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Government Contractors | Technology 2025: ESCARAVAGE, STEVE

Escaravage leads Booz Allen’s newly formed Defense Group, a position he has held since April 1. In his new role, Escaravage is responsible for speeding capabilities for the company’s defense customers.

Escaravage received his fourth Wash100 award from Executive Mosaic in 2025 and chairs the AI group for its 4×24 Executive Leadership Series. He has served in a variety of roles for the global management consulting company for 25 years, including leading its AI business. Booz Allen is the largest provider of AI services to the federal .

Booz Allen employs more than 35,000 people. The company posted $12 billion in revenue in fiscal 2025, up 12% from the previous year, and 98% of that came from government-related work, according to The Wall Street Journal. In May, the company cut 2,500 jobs as the Trump administration slashed federal spending.

Escaravage earned his bachelor’s degree from Rutgers University and a master’s degree from George Mason University. He is an ex officio member of the Special Olympics Virginia board and is an industry commissioner for the Atlantic Council’s software-defined warfare and defense innovation adoption commissions.

Government Contractors | Technology 2025: LE, PHONG

In February, the company formerly known as , known for being the world’s largest corporate owner, dropped the “micro” from its name, becoming simply . Given that bitcoin reached yet another record high in July, this time reaching $123,000, the Tysons tech company’s strategy looks to be paying off.

As of July 6, Strategy owned 597,325 bitcoin, which it purchased for $42.4 billion at an average price of $70,982 per bitcoin, bringing the value of its holdings to more than $64 billion. Nevertheless, in May, shareholders filed a class-action lawsuit against Strategy, claiming the company misled them about the risks and profitability of its bitcoin strategy.

Le took the helm at Strategy in 2022 after the company’s high-profile billionaire founder and former CEO, evangelist Michael Saylor, transitioned to executive chairman.

Le joined Strategy in 2015 and was its chief financial officer and chief operating officer. He is a graduate of Johns Hopkins University and MIT’s Sloan School of Management. He previously worked for XO Communications, NII Holdings and Deloitte.

Education 2025: SANDS, TIMOTHY

Sands became the land-grant university’s 16th president in 2014 after serving as interim president at Purdue University, and is under contract to stay through 2027.

He has led the development of Virginia Tech’s Innovation Campus, a $1 billion campus in Alexandria for graduate computer science and engineering programs. The campus’s first academic building, costing $302 million, opened for classes in January.

Virginia Tech has received notable donations in recent years, including $50 million from defense contractor Boeing and two $50 million gifts for the Fralin Biomedical Research Institute at VTC in Roanoke. In fiscal 2024, its federal research spending exceeded $308 million, Sands said

in February, but in May, the university reported 57 grants worth $57.9 million were terminated.

Sands previously was executive vice president for academic affairs and provost of Purdue University. Trained as a scientist whose research focused on light-emitting diodes, he holds bachelor’s, master’s and doctoral degrees from the University of California, Berkeley.

Sands is currently in the middle of his two-year term as chair of the NCAA Division I Board of Directors, which maintains oversight over the division’s finances, litigation and infractions process.

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Government Contractors | Technology 2025: ANGOLD, RYAN

A graduate of the U.S. Naval Academy and former Navy SEAL, Angold leads a company that was named the 24th largest federal contractor in 2019.

Angold left the military in 2005 and joined Blackbird Technologies, a solutions provider for the intelligence community that’s now part of RTX. After a stint at VP Expeditionary Programs in 2010, Angold joined ADS. He was promoted to CEO in 2022.

ADS started as a small dive shop, Lynnhaven Dive Center, in . The son of the company’s founder created an offshoot in 1997 to manage federal contracts and supply military divers. ADS now offers more than 50,000 products to more than 10,000 customers.

In May, ADS was among several companies named by the Defense Logistics Agency to share in a contract worth up to $5 billion to supply integrated weapons systems equipment and services in support of Virginia-class submarines and active surface ships.

Government Contractors | Technology 2025: ABOD, CRAIG P.

Since Abod founded Carahsoft in 2004, the privately owned IT and cybersecurity solutions provider has grown to land the No. 26 spot on Forbes’ 2024 list of the nation’s largest private companies, with more than $15 billion in revenue and 3,200 employees.

In January, Abod, a University of Maryland graduate, was named for the 11th time to Executive Mosaic’s Wash100 list of top contracting executives.

Abod’s company has notched several large contract wins in recent years, including a spot announced in 2024 on an Air Force contract worth up to $975 million to optimize the operational readiness of deployed weapons systems.

Bloomberg News in February reported that the Department of Justice and Securities Exchange Commission are investigating a $32 million deal between Carahsoft and CrowdStrike to provide cybersecurity tools to the Internal Revenue Service, but the IRS never purchased the items. That comes amid a separate probe into whether the firm conspired with German software company SAP to fix prices on sales to the U.S. military and government customers. Law enforcement agencies raided Carahsoft’s Reston headquarters in 2024. SAP said the raid was unrelated to that business.

Education 2025: FLEMING, SCOTT

Named to lead SCHEV in 2024, Fleming was serving his first term on the council’s governing board when he was hired.

