachelor’s degree in electrical engineering from Northeastern University.
WHAT WOULD A COMPETITOR SAY ABOUT YOU? “He is honest, he is open, he is direct. He does what he says he will do and he stands by his values.”
THE PERSON(S) I ADMIRE: The members of the U.S. military and intelligence community who are risking their lives every day to keep us safe and to protect our way of life
CURRENT READING: “Call Sign Chaos,” by Jim Mattis
FAVORITE VACATION DESTINATION: These days, anywhere that allows me to get out of the house.
CHAIRMAN, CEO AND PRESIDENT, BLACKBOARD INC., RESTON
Ballhaus joined the education technology giant in 2016 after serving as CEO for Falls Church-based Society of Research Administrators International Inc. (SRA International) and president and CEO of McLean-based DynCorp International.
In 2018 — when Blackboard hit $700 million in revenues — it cut ties with e-learning giant Moodle after a six-year partnership. This year, Blackboard sold its learning management software to London-based Learning Technologies Group (formerly Moodlerooms) for $31.7 million.
Ballhaus earned his bachelor’s degree in mechanical engineering from the University of California at Davis and his master’s and doctoral degrees in aeronautics and astronautics from Stanford University. He also earned a master’s degree in business administration from the Anderson Graduate School of Management at UCLA, where he has served on the board of visitors.
He has served as director emeritus on the board of the U.S. Geospatial Intelligence Foundation and as a fellow of the American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics.
PRESIDENT AND CEO, AURORA FLIGHT SCIENCES CORP., MANASSAS
Last September, Beith moved east from California, where he worked for The Boeing Co. since 1996, to take the reins at Aurora, one of the flight company’s subsidiaries. With a background in autonomous vehicle systems, signal processing systems and managing the Boeing NeXt group of air vehicles, Beith now leads a team that designs and builds unmanned aerial vehicles. He replaced Aurora’s founder, John Langford.
Beith has served on the executive committee of the Aerospace Vehicle Systems Institute board and has made civic contributions to the Virginia Aviation Business Association, the Prince William County Chamber of Commerce and the American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics.
EDUCATION: Michigan State University (B.S.), Claremont Graduate University (MBA) and certification from the Defense Acquisition University Executive Program Management program
FIRST JOB: Paperboy delivering The Oakland Press in a Detroit suburb
PERSON I ADMIRE: Albert Einstein. He overcame many personal struggles and had a unique ability
to simplify highly complex ideas.
FAVORITE VACATION DESTINATION: Hawaii. I’ve visited the islands over 20 times!
FOUNDER, CHAIRMAN AND CEO, VERISIGN INC., RESTON
In 1995, Bidzos founded Verisign, a domain name registry services and internet infrastructure provider. Verisign is the authoritative registry for top level and commonly used internet domains, including .com, .net and .name. It also operates the back end system of .jobs, .gov and .edu.
Last year, Verisign reported $1.23 billion in revenues and net income of $612 million. According to CEO pay reports released in 2017, Bidzos was one of Virginia’s top-earning executives, bringing home more than $1.63 million. As most of Verisign’s business is done on the East Coast, it moved from its original Mountain View, California, headquarters to Northern Virginia in 2011.
Bidzos started his career at IBM and served as president and CEO of network encryption company RSA Security, which was acquired by Dell Technologies in 2016. He served as RSA’s vice chairman from 1999 to 2002. At Verisign, Bidzos also serves as chairman of the board of directors and in August 2009 became executive chairman.
An industry pioneer, Bidzos is listed in tech industry trade magazine CRN’s Computer Industry Hall of Fame.
PRESIDENT, NEWPORT NEWS SHIPBUILDING; EXECUTIVE VICE PRESIDENT, HUNTINGTON INGALLS INDUSTRIES, NEWPORT NEWS
In 2017, Boykin became president of the Newport News shipyard, part of Huntington Ingalls Industries — the country’s largest military shipbuilding company. With approximately $5.2 billion in revenue last year, Newport News Shipbuilding tops the list of industrial employers in Virginia.
As president, Boykin oversees more than 25,000 employees and Newport News Shipbuilding’s involvement in the U.S. Navy’s largest-ever shipbuilding contract. The company is building nine Virginia-class Block V attack submarines with General Dynamics Electric Boat as part of a $22.2 billion contract awarded in December 2019.
Boykin is also on the board of visitors at the U.S. Merchant Marine Academy.
Boykin earned her bachelor’s degree in marine engineering from the U.S. Merchant Marine Academy and her master’s degree in engineering management from The George Washington University. Outside of work, Boykin serves on the Hampton Roads Business Roundtable and the Virginia Business Council.
She is also a member of women’s empowerment groups First10Forward and Old Dominion University’s Women’s Initiative Network.
Boykin is the first woman president at Newport News Shipbuilding, which was founded in 1886.
FOUNDER, CEO AND EXECUTIVE CHAIRMAN, APPIAN CORP., MCLEAN
At age 26, Calkins started cloud computing firm Appian Corp. in 1999 out of his basement. It’s now grown to a company that reported $260.4 million in revenue last year, employing more than 650 people in Virginia. Appian offers code digitization programs that allows companies to write their own software by “drawing” rather than writing code.
For five years after earning his bachelor’s degree in economics from Dartmouth College, Calkins was the director of the enterprise product group at Tysons-based software company MicroStrategy Inc.
In January, Appian acquired Novayre Solutions SL, developer of the automated software platform Jidoka RPA (robotic process automation). Late last year, Appian moved its headquarters from Reston to the former Gannett Co. Inc. headquarters building in Tysons. As part of the relocation, Gov. Ralph Northam approved $4 million in incentives to encourage Appian to add hundreds of employees over five years.
Calkins serves on the boards of the nonprofit Virginia Public Access Project, the University of Virginia’s Sorensen Institute for Political Leadership and the Northern Virginia Technology Council PAC. Calkins also is the author of three board games and has won several game design awards.
Forbes in 2019 deemed him a “Billionaire, Board Game God and Tech’s Hidden Disruptor.”
VICE PRESIDENT, WORLDWIDE PUBLIC SECTOR, AMAZON WEB SERVICES, HERNDON
Before joining Amazon Web Services in 2010, Carlson was vice president of federal sales and operations at Microsoft Corp. In her AWS leadership role, she founded the public sector unit of Amazon Cloud Services. Its customer count includes more than 5,000 government agencies, 10,000 educational institutions and 28,000 nonprofits.
Last year, AWS alone generated $35 billion in revenue for the e-commerce giant. In June, Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos announced that the AWS unit was expanding by adding an aerospace and satellite solutions unit to support rocket launches, human spaceflight support, robotic systems, mission control operations, space stations and satellite networks.
Before her technology career, Carlson worked in health care and business management. Carlson also has been a member of the Virginia Commonwealth University Board of Visitors, the United Service Organizations Inc. of Metropolitan Washington Board of Directors, the Veteran Administration Advisory Committee and Princeton University’s Infrastructure Board. In 2018, she was appointed to the White House Historical Association Board of Directors.
CEO AND PRESIDENT, MAXIMUS INC., RESTON
Caswell joined Maximus in 2004 and has served in a variety of leadership roles touching upon all segments of the company’s government service outsourcing business. With 2019 revenue of $2.9 billion, Maximus partners with agencies in Australia, Canada, Saudi Arabia, Singapore, the U.K. and the U.S., where it helps with administering government-sponsored programs such as Medicare, the Children’s Health Insurance Program (CHIP) and Medicaid. Maximus promotes itself as the nation’s largest administrator of Medicaid enrollment.
