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byline: Joan Tupponce

Metro maintenance creates rush-hour headaches

Northern Virginia residents are adjusting their travel schedules as the 118-mile Metrorail transit system undergoes a maintenance overhaul.

In May, Metro began warning travelers that its maintenance schedule will have a significant effect on rush-hour commutes. In many cases, the work will reduce the frequency of trains.

Metro’s 11-month SafeTrack maintenance plan includes 15 “safety surges,” long-duration track outages for key parts of the system. The first surge started June 4 between the East Falls Church and Ballston stations.

In addition, the transit system is closing at midnight every night and expanding weekday maintenance operations by starting some jobs at 8 p.m.

Diana Sun, Arlington’s assistant county manager and director of communications, knows that this is just the beginning of a long year of inconvenience. “We are trying to figure out every possible way we can to get people to where they need to go,” she says.

In March, Metro had an emergency one-day shutdown, and many people had to find alternatives in getting to work. “That day went well,” Sun says. “What it says to me is that we can do it. It’s possible. It gives us hope.”

The county is encouraging businesses to offer employees alternatives, such as allowing them to telework or shift their schedules. “For those people who can telework, we want to encourage them to do so,” she says, noting that Arlington is making these adjustments for its employees. “Anything that will help to alleviate traffic.”

Other options include carpooling and bus transportation. “If you look at the sheer numbers, there are not enough buses to handle the Metro traffic,” Sun says, adding that the number of commuters riding bicycles to work increased during the Metro shutdown in March. “People that don’t live so far from work can take advantage of that. Also Uber expanded its carpooling that day as well.”

Sun hopes that commuters and businesses will find creative solutions. “The worst thing is to have one person in one car,” she says.

Arlington has a variety of options for commuters, including buses, Uber, Zipcar, Lyft, Car2Go, Capital Bikeshare and ART (Arlington Transit). Commuters can find a variety of options on the county’s CommuterPage.com where a section is devoted to SafeTrack information.

The shutdowns, of course, will include much more than Arlington. “This whole region is entirely interlinked,” Sun says. “It’s all connected. It has to be everybody pulling together.”

New technologies, new concerns

Technologies that seemed futuristic a few decades ago now are commonplace. Computers, the internet and smart devices are business necessities, and it won’t be long before drones and driverless vehicles also will play prominent roles in the economy.

All of these technologies, however, have risks associated with them. Those potential problems, in turn, will affect risk management strategies.

“The problem with futuristic technology is that it is unpredictable,” says Hutch Mauck, president of Lynchburg-based Scott Insurance. “From my perspective, we at Scott completely buy into an exponential acceleration of technology. We know that, in 10 to 20 years, there will be all sorts of advancements and changes that in many cases we are not even thinking about today.”

This unpredictability will create a “greater need for smart, inquisitive risk managers that can see what’s going on in the world around us,” Mauck adds.

851 million records exposed
In terms of technology, the most prevalent risk management threat to companies comes from the “overall connectivity of employees and businesses with devices around the world,” says John Middleton, president of property and casualty insurance for Richmond, Newport News and Norfolk at New York-based USI Insurance Services.

Since 2005 the California-based nonprofit Identity Theft Resource Center has seen a 397 percent increase in data exposure incidents across financial services, business, education, government and health-care sectors. More than 851 million records have been exposed over the last decade.

The bad news is that the threat of cyber risks is evolving continuously. “The minute you think you understand all the exposures, cyber criminals come up with a unique way to attack businesses,” Middleton says.

New threats include social engineering schemes. One example is the cyber criminal who steals money and information by impersonating a high-level executive. Hacking the executive’s email, the crook instructs an employee to transfer money to a certain account. “How this [criminal trend] evolves is really important, and underwriters need to continue to respond, offering greater depth and breadth of coverages to respond to new developments from cyber criminals,” Middleton says of cyber crimes.

Middle-market targets
Most companies, however, don’t think they are vulnerable, mistakenly believing that most cyber attacks are aimed at large corporations. The reality is that the vast majority of attacks are aimed at middle-market companies “with less than $50 million of revenue and less than 500 employees,” Middleton says.

