Please ensure Javascript is enabled for purposes of website accessibility

Education 2025: CONSTON, MARCIA

Conston became TCC’s sixth president in January 2020. Laser-focused on ensuring student success despite the daunting challenge, she guided the college forward with a strategic plan — Innovate 2026 — and a vision “to be the community’s first choice for , opportunity, partnership and innovation.”

The second largest college in the Virginia Community College System, TCC had a fall 2024 headcount of 14,964 students, slightly down from previous years, but administrators say they’re seeing more success in retaining current students.

In June, TCC students sent a student-designed experiment into space through NASA’s prestigious RockSAT-C program, which empowers college students to develop and launch payloads on rockets. This year, the community college also established men’s and women’s basketball teams.

In 2024, TCC expanded its Skilled Trades Academy, which opened in 2019 in Portsmouth and trains students in maritime trades such as pipefitting, welding, wind energy and more. With the expansion, TCC now offers programs including building maintenance, heavy equipment operation and logistics.

A runner who’s completed multiple marathons, Conston served 20 years as a vice president at Central Piedmont Community College in Charlotte, North Carolina, before moving to Norfolk.

Return to the full list of this category’s recipients.

Government Contractors | Technology 2025: FELIX, JENNIFER

Reston-based ASRC Federal is a family of companies that serve IT customers in the and civilian sectors. Felix joined ASRC Federal in 2019 as executive vice president and chief operating officer, becoming president and CEO in 2020.

ASRC Federal is a subsidiary of Arctic Slope Regional, an Alaska Native corporation, and employs more than 8,000 people. In May, NASA awarded the company a $98 million contract for business functions, including accounting. The company had previously won a $350 million, five-year contract to perform that work for NASA. In January, the company also won a potential $3 billion contract from the Defense Logistics Agency for maintenance, repair and operations support at U.S. military facilities in Maryland, Virginia, West Virginia and Washington, D.C.

A graduate of the University of Maryland’s Robert H. Smith School of Business, Felix was a financial analyst in the hospitality industry before serving in executive leadership positions at Sotera Defense Solutions, Vencore and SAIC. In 2018, she was named Northern Virginia Technology Council’s Private Company CFO of the Year, and she is currently a vice chair on the organization’s board.

Government Contractors | Technology 2025: TAIT, MATT

A U.S. Navy veteran, Tait joined contractor ManTech International in 2018 as a division president before becoming its chief operating officer in 2020. Shortly after the company went private in a $4.2 billion sale to Carlyle Group, Tait became CEO and president in 2022.

Previously, Tait spent two decades at consulting firm Accenture. He holds a bachelor’s degree in government from the U.S. Naval Academy, is vice chair of the board of directors for the Operation Renewed Hope Foundation and received his third consecutive Wash100 Award for top government contracting this year.

ManTech provides technology solutions for U.S. , intelligence and federal civilian agencies. It has a worldwide workforce of 8,700 and reported $2.55 billion in 2021 revenue.

WashingtonExec named Tait among its Top Executives to Watch for 2025, building on several large contract wins the company snagged in the final months of the Biden White House.

In December 2024, ManTech received a $1.4 billion task order from the U.S. Department of Defense to provide cyber solutions. However, in May, the company lost its sixth protest filed over an FBI contract for digital and .

Return to the full list of this category’s recipients.

Government Contractors | Technology 2025: ARSENEAULT, TOM

As president and CEO of Inc., the U.S. arm of British giant BAE Systems PLC, Arseneault has overseen developments such as the $5.55 billion acquisition in February 2024 of Colorado-based Ball , now known as Space and Mission Systems. In 2024, BAE Systems reported $16.5 billion in sales; it employs 41,000 workers worldwide.

The company has logged several high-dollar contract wins in 2025, with a highlight coming in June when the U.S. Space Force announced BAE Systems would receive a $1.2 billion contract to deliver 10 satellites under the service’s Resilient Missile Warning and Tracking Medium Earth Orbit program, also known as Epoch 2.

Arseneault has been with BAE since 2000, becoming its chief operating officer in 2014 and adding president to his title in 2019. He became CEO in 2020. He previously ran BAE’s electronic sensor division and originally worked at Sander, a Lockheed Martin company, before it was acquired by BAE in 2000. He also held engineering and program management positions at General Electric and TASC.

Arseneault has a bachelor’s degree in electrical engineering from Worcester Polytechnic Institute and an MBA from Boston University. He chairs the Defense Industry Initiative’s steering committee.

Government Contractors | Technology 2025: HELLER, JOHN

Before joining Amentum as CEO in 2022, Heller spent seven years directing growth strategy for Falls Church-based PAE, taking it from $1.6 billion in annual revenue to $2.76 billion.

In September 2024, Amentum completed its merger with Jacobs’ Critical Mission Solutions and Cyber and Intelligence businesses, creating a new systems integration and engineering solutions company to serve federal , allies and commercial entities. It now employs more than 53,000 people in 80 countries. The company reported $8.4 billion in revenue in fiscal 2024, with a contract backlog of $45 billion.

In June, the company completed the sale of its Rapid Solutions product business to Lockheed Martin for $360 million. Notable contracts for 2025 include a $447 million contract to deliver and modernize prepositioned storage and maintenance solutions for Air Forces Central Command. In August, Amentum laid off 56 Richmond-area employees after losing a two-decade contract with Altria.