Promoted to CEO in 2018, Caswell has nurtured the company’s health services segment, which grew more than 300% under his care. The Northern Virginia Technology Council vice chairman also helped Maximus formulate its government health care reform strategy, leading the effort in enhancing and streamlining the company’s technology, automation, operational analytics and digital solutions.
In 2017, the firm, which has more than 34,000 employees worldwide, made Fortune’s list of “Most Admired Companies,” but controversy erupted in April when Maximus call center workers staged a walkout, protesting low wages and COVID-19 concerns.
HOBBY/PASSION: Long-distance runner, including completion of 30 full marathons and eight 50-milers
CO-FOUNDER AND PRESIDENT, CAREJOURNEY, ARLINGTON
After serving as managing director of The Advisory Board Co., Chopra was appointed as Virginia’s secretary of technology under Gov. Tim Kaine. In May 2009, President Barack Obama appointed Chopra as the first U.S. chief technology officer, a role he held for three years.
Chopra returned to The Advisory Board before founding health care and education analytics company Hunch Analytics, which invested in CareJourney, which focuses on value-based health care networks. In late 2019, CareJourney announced it would expand by adding Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services data representing more than 70 million Medicaid beneficiaries.
Chopra serves on the state’s GO Virginia Region 7 Council. He earned his bachelor’s degree in health policy from Johns Hopkins University and a master’s degree in public policy from the Harvard Kennedy School of Government, where he was named a fellow in 2015.
WHAT’S ONE THING YOU WOULD CHANGE ABOUT VIRGINIA? Double down on the “Spirit of Commonwealth” to solve our ongoing challenges in health, economic growth for all and education (focusing on how to solve problems through better public/private collaboration).
PRESIDENT, CHAIRMAN AND CEO, PERSPECTA INC., CHANTILLY
Curtis has served as president and CEO of multibillion-dollar, 14,000-employee federal contractor Perspecta Inc. since the publicly traded company was launched in June 2018 as a result of a three-way merger between Vencore Holding Corp., KeyPoint Government Solutions and the U.S. public sector business of DXC Technology. Prior to leading Perspecta, Curtis was Vencore’s president and CEO.
In 2019, Perspecta acquired Knight Point Systems for $250 million and won an $824 million contract with the National Geospatial Intelligence Agency and a $657 million extension on its IT services contract for the Navy. Curtis also won the 2019 Greater Washington GovCon Award for Executive of the Year from the Northern Virginia Chamber of Commerce and the Professional Services Council.
This year, Perspecta has been challenging the award in March 2020 of the Navy’s $7.7 billion IT services contract to Leidos Holdings Inc. Perspecta held the previous contract, which included hardware products.
Curtis serves on the board of directors for the Northern Virginia Technology Council and the Military Bowl.
WHAT WOULD A COMPETITOR SAY ABOUT YOU? “Aggressive, honest and fair”
HOBBY/PASSION: Surfing/family
CHAIRMAN AND CEO, SERCO INC., HERNDON
Dacquino is in command of a $1 billion military service provider with 6,000 employees and a scope that includes everything from military logisitics to health care. He previously served as the senior vice president of Serco’s defense services unit, overseeing the company’s work in a variety of areas: hardware integration, program management, logistics support and ship-to-shore modernization.
Dacquino was also president and CEO of SkyLink Aviation Inc., a company with operations in more than 60 countries. He served as CEO for the North America division of VT Group, a tech integrator with a transportation and facilities management business, and he also had a long career at Lockheed Martin, where he was a vice president and general manager, leading more than 3,500 employees in
75 locations across the world.
Dacquino earned his bachelor’s degree in aeronautical engineering technology from California State University, Northridge, from which he also received his master’s degree in finance.
VICE PRESIDENT, GLOBAL PUBLIC SECTOR, GOOGLE CLOUD, GOOGLE LLC, RESTON
Last June, Daniels became vice president for global public sector cloud sales at Google, where he works on business development. In 2019, Google Cloud reported more than $8 billion in revenue.
Before Google Cloud, Daniels served as senior vice president at Salesforce.com Inc., an $8 billion publicly traded cloud software company, where he led public sector sales in North America. He also previously worked for the $38 billion software company Oracle Corp., leading public sector technology sales. A graduate of Ohio Northern University and Ohio State, Daniels also worked for Pitney Bowes and Affiliated Computer Services, which was acquired by Xerox.
In May, Google Cloud was awarded a seven-figure defense contract to provide multicloud management for the DoD’s Innovation Unit (DIU), which works to scale commercial technology across the agency.
Just last year, however, Google dropped its bid for another $10 billion defense contract, the Joint Enterprise Defense Infrastructure (JEDI) cloud contract, because it competed with its corporate values on how artificial intelligence should be used.
CHAIRMAN AND CEO, K12 INC., HERNDON
Davis joined the K12 board of directors in 2009 and was named chairman in 2012 and CEO in February 2018. Before heading up the education technology giant, Davis was managing director at RANND Advisory Group, a venture capital, media and technology consulting firm. He had also previously served as president and CEO of XM Satellite Radio, leading the company through its merger with Sirius Satellite Radio.
K12 offers online curricula and schooling platform services to more than 2,000 schools in all 50 U.S. states and more than 100 countries. The company reported more than $1 billion in 2019 revenue.
In late June, K12 announced it had become a strategic partner of the Virginia Ready Initiative, a private-public partnership to help unemployed Virginians get back to work amid COVID-19.
Davis also serves on the boards of directors at Unisys Corp. and RLJ Lodging Trust. He also has served on the board of directors for the Washington Boys and Girls Club and the Progressive Life Center. Davis has also served on the Northern Virginia Roundtable and the Community Foundation for Northern Virginia.
CEO, M.C. DEAN INC., TYSONS
M.C. Dean is quite the family business. Founded in 1949 by Marion Caleb Dean as a small electrical firm, the design-build and systems integration corporation now employs 3,800 workers and brings in annual revenues of $1.07 billion. It boasts 30 satellite offices across the U.S., Europe and the Middle East, with clients ranging from the U.S. Navy and NATO to the Library of Congress and the Atlanta Rapid Transit Authority. It’s consistently ranked as one of the largest electrical contractors in the U.S., with most of its business coming from federal contracts.
M.C. retired in 1980, leaving the company to his son, Casey Dean, who passed it down to his son, Bill, in 1997. The founder’s grandson took the firm from 150 employees to more than 2,500, expanding its global presence to 25 offices worldwide and completing major projects in more than 40 countries. Bill Dean steered M.C. Dean into its trademark design-build delivery model, with the contractor taking total control of both design and project construction.
A North Carolina University alum who holds a bachelor’s degree in electrical and computer engineering, Dean earned a reputation for throwing wild, lavish parties at his Georgetown mansion.
CO-FOUNDER AND CEO, THUNDERCAT TECHNOLOGY, RESTON
A former U.S. Army major and Operation Iraqi Freedom veteran, Deierlein is a Bronze Star and Purple Heart recipient. In 2005, he was shot by a sniper, the bullet shattering his pelvis and the base of his spine.
His call sign while serving in Baghdad was “ThunderCat 6,” inspiring the name of the company he co-founded in 2010, a value-added reseller of data storage, cyber and networking applications technology. The company last year reported $695 million in revenue.