SCHEV is a coordinating body for the state’s , implementing statewide policies set by the General Assembly and the governor, suggesting policies and funding, and conducting research. Fleming replaced interim director Alan Edwards, who served after longtime SCHEV director Peter Blake stepped down in 2023.

With two degrees from Brigham Young University, Fleming previously worked with Scantron, Houghton Mifflin Harcourt and Strada Foundation, and he was a staffer for the U.S. Senate Committee on Health, Education, Labor and Pensions.

In a presentation this year to the state Senate Finance Committee, Fleming said SCHEV’s priorities include getting enrollment back to pre-pandemic levels, addressing accessibility and affordability, and aligning more programs to workforce demands in Virginia.

ADVICE FOR NEW COLLEGE GRADS: Don’t fall into the trap of believing every decision is final. Almost every decision can be done over again.

MUST-LISTEN PODCAST: I’m among the “Huberman Lab” listeners but also enjoy “Church History Matters” and the “Come Back” podcast, both of which are faith-oriented.

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Government | Politics | Lobbying 2025: KILGORE, DEL. TERRY

In an unusual Republican party leadership vote in June, Del. Terry Kilgore was voted in as the GOP’s House minority leader, succeeding Del. C. Todd Gilbert, who stepped down to become U.S. attorney for the Western District of Virginia. Kilgore, who has served in the House since 1994, unsuccessfully challenged Gilbert for the position in 2021 and held the House majority leader post during Gilbert’s term as speaker in 2022-24.

If Republicans win back control of the House this fall, Kilgore is poised to become the next speaker. Part of a prominent political family in Scott County, Kilgore is the twin brother of former Virginia Attorney General Jerry Kilgore. He is a criminal defense attorney at Mitchell Kilgore, a law firm with offices throughout Southwest Virginia.

In the House, Kilgore has advocated for redevelopment of abandoned coal mines in his home district and its surroundings, as well as building small modular nuclear reactors. He is the former chair of the Virginia Tobacco Region Revitalization Commission and still serves as a commissioner, and he helped launch InvestSWVA, a marketing campaign to attract business to Southwest Virginia.

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Government Contractors | Technology 2025: CALIO, CHRISTOPHER T.  

Calio became president and CEO of Fortune Global 500 aerospace and defense contractor RTX in 2024. Previously known as Raytheon Technologies, the company moved its headquarters to Arlington in 2022. At RTX, Calio, who previously served as chief operating officer, leads 185,000 employees.
Calio also was president of RTX subsidiary Pratt & Whitney, which designs and manufactures aircraft engines. He joined United Technologies Corp. in 2005 as an assistant counsel.

RTX reported $80.7 billion in revenue in fiscal 2024, up from $68.9 billion from the previous year. The company continues to rake in big projects; its Raytheon subsidiary won a $1.1 billion contract modification from the U.S. Navy in June. That’s the largest contract modification for the program so far.

This year, RTX said it expects to take an $850 million hit from tariffs imposed by the Trump administration, but Calio said in July he expects the company to have sales of $84.75 billion to $85.5 billion in 2025.

Calio has a bachelor’s degree in political science from Trinity College and an MBA and law degree from the University of Connecticut.

Education 2025: ROWE, KATHERINE A.

Rowe became president of the nation’s second-oldest university in 2018, after serving as provost and dean of faculty at Smith College. She has shepherded the creation of William & Mary’s first sustainability plan, an entrepreneurship hub and the college’s strategic plan, Vision 2026.

In July, the college opened the School of Computing, Data Sciences & Physics. W&M also introduced the state’s first coastal and marine sciences major this year, part of the Batten School of Coastal & Marine Sciences, thanks to a $100 million gift from Jane Batten in 2024. In February, Dr. R. Todd Stravitz, an alumnus, donated $50 million to create a full-tuition scholarship fund for the Batten School and the Virginia Institute for Marine Science.

Rowe holds master’s and doctoral degrees from Harvard University and spent 16 years as an English professor at Bryn Mawr College. She serves on the Northern Virginia Council’s board of directors and the Virginia American Revolution 250 Commission.

NEW LIFE EXPERIENCE: I spent two months learning to navigate campus in a boot this spring, following a foot injury. It also made a great, resonant boom while cheering at basketball games.

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Energy 2025: SENECHAL, KRISTEN

Following an eight-month national search, Kristen Senechal was selected to lead NOVEC, succeeding David E. Schleicher, who retired in April.

One of the nation’s largest cooperatives based on sales, NOVEC reported operating revenue of $864 million in 2023. The electric cooperative serves more than 180,000 residential and business customers in Clarke, Fairfax, Fauquier, Loudoun, Prince William and Stafford counties, as well as Manassas Park and Clifton.

For the new job, Senechal moved to Northern Virginia from Texas, where she had worked as executive vice president of transmission for the Lower Colorado River Authority, which, among other things, produces and delivers electric power. In that role, she oversaw more than 850 employees.

Senechal has an MBA from the University of Houston. Perhaps more surprising is that she also has a degree in molecular biology from the University of Texas and a doctorate in molecular biology from the University of California, Los Angeles. Before pivoting to the energy field, Senechal spent several years conducting research at the Dana-Farber Cancer Institute, Baylor College of Medicine and MD Anderson Cancer Center.

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