Kevin Kelly, chief executive of Arcfield, joins for this episode to go over how this systems engineering outfit is looking at the landscape through the lens of a company that has both government and private sector customers.

In talking with Ross Wilkers, Kelly explains the art and science of managing space as it gets more and more crowded thanks to plummeting launch costs.

The Golden Dome missile defense initiative, data centers in space and Arcfield’s acquisition activity over the past three years are also on the agenda.

Arcfield enters the seas via acquisition

Arcfield adds small satellite skills with new acquisition

Arcfield acquires digital twin provider

WT 360: All about Arcfield's strategy and investment thesis

Natalie Alms, senior correspondent at NextGov/FCW, worked with our colleague and fellow senior reporter Eric Katz at Government Executive to watch 23 hours of testimony in one of those cases that sheds light on DOGE’s goals and the pressures to meet them.

“Nat” joins our Ross Wilkers for this episode to explain what she and Eric discovered in reporting out a story that is still working its way through the judicial system, but is showing enough of the atmosphere and environment surrounding DOGE.

Nat also goes over her findings on how some technologists joining the government workforce can remain connected to their private sector employers and summarizes the White House budget office’s ongoing review of federal contracts.

If you have a tip you'd like to share, Natalie Alms can be securely contacted at nalms.41 on Signal.

Inside DOGE’s early days of pressure campaigns, rule breaking and ‘chaos’

DOJ clears the way for government to hire technologists still connected to their private sector employers

Contract reviews continue at OMB, official says

Federal CIO tapped for dual-hatted role at GSA

Agencies lost around 20,000 tech workers last year — and now the Trump admin is hiring

Inside the federal CIO’s culture-first approach

Trump admin launches US Tech Force to recruit temporary workers after shedding thousands this year

How is that possible? Stephanie Kostro, president of the Professional Services Council, joins Nick and Ross for this episode to lay out how that is and the DHS funding lapse’s myriad impacts on industry and society.

Their conversation then turns to what contractors are seeking to learn and understand from the U.S. government’s very public breakup with Anthropic, which will take months to complete, and what to watch for next in the Federal Acquisition Regulation overhaul effort.

The Revolutionary FAR Overhaul is far from the only policy item contractors should pay attention to in 2026, as Kostro explains.

Trump's new DHS nominee promises some changes, adequate staffing amid shutdown-induced departures

CISA to furlough most of its workforce under impending DHS shutdown

Path to averting a shutdown remains elusive as lawmakers debate DHS funding

Microsoft takes Anthropic's side in DOD fight, warns it sets a new precedent

WT 360: Nextgov/FCW’s Alexandra Kelley on the government’s breakup with Anthropic

Anthropic sues over a dozen federal agencies and government leaders

The FAR overhaul rewrote the rules, but now comes the hard part

The hardest part of FAR reform is culture, not the rules

GSA set to begin its rulemaking push for the FAR overhaul

Small businesses face upheaval under the acquisition overhaul and agency cuts

Nick and Ross use this episode as a starting point for looking at SAIC’s next steps under CEO Jim Reagan, and the paths forward for several other key business and policy storylines in the public sector landscape.

Anthropic’s fight against the U.S. government’s push to eject it from the market has industry-wide implications to unpack, as does the future of IT resellers and 8(a) companies amid their customer’s scrutiny on those corners of the market.

Nick and Ross also break down why organizational culture is crucial for the Federal Acquisition Regulation overhaul effort.

SAIC's board stays with Reagan, names him full-time CEO

SAIC plans partial pivot away from enterprise IT

Microsoft takes Anthropic's side in DOD fight, warns it sets a new precedent

Anthropic sues over a dozen federal agencies and government leaders

WT 360: Nextgov/FCW’s Alexandra Kelley on the government’s breakup with Anthropic

Government equity investments open a new frontier for industry

OPINION: Federal equity investments raise troubling questions about picking winners and losers

L3Harris to spin off its rocket motor business with the Pentagon as an anchor investor

OPINION: The government's 'passive' Intel stake heightens their commitment to each other and winning the chip wars

‘We will have their backs:’ GSA pushes culture shift for FAR changes

The hardest part of FAR reform is culture, not the rules

FAR overhaul targets risk-averse acquisition culture

GSA wants answers from resellers about markups and equipment maker relationships

Don’t count out resellers as OneGov agreements grow

Where GSA sees resellers fitting into its unified procurement strategy

SBA boots 628 more companies from 8(a) program

8(a) program faces unprecedented pressure from Trump administration attacks

SBA probing 8(a) fraud allegations at tribal-owned contractor

Alexandra Kelley, our Nextgov/FCW colleague who covers emerging tech, has extensively covered the fallout from that impasse as agencies are working to comply with President Trump’s executive order to stop using Claude after the Pentagon essentially broke up with Anthropic.

“Alexa,” as we and other GovExec colleagues call her, joins our Ross Wilkers for this episode to explain how those phase-out processes are taking place and provide an initial look at the government’s AI landscape without Anthropic in it.

Claude is embedded in so many workflows across government that fully removing it is not a matter of simply deleting the app, as Alexa points out.

Private sector, former military leaders urge Congress intervene in Pentagon-Anthropic dispute

House amendment responding to Pentagon-Anthropic conflict fails committee vote

Defense tech enters a new era: the case of Anthropic and the DOD

Pentagon’s war on Anthropic based on ‘dubious’ legal thinking and ideology—not real risk, sources say

Agencies begin to shed Anthropic contracts following Trump’s directive

Trump directs government to ‘immediately cease’ using Anthropic technology

It would take the Pentagon months to replace Anthropic’s AI tools: sources

Anthropic CEO defends support for AI regulations, alignment with Trump policies

Anthropic CEO sees 3 areas where policymakers can help with AI

GSA and Anthropic ink deal for Claude AI across all government branches

AWS GovCloud gets high-level security approvals for Anthropic and Meta AI models

Anthropic introduces new Claude Gov models with national security focus

AI startup Anthropic to build out public sector team

Peter Kant, founder and chief executive of Enabled Intelligence, started the company in March 2020 to specialize in data labeling work that also relies on continuous training and retraining of artificial intelligence models.

Kant joins for this episode to explain how Enabled Intelligence tailors large language models for use in national security environments where the out-of-the-box tools are not quite ready to be in the hands of operators.

In talking with our Ross Wilkers, Kant also describes how the company’s capture of a contract called Sequoia helps shed light on how the government is looking at the challenge of grasping all the data it has.

But as GovCon attorney David Timm has found out, errors showing misuse of the technology are starting to come up in bid protests and other legal rulings that show what can go wrong when relying on the tech too much.