A graduate of the University of Southern California and the New York University Stern School of Business, Deierlein is also president of the TD Foundation, a nonprofit assisting veterans’ families. In March, ThunderCat formed a partnership with UV Angel Inc., a pathogen control specialist, to fight the spread of COVID-19 with ultraviolet light technology.
FIRST JOB: Newspaper boy
NEW LIFE EXPERIENCE RECENTLY: Grammar school teacher. I have kids in kindergarten, second and third grade. For many days over the past three months I was their primary teacher, tutor and coach.
SOMETHING I WOULD NEVER DO AGAIN: Run with the bulls in Pamplona
PRESIDENT AND CEO, NOBLIS, RESTON
ElSawy has led Noblis since 2007 and he also sits on the board of trustees of the not-for-profit corporation that delivers technical and advisory strategies and solutions to a wide variety of federal government clients.
A leader in national aviation policy, ElSawy oversees more than 1,000 employees in eight satellite offices across the nation, including Washington, D.C., and Danville, working on projects involving national security and intelligence, transportation, telecommunications, environmental sustainability and more.
A member of the Northern Virginia Technology Council’s board of trustees, ElSawy earned an MBA from Georgetown University, a master’s in electrical engineering from George Washington University, and a bachelor’s in electrical engineering from West Virginia University.
Prior to Noblis, he was a senior vice president and general manager at the Center for Advanced Aviation System Development at The Mitre Corp., which Noblis spun off from in 1996. ElSawy also served for seven years as the director of the Federal Aviation Administration’s federally funded research and development center.
CEO, SALIENT CRGT INC., FAIRFAX
As the former CEO of CRGT Inc., Ferrando helped guide the 2015 merger of Salient Federal Solutions Inc. and CRGT, creating a $500 million company focused on agile development, data analytics and cybersecurity. Since 2001, he’s held executive leadership roles with Salient CRGT’s predecessor companies, including serving as president and COO of Cherry Road Technologies.
Salient CRGT won a five-year, $482 million task order last year to provide engineering and information networks cyber and engineering services for the Department of Defense. It also won a $115 million contract with the Government Accountability Office to implement IT services for the agency.
In June, Ferrando, a graduate of the Stevens Institute of Technology in New Jersey, announced that Salient was working with the feds in its transition to virtual communications in the wake of COVID-19. The company has helped to modernize agency networks at the Food and Drug Administration, the Department of Health and Human Services, Veterans Affairs and Homeland Security.
PRESIDENT AND CEO, BWX TECHNOLOGIES INC., LYNCHBURG
Geveden directs business operations for the $1.9 billion, 6,550-employee nuclear industrial conglomerate, which provides technical and management services and nuclear fuel and components to the federal government. In June, BWXT sold its U.S.-based commercial nuclear services business to Framatome, in exchange for 11 acres and a manufacturing facility in Lynchburg.
Formerly BWX’s chief operating officer, Geveden spent 17 years at NASA, including a stint as the space agency’s COO. The Kentucky native also served as executive vice president at Teledyne Technologies. He earned his bachelor’s and master’s degrees in physics from Murray State University. He serves as a board member for the Lynchburg Regional Business Alliance and the National D-Day Memorial Foundation.
PERSON I ADMIRE: Abraham Lincoln because of his deep thinking, grit and conviction
MOST RECENT BOOK READ: “Midnight in Chernobyl: The Untold Story of the World’s Greatest Nuclear Disaster,” by Adam Higginbotham
NEW LIFE EXPERIENCE RECENTLY: I’ve learned to fly fish in Virginia’s beautiful mountain streams.
MANAGING DIRECTOR AND GLOBAL PLATFORMS LEAD, ACCENTURE SECURITY, ARLINGTON
The author of three books on computer network defense and one of the world’s leading experts in cybersecurity, Ghosh has deep experience in the managed security services industry. Hired in 2018, he directs the security division of Ireland-based Accenture plc, a global professional services provider that posted 2019 worldwide revenues of $43.2 billion.
Before coming to Accenture, Ghosh was the founder and CEO of Fairfax-based Invincea Inc., a machine learning cybersecurity company, which was purchased by English tech company Sophos in 2017. Before that, he was a program manager for the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA), where he created and managed a wide array of cybersecurity programs.
A frequent on-air contributor to CNN, CNBC and NPR, Ghosh also serves as a GO Virginia Region 7 Council member.
WHAT WOULD A COMPETITOR SAY ABOUT YOU? “Smart guy who is market-focused”
FAVORITE SONG: “Running to Stand Still,” by U2
PERSON I ADMIRE: Collectively, the people who are fighting for equality in America. It’s heartwarming to see people fight for democracy, equality for all and social justice.
PRESIDENT, GENERAL DYNAMICS INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY INC., FALLS CHURCH
General Dynamics’ $10 billion acquisition of IT services company CSRA in 2019 merged it into its GDIT business unit, overseen by Gilliland. Within months, the new GDIT won a $2 billion contract to revamp the U.S. State Department’s global technical security supply chain.
Gilliland, who sits on the board of the Northern Virginia Technology Council, was promoted to GDIT president in 2017 after serving a series of leadership roles within General Dynamics, including deputy for operations, senior vice president of human resources and staff vice president and director of strategic planning. Prior to joining General Dynamics, she served in the U.S. Navy as a surface warfare and public affairs officer, where her assignments included working in the Legislative Liaison Office to the U.S. House of Representatives and the Office of the Secretary of the Navy.
She earned her bachelor’s from the U.S. Naval Academy and a master’s from the University of Cambridge and holds an MBA from Georgetown University.
CHIEF EXECUTIVE, ACCENTURE FEDERAL SERVICES, ARLINGTON
Goodman serves as chief executive for Accenture Federal Services, which provides a variety of technology services across all sectors of the U.S. government, including defense, intelligence and public health. In June, Accenture landed a $328 million federal contract to modernize applications for the Veterans Affairs home loan program.
Goodman, who has worked for Accenture since 1998, previously worked in the federal government as deputy under secretary of defense and deputy assistant secretary of defense.
Among other honors, he is a recipient of the Department of Defense Medal for Distinguished Public Service, the highest civilian award presented by the secretary of defense.
He serves on the boards of the Atlantic Council and the Northern Virginia Technology Council. He is past chair of the Professional Services Council’s executive committee and is former chairman of the Defense Business Board.
Goodman was named 2018 Executive of the Year by Greater Washington Government Contractors. And for the last three years in a row, he has been on Executive Mosaic’s annual Wash100 list of the region’s top 100 GovCon executives. He graduated summa cum laude from Middlebury College and earned his master’s degree and Ph.D. from Harvard.
PRESIDENT AND CEO, NEUSTAR INC., STERLING
Gottdiener became president and CEO of the technology and information services company in 2018, when Neustar had just finished a $500 million annual telecommunications contract. In 2017, Neustar (originally a Lockheed Martin company) was acquired by San Francisco-based private equity firm Golden Gate Capital and its minority partner, GIC Private Ltd., for $2.9 billion.
Charged with bringing the company’s revenue back above $1 billion, Gottdiener leads company acquisitions, which has included the 2019 purchase of Oregon-based call authentication and fraud solutions provider TrustID. This year, it sold its registry business to web hosting company GoDaddy.
Before joining Neustar, Gottdiener was the managing director and chief operating officer at financial services company Providence Equity Partners, where he oversaw the firm’s portfolio company operations and business development. He served as interim CEO or board member for several Providence portfolio companies, including Blackboard Inc., SRA International Inc., Altegrity Inc., Survey Sampling International, Virtual Radiologic Corp. and Ascend Learning LLC.