Heller graduated from West Point and served in the Army as a logistics officer. He also has a master’s degree from the University of Pittsburgh. In 2025, Heller received his ninth Executive Mosaic Wash100 Award.

Government Contractors | Technology 2025: VECCHIOLLA, TOM

Vecchiolla has led the U.S. arm of U.K.-based security and contractor QinetiQ Group since January, taking over for Shawn Purvis, now CEO of Ohio’s Sabel Systems Technology Solutions.

A graduate of the U.S. Naval Academy, Vecchiolla spent more than two decades in the Navy as an aviator and acquisition professional. He also worked as a military legislative aide for U.S. Sen. Olympia J. Snowe before moving to the private sector, including high-level roles at Raytheon Technologies, now RTX. He served as president and CEO of VT Systems and at ST Engineering North America, and he joined QinetiQ’s Special Security Agreement Board in 2024.

Vecchiolla also has a master’s degree from the University of Southern California.

In December 2024, QinetiQ expanded operations to Huntsville, Alabama. After posting a $120 million operating loss for fiscal 2025, the company said it would restructure and refine its U.S. strategy. QinetiQ US reported $1.3 billion in contract awards during fiscal 2024. In July, it secured $26 million in subcontracts on General Dynamics Electric Boat’s Navy submarine contract.

Return to the full list of this category’s recipients.

Government Contractors | Technology 2025: IPSEN, LAURA K.

After 25 years in Silicon Valley as an executive for Oracle, Microsoft and Cisco Systems, Ipsen was hired to lead higher ed tech company Ellucian in 2017. With 3,800 employees worldwide, Ellucian has an annual revenue approaching $1 billion and works with more than 2,900 customers across 50 countries, serving 20 million students.

Ipsen is a University of Virginia alumna who studied Arabic at Yarmouk University in Jordan. In 2025, Ellucian was named among the GSV 150, a list of the top 150 private companies leading digital learning and workforce skills. Calibre One also named Ipsen to its list of top 25 U.S. woman leaders of private equity-backed software companies.

In July, Ipsen began serving on the Northern Virginia Technology Council’s board. She also sits on the board of U.Va’s School of Data Science and chairs the Business- Forum’s board.

Ipsen also serves on Daimler Truck Holding’s supervisory board and is a member of the Fast Company Impact Council, Fortune’s CEO Initiative, and Women Corporate Directors.

2025 Living Legends: PAULETTE, WILLIAM A. ‘BILL’

In 1975, armed with $1,000 to invest, Paulette laid the foundation for what would become KBS. What started as a one-person company with an office in a sheet-metal shop has grown to a top-ranked mid-Atlantic construction firm, with $321 million in annual revenue and 110 employees in offices in Richmond and Virginia Beach.

Its notable projects include the Virginia Department of Transportation and Virginia State Police Joint Operations Center, Richmond’s Northside YMCA renovation and the Locks Tower, a 355,000-square-foot downtown Richmond apartment development.

A 1969 Virginia Military Institute alumnus, Paulette hails from South Hill and serves as a deacon at Richmond’s River Road Church, Baptist. He is a former member of VMI’s board of visitors and a past president of the VMI Keydet Club. Paulette also previously served on the boards of the Virginia State Board for Contractors and Make-A-Wish Greater Virginia.

In 2022, Paulette’s son, Will, succeeded him as president and CEO of the company.

Government Contractors | Technology 2025: TRUNDLE, STEPHEN

Trundle has led Tysons-based home security tech company Alarm.com since 2003, coming aboard from its founding parent company, MicroStrategy (now known as Strategy), where he served as chief technology officer. The company sold the spinoff security business to investors in 2009, and Alarm.com, which now has 2,000 employees, went public in 2015.

Alarm.com has become known for its rapid expansion, as the market for connected home and business security services has increased. In 2020 and 2021, it was named to Fortune magazine’s list of the top 100 Fastest Growing Companies, marking a 22% growth rate from the previous three years and bringing in $639 million in revenue in 2021. In fiscal 2024, its revenue increased to $939.8 million, up from $881.7 million in 2023.

On June 30, Trundle visited the Nasdaq stock exchange and rang the opening bell to mark a decade on the index.

In February, Alarm.com acquired Louisiana’s CHeKt, a cloud-based remote video monitoring system provider, which will continue to operate independently. Financial terms were not disclosed.

Trundle holds a bachelor’s degree in engineering and from Dartmouth College.

Return to the full list of this category’s recipients.

Government | Politics | Lobbying 2025: TORIAN, DEL. LUKE

As chair of the House Appropriations Committee, Torian oversees the creation of the single biggest piece of legislation his chamber passes every year: the state budget. Difficult in the best of times, the budget process in recent years has been complicated by divided .

In 2023, with Republicans in control of the House of Delegates and Democrats leading the Senate, it took six months for both parties to agree to amendments to the two-year spending plan. This year, the process was finished in June, with about $1 billion in tax rebate checks and $900 million in cuts by Gov. Glenn Youngkin.

Elected to represent part of Prince William County in the General Assembly in 2009, Torian took over leadership of House Appropriations in 2020, when Democrats seized control of the legislature. After a two-year hiatus when Republicans controlled the House, he returned to the post in 2024. He also chairs the Virginia Legislative Black Caucus and is vice chair of the Major Employment and Investment Project Approval Commission.

A retired Baptist pastor, Torian holds degrees from Howard University, Virginia Union University, Southeastern Baptist Theological Seminary and Winston-Salem State University.

Return to the full list of this category’s recipients.