Timm, a partner at the law firm Burr & Forman, joins our Ross Wilkers for this episode to share his findings from those decisions and how they could help set some guardrails for the use of GenAI in GovCon law.

Even with the problems he sees, Timm is an optimist for how the tech can remove what he calls “Entropy” from workflows and make some tasks easier.

Gen-AI Misuse in Procurement Litigation

Procurement is Not "Oready" for GenAI Misuse

Can a federal agency adopt the output of a Gen-AI bid evaluation tool?

Buying Blind: Corruption Risk and the Erosion of Oversight in Federal AI Procurement

Leo Alvarez and Dylan Schreiner, respectively principal and GovCon senior manager at Baker Tilly, are fielding many questions from industry clients on what this landscape looks like and how to map their business strategies to it.

In this episode, Leo and Dylan walk our Ross Wilkers through some of the big-ticket vehicles to watch in 2026 and how they help illustrate the government’s push to make contracting more straight-forward for every stakeholder.

Navigating a world of fewer contracting officers and other key acquisition pros inside government also features in the discussion, plus what this all means for small businesses.

GSA quietly rolls out CMMC-like cybersecurity framework for contractors

New OMB memo lays out GSA's plan to consolidate contracts

NITAAC finally pulls the plug on CIO-SP4

GSA re-opens OASIS+ to new bids, shifts to continuous approach

GSA to take over SEWP VI contract ‘sooner rather than later’

Alliant 3's final solicitation hits the streets

Army gets moving again on bundled recompete of professional services, IT vehicles

Air Force Research Lab opens proposal window for $10B vehicle

Pentagon halts $15B Advana recompete draft solicitation

Lauren Williams, business editor at our partner publication Defense One, canvasses the perspectives and opinions of industry pros on that matter to help put together the Defense Business Brief newsletter that goes out every Monday.

Lauren joins our Ross Wilkers for this episode to break down those different pressure points, including Trump’s executive order barring companies from stock repurchases and issuing dividends until they invest more in tech development and production.

But as Lauren also explains, that executive order is only one of several examples of the U.S. military customer taking a more direct involvement in shaping the kind of industrial base it wants.

WT 360: Defense One's Lauren Williams on the new world order of acquisition

DOE seeks batteries with four times the juice

Defense Business Brief: Thales’ frigate pivot + 2026 lookahead with Leonardo DRS

Defense Business Brief: Exec order fallout; $1B rocket-maker deal; Acquisition changes, and more

Trump lambastes defense CEOs over pay, stock buybacks

Defense Business Brief: US-made biotech; Rocketdyne; Hegseth’s industry tours

‘Very, very strange time’: After a big 2025, what’s next for the defense industry?

Hegseth hints at higher defense budgets as OMB says another reconciliation bill is possible

Unveiling acquisition overhaul, Hegseth tells industry to get with the program

Why DOD is so bad at buying software

Sheila Duffy, founder and chief executive of Greystones Group, views these efforts as grounded in collaboration as customer and contractor both have to agree on the roadmap for development and implementation.

Duffy joins our Ross Wilkers for this episode to go over keys for good collaborations with agencies on rolling out modern tools and how Small Business Innovation Research programs can be a pathway to accomplish that.

Any conversation about commercial tech in government has to include security. This one is no exception.

That here-and-now is the starting point of this episode where Stephanie Smith, GovCon industry senior analyst and valuation services director at RSM, takes us through some of the major themes and talking points that will shape the ecosystem in 2026.

How do we define the “non-traditional contractor” and what do their prospects look like? As Steph tells our Ross Wilkers, technical definitions and terms for talking about these companies are moving targets.

Steph and Ross also went over artificial intelligence’s impacts to contractors’ business models, key macroeconomics and industrial policy developments for GovCon to monitor, and qualitative drivers of true value in a business.

Chris Jones joined Nightwing later that fall as chief technology officer following service as the CIA’s associate deputy director for science and technology. Jones joins for this episode to put into perspective how Nightwing has sought to carve out its own path in the market and priority areas for the company going forward.

In talking with our Ross Wilkers, Jones also explains the role of companies like Nightwing in helping their government agencies customers navigate changes in how they operate even if the overall missions remain the same.

Artificial intelligence and other automation technologies in the cyber landscape is also on the discussion agenda. All tech conversations end back up at AI these days, after all.

Nightwing acquires managed security services provider

Nightwing appoints Coleman as chief executive

What the mystery buyer of RTX's cyber business is getting

Stephanie Kostro, president of the Professional Services Council, fields many questions from PSC’s member companies about what is happening across the ecosystem. Kostro joins Nick and Ross for this episode to unpack some that were answered in 2025 and others that remain unanswered for 2026, including the prospects of a second shutdown following the last one.

How the Department of Government Efficiency’s influence remains over GovCon is one of those that has some answers. As Kostro explains, DOGE’s presence at the agency level is something GovCon will have to account for in 2026.

The government’s acquisition overhaul to emphasize speed and commercial buying also has open questions from industry that Kostro walks Nick and Ross through. Small business contracting in today’s climate, bid protests and the Fiscal Year 2026 National Defense Authorization Act also feature in the discussion.

WT 360: Known risks and potential rewards in the post-shutdown catchup

WT 360: Action items for contractors in the shutdown’s second week

Shutdown’s end just the beginning as contractors face months-long recovery

Contractors quantify shutdown damage as stoppages spread across missions

DOGE is no longer a 'centralized entity,' personnel chief says

DOGE caucus co-chair says the cost-cutting unit’s work will continue

DOGE guts HHS small business office in reorg effort

GSA adds third set of companies to consulting contract review

DOGE now has approval authority for defense IT, consulting contracts

Small businesses face upheaval under the acquisition overhaul and agency cuts

SBA orders 8(a) companies to turn over financial records

Unveiling acquisition overhaul, Hegseth tells industry to get with the program

GSA set to begin its rulemaking push for the FAR overhaul

New OMB memo lays out GSA's plan to consolidate contracts

Technology Modernization Fund reauthorization not included in NDAA

Defense authorization bill includes billions for cyber, intelligence matters

CEO John Steckel joins for this episode to help mark American Systems’ 50th anniversary and explains some moves it has made this year to set the company up for the next 50, including its largest-ever acquisition.

In talking with our Ross Wilkers, Steckel lays out what the purchase of Epsilon brings to American Systems and larger trends in managed services that led to the transaction. Secured data centers are part of that equation too and increasingly reflect larger conversations in society, as Steckel explains.

Of course, American Systems’ status as an ESOP features in the conversation too. American Systems (No. 87) is one of three ESOP companies on the 2025 WT Top 100 ranking alongside Torch Technologies (No. 66) and DCS Corp. (No. 77).