Gottdiener earned an MBA from the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania and his bachelor’s degree from Grinnell College, where he served as a trustee.
PRESIDENT AND CEO, PACIFIC ARCHITECTS AND ENGINEERS, FALLS CHURCH
Pacific Architects and Engineers (PAE) was introduced as a public company in February, after its sale from Platinum Equity LLC to Gores Holdings III Inc. Heller, who took charge in 2013, had previously guided the government service provider through its 2016 sale to Platinum Equity from Lindsay Goldberg LLC.
Under Heller’s watchful eye, PAE has grown from $1.6 billion in annual revenue to $2.76 billion.
Prior to PAE, Heller served as senior vice president and chief operating officer of Engility Corp. and as president of the professional support services division of L-3 Communications. Heller held several leadership roles at Harris Corp., including president of Harris IT Services, was CEO of Netco Inc. and president and chief operating officer of Multimax Inc. He started his career in the U.S. Army, graduating from the U.S. Military Academy at West Point and earning his MBA from the University of Pittsburgh.
A prolific contributor to charitable causes, Heller is active on the executive leadership team of the American Heart Association Heart Walk and, in 2015, he won the Greater Washington GovCon Award for Executive of the Year from the Fairfax County Chamber of Commerce and the Professional Services Council.
PRESIDENT AND CEO, ELLUCIAN, RESTON
After more than 25 years in technology leadership roles, Ipsen joined higher education software company Ellucian in 2017. She had previously been with multibillion-dollar tech company Oracle Corp., where she had been a general manager and senior vice president for Oracle Marketing Cloud. Ipsen also worked with Microsoft Corp. as a corporate vice president for the company’s worldwide public sector organization, and in executive leadership at networking software company Cisco Systems Inc.
Founded in 1968, Ellucian provides products such as student information systems, data analytics tools and graduation-tracking platforms for more than 2,700 customers. In June, the company pledged $1 million to PATH (Progress, Accomplishment, Thriving, Hope), a scholarship fund for students experiencing economic hardship due to the pandemic.
Ipsen previously served on the board of agrochemical company The Monsanto Co., which was acquired by Bayer AG in 2018. She currently serves as a board member for data analytics company Verisk. She is also past chair of the board for the Washington, D.C.-based Information Technology Industry Council and was a senior fellow of the American Leadership Forum, Silicon Valley Chapter.
PRESIDENT, APTARA INC., FALLS CHURCH
Kakar has been an executive with Aptara for more than 26 years, since receiving his bachelor’s and master’s degrees from the University of Delhi in India.
Aptara, formerly known as Techbooks, is an international company founded in 1988, with headquarters in Falls Church and U.S. offices in Austin and Boston. It’s a key player in the digital publishing world, helping translate content into digital and mobile platforms.
Kakar, who leads the digital content publishing practice, started as vice president for content technology in 1993, and was promoted to chief technology officer and executive vice president of digital in 2009. He’s been president since 2015 and is credited with triple-digit growth and designing Aptara’s global IT infrastructure.
Aptara, which employs more than 4,000 people, has business with the world’s 10 largest publishers. In June, it was named a Top 20 Content Development Company by Training Industry magazine, marking Aptara’s 10th consecutive year on the list.
FOUNDER AND CEO, COGNOSANTE LLC, FALLS CHURCH
The word “visionary” can often be overused, but Kang fits the description. Recognizing that the health care profession was changing, and that electronic records would soon alter how doctors and hospitals do business (and treat patients), the former vice president and general manager of Northrop Grumman’s health IT division started her own health IT company in 2008, months before the Great Recession, using her own funds. Described by Kang as “a transformative health IT company with an entrepreneurial spirit,” Cognosante employs 240 workers and has annual earnings in excess of $1 billion.
In 2010, Cognosante merged with Fox Systems to gain a foothold in government contracts related to Medicaid reform. Two years later, Kang started the Cognosante Foundation, which is focused on helping the underprivileged establish careers and achieve financial independence.
She received her bachelor’s degree in economics from the University of Chicago and a master’s degree in public and private management from the Yale School of Management. Currently a member of the Kennedy Center International Committee on the Arts, she also sits on the National Board of Governors for the American Red Cross.
EXECUTIVE VICE PRESIDENT, GOVERNMENT OPERATIONS, THE BOEING CO., ARLINGTON
Keating, who grew up the youngest of six children, along with his twin brother, in northeastern Pennsylvania, didn’t expect to be a leader in one of the country’s largest companies. In 2008, he joined Boeing, where he leads the company’s public policy efforts and the Boeing Global Engagement organization. Previously, Keating was senior vice president of global government relations for Honeywell International, as well as serving President Bill Clinton as his special assistant and staff director for White House Legislative Affairs.
At the start of his career, Keating held several positions with the U.S. House of Representatives, including assistant floor manager for the Democratic leadership. He serves on several boards, including the National Archives Foundation and WETA public television and radio.
EDUCATION: University of Scranton (B.A.) and honorary doctorates from the University of South Carolina and Africa University
BEST ADVICE: Act with integrity. Do the right thing — always and even when no one is looking.
NEW LIFE EXPERIENCE RECENTLY: I have recently started to follow a plant-based diet and occasionally will test out the final recipes for my wife, Ann, who is a talented plant-based chef and food blogger.
CEO, SCIENCE APPLICATIONS INTERNATIONAL CORP. (SAIC), RESTON
In May, SAIC was named to the Fortune 500 list of America’s largest corporations for the first time since the technology integrator spun off from the renamed Leidos seven years ago. Keene, who earned her bachelor’s degree at the University of Arizona, oversees the defense technology contractor, which generated $6.4 billion in 2019, employs 25,500 workers (including 6,000 in Virginia) and is poised for growth in the government services market, thanks to its focused merger and acquisition strategy. Last year, it acquired Engility for $2.5 billion, increasing its presence in national security and space contracts, and in March, SAIC bought Unisys Federal, a top provider of infrastructure modernization and cloud migration, for $1.2 billion.
I ADMIRE: My mother. Her strength of character and calm determination helped to shape many things in my life.
MY PASSION: At this stage of life, I love spending time with my family, including my wonderful grandchildren.
FAVORITE ADULT BEVERAGE: Champagne
MOST RECENT BOOK READ: “The Hard Things About Hard Things,” by Ben Horowitz
CHAIRMAN AND CEO, AIRBUS AMERICAS INC., HERNDON
Knittel has more than three decades in the aerospace and transportation industries, and he oversees the Americas region for Airbus, including its space and defense program, commercial aircraft, its A3 by Airbus innovation arm and the region’s helicopter market. Before joining Airbus in 2018, Knittel was CEO of C2 Aviation Capital, a company that leases and manages commercial aircraft. He also served in several leadership positions at CIT Group, mainly in financing.
A graduate of Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University and the University of Pennsylvania’s Wharton School, Knittel is a member of the National Air and Space Museum board and chairs the finance committee of the USO of Metropolitan New York, among other volunteer memberships. He is a native of suburban Philadelphia and began his career with Cessna Finance Co., often flying a Cessna 172 to visit dealers.
During Knittel’s tenure at Airbus Americas, the company has built a new A220 plant and aerospace educational facility in Mobile, Alabama. This year, the coronavirus severely affected production and the company said it plans to cut 15,000 jobs, mostly in Europe.