Cyber and privacy liability have to be considered one of the “greatest risks to a company or an individual,” says John Stanchina, president and CEO of Rutherfoord, a Marsh & McLennan Agency LLC Co. “Businesses have an enormous amount of exposures. They need to protect their business, their employees and their customers.”

Even though more companies are looking at cyber and privacy liability coverage, it is still not a coverage that is commonly purchased. “About 80 percent of companies are thinking about it, but less than 50 percent get it,” says Walter Smith, state insurance president of BB&T Insurance Services Inc.

In other areas, companies such as Airbnb and Uber are using technology to change the travel habits of businesses and consumers.

“Uber doesn’t own any cars. It’s not a taxi service, but it is disrupting the traditional taxi service and limo service in an enormous way,” Stanchina says. “Airbnb is doing the same thing to the lodging industry. Companies using technology and big data in the insurance industry have the ability to be disruptors in the same way. It gives them the opportunity to create products and delivery innovations for clients such as 24-hour, seven-day-a-week access. It will give the client a better experience as well as new products and services.”

Coverage for drones
Technology also plays a role in the popularity of drones. These unmanned aerial vehicles are being used by a growing number of industries, ranging from mining and contracting to surveying and engineering. “In 10 years, they will represent 10 percent of the global civil aviation field,” says Stanchina. “Today there are more than 1 million drones operating commercially. It represents a growth segment over the next 10 to 20 years.”

A few years ago “getting coverage for drones was a Herculean task. Now it’s out there, and it can be obtained,” says Paul Fleming, senior vice president for Henrico County-based Bankers Insurance. “Percentage-wise, there is a big increase in interest in drone coverage. There are not a big number of businesses buying the liability coverage, but there is interest.”

Often businesses will hire a third-party company to take aerial footage with a drone. “We are seeing that with country clubs, large resorts and commercial real estate,” Fleming says. “If you bring in a third party, you want to make sure they have coverage, particularly liability coverage.”

Property, privacy and security coverage also is available for drones. “Any company that is using a drone should be considering all of those coverages in order to adequately protect themselves,” says Mauck.

Currently businesses and state governments are gearing up for one of the newest technologies — driverless vehicles. Companies such as Google, Volvo, Ford and Tesla Motors have been testing driverless vehicles for a couple of years.

“There is a dire prediction that people will get away from cars, but I don’t see that realistically occurring,” says Smith of BB&T. “I am told that driverless vehicles are going to be in regular use in five years. There will be companies that buy driverless cars and also rent them like Uber.”

There also is speculation that driverless vehicles will reduce accidents because they eliminate human error. “The insurance industry believes that driverless vehicles will be the biggest safety revolution in the industry since the seat belt,” Stanchina says. “Automobile insurance is the largest segment in the insurance industry, and it has been the worst-performing segment in the industry. Driverless cars will reduce losses, which will ultimately reduce premiums.”

That’s a reminder that technological innovations can offer benefits as well as risks.

Major milestone

One hundred years of business is a major achievement for any company, but it’s also a family anniversary for Virginia-based insurance brokerage Rutherfoord, a Marsh & McLennan Agency LLC Company.

The Rutherfoord family has been involved continuously with the company since Thomas Rutherfoord founded it on Feb. 1, 1916, in Roanoke.

“When the company first started it was an insurance agency with offices in Roanoke, New York City and Welch, W.Va.,” says Thomas Rutherfoord Brown, the founder’s grandson, who is the company’s chairman.

Brown attributes Rutherfoord’s long-term success to its strategic planning process, which brought about a focus on risk management.

“Through the strategic planning process, we evolved into a resource-rich brokerage firm that was bringing tremendous value to our customers for claims mitigation, risk prevention and other areas of specialization,” he says. “We have significantly enhanced our capabilities. It is our desire to become an integral part of our customers’ professional team.”

Today Rutherfoord is part of the Marsh & McLennan Agency network. Rutherfoord serves a region that includes 11 states — Pennsylvania, Maryland, Virginia, North Carolina, South Carolina, Georgia, Tennessee, Alabama, Mississippi, Kentucky and West Virginia — and the District of Columbia. New York-based Marsh & McLennan Agency, a global leader in insurance brokerage and risk management services, acquired Rutherfoord in 2010.

“We don’t have a flag in all of those places, but part of our goal is to build out that footprint,” Brown says.