Lauren Williams, senior editor at Defense One who covers the industrial base, was there in-person and joins our Ross Wilkers for this episode to walk through those structural changes that prior Defense Department leaders have spoken about for years.

One major theme of that dialogue has been DOD’s desire to have more commercial technologies, which has been easier said than done. But as Lauren explains, the push to “go commercial” is more than just about the product being bought.

Also on this episode’s discussion agenda: what the defense industrial base has been up to during the shutdown and why prototyping is becoming more popular across the ecosystem.

Unveiling acquisition overhaul, Hegseth tells industry to get with the program

Defense tech companies will weather the shutdown. But what happens next?

Experts see promise, risk in Pentagon’s draft acquisition reforms

Meet the White House pick to conquer the ‘Valley of Death’

With cautious optimism, some defense firms lock in on prototypes to drive demand

Christine Williamson, a partner in the GovCon industry advisory practice at CohnReznick, joins for this episode to walk through five risks she and her colleague Kristen Soles identified as ones companies must watch out for and ways for responding to them.

As Williamson tells our Ross Wilkers, there is much excitement across the entire ecosystem to get back to work and understanding there is a long road ahead to get government’s engine back to where it was pre-shutdown.

The article Williamson and Soles co-authored is below to read along during the conversation.

Government shutdown FAQ for contractors: Today’s risks and what’s next

Ian Checcio, chief growth officer at Commence, joins for this episode to go over how the company has come together over 12 months with Pleasant Land’s backing and that vision of further enabling doctors and nurses.

No image describes the current difficulties health care providers face in their data collection and management practices than the fax machine and clipboard, on which every new patient fills out everything about themselves.

As Checcio explains to our Ross Wilkers, Commence’s federal and other customers are up against inertia that has built up over several years. But there have also never been more tech tools available to help in that effort and desire by customers to reverse the inertia.

CEO John Heller joins our Nick Wakeman for this episode to discuss how Amentum has positioned for opportunities in high-growth markets including space systems, nuclear energy and multi-domain defense.

As Heller explains, nuclear engineering expertise is becoming more sought-after as artificial intelligence drives demand for power generation at scale.

The company is also focused on space-based infrastructure for working and living beyond Earth, along with potential opportunities in the Golden Dome missile defense program.

WT 360: Where Amentum wants to go next following its big merger

Amentum shows part of its hand for Golden Dome and nuclear power

A reader's guide to 'New Amentum' on its launch day

Amentum's blueprint as a public company

New Jacobs, Amentum creation puts focus on large enterprise contracts

Jacobs, Amentum unveil transaction to form a new public company

Part one of this two-part episode sees Carten Cordell and Edward Graham, respectively managing editors at WT’s partner publications Government Executive and NextgovFCW, join Nick and Ross to go over the shutdown from every angle.

Carten and Ed detail what operations are still ongoing inside government, who is still working, the impacts of the shutdown and key checkpoints to watch out for ahead of the eventual reopening.

Then in part two, Nick and Ross unpack the CEO transition at Science Applications International Corp. and put it into context against a market landscape that looks very different here in October versus what it was in January.

Shutdown furloughs will permanently cost the economy at least $7 billion, CBO says

Federal employee groups want to reopen government. They disagree on how

Shutdown layoffs indefinitely blocked following new court injunction

Republicans float paying some feds as Dems maintain shutdown approach

House Dems demand furloughs end for nuclear security agency

Top cyber lawmaker wants answers on CISA workforce reductions

Multiple CISA divisions targeted in shutdown layoffs, people familiar say

Inside Mission Daybreak: VA’s effort to support innovative suicide prevention

CyberCorps talent pipeline buckles under Trump hiring freezes

SAIC parts ways with CEO Toni Townes-Whitley

Leonardo DRS CEO William Lynn to retire after 14-year run at the company

Booz Allen cuts more jobs, lowers outlook amid funding slowdowns

Federal agencies may benefit from slower cloud adoption, Cloudera CEO says

Defense services companies face ‘structural issues’ as tech disruptors surge

GSA lines up 118 more OASIS+ awards

Trump’s ‘pincer maneuver’ reshapes federal contracting landscape

Phil Poliquin is a market executive for J.P. Morgan Commercial Banking’s aerospace, defense and government services team. He is our guest for this week’s episode to go over some general guidelines for contractors on how to navigate the shutdown and stay ready for the reopening of government, plus thrive afterward.

The GovCon ecosystem has gone through about 10 months of stress testing before the shutdown, as Poliquin often reminds clients of. What teams like Poliquin’s want and need to hear from contractors also features in the conversation with our Ross Wilkers.

Tim Borchert and Atchut Kanthamani, respectively chief executive and president of Tria, join for this episode to overview the strategy for being a more formidable midsized competitor in its core markets of health and public safety.

During the conversation with our Ross Wilkers, Kanthamani also explained why he felt both the timing and buyer was right for the company he started in 2007.

Also on their agenda: where Tria sees itself in the broad arena of digital transformation, the market’s adjustment to a new pace and cadence in 2025, and the company’s Labs arm focused on innovation.

This episode featuring Stephanie Kostro, president of the Professional Services Council, begins with a guide of what typically happens next after contractors receive those orders to stop work and wait for the directive to resume.

From there, Kostro takes our Ross Wilkers through some of the basic action items that the trade association is recommending for its member companies and more with all eyes toward the shutdown’s inevitable end.

Ongoing conversations with lenders and financial institutions are must-dos for companies well before, and while, the invoice payments freeze. Finding people inside government to speak with on deliverables is becoming more difficult, as Kostro explains.

WT 360: Our first look at the shutdown and fiscal 2026's landscape

Tracking shutdown costs now will determine what you can recover later

Shutdown’s ripple effect: Contractors, small businesses face devastating economic hit

The government shutdown playbook: cash flow, communication and recovery

Don’t wait: GovCon must prepare now for a potential shutdown

Reductions in force could make bad situation worse for federal contractors during government shutdown

OMB deletes reference to law guaranteeing backpay to furloughed feds from shutdown guidance

More employees set to receive furlough notices as shutdown drags on

Shutdown poised to drag into next week as layoff threat looms

RIF threat sparks union lawsuit as shutdown continues

White House: Shutdown layoffs are just days away

Government spirals into shutdown with Trump promising mass layoffs

But the shutdown is where we had to start this episode featuring John Caucis and James Wichert, public sector analysts at the market intelligence firm Technology Business Research. John and James overview how TBR is monitoring the situation and how federal contractors may have had some early practice amid the Department of Government Efficiency’s pushes for cuts.

The conversation with our Ross Wilkers then turns forward to a preview of the new 2026 federal fiscal year that may be starting out without funding for agencies, but will still have plenty of priorities to follow once they open for business.