CEO, DYNCORP INTERNATIONAL, MCLEAN
Krivo was named CEO in 2017 after serving as DynCorp’s chief operating officer and holding other executive roles for the defense contractor, which has provided operations and maintenance support for U.S. Army troops in Afghanistan since 2009 and received a $1.7 billion task order for aviation maintenance from the U.S. Navy. In the third quarter of 2019, the company posted a record backlog of $6.9 billion in projects. He’s also a retired officer in the U.S. Army, where he was a policy adviser to the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff and strategy adviser to the chief of the staff of the Army, with a focus on missile defense and expertise in the Middle East and northeast Asia.
A graduate of Cornell College, where he was elected to the board of trustees in June, and the University of Oklahoma, he serves on the board of directors for the Tragedy Assistance Program for Survivors, an organization that cares for families of military casualties. Before joining DynCorp, which is owned by parent company Cerberus Capital, Krivo held positions with Virginia-based federal contractors Science Applications International Corp. (SAIC) and DRS Technologies Inc. (now Leonardo DRS).
CHAIRMAN AND CEO, LEIDOS HOLDINGS INC., RESTON
Krone was named CEO of Leidos Holdings Inc. in 2014 after working for 22 years with aerospace giant The Boeing Co., where he had most recently been the president of network and space systems. Before Boeing, he spent 14 years as a project manager at Reston-based Fortune 100 aerospace and defense contractor General Dynamics Corp.
Leidos reported more than $11 billion in revenue last year and employs 37,000 people worldwide. Under Krone’s leadership, Leidos in 2016 bought Lockheed Martin’s Information Systems & Global Solutions business for $4.6 billion. In June, Leidos landed a $401 million contract to provide information technology operations and maintenance support to the Defense Intelligence Agency.
Krone is a member of the Aerospace Industries Association executive committee, the Georgia Tech Foundation board of trustees, the WETA public television and radio board, the Greater Washington Urban League board, the Business Roundtable and the Aircraft Owners and Pilots Association Foundation’s board of advisors.
In his philanthropic life, he is focused on the fight against the opioid epidemic. Last year, he received the Humanitarian of the Year award from the Community Anti-Drug Coalitions of America.
CHIEF TECHNOLOGY OFFICER, BLOCK.ONE, BLACKSBURG
Larimer, who grew up in Northern Virginia, is one of the co-founders of the blockchain software company Block.one, along with CEO Brendan Blumer. Block.one in 2018 received a major investment from PayPal co-founder Peter Thiel. Since that investment, Block.one has grown to have a 6,567% return on investment.
The company announced in September that it would invest $10 million to build its U.S. headquarters in Arlington County, while keeping its Blacksburg offices (where Larimer will continue to work). Last year, however, Block.one reached a $24 million settlement with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), in connection with the company’s unregistered initial coin offering of digital tokens, which raised $4 billion between 2017 and 2018.
Larimer is the co-founder of several other blockchain companies, including BitShares and Steemit. Block.one developed the free, open-source EOS.IO blockchain protocol (invented by Larimer), which eliminates transaction fees on cryptocurrency and conducts millions of transactions per second.
He earned his bachelor’s degree in computer science from Virginia Tech, where he serves as a guest lecturer and curriculum adviser. Larimer was also a keynote speaker at Tech’s first Blocksburg Summit about blockchain technology, held in 2019.
CORPORATE VICE PRESIDENT AND PRESIDENT, NORTHROP GRUMMAN SPACE SYSTEMS, DULLES
Larson oversees Falls Church-based Northrop Grumman Corp.’s civil and defense-related space and launch systems, following the aerospace giant’s 2018 $9.2 billion acquisition of Orbital ATK, where he was chief operating officer. A University of Minnesota Institute of Technology and Carlson School of Management graduate, Larson served in several leadership positions at Orbital ATK, including as president of Advanced Propulsion and Space Systems.
In May, the space systems arm teamed with Raytheon Missiles & Defense to compete for the Missile Defense Agency’s $4.9 billion, five-year Next-Generation Inceptor program, which would strengthen the country’s ballistic missile defense program. The two companies currently provide MDA’s interceptor booster, kill vehicle, ground systems and engagement coordination for the U.S. ground-based defense system.
In an interview last year with Virginia Economic Review, Larson said that his division is working with the University of Virginia, George Mason University, Northern Virginia Community College and James Madison University to develop technology curricula to build its workforce.
CEO, LEONARDO DRS, ARLINGTON COUNTY
Leonardo DRS, the largest U.S. subsidiary of a European-based defense/aerospace conglomerate, is a prime military defense tech contractor, with annual revenue of $2 billion. A majority of its projects are generated for the U.S. Army and Navy and the Intelligence Community.
So far in 2020, DRS has won bids to produce advanced consoles and display systems for the Navy ($62 million), to provide mission-critical computing systems for the Army’s Towed Howitzer ($21 million) and to create, with the Department of Defense, a suite of interconnected electronic functions for a wide array of combat vehicles (up to $800 million).
At the helm since 2012, Lynn knows well the world of national defense. Prior to joining the company, he served as U.S. deputy secretary of defense and U.S. under secretary of defense as well as director of program analysis and evaluation in the defense secretary’s office. He’s won four DoD medals for distinguished public service, including the Joint Distinguished Civilian Service Award. He earned his law degree from Cornell Law School and holds a master’s in public affairs from the Woodrow Wilson School of Public and International Affairs at Princeton University.
DIRECTOR, PRESIDENT AND CEO, ePLUS INC., HERNDON
Marron was promoted to CEO and president of the IT assets selling and financing company in 2016 after serving as ePlus Inc.’s senior vice president of sales and chief operating officer.
During his time with the company, he has overseen company subsidiaries, including ePlus Group Inc., ePlus Technology Inc. and ePlus Systems Inc. Before his time with ePlus, he was senior vice president of worldwide sales and services at enterprise software company NetIQ, now part of Micro Focus.
ePlus, which designs and implements network, security and storage solutions, reported $1.37 billion in net sales for 2019 and employs more than 1,500 workers.
The company acquired Virginia Beach-based SLAIT Consulting LLC in 2019, expanding its mid-Atlantic footprint and extending its security consulting and managed services capabilities. It also bought smaller Virginia Beach-based IT firm ABS Technology in 2019. In May, it announced that it would be offering cloud management services through Amazon Web Services and Azure.
Marron earned his bachelor’s degree in computer science from Montclair State University.
CEO, GUIDEHOUSE LLP, MCLEAN
Last year, Guidehouse, a portfolio company owned by the private equity firm Veritas Capital, acquired the global management firm Navigant for $1.1 billion. The move greatly enhances the ability of Guidehouse, a former PricewaterhouseCoopers public sector practice purchased by Veritas in 2018, to deliver a large menu of management and technology consulting services to federal, state and local agencies. In May, McIntyre announced that it would help manage the administration of the Main Street Lending Program of the Federal Reserve Bank of Boston.
Prior to joining Guidehouse, which has 2,000 employees spread across 20 locations around the U.S., McIntyre directed international public sector projects as a partner at PwC. He holds an MBA from Willamette University and serves on the board of the Baldrige Foundation.
HOBBY/PASSION: Spending as much time as possible with my wife and two boys
FAVORITE SPORTS TEAM: Our Washington Nationals!