Four generations
During the past century, Rutherfoord grew and changed under the family’s guidance.

After the death of the firm’s founder in 1952, his brother, Julian Rutherfoord, and Julian’s two sons, Julian Rutherfoord Jr. and Thomas D. Rutherfoord, ran the company.

The brothers split the company in 1963, with Thomas focusing on the commercial side of the business.

“It was Thomas D. Rutherfoord that focused on the construction industry,” Brown says. “The firm became recognized as a specialist in the construction industry for surety and insurance. Construction is still one of our top industry segments.”

By 1971, Thomas D. Rutherfoord Jr., the founder’s grandnephew, was managing the Alexandria office. He became president of the company when his father retired in 1986. The younger Rutherfoord took on the roles of CEO in 1998 and chairman in 2004. He retired last year.

Brown joined the firm in 1979 as a producer in Roanoke. He became president in 1998, CEO in 2004 and vice chairman in 2010 before becoming chairman earlier this year. His son, Thomas Rutherfoord Brown Jr., now working as a producer, represents the fourth generation in the business.

Broadening expertise
The company’s growing presence in the Southeast and mid-Atlantic regions caught the eye of Marsh & McLennan. When it was acquired six years ago, Rutherfoord had 350 employees and annual revenue of $83 million.

“What attracted them to us was the quality of the firm and the geographic footprint,” Brown says. “We were one of the first acquisitions they made.”

Rutherfoord now has offices in Richmond, Roanoke, Alexandria and Hampton Roads; Raleigh, Charlotte, Greensboro, High Point and Wilmington, N.C.; Greenville, S.C.; Atlanta; King of Prussia, Pa.; and Mobile, Ala.

Over the years, Rutherfoord has continuously broadened its expertise. For example, international risk management, which includes Defense Base Act coverage, has become a big component of the company’s offerings. The coverage provides workers’ compensation to certain governmental entities working outside the United States on American military bases or under a contract with the U.S. government.

“If you were working for one of the agencies that endorsed the program, you had to go through us to get Defense Base Act coverage,” Brown says. “When the war in Iraq broke out, demand for our services increased exponentially. We are still in that business today.”

The industries the company serves range from real estate and construction to technology and health sciences. “There isn’t anything we can’t do,” Brown says. “We have the expertise to do a lot of things.”

Rutherfoord President and CEO John Stanchina, who joined the firm in 1994 as a producer, has found it personally satisfying to watch as the company innovates and expands. “It’s been a great first 100 years, and it should be an even more rewarding next 100 years,” he says.

The company has created an atmosphere where associates “have no ceiling on where they can take their careers,” Stanchina says.

Northern Neck firm aims to create IT jobs

John May wants to bring technology jobs to the Northern Neck.

May worked in the telecommunications industry in Northern Virginia for more than 30 years. Three years ago, he realized the benefits of working in a rural area after moving to Weems.

May discovered that an area along Route 3 in the Northern Neck has fiber-optic cable that can provide unlimited broadband capacity and speeds. “In places where you have broadband, you can write software anywhere,” he says. “You can support areas like Washington, D.C., Richmond, Dahlgren [Naval Surface Warfare Center] and Hampton Roads at a price that is less expensive.”

Today, May is the president and CEO of the Center for Innovation and Development (CID) in Kilmarnock. CID opened in April 2015 and now has eight employees. The mission of the nonprofit organization is to promote economic development and create jobs in the Northern Neck.

CID’s services include software development, user-interface design and back-office computing. “We are a high-tech hub,” May says.

He says companies can use CID as an extension of their facilities or they can contract with Advanced Network Systems, a for-profit entity created and supported by CID, for consulting or project services as well as customer development services.

CID also offers the services of Business Re-engineering Corp., another for-profit company it created as a HUBZone (historically underutilized business zone) business. “Federal contractors can get credit for doing business in a HUBZone,” May says.

He hopes that, while bringing jobs to the Northern Neck, CID will help U.S. companies avoid offshoring jobs to foreign countries. “I headed a company that had 100 people in India, so I am familiar with offshoring,” May says, adding there are disadvantages to offshoring, such as problems controlling product quality. “I’ve learned it’s better to keep work close to home.”