Some of those priorities featured in the discussion: IT modernization, drives for efficiencies, where the dollars are flowing in civilian and defense programs, more outcome-based contracting and the search for one integrator to overhaul the U.S.’ air traffic control system.

Matt Calderone and Brian MacCarthy, respectively chief financial officer for Booz Allen and its VC organization leader, join for this episode to explain why the firm expanded the fund and all that happens after the investment.

As they tell our Ross Wilkers, technologists at both Booz Allen and the startups it invests in collaborate closely to develop the solutions for usage by federal agencies at scale.

Calderone and MacCarthy also highlight how reindustrialization is a new area for Booz Allen Ventures, in conjunction with the core tech priorities that have defined the fund over three years.

Booz Allen gives big boost to its venture arm

Booz Allen formally stands up ventures arm

PROJECT 38: Booz Allen signaling intent with $100M ventures fund

For this episode, NobleReach Foundation’s chief executive Arun Gupta helps us take that conversation forward with ideas and solutions for bringing more talent into the public sector. Much remains unsettled in how the Trump administration is looking at the federal workforce, but the theme of needing talent will always remain paramount.

One key concept Gupta lays out in the conversation with our Ross Wilkers is being a “dual citizen” of both industry and government to give people exposure to all sides of the ecosystem. Other types of pathways are part of the discussion as well.

Stephen Ehikian says GSA is primed for a ‘build back’ phase after his departure

OPM implements years-in-the-making update to federal hiring process

New OPM head plans to cement focus on efficiency

WT 360: A roadmap for keeping innovation and entrepreneurship pipelines healthy

Ash tells our Nick Wakeman about how these changes in the market have impacted partnerships, fostered new business models and brought more commercial practices into the federal market.

He calls 2025 the “year of the rebuild” with new opportunities accelerating in 2026 as agencies increase demand for solutions that help them use their resources more effectively.

Beyond reseller pacts: How government contractors are building strategic tech partnerships

GSA adds global AI providers to the schedule

GovCon enters uncharted territory in Trump's efficiency push

Trump’s ‘pincer maneuver’ reshapes federal contracting landscape

David Birken, senior vice president for digital modernization and experience at ICF, joins for this episode to explain how federal tech modernization has been a long-term growth priority for the company and some fundamentals that remain the same.

Mapping technology implementations to workforce trends will always be crucial for one. In talking with our Ross Wilkers, Birken lays out ICF’s approach to that and what it takes to bring employees along as part of that process.

Customer delivery and satisfaction, partnering well with commercial software companies and ICF’s blueprint for multidisciplinary teams also feature in the conversation.

How ICF used its own AI toolset before taking it to market

ICF lays out the risks, opportunities from Trump's push for cuts

How workforce priorities shape ICF's modernization strategy

WT 360: ICF's vision for its tech office goes beyond ones and zeros

WT 360: All about ICF's physical and strategic moves

But companies that want to remain independent, the employee stock ownership plan can be an alternative transaction that creates liquidity and incentives for the shareholders.

David Blauzvern, a managing director at CSG Partners and a specialist in these transactions, joins for this episode to explore all it takes to go down the ESOP path after a company decides on it.

Blauzvern also tells our Ross Wilkers about certain instances where ESOP companies can stand out to the government customer. Of course, they also go over which companies the ESOP model can be right for and those it is not.

Michael Hauser, managing partner for Science Applications International Corp.’s venture capital arm, joins for this episode to explain how SAIC Ventures works with startups after investing in them to bring their technologies into government missions.

As Hauser explains to our Ross Wilkers, the SAIC Ventures team acts as a business model scout in addition to playing its role in the parent company’s overall tech scouting function.

Hauser also walks through the decision process of when a tech is ready for the customer to use, plus how Dairy Queen’s famous Blizzard blend helps explain the art and science of technology integration.

SAIC backs satellite bus design startup

SAIC joins zero trust startup's network of investors

Infleqtion closes $100M Series C round

Undersea drone startup fetches $16M to aid hiring, manufacturing push

Venture investing is part of the M&A conversation too

WT 360: RTX Ventures casts its net wide and far across an expanding tech ecosystem

WT 360: For Lockheed's ventures team, its investments are merely step one

PROJECT 38: How Razor's Edge Ventures scouts for tech and companies

PROJECT 38: Booz Allen signaling intent with $100M ventures fund

Sophia Harris and her leadership team at ODRG, which she founded in 2013, faced those questions head-on as they plotted out the company’s next steps and that led them to partnering with Advantage Capital.

This episode begins with Harris telling our Ross Wilkers the full story of ODRG’s hard pivot to being a national security and geospatial technology specialist. She also describes how that positioned ODRG to eventually be ready for an external investor, something that has always been in the front of her mind.

Keeping employees and customers onside was no easy feat, and one Harris speaks in-depth about in the conversation. Harris also describes how she faced the other common founder’s quandary: Am I ready to give up full control of the company I started?

Lauren Williams, our Defense One colleague and a senior editor there, joins our Ross Wilkers for this episode to explore how the industry they cover is a part of that larger push to build more systems in America and use new advanced technology to do it.

Much of their discussion is informed by Lauren’s attendance of a mid-July conference in Detroit called the Reindustrialize Summit, which sought to bring together tech companies and investors with a keen interest in manufacturing.

Flying boats and AI-run factories pitched at 'Reindustrialize' event

Zapping drone swarms into submission

Meet the ‘cobots’ that could lower the cost of building submarines

SECNAV: Robots won’t replace shipbuilders, but they could make jobs ‘easier’

Hadrian secures $260M in Series C capital

Frank Konkel, editor-in-chief for all GovExec publications including WT, joins for this episode to break down the finer details of that agreement and how contractors are a part of it too. Then there is the bigger picture theme for Frank and Ross to talk about: how GSA views it as fitting into the agency’s OneGov strategy for more consolidated buys of common tech goods and services.

Which also was the subject of Frank’s interview with GSA’s deputy administrator Stephen Ehikian at GovExec’s Government Efficiency Summit on July 17. Frank and Ross share their takeaways from that conversation with each other.

Click here to watch the Summit, which was recorded by C-SPAN.

WT 360: All roads lead back to GSA in this ‘Editor’s Summit’ episode

GSA, Uber partner to cut travel costs for feds, military and select contractors

GSA's vision for procurement is about having 'one wallet'

GSA plans to optimize operations following cost-cutting, agency head says

New OMB memo lays out GSA's plan to consolidate contracts

Industry awaits significant disruption as GSA works on contract takeovers

GSA prepping plans to move NASA SEWP and NIH contract vehicles under its management

GSA’s procurement chief details administration’s acquisition reform plans

GSA unveils new unified procurement strategy

ANALYSIS: GSA's new procurement strategy begins with consumer tech

The direct connections between external messaging and communications with government customers are the focal point of this episode featuring Dustin Siggins, founder of Proven Media Solutions, and Mild Red CEO Katie Helwig.