SOMETHING I WOULD NEVER DO AGAIN: Accept a job purely on the basis of compensation
PRESIDENT, FSA FEDERAL, ASHBURN
In May, Forfeiture Support Associates (FSA) established a new corporate structure and trade name: FSA Federal. The refocus accommodates the $1.3 billion contract, announced in March, that continues FSA’s support role to the federal law enforcement community under the U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) Asset Forfeiture Administrative Support Services program. Also in March, the company announced a new Department of Homeland Security business unit.
Mendiola, who originally came to FSA in 2017 after serving as a vice president at Engility Corp., earned his bachelor’s degree in criminal justice and an MBA from Radford University, where he’s a big booster. He served as honorary chair of the Radford Fund and was the catalyst behind the Mendiola-Cole Leadership Scholarship, a $1,000 annual award for students who have made leadership contributions to the university.
FAVORITE SPORTS TEAM: Green Bay Packers
MOST RECENT BOOK READ: “The Infinite Game,” by Simon Sinek
WHAT’S ONE THING YOU WOULD CHANGE ABOUT VIRGINIA? I would like to see the economic prosperity gap close between Northern Virginia, where FSA Federal is headquartered, and Southern/Southwest Virginia.
PRESIDENT AND CEO, CACI INTERNATIONAL INC., ARLINGTON
In June, Mengucci announced that CACI International had snared a $1.5 billion federal contract — the largest in company history — to provide transport and cybersecurity services to the National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency. It followed the company’s April announcement that it had been awarded a $199 million, five-year contract to provide communications systems, satellite communications and network support services to the Naval Information Warfare Center in support of U.S. Special Operations Command.
CACI reported nearly $5 billion in 2019 revenue and employs 23,000 workers worldwide. This year, it was named for the ninth time to Fortune’s annual list of the World’s Most Admired Companies.
Promoted to CEO in 2019, Mengucci previously served as CACI’s chief operating officer and its president of U.S. operations. Before joining CACI, he held several leadership positions at Lockheed Martin, including president of information systems and its global solutions civil product line.
Mengucci earned a bachelor’s degree in computer science from Clarkson University, where he serves on the board of trustees, and an MBA in organizational management from Syracuse University.
CHAIRWOMAN AND CEO, GENERAL DYNAMICS CORP., FALLS CHURCH
Forbes ranked Novakovic No. 24 on its World’s Most Powerful Women list last year — 16 spots above Queen Elizabeth II and just four places below Oprah Winfrey.
A former CIA officer, Novakovic heads one of the world’s largest aeronautical and defense companies, with 104,600 employees — 10,500 of whom are based in Virginia.
Buttressed by its record-setting $22.2 billion contract with the U.S. Navy to build fast-attack submarines, General Dynamics posted $39.4 billion in revenue in 2019. Novakovic, who has also worked for the Department of Defense, graduated from Smith College and received an MBA from the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania. She chairs the Ford’s Theatre board of trustees and serves on the board of the medical devices and health care company Abbott Laboratories.
The daughter of an Air Force officer, and of Serbian descent, she spent most of her childhood in Europe during the Cold War, an experience that she says gave her a lasting sense of both what it means to be an American and the potential threats to America.
VICE PRESIDENT AND VIRGINIA SITE DIRECTOR, MICRON TECHNOLOGY INC., MANASSAS
O’Brien began his 32-year career with Boise, Idaho-based Micron Technology Inc. after earning his bachelor’s degree in engineering physics and applied physics at Northwest Nazarene University. He started as a process engineer and worked his way up the ranks, including engineering and business leadership roles. In 2016, he became site director of the company’s Virginia facility in Manassas.
The tech company, which produces semiconductor devices for memory and storage systems, reported a whopping $23.41 billion in revenue last year. In 2018, the company began construction on a $3 billion expansion in Manassas — expected to create 1,100 jobs by 2030 (the Virginia site already employs 1,300). It’s also anticipated that Micron will participate in the $25 million-plus Commonwealth Cyber Initiative to foster university-business collaborations.
As the most senior executive in the region for Micron, O’Brien also serves as a board member of the Northern Virginia Technology Council, the largest tech council in the nation. In the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic, O’Brien was tapped to join Connected DMV’s COVID-19 Strategic Renewal Task Force, which will make recommendations for addressing short-term and long-term COVID-19-related economic recovery in Virginia, Maryland and Washington, D.C.
PRESIDENT AND CEO, HUNTINGTON INGALLS INDUSTRIES, NEWPORT NEWS
Petters heads the nation’s largest military shipbuilder and Virginia’s largest industrial employer, with more than 41,000 workers. A U.S. Naval Academy graduate, former Navy ensign and reservist, Petters announced last year that his company had an “unprecedented” 10-year backlog — totaling $48.5 billion in contracts. Adding a new Technical Services division, HII continues to grow and is a key subcontractor partnering with General Dynamics on its record-setting $22.2 billion Navy submarine-building contract. In March, HII announced the acquisition of the marine robotics
and drone firm Hydroid Inc.
Petters previously served as president of Northrop Grumman Shipbuilding and as president of Northrop Grumman’s Newport News sector. In 1987, the Florida native joined Newport News Shipbuilding, one of HII’s divisions, to oversee submarine construction. He sits on the executive committee of the Aerospace Industries Association board of governors and the board of the National Association of Manufacturers.
An advocate for early childhood education, Petters appeared on NBC’s “Today” show last year with his wife, Nancy, a preschool teacher, to talk about the approach’s long-term benefits for kids.
PRESIDENT AND CEO, MANTECH INTERNATIONAL CORP., HERNDON
Phillips has done everything at ManTech but clean the windows. He joined the company in 2002 through ManTech’s acquisition of Vienna-based CTX Corp. and has served at various times as the management and technology firm’s president, chief operating officer, corporate vice president and assistant to the CEO.
He graduated from William & Mary with a degree in business administration and serves on the board of trustees of the William & Mary Foundation. He spent a decade in the U.S. Army Reserve and has stated his commitment that ManTech be the nation’s top employer of military veterans.
In June, Phillips announced that the 9,000-employee ManTech was hiring a new COO and making organizational changes, realigning its business groups into three business sectors: intelligence, defense and federal civilian. He sits on the boards of the Professional Services Council and the Aerospace Industries Association. In March, Phillips was elected vice chairman of the Northern Virginia Technology Council.
PRESIDENT AND CEO, THE MITRE CORP., MCLEAN
Providakes heads the not-for-profit systems engineering and applied sciences company that Forbes Magazine calls “the most important organization you’ve never heard of.” The research lab is responsible for many cutting-edge tools used by U.S. military and intelligence agencies, including solutions for hacking smartwatches and software that extracts human fingerprints from social media.
Mitre has 8,421 employees, more than half of whom are based in Virginia, and its annual budget is around $1.8 billion.
Providakes, an expert in optical and remote sensing, earned his Ph.D. in electrical and computer engineering from Cornell University, and his bachelor’s and master’s degrees in electrical engineering from Worcester Polytechnic Institute. In 2019, he established Mitre Engenuity, a tech foundation for the greater public interest, and earlier this year hired Mitre’s first vice president of inclusion and diversity.
BEST ADVICE: If you think you know something, find someone who disagrees and listen to them.
MY PASSIONS: Astronomy, marathons and motorcycles
WHAT’S ONE THING YOU WOULD CHANGE ABOUT VIRGINIA? Eliminate the Dulles toll road fees.
CEO, CONSTELLIS LLC, RESTON
Reardon came to the $1.6 billion global security services company, which specializes in risk management, security, humanitarian, training and operational support services, after serving as president of defense and intelligence for the Reston-based Leidos. He also held senior executive positions at Lockheed Martin and worked for a decade as a CIA officer.