May says one advantage that companies would discover in using CID is the Northern Neck doesn’t have Northern Virginia’s traffic congestion. Employees are not sitting “in a car in traffic when they can be here working,” he says.

Chamber of commerce marks 100th anniversary

As part of its 100th anniversary celebration, the Harrisonburg-Rockingham Chamber of Commerce dug up a time capsule it had buried 50 years ago.

“We wanted to dig it up on the official day that we got our charter signed, which was April 26, 1916,” says Frank Tamberrino, the chamber’s president and CEO.

The chamber invited to the ceremony some people who had been present when the capsule was buried in 1966. The group included Ed Seidel who was executive vice president of the organization from 1965 to 1968. “He helped put the time capsule in the ground 50 years ago,” Tamberrino says. “We hosted a reception in advance of digging up the capsule, and we had about 20 past presidents and chairmen there.”

The time capsule contained items from area companies, such as Merck and Reynolds Metals (which was acquired by Alcoa in 2000), as well as a number of canned turkey and poultry products. (Poultry remains a significant industry in the Shenandoah Valley.)

Tamberrino notes that many of the items were covered by shrink-wrap made by the former Reynolds Metals plant in Grottoes (now Reynolds Flexible Packaging, a part of Pactiv Foodservice).“They wrapped a lot of products so there wouldn’t be any problems if the cans leaked, and one had leaked.”

Other items in the capsule included a tube of Brylcreem, some annual reports, a zoning code, a land use plan and two pairs of pants, one from Metro Garments and the other from H.D. Lee, two garment companies in the area at the time. “Garment companies were important here in the 1950s and 1960s,” Tamberrino says.

During the event, the son of a former H.D. Lee employee read a note his father had put in one of the pairs of pants. The note explained the permanently creased pants were from the company’s facility in Broadway.

All of the artifacts are now on display in Tamberrino’s office. “We are scanning some of the items and they will eventually make their way to either James Madison University’s special collections library or the Harrisonburg-Rockingham Historical Society, which has The Heritage Museum in Dayton,” he says.

The chamber plans to bury another time capsule in the same spot on Court Square in June or July. “We are taking suggestions from folks as to what should go in there,” Tamberrino says.

The Launch Place invests $1.94 million in eight companies

Jason Barton, co-founder and chief technology officer for KSI Video, wasn’t sure that opening his company in Danville was the right move until he learned about The Launch Place. “It has turned out to be the best thing for us,” he says. “We do video and data management for drones and ground and underwater robots, and Danville wound up in the heart of an area for drone research.”

The Launch Place is constantly searching for companies like KSI — firms with ideas for the next best thing that are willing to turn those ideas into businesses in Danville.

The organization’s latest investment — $200,000 — will go to Roobrik, a company that provides an interactive software tool for making decisions about long-term care.

The program began in 2012 when the Danville Regional Foundation approved a $10 million grant to transform the Southside Business Technology Center and rebrand it as The Launch Place. To date, The Launch Place has made nine investments totaling $1.94 million in eight companies. Six of the investments came from a seed fund for companies that are well along in developing products. Another three investments came from a pre-seed fund for companies that are not as far along in that process.

The companies receiving investments represent fields ranging from information technology software development to advanced manufacturing.

Additional companies are in the pipeline. The organization has received 283 applications for investments from the two funds.

“All of these companies we invested in were a good fit for Danville and met the requirements of creating five jobs in a three-year period,” says Eva Doss, the president and CEO of The Launch Place. “We didn’t want companies to make a commitment just because of the money. They have to take advantage of our Danville location.”

The organization’s biggest challenges are finding strong companies that want to create a presence in Danville and helping those companies get additional investments as they grow. “We have had success in establishing partnerships with venture capitalists and angel funds,” Doss says. “If the companies need additional funding, we can introduce them to other angel funds and share professional due-diligence info.”

The program has helped Barton of KSI find additional investors. “We have raised $1.2 million over three years,” he says, noting his company initially received a $250,000 investment from The Launch Place and a year later got an additional $100,000.

Doss believes The Launch Place has burnished Danville’s reputation as a community that takes entrepreneurship seriously. “Danville is interested in helping new businesses to form,” she says. “This is definitely an atmosphere where entrepreneurship occurs.”