Compliance remains core to the business of GovCon in an environment where Diversity, Equity and Inclusion initiatives are on the way out. But core values and communicating those remain very much in, as Dustin and Katie explain to Ross.

Small businesses should especially take heed. The conversation includes tips and words of wisdom just for them.

Aaron Myers works with contractors in those situations as a partner for aerospace, defense and government advisory at Aprio. He joins our Ross Wilkers for this episode to provide key questions for them to answer when it is time to make important choices.

Delivery models, strategic priorities and customer sets all feature in the conversation between Aaron and Ross, which takes place against a market backdrop where the codes to crack are changing rapidly.

Aaron and his partners at Nextfed have first-hand experience in asking those questions of themselves, which has led the team to become a part of Aprio. That features in the chat too.

David DiMolfetta, who covers cyber for our partner publication Nextgov/FCW, joins for this episode to break down how Iran typically operates in cyber and what U.S. government agencies are watching out for as the conflict continues.

The defense industrial base is also on notice for potential intrusions on their systems, as David explains to our Ross Wilkers.

David also provides an update on what we are learning about the breach into U.S. telecommunications networks, which was carried out by the Chinese hacking group known as Salt Typhoon but discovered two years after it started.

Iran-backed hackers may target US defense companies tied to Israel, agencies warn

DHS expects Iran’s cyber forces will target US networks after strikes on nuclear sites

US charges Iranian operatives with hacking Trump campaign

Trump campaign allegedly hacked, blames Iran for stealing internal communications

Treasury sanctions Iranian cyber officials tied to 2023 water system hacks

US agencies assessed Chinese telecom hackers likely hit data center and residential internet providers

FBI awaits signal that Salt Typhoon is fully excised from telecom firms, official says

Salt Typhoon hacks ‘a wake up call’ to secure telecom services, lawmakers say

Salt Typhoon hackers possibly targeted telecom research at US universities

US sanctions Chinese firm behind sweeping Salt Typhoon telecom hacks

At least 8 US carriers hit in Chinese telecom hacks, senior official says

Chinese telecom espionage began with ‘much broader’ aims, officials say

Hundreds of organizations were notified of potential Salt Typhoon compromise

NYPD officer database had security flaws that could have let hackers covertly modify officer data

Edward Graham, who covers VA for our partner publication Nextgov/FCW, joins for this episode to break down what is known so far about VA’s use of AI in that process and efforts to get more transparency into what unfolded.

ProPublica broke the story first on June 6 and published a follow-up June 10.

VA is far from alone in making DOGE-related contract cuts since President Trump took office in January, but this storyline at that agency is drawing ire from some lawmakers and contractors who lost work there.

Ed takes our Ross Wilkers through the many moving pieces inside VA, so buckle up to gain many insights into this much-sought after customer for many companies in the market.

Lawmakers demand review of VA’s AI-driven contract cuts

Democrats raise alarm over AI-driven contract cuts at VA

Funding for further EHR deployments ‘vitally important,’ VA secretary says

Draft proposal looks to put EHR reform measures back on the table

For this second part of their 2025 Top 100 conversation, Nick and Ross pick up where they left off by looking at the Trump administration’s spotlight and scrutiny of GovCon five months after moving in.

The government customer collective wants all the latest and greatest tech tools, but also sounds picky about where they want to get them from. Nick and Ross highlight the different kinds of roles companies across the market play in providing that tech and how those could change in future years.

The 2025 Washington Technology Top 100 Rankings
WT 360: Our first takeaways from the 2025 Top 100 with more to follow
2025's Top 100 rankings reveal a market in major upheaval
TOP 100: CGI Federal’s Stephanie Mango on navigating Trump’s ‘dynamic environment’
TOP 100: How Serco Inc. uses its pivot to position for Trump priorities
GSA expands review of ‘consulting’ contracts to 9 more companies
GSA expands contract reviews to resellers
Industry awaits significant disruption as GSA works on contract takeovers
GSA’s new procurement strategy challenges the reseller ecosystem
GSA's new procurement strategy begins with consumer tech
GSA unveils new unified procurement strategy
GSA’s procurement chief details administration’s acquisition reform plans
GSA leaders urge acquisition teams to embrace flexibility as FAR overhaul rolls out

For this first in a two-part episode (the second goes out next week), Nick and Ross go over the companies and numbers that feature up and down the rankings’ 2025 edition.

Here is *some* of what was on their agenda for part one:

• What keeps companies in the upper half and what takes them out
• Booz Allen Hamilton and Lockheed Martin swapping places 2 and 3
• Nick’s conversation with CGI Federal’s president at our 2025 Top 100 launch event
• 2025’s biggest risers and fallers
• Nonprofits and their roles in the public sector ecosystem

The 2025 Washington Technology Top 100 Rankings

2025's Top 100 rankings reveal a market in major upheaval

TOP 100: CGI Federal’s Stephanie Mango on navigating Trump’s ‘dynamic environment’

TOP 100: How Serco Inc. uses its pivot to position for Trump priorities

Strategic discipline drives Leidos’ continued Top 100 dominance

Booz Allen plans 7% workforce cut

Lockheed's CEO: Efficiency push is 'an opportunity' for both industry and government

Industry layoffs mount as cancelled contracts and DOGE efforts take hold

GSA expands review of ‘consulting’ contracts to 9 more companies

COMMENTARY: The chainsaw approach to cutting government promises more damage than results

But the ongoing tariff turbulence stemming from the Trump administration does pose questions about why international companies are still looking at the U.S. as a key market to grow their defense businesses.

Lauren Williams, a senior editor focused on technology and business at our partner publication Defense One, joins for this episode to lay out some of the answers she has found so far and how receptive the Pentagon customer is to this trend.

Lauren also tells our Ross Wilkers where, again with what she has found so far, tariffs fit into the equation of the global defense industrial landscape. Agenda item number two for their discussion is the future of the Defense Information Systems Agency as it prepares to lose as much as 10% of its workforce.

Made in the USA: foreign defense companies eye bigger slice of the American pie

The DOD’s tech agency braces for 10% workforce cut

Pentagon heightens scrutiny on IT, management consulting contracts

Pentagon hits Accenture, Booz Allen and Deloitte with contract cancellations

Pentagon launches consulting contract review process

Frank Konkel, editor-in-chief for GovExec’s publications including us, and WT’s editor Nick Wakeman broke the story on May 21 of how GSA is planning to absorb major IT contracts run by the National Institutes of Health and NASA.