Constellis operates in 30 countries and employs 22,000 people worldwide. In July, it landed a $198 million defense contract to provide security support at U.S. military camps in Kuwait. Since Reardon’s 2018 arrival, Constellis has embraced philanthropic efforts and employee volunteerism. Last year, he led the effort to partner with Cornerstones, a nonprofit in Fairfax County that promotes self-sufficiency for those in need of food, shelter and affordable housing. He also is a supporter of the Humane Rescue Alliance, a nonprofit that advocates for animals — a humane effort that aligns with Constellis’ K9 business.
BEST ADVICE: Don’t over-plan your career progression. Just focus on doing a great job in the role you’re in and opportunities that you can’t predict will unfold for you.
FIRST JOB: Hauling wood wall panels at a home improvement store in Fairfax in 1981
PRESIDENT AND CEO, MODERN TECHNOLOGY SOLUTIONS INC., ALEXANDRIA
Robinson climbed the corporate ladder at defense contractor MTSI, which he joined in 1997 as leader of the company’s acquisition and technology group. It had eight employees then. Now it employs more than 1,150 people across the nation, with annual revenues exceeding $270 million. Fortune magazine ranked it as No. 2 on its 2019 list of 100 Best Medium Workplaces.
Tapped as MTSI’s president in 2013, Robinson became CEO in 2014. He is an alum of Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute.
In 2017, MTSI became employee owned and Robinson frequently says, “At MTSI, our No. 1 core value is employees come first,” attributing the company’s growth to its strong corporate culture and 90%-plus retention rate.
MTSI is involved in numerous federal projects, including missile defense, aviation, weapons and unmanned, autonomous systems. Last year, the company received a $258 million contract for technical and engineering support of the Department of Defense’s Special Mission Analysis, Research, Test and Evaluation, and Collection Support (SMARTECS) program. In July, Vita Inclinata Technologies teamed with MTSI to design a system for the Air Force to deliver loads from fixed-wing manned or unmanned aircrafts.
PRESIDENT AND CEO, EMCOR GOVERNMENT SERVICES INC., ARLINGTON
Rodgers started as a mechanic at Charles E. Smith Management and has since held several roles at Consolidated Engineering Services Inc. and Emcor, which performs maintenance, logistics, security, engineering and other duties for federal agencies. Emcor’s clients include U.S. Customs & Border Protection, the Department of Health and Human Services, the NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory, the FBI and the Department of Homeland Security.
Rodgers holds several degrees and certificates in the areas of building management and maintenance and engineering. He earned a master’s certificate in government contracting from George Washington University and holds a master’s degree in executive leadership from Liberty University.
Rodgers is a member of several professional groups, including the Association of Energy Managers and the National Fire Protection Association.
Emcor Government Services (EGS) is part of Emcor Group Inc., a Fortune 500 company based in Connecticut and founded in 1994. In 2002, Emcor purchased Consolidated Engineering Services, which became EGS.
Since 2008, EGS has held a Pink Hard Hat initiative, asking employees to wear pink hard hats during October to support breast cancer awareness and promote screening.
PRESIDENT AND CEO, DXC TECHNOLOGY, TYSONS
Salvino joined the Fortune 500 end-to-end IT services company in 2019 after serving as managing director of Carrick Capital Partners, where he managed large tech services businesses. Prior to Carrick, Salvino worked with Fortune Global 500 company Accenture as a group chief executive for Accenture Operations, overseeing 100,000 consulting and outsourcing professionals.
Before being appointed as president and CEO of DXC, he served on the company’s board of directors. In his role today, he oversees the company’s business with nearly 6,000 private- and public-sector customers in 70 countries.
Last year, DXC Technology reported more than $20 billion in revenue and acquired consulting firms Virtual Clarity and Bluleader. It also acquired Luxoft Holding Inc., a software engineering and digital strategy firm, for more than $2 billion.
Salvino is a board member of the Atrium Health Foundation (the largest health care system in the Carolinas), where he serves on the investment oversight committee for the hospital and foundation. He earned his bachelor’s degree in industrial engineering from Marietta College, where he serves on the board of trustees and is a chair of its investment committee. Salvino also serves on the board of visitors of the Duke University Pratt School of Engineering.
PRESIDENT AND CEO, SOS INTERNATIONAL LLC (SOSi), RESTON
The nation’s largest family-owned and operated aerospace and defense business, SOSi was founded in 1989 by Julian Setian’s mother, Sosi. Since becoming CEO in 2001, Setian has helped to expand the company into areas of logistics, intelligence, network engineering and software development. He’s also spearheaded several key acquisitions, such as SOSi’s 2018 purchase of STG Group Holdings, Inc., a top provider of mission-critical technology and cybersecurity.
Setian, who earned a bachelor’s degree in political science from Columbia University, is also the founder and chairman of Exovera, a data analytics company, and Sodevco, a provider of socially responsible and environmentally friendly renewable energy and mining solutions. Recently, Sodevco formulated the first large-scale mineral processing capability in Afghanistan.
Setian serves on, among others, the executive committee of the Professional Services Council (PSC) and the board of directors of the Wolf Trap Foundation for the Performing Arts. A big supporter of veterans’ causes, he is also a member of the Association of the United States Army and the National Defense Industrial Association.
PRESIDENT AND CEO, CONSUMER TECHNOLOGY ASSOCIATION, ARLINGTON
Shapiro heads the Consumer Technology Association, which represents more than 2,200 consumer technology companies in the U.S. and puts on the annual Consumer Electronics Show. Held in Las Vegas, the trade show is the industry’s premier event for debuting new technologies and products. (In July, CTA announced that the 2021 show will be held virtually due to the pandemic.)
Shapiro is a New York Times bestselling business book author for “Ninja Innovation: The Ten Killer Strategies of the World’s Most Successful Businesses” and “The Comeback: How Innovation will Restore the American Dream.”
With 250,000 followers, he is also considered an influencer on LinkedIn. He regularly testifies before Congress about technology and business issues, and has been named one of the most influential lobbyists in Washington, D.C.
He sat on the State Department’s Advisory Committee on International Communications and Information Policy, the board of directors of the USO of Metropolitan Washington-Baltimore and the American Enterprise Institute Global Internet Strategy Advisory Board. In Virginia, Shapiro has served on the board of directors of the Northern Virginia Technology Council and on the board of visitors at George Mason University.
CHAIRMAN, PRESIDENT AND CEO, PERATON INC., HERNDON
A legend in the field of national security, Shea started his career in 1982 as a software engineer designing some of the earliest computer systems for the CIA. Today, he leads a $1 billion national security tech company with 3,500 employees in the U.S. and Canada.
The founder and emeritus chairman of the United States Geospatial Intelligence Foundation, which promotes geospatial intelligence to address national security concerns, Shea started the foundation’s prestigious GEOINT Symposium, now the largest annual gathering of intelligence professionals in the world.
As the former president and chief operating officer for Leidos Holdings Inc., he helped to guide the corporate split of Science Applications International Corp., where he had served as COO, into Leidos and a new SAIC.
Shea received his bachelor’s degree in geological sciences from the State University of New York at Albany and his master’s degree in geography from the University of Kansas. He has attended executive development programs at the University of Virginia Darden School of Business, Harvard Business School and the George Washington University School of Business.