Fast-growing Ingenicomm aims for the stars

Ingenicomm can legitimately say business is out of this world.

Products developed by the Chantilly-based company are used by NASA, the International Space Station, Japanese Aerospace Exploration Agency and Canadian Space Agency.

“Targeting the international market is a natural for our company,” says Amit Puri, the company’s president and CEO.

The company’s programmable telemetry processor (PTP), for example, is designed to process spacecraft telemetry. A spacecraft sends collected data to operators on the ground with information that includes the status of the spacecraft as well as scientific data gathered by its instruments.

“It’s an extraordinarily flexible product,” Puri says of PTP. “The standard PTP contains more than 200 different software modules that perform different types of processing for spacecraft data. Users can select and configure individual modules as they need for their unique mission needs.”

Puri and three colleagues started the business in 2010 after working at companies that worked with international and domestic space agencies.

“My first job out of college was as a ground-systems engineer at Avtec Systems, a small aerospace contractor located in Fairfax,” Puri says. “At the time, Avtec was a key supplier of data-processing equipment to NASA, and the job introduced me to the aerospace market.”

The market has been good for Ingenicomm. It ranked No. 8 on the 2016 Fantastic 50, an annual list of the fastest-growing small companies in Virginia. The company recorded a revenue growth rate of 692.5 percent from 2011 to 2014.

Ingenicomm has 40 employees, about half of whom work in Chantilly and an office in Greenbelt, Md. The other employees are located in White Sands, N.M., supporting the NASA facility there.

Ingenicomm supports a significant portion of the scientific and exploratory spacecraft operated by NASA, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) and the United States Geological Survey (USGS).

The company also works with a variety of domestic defense and intelligence programs. Ingenicomm-developed equipment is used to support critical early warning and missile detection systems such as the Space-Based Space Surveillance and Space-Based Infrared system operated by the U.S. Air Force.

Puri is pleased with the support the company has received from the commonwealth in developing international markets.

“It’s clear that Virginia is deeply interested in expanding its export footprint in the global marketplace and is prepared to offer practical assistance and not just encouraging words,” he says. “This makes it an ideal location from which to run a global business such as ours.”

An attentive ear

HIGHEST REVENUE GROWTH
Cynet Systems Inc.
Ashburn

In the past five years, staffing firm Cynet Systems Inc. has placed about 1,500 people in industries ranging from information technology to banking. Five hundred of those placements occurred in 2015 alone, says Ashwani Mayur, the company’s co-CEO.

Mayur and Snigdha Budhiraja, who is president and co-CEO, started the company in 2010 after seeing a need for recruiting high-performing employees in the staffing industry. “With over 6,000 staffing organizations to choose from, Cynet Systems originated with a deep desire to be qualitatively different,” says Mayur.

The Ashburn-based company is now one of the leading staffing and recruiting firms in the Washington, D.C., area. Its revenue grew 7,388.69 percent from 2011 to 2014, making it the fastest-growing company in the Fantastic 50 this year. In 2015, the company’s revenue nearly doubled to $31.5 million.

“Our growth and success over the last five years is a testament to the spirit of our people,” Mayur says. “We believe we have the best staffing professionals in the industry, who in turn recruit the best.”

The company now has 450 employees and consultants in North America, including 10 at its Ashburn headquarters. Another 100 employees perform back-office duties in India. “The number of employees is very deceptive,” Mayur notes, however. “It includes our billable contractors.”

Mayur attributes Cynet’s rapid growth to its emphasis on understanding clients’ needs. “For our staffing agency, it is a requirement to listen to the client carefully. We have to figure out exactly what they are looking for and give that information to our recruiters to find the right person [for the job],” Mayur says. “We don’t send a lot of people to the client. We only send a select few. Understanding the client and the client’s mindset helped us.”

Cynet provides permanent, temporary and contract-to-hire staffing in the United States and Canada. Clients range from small government contractors to Fortune 500 companies.

More than 50 percent of the company’s customers are companies with revenue of more than $1 billion, such as HCL America, an IT consulting firm; India-based Larsen & Toubro, a technology, engineering and construction conglomerate; and Century Link, a communications and IT services firm.