That and GSA’s other moves down the consolidation path are the starting and ending points for this episode featuring Frank, Nick and Ross Wilkers that covers the wide spectrum of changes across the entire GovCon ecosystem happening as they recorded.

The Federal Acquisition Regulation overhaul effort and what today’s world of government-industry engagement looks like were also on their discussion agenda, among other items.

WT 360: Clear themes to note from the emerging structural changes to acquisition

WT 360: Our EIC Frank Konkel on GSA, Google and the government as a single whole customer

Industry awaits significant disruption as GSA works on contract takeovers

GSA prepping plans to move NASA SEWP and NIH contract vehicles under its management

Inside GSA’s AI strategy: Using the tech while learning how to buy it

GSA’s procurement chief details administration’s acquisition reform plans

ANALYSIS: GSA's new procurement strategy begins with consumer tech

GSA, Salesforce agree to major Slack discounts for government

Trump orders structural changes to rules covering $1T in federal spending

The acquisition rule (re)writers really want you to have your say

Trump administration releases first wave of acquisition regulation changes

Rewrite of market research rules aims to give agencies more flexibility

FAR overhaul: The challenges in tackling federal procurement’s 5,000-page beast

Audrey Decker, who covers the Air Force and Space Force for our partners at Defense One, has covered Golden Dome from multiple angles as ideas for it have emerged since President Trump’s January executive order to get working on it.

Audrey joins our Ross Wilkers for this episode to provide an update on how the Defense Department, especially Space Force, is working on the vision for Golden Dome and what it needs to become a reality.

Software will be paramount in making Golden Dome happen, as Audrey explains from what government and industry officials have told her. How contractors are making their pitch to be part of the Golden Dome program is also on the agenda for Audrey and Ross.

Industry eyes ‘wicked hard’ Golden Dome space interceptor challenge

Golden Dome push sets stage for telecom battle over spectrum access

Trump to get Golden Dome options next week: defense source

Space Force sets up team to sort out support for ‘Iron Dome’—that is, ‘Golden Dome’

America’s ‘Iron Dome’ is going to need a lot more sensors: NORTHCOM

Trump’s ‘Iron Dome for America’ plan would put weapons in space, at a big cost

Tris Carpenter, general manager for strategic growth at Red Team Consulting, worked with his colleagues on an analysis of seven themes in particular that companies doing business with the government should look for.

As Carpenter explains to our Ross Wilkers in this episode, the FAR overhaul effort introduces some risk into the system that contractors and their government customers have not historically had to navigate.

But with some prep work, companies of all shapes and sizes can find success. Long-time players, aspiring new entrants and others in between have something to gain.

Trump administration releases first wave of acquisition regulation changes

Trump orders structural changes to rules covering $1T in federal spending

Plan for sweeping FAR changes nears release

FAR overhaul: The challenges in tackling federal procurement’s 5,000-page beast

Bill Wright, head of global government affairs at Elastic, joins for this episode to explain how the fundamentals of the Trump administration’s approach to artificial intelligence and cybersecurity line up with those from the Biden Administration.

Yes many things are different, but several others are not as well. For Wright, this shows just how critical cyber and AI are to the federal government. As he tells Editor Nick Wakeman, the Trump administration is looking to expand the government's AI and cyber strategy with a greater emphasis on commercial technology.

And of course, speed and efficiency are key points Wright addresses too. As he explains, understanding where customers have come from and where they want to go is step one in finding growth opportunities across today’s market.

Here are the tech takeaways from Trump’s budget proposal

‘Just wait’ to see how CISA reforms play out, DHS head tells cyber community

Industry awaits how OMB AI guidance on paper will be implemented in practice

What the federal workforce could look like with AI government employees

But this episode featuring Jeff Shapiro, government contracting advisory and regulatory assurance partner at CohnReznick, serves as a reminder that these are not typical times in GovCon.

As Shapiro explains to our Ross Wilkers, contractors have a Yes/No question of whether or not to go back to work after a termination reversal. If the answer is Yes, a new cycle begins that Shapiro talks through in detail.

The General Services Administration’s push to centralize much of civilian procurement under its roof features in part two of their discussion.

Trump orders structural changes to rules covering $1T in federal spending

GSA to ‘quadruple' in size to centralize procurement across the government

Proactive responses to termination for convenience or stop-work orders

Your contract termination has been reversed. Now what?

Frank Konkel, editor-in-chief for all GovExec publications including WT, went under the hood of that agreement and joins our Ross Wilkers for this episode to take listeners there as well.

As Frank explains: this pact unique because it essentially treats the federal government as a single whole customer. The agreement also foreshadows more like it to make certain commercial technologies more accessible for federal agencies.

Naturally, Elon Musk and the Department of Government Efficiency also feature in the conversation between Frank and Ross.

Jean Stack and John Song, co-managing directors of the defense and government practice at the investment bank Baird & Co., join for this episode to discuss what drove transactions over the past year and what they expect in the year ahead.

A new administration in the White House means there is plenty of change and uncertainty in the market.

But as Stack and Song told Editor Nick Wakeman, these fundamentals of M&A activity will not change:

• Artificial intelligence, cloud and software-defined solutions are in hot demand
• Private equity buyers will continue to drive volume
• Strategic buyers, including the public companies, will remain picky

Also listen out for their predictions on how the coming year will shake out.

Greg Nossaman and Greg Woodford, co-founders and managing directors at their investment bank G Squared Capital Partners, join this episode to review PE’s past and present activity in the market.

The Gregs’ conversation with our Ross Wilkers then shifts to the future of private equity in GovCon and the questions on many business leaders’ minds highlighted by these two:

How do I go about searching for a PE firm to back my company? What does PE look for in its investments?

CACI has three acquisitions on our 2024 M&A Roundup: Azure Technologies, Applied Insight and Quandrint. Those moves brought to CACI a suite of offerings in cloud migration, radio frequency and electronic warfare, and digital application modernization.

In this episode, CACI's chief financial officer Jeff MacLauchlan explains how the company’s strategy focuses on gaps. These gaps can include capabilities, customer footprint, technology, past performance, or some combination of the above.

“We don’t buy scale or to bulk up,” he told WT Editor Nick Wakeman.

CACI views acquisitions as a critical part of its philosophy to invest ahead of customer needs. That also includes partnering, internal research and holding demonstrations.

The change in administration has brought some uncertainty to the market and caused a slowdown in deals, but he adds that “opportunities will come."