PRESIDENT AND COO, PARSONS CORP., CENTREVILLE
Smith joined Parsons as president of the firm’s federal solutions business in 2016 and was appointed chief operating officer two years later when the $4 billion defense technology company merged her division with the company’s critical infrastructure business line. She helped lead the corporate office’s move from Pasadena, California, to Centreville last February
and guided the company’s initial public offering ($500 million) on the New York Stock Exchange.
Parsons acquired military hardware company QRC Technologies and geospatial tech leader OGSystems last year, and underwent some organizational realignments as Smith assumed the role of president, taking responsibility for staffing the company’s expanding offerings in cyber and electronic warfare, space operations and data analytics.
In December, the company announced that Parsons, Leidos Holdings Inc. and Centerra Group LLC had secured a $4 billion joint-venture contract to support the cleanup of Hanford, a 586-squre mile former nuclear weapons site in Washington state.
Before Parsons, Smith was president of defense and space at Honeywell and held various leadership positions at Lockheed Martin. She received her master’s degree in electrical engineering from Syracuse University and her bachelor’s degree in electrical engineering from Ohio Northern University.
PRESIDENT AND CEO, AMERICAN SYSTEMS CORP., CHANTILLY
Founded in 1975, American Systems has grown to become one of the largest employee-owned companies in the U.S., and a major government IT services provider, with $375 million in annual revenue.
Smith joined the company in 1980 and before assuming the roles of president and CEO, held practically every title in the company: chief operating officer; executive vice president and general manager; vice president and executive director; vice president of engineering; program manager; and systems engineer. He currently serves as vice chairman on the company’s board of directors.
He earned his bachelor’s degree in physics from the University of Massachusetts at Amherst and his master’s degree in electrical engineering from George Washington University. Smith sits on the boards of the Professional Services Council and the Northern Virginia Technology Council and previously served as a board member for TechAmerica.
He has twice been named to Executive Mosaic’s annual Wash100 list, which recognizes the top 100 GovCon executives in the Washington, D.C., region.
DIRECTOR, NASA LANGLEY RESEARCH CENTER, HAMPTON
Turner has received numerous honors during his NASA career, including the NASA Outstanding Leadership Medal and the Presidential Rank Award. He started with NASA in 1990 as a design engineer with the Lidar In-Space Technology Experiment project. Over the past 30 years, he has held engineering leadership roles on projects such as the Ares 1-X rocket flight test, the Orion Launch Abort System and the Mars Science Laboratory. After serving as deputy center director, Turner was named director in September 2019.
With more than 1,800 employees, NASA Langley’s roots reach back to 1917. It was instrumental in the 1960s space program, highlighted by the 2016 book and film, “Hidden Figures.”
Turner coaches youth football in Hampton, serves on the president’s roundtable at his alma mater, Rochester Institute of Technology, and has also served on boards at Old Dominion University and Hampton University.
FIRST JOB: Stock clerk at Sears
FAVORITE SPORTS TEAM: Buffalo Bills
FAVORITE APP: Star Chart
WHAT I’VE LEARNED: Share kindness. The act can never be too small or too big.
FOUNDER AND MANAGING PARTNER, GUIDEPOINT SECURITY LLC, HERNDON
GuidePoint began in 2011 as an idea in Volk’s head. It’s evolved into a cybersecurity and government IT specialist with 400 vendors, more than 350 employees (49 in Virginia) and $46 million in annual revenue. In 2018, the company’s GuidePoint VSOC MSSP business was successfully spun out of the company to become cybersecurity company deepwatch, which now has more than 200 employees. This year, GuidePoint ranked No. 2,159 on the Inc. 5000 list of the nation’s fastest-growing, privately held companies.
After graduating from Virginia Tech with a bachelor’s degree in finance and an MBA in management, Volk spent eight years as a U.S. Air Force officer. A former program manager at the Pentagon, he was responsible for the creation and management of its $128 million Air Force/Coast Guard counterdrug efforts.
FIRST JOB: I was the chicken guy at Roy Rogers for six months. I think anyone that wants to learn about hard work and customer service should spend some time working for a fast food restaurant.
FAVORITE APP: Waze
FAVORITE VACATION DESTIONATION: Port Douglas, Australia
FAVORITE SONG: “Don’t Stop Believin’,” by Journey
CEO, ADS INC., VIRGINIA BEACH
How a small Virginia Beach dive shop (Atlantic Diving Supply) transformed itself into a thriving $1.8 billion-a year government contractor is one of the more unlikely business success stories. ADS began as Lynnhaven Dive Center in 1979, later spinning off into Atlantic Diving Supply, with a specific focus on providing quality marine supplies to Navy SEALs and operations units. It has since branched off into tactical military gear, robotics, first responder tools and many other offerings.
Wallace came to ADS, which has more than 400 employees, in 2004. Before being tapped as CEO in 2014, he served as chief operating officer and president, vice president of sales and marketing, and vice president of inside sales and vendor relations. He was previously vice president of sales and operations for Sunbelt Rentals. He earned his bachelor’s degree from Old Dominion University.
In 2018, ADS started the Mission Give Back Foundation, which awards scholarships to the children of fallen soldiers. In December 2019, majority owner and former CEO Luke Hillier paid $20 million to settle allegations of defrauding the government on federal contracts. ADS settled its part of the dispute for $16 million in 2017. Admission of liability was not a part of either settlement.
CHAIRMAN, PRESIDENT AND CEO, NORTHROP GRUMMAN CORP., FALLS CHURCH
A cybersecurity and information technology expert, Warden oversees one of the world’s largest weapons manufacturers and military technology providers. A $33.8 billion global aerospace and defense company, Northrop Grumman employs 90,000 people, including 7,800 in Virginia.
Its work includes a $3.2 billion defense contract to build Advanced Hawkeye tactical aircraft and a deal to provide the first crew module for a space station as part of NASA’s Artemis lunar program. NG awaits final approval of an $85 billion contract to build the Air Force’s intercontinental ballistic missile system.
Buttressed by a recent double-digit increase in classified work from the Pentagon, NG also benefits from its 2018 acquisition of Orbital ATK, now Northrop Grumman Space Systems.
Warden earned her bachelor’s degree at James Madison University and sits on JMU’s board of visitors. She received her MBA from George Washington University. She chairs the board of directors of the Federal Reserve Bank of Richmond and sits on the boards of Merck & Co. and Catalyst.
VICE PRESIDENT OF HQ2 WORKFORCE DEVELOPMENT, AMAZON.COM INC., ARLINGTON
Five months into her 2014 retirement from semiconductor manufacturing company Intel Corp., Williams was sipping a martini on her patio in Palm Springs, California, when she received a call about a job. She sat down her glass after hearing it was with Amazon.
She wound up running global talent acquisition for Amazon Web Services, overseeing the hiring of 23,000 employees for the e-tailer’s rapidly growing cloud computing subsidiary.
Williams now serves as Amazon’s vice president of workforce development for HQ2, responsible for developing a 25,000-person workforce over the next decade at Amazon’s $2.5 billion East Coast headquarters under development in Arlington.
Since Amazon’s late 2018 announcement that it was locating HQ2 in Virginia, Williams has become a recognizable figure in the commonwealth, representing Amazon at a variety of events. And she’s definitely an Amazon booster: Two of her three grown children work at the company’s Seattle headquarters.
She hasn’t always worked with tech giants, though. After graduating from the University of San Francisco, Williams served as a captain with the Army Signal Corps. Williams built an apprenticeship program that has brought more than 600 veterans to work at Amazon.