The company also works with companies with revenues in the $10 million to $900 million range. “Some of those are federal contractors,” Mayur says.

Sometimes a small company finds it difficult to focus on recruitment after it wins a large federal contract, Mayur says. “We can support any company like that once they have a contract in their hands,” he says.

Cynet recently began offering its services to the health-care industry as a way to diversify its customer base. “This year we will focus on health care,” Mayur says. “That will help us go to the next level.”

The industry, however, does pose some challenges for Cynet. Health-care companies often need permanent and temporary workers in small communities as well as major cities. “It’s hard to find people to work as a contractor and go to a small town for a short-term contract,” Mayur says. 

In developing a qualified applicant pool, the company uses a variety of ways to recruit contractors, including the website Monster.com and social media outlets such as Twitter. “We send more than 50 contractors to clients on a monthly basis,” Mayur says. “When I’m looking for contractors, I might have between 800 to 1,000 people contact me.”

Cynet focuses on diversity in its clients and employees. “We will continue our hiring efforts and focus on diversity hiring, making opportunities for our veterans, military and disadvantaged,” he says.

“We will also have a greater visibility in local college and university recruitment,” he adds. “Our technical experts hope to converse with local schools and provide expertise on job market demands and supply, thereby giving students an insight into the job world and guiding them on courses.”

Cynet never forgets that it is a service-oriented company. “Our results depend heavily on the satisfaction of our customers in the quality of our service, delivery, agility and business acumen,” Mayur says. “Our customer focus is strongly embedded into the DNA of every employee at Cynet Systems.”

People with special skills

SERVICE
Patriot Group International Inc. 
Warrenton

This looks to be a very good year for Warrenton-based Patriot Group International Inc. The company, which specializes in security, defense and intelligence services, was named one of 15 prime contractors of a $975 million Counter Narcotics and Global Threats Operations and Logistics Support contract.

Under the nine-year contract, the company will be helping the U.S. and partner organizations detect and defeat threats associated with narcotics, trafficking, piracy and transnational organized crime.

“Our people excel at performing their duties, especially in austere, high-threat environments,” says company CEO Greg Craddock.

Additionally, Chenega-Patriot Group LLC, a joint partnership involving Patriot Group, Chenega Security & Support Services and Reed Inc., was one of seven prime contractors in a five-year, $10.2 billion Worldwide Protective Services II contract awarded by the State Department.

From 2011 to 2014, revenue at Patriot Group rose 2,773 percent, making it the Vanguard winner among service companies in this year’s Fantastic 50. The company also ranked No. 137 on the Inc. 5000 last year and is a two-time winner of Northrop Grumman’s Performance Excellence award.

Patriot Group, which currently has about 90 employees, offers a variety of services, including security, training, research and development, analytics and training exercise support, such as advanced marksmanship and cultural awareness.

It also provides global construction security support in the deployment of personnel and equipment as well as management of life-support functions, such as camps, transportation and logistics, in a variety of U.S. and international locations.

Its clients include the Defense Department, the intelligence community and other federal agencies. “We provide people with special skills and clearances,” Craddock says, noting that members of his team have experience in military special operations and government intelligence agencies. “We realize the unique challenges the government faces overseas, and we provide conventional and unconventional solutions to those challenges.”

Craddock and a group of private investors bought the company in 2009. It had been founded in 2004 as a government service provider.

“We confronted many of the challenges that are common to all startups,” says Craddock, who previously served as a staff sergeant in the U.S. Army. “We kept at it and eventually created some momentum through our network and by convincing other industry professionals to give us a chance to perform. We want to express our gratitude for the number of people that helped us out.”

The company puts an emphasis on hiring experts and being respectful of employees. “We seek out the very best personnel that meet the specific requirements of the job, but we also invest in the individual employee,” Craddock says.

Patriot Group provides employees with additional professional development training and educational opportunities outside of the company.

“Being a service provider, we believe in taking good care of our personnel. We invest in our people,” Craddock says, adding that the leadership team practices a decentralized form of management. “We allow our leaders to make decisions, and we reward them on their successes.”

Remaining successful in a competitive field can be very challenging. “One of the most recent challenges we have had to deal with is scaling,” Craddock says. “We have experienced a degree of success, and with that comes growth, but now we are competing with companies that have tremendous resources. We have to be very focused and responsive. We have to provide a high quality of service to grow our business in a smart way that allows us to continually improve.”

Patriot Group prides itself on being very discreet. “It is a profound challenge to maintain discretion, especially with increased visibility,” Craddock says. “We work very hard to make sure all of our professionals understand this dynamic and adhere to it at all times.”

Risk management presents yet another challenge. “Since we began operations in 2009, the military presence in some of the areas we operate has decreased. This adds a higher degree of risk that a high percentage of our people have to deal with on a daily basis,” he says.

Craddock makes it his mission to not only to hire but to also honor fellow veterans. “Our leadership is primarily comprised of veterans,” he says. “One of our greatest desires is to support the veteran network. Now, there are a profound number of veterans that are coming back from service with disabilities. We want to support them as well through charitable works and contributions.”

Critical technology

TECHNOLOGY
Synaptek Corp.
Reston

Synaptek Corp.’s technology often is used in situations where lives are at stake.

In 2014, the company created a wireless network for the Department of Veterans Affairs that allows it to locate at a moment’s notice equipment needed for patient care, such as EKG machines or infusion pumps.

“That was the largest deployment of wireless systems in the world, commercial or otherwise,” says the company’s CEO, Kamran Jinnah. “It has 120,000 wireless access points.”

Synaptek’s work ranges from IT service solutions, technical support and strategic planning to systems and software engineering, network engineering and cybersecurity. In addition to the VA, its customers include the Defense Department, other federal agencies, state and local governments, and commercial enterprises.

The company focuses on providing cost-effective solutions and support that enable its customers to improve services, increase efficiencies and better perform their missions.

Jinnah, company President David Gauldfeldt and Chief Operating Officer Michael Haskett founded Reston-based Synaptek in 2008. “All three of us had run multi-$100 million business systems for Fortune 500 large system integrators,” Jinnah says. “We had known each other for more than 20 years. We planned the company for nearly two years before we launched it.”

From 2011 to 2014, the company’s revenue rose 1,080.2 percent, making it the Vanguard winner among technology companies in this year’s Fantastic 50.

Since its founding, the company has completed a variety of large-scale projects. For example, it supports a complex enterprise network for the Pentagon. “Each of the Armed Forces has a different mission, and those different missions have different systems. You don’t want one system to affect another,” Jinnah says. “This network provides the appropriate boundaries to ensure security for each of their unique missions.”

Synaptek also developed a commercial application for iPads called iTox. The app helps medical personnel using Botulinum toxin in treating neurological disorders. “All of the injection points in the neck and face were being recorded by a paper-based process,” Jinnah says. Using the app, doctors can record the information digitally and put it in the patient’s medical record. “That type of app could be used widely,” Jinnah says.

The company understands the “pace of technology today and the need to have a comprehensive well-planned information management environment,” Gauldfeldt says. “[The company motto] ‘Technology moving at the speed of thought’ embodies these principles — the need to nimbly utilize the best that information technology offers to meet the business needs of our government customers.”

The company’s revenue has grown consistently since 2009. In addition to being named to the Fantastic 50 this year, the company was included in Washington Technology’s Fast 50 in 2014 and 2015. “Our number of employees has grown in line with revenue,” Jinnah says. “The first year we had four employees, and we have just under 100 now.”

The company has offices in Reston and in New Orleans. It has operations in 22 states. “Those are remote telework virtual staff members,” Jinnah says. “Many of our employees operate out of their home or on the road.”

Last year Synaptek was recognized by the Best Workplaces for Commuters program for offering benefits such as telework and emergency ride home programs and FSA benefits for commuters.

“We are a green company. People don’t want to spend one hour in their car going back and forth to work,” he says. “We work virtually with Skype and instant messaging. We can share a desktop with any employee at any time. So, where you sit becomes less important. Our employees are happier and more productive.”

The company’s work can be cyclical because of the process involved in getting contracts. “We have 23 projects under evaluation, but none have been awarded,” Jinnah says. “It’s a challenging environment because there are always delays.”

Synaptek has been working with a major telecommunications provider for 18 months to become one of its master approved vendors for wireless networks. “We are going through final approvals now,” Jinnah says.