How CACI's $1.2B Azure Summit acquisition expands its overseas strategy

CACI acquires Applied Insight to build up cloud migration offerings

CACI's international push is a slow and steady race

Better tools for analysts drove CACI to buy Bluestone Analytics

CACI to acquire laser communication tech maker for $275M

Nick and Ross begin this two-folded episode by going over the 2024 edition of that report and their highlights from it, both in terms of what we can gauge about the individual companies and the overall market at-large.

Part two shifts the discussion to all that is going on with President Trump’s return to office and the related transition activities, which are roughly 11 weeks in. Contractors are still left guessing a lot in terms of how the new administration wants to achieve its agenda and what is expected from industry.

Our 2024 M&A roundup is now available

Defense tech, digital modernization drive GovCon M&A in 2024

How consulting firms acquire to iterate, and sometimes reinvent themselves

The public company acquirer remains a unicorn in the M&A action

Venture investing is part of the M&A conversation too

ANALYSIS: Federal contractors navigate Trump administration uncertainty

Trump’s ‘pincer maneuver’ reshapes federal contracting landscape

Billions are on the line as DOGE, GSA increase scrutiny

COMMENTARY: The chainsaw approach to cutting government promises more damage than results

Trump administration asks agencies to cull consultants

Pentagon launches consulting contract review process

FAR overhaul: The challenges in tackling federal procurement’s 5,000-page beast

Centralized federal procurements bring plenty of risks, potential rewards

Leo Alvarez, a principal in Baker Tilly’s government contractor solutions practice, joins for this episode to go over the industrial side of that equation and how contractors can approach supply chain risk management as a partnership with their government customers.

As Alvarez tells our Ross Wilkers, contractors increasingly must detail their supply chain risk management frameworks to agencies in proposals to win the contracts. Putting those frameworks into repeated practice is also a business strategy that goes beyond just complying with regulations.

The CMMC cyber and supply chain standard for the industrial base also features throughout their conversation, given its finalization is an inevitability. Alvarez also explains how CMMC is part of the whole in the supply chain conversation, as opposed to being the whole.

But the subsidiary has kept a relatively low-profile compared to competitors. For this episode, Editor Nick Wakeman sits down with Thales North America CEO Alan Pellegrini to talk strategy and tends in the market.

Item number one on the agenda is a discussion of what the company offers to its customers across space, defense, aviation and cybersecurity. Pellegrini explains how those areas line up with the priorities of its parent, the Paris-headquartered Thales Group.

From there, the conversation moves to upcoming opportunities and how Pellegrini sees the market evolving with more demands for dual-use technologies and digital solutions around data encryption, application security and identity and access management.

Pellegrini predicts a growing market for Thales, both in America and around the world defense spending everywhere changes due the Trump administration's push for shifting U.S. priorities.

Tiffanny Gates has a front row seat to that as an operating partner at Capitol Meridian Partners, an investor that touts itself as at the nexus of government and commercial markets. Gates joins our Ross Wilkers in this episode to go over the unique role of private equity in bringing innovations to the public sector ecosystem.

Also on the agenda for their conversation: the U.S. government’s data problems and solutions from them, sorting artificial intelligence hype and substance, and workforce trends across the market.

Luis Avila, a managing director in BDO’s technology and transformation practice, joins our Ross Wilkers for this episode that is also a note-swapping exercise of sorts. Both listened to the most recent round of GovCon investor calls in their respective roles of research and analysis, plus journalism.

The Elon Musk-led Department of Government Efficiency, the race to technology superiority, supply chain health and wealth, and new entrants all were themes of those calls and feature in the conversation between Luis and Ross.

Keep in mind throughout their conversation that government contractors have their own unique approach to transparency, given their customers have publicly available budgets and policy documents.

Parsons explores 2 growth pathways for missile defense

Leidos eyes missile defense, border security tech as growth avenues

Maximus CEO sees tech modernization as opportunity in Trump's efficiency push

How the CEOs of Booz Allen, L3Harris view DOGE's vision

CACI's CEO weighs in on efficiency and acquisition

Lockheed's CEO: Efficiency push is 'an opportunity' for both industry and government

Amber Hart and Lisa Shea Mundt, cofounders of The Pulse of GovCon, believe that taking a true “BD 360” approach to the market means enhancing all aspects of the federal sales process with the goal of achieving an intuitive understanding of how agencies buy things.

They have now put permanency to their concept in the form of a book aptly named BD 360, from which the ideas in it are the foundation for this episode with our Ross Wilkers.

Legislation, policy and knowing how people work is where much of the conversation centers around. Yes, they talk about proposals too.

But as NextGovFCW's emerging technology reporter Alexandra Kelley explains in this episode, it is important to look beyond the buzzwords and assumptions.

"Alexa," as we and other GovExec colleagues call her, walks Editor Nick Wakeman through some common misconceptions that include why just using the term “quantum” is imprecise. Some active use cases involve quantum sensing and quantum telecommunications, which are built on quantum physics principles.

Alexa is tracking post-quantum cryptography and investments at the Energy, Commerce and Defense departments to build the infrastructure that would enable full-scale quantum computing.

Quantum information sciences represent enormous potential that is attracting both government and private sector investment. Quantum also is one technology area where the federal government of the curve with investments, infrastructure and a variety of initiatives.

AWS unveils its quantum chip prototype, Ocelot

Microsoft debuts new superconductor chip designed for quantum computing

DARPA taps Microsoft, PsiQuantum for scalable quantum computer research

Industry group calls on Trump to appoint a quantum czar

Agencies look to automation software to usher in next phase of post-quantum security

FY2025 NDAA angles to enhance DOD’s AI and quantum sciences capabilities

Senators introduce quantum reauthorization bill with little time left in this Congress

Microsoft and Atom Computing unveil 24-qubit quantum machine

NIST approves 14 new quantum encryption algorithms for standardization

Microsoft and Pacific Northwest National Laboratory bring AI to quantum chemistry research

How does EY go about doing so, while seeking to blend its consulting core with technology know-how? That is the starting point for this episode featuring Doree Keating, leader of the EY Americas government and public sector practice.

As Keating tells our Ross Wilkers, success in any tech implementation effort begins and ends with strategic intent on the buyer’s part. Workforce expectations are a factor in that, which includes whether people will need new training or upskilling.

Keating also goes over the thinking behind EY’s acquisition of Dignari in the fall, plus how she sees defense agencies in particular taking a pre-emptive approach to resilience and anti-fragility.

Tariffs are very relevant for companies that mostly focus on services to their government customers as explained in this episode featuring Larry Sher, a government contracts attorney and partner at Winston & Strawn.

Sher tells our Ross Wilkers that while companies may not know what the tariff rates will be in the long-term, they still must be foundational in how they operate and support the business of government. The regulatory framework and policy tools contractors have to get some relief for increased costs also feature in their discussion.

For more information, check out these client alerts from the Winston & Strawn team:

Prospective Tariffs on Goods from Mexico, Canada, and China

Summary of America First Trade Policy

Natalie Alms, who covers federal technology policy and tech workforce matters at our partner publication NextgovFCW, broke the story that DOGE’s leader Elon Musk visited the General Services Administration’s headquarters and is asserting his influence there.

What was he doing there? Nat joins our Ross Wilkers in this episode to answer that question and many others surrounding GSA’s role in the Trump 2.0 transition.

Be sure to read Nat’s articles below as they take you close to the action, and are the foundation for her discussion with Ross.

Senate Democrats call for DOGE to halt until details are provided

Musk takes aim at GSA tech shop

Musk visits and asserts growing influence at GSA

Musk's role as ‘special government employee’ raises ethics questions

GSA announces new FAS, TTS leadership

GSA will ‘recommit’ to ‘founding purpose,’ says acting administrator

As the Trump administration gathers names of recent hires, some are being asked to justify their jobs

Trump administration opens the door to politicize government tech executives

Gregory Barbaccia named federal CIO

Clarity on many of those moves, including a (maybe? sort of? but not really?) freeze on certain contracting activities remains hard to come by.

In this episode, Nick and Ross work through the questions that they can provide some answers to on what has happened so far. They also highlight the questions everyone in the ecosystem is seeking answers to.

As they say, drop a line if you have an answer or at least part of one to help solve more of the mysteries.

Where can GovCon find clarity in the Trump transition turbulence?

ANALYSIS: Signs of small business shifts to watch out for

GSA procurement pause sparks confusion

Lockheed's CEO: Efficiency push is 'an opportunity' for both industry and government

First wave of DEI-related contract cancellations hit the market

Contractors face greater scrutiny from anti-DEI executive orders

CACI's CEO weighs in on efficiency and acquisition

COMMENTARY: Contractors embrace Trump's potential to modernize procurement

Accenture Federal’s new CEO eyes AI-driven transformation during Trump 2.0

Industry execs weigh potential impacts of presidential transition

Where technology fits into agencies’ efforts at making the entire lifecycle more seamless is the focus of this episode featuring Jill Jones and Yoko Jolly, respectively chief strategy officer and federal market leader at CrossVue.

In talking with our Ross Wilkers, Jones and Jolly also offer their perspectives on how agencies are addressing the challenge of scaling the tech they use for human capital management.

(The survey mentioned in this episode was produced by Market Connections, which is owned by WT’s parent company GovExec)

In this episode, Shannon Miller — Jacobs' president of growth, strategy and digital — discusses how Jacobs has evolved following that divestiture of its federal-facing units to Amentum.

Miller told WT Editor Nick Wakeman that Jacobs' tech strategy focuses on applying digital solutions and artificial intelligence to critical infrastructure, environmental sustainability, and life sciences challenges.

That includes incorporating AI into water treatment plants, infrastructure resilience tools at Air Force bases.

She also outlines Jacobs' strategic focus areas: addressing climate challenges, advancing life sciences solutions, developing sustainable transportation infrastructure, and tackling talent shortages through AI and automation.

WT 360: Where Amentum wants to go next following its big merger

A reader's guide to 'New Amentum' on its launch day

WT 360: Our snap reax to Jacobs' spinoff plan

WT 360: Jacobs' third wave is all about data and tech

But our first episode of this New Year has to start with transition talk. We do just that with the help of Stephanie Smith, GovCon industry senior analyst and valuation services director at the global professional services firm RSM.

Here are the other big-picture items Smith and our Ross Wilkers went over:

• The nexus of macroeconomics and industrial policy
• Cyber and supply chain security priorities
• The U.S.’ push to regain global tech leadership
• Customer demand areas that remain paramount
• M&A transaction themes to watch in 2025

David Berteau, president and CEO of the Professional Services Council, and his team are fielding many questions on the transition from government contractors they represent as one of their leading trade associations.

In this episode, Berteau explains to our Nick Wakeman and Ross Wilkers what contractors are asking the PSC team about and all the key indicators that matter to industry when a new administration moves in.

Some priorities are poised to carry over like the CMMC cybersecurity standard, but time will tell if others continue on. The Biden administration also has priorities to work on as it moves out and Berteau goes over those as well.

(We recorded this conversation before the final 2025 National Defense Authorization Act's text was released. The reading list below includes coverage of it from our GovExec colleagues.)

FY2025 NDAA angles to enhance DOD’s AI and quantum sciences capabilities

FY2025 NDAA targets spyware threats to U.S. diplomats, military devices

Could Biden’s recent strategy to streamline government hiring be scuttled under Trump?

Trump teams to deploy throughout government after reaching agreement with the Biden administration

OMB releases federal tech impact report as Biden admin winds down

How the federal CIO is prepping for the presidential transition

‘Shock the system’: Startups and DOGE take over Reagan forum

Defense officials hopeful incoming administration keeps funding cutting-edge tech

That means Leidos has a single business segment dedicated to digital modernization and one that covers the company’s entire customer base. 

In this episode, Leidos’ digital modernization president Steve Hull explains why the company decided to put all of that work under one roof and how it defines “repeatability” in its offerings for agencies.

Leidos has four other customer-facing sectors that Hull’s team is in close contact with to find out what their particular client sets need, as he explains to our Ross Wilkers in a conversation that of course covers much of today’s major tech trends like artificial intelligence and autonomy.

But in this episode, NextgovFCW’s tech workforce reporter Natalie Alms describes how what government and business leaders call “skills-based hiring” is becoming more of the norm for certain tech jobs.

As Natalie tells our Ross Wilkers, some agencies and contractors are de-emphasizing educational requirements for those roles and replacing them with other means.

Three big government contracts are now all about skills-based hiring. “Nat,” as some of us coworkers call her, gives some signposts to watch for how much further that approach could expand across public sector and more.

We recorded this episode before Nat’s next big story she teased toward the end landed on Nextgov/FCW. That article is link number one in the list below.

Trump’s first White House debated the role of USDS. What will Trump 2.0 do?

Major federal IT contracts to remove ‘unnecessary’ degree requirements

Harris touts skills-based hiring for feds on the campaign trail

Mace sponsors bill to ban educational requirements for government contractors

Goodbye degree requirements? Biden administration pushes skills-based hiring for tech talent

White House looks to eliminate college degree requirements for cyber jobs with federal contractors

Never mind the degrees – here's skills-based hiring

OPM issues guidance on implementing Trump-era hiring policy

Jeremy Wensinger joined V2X as chief executive in June to lead this new phase of what he calls “optimization” now that all the integration activities stemming from the 2022 merger that made the company are done.

In this episode, Wensinger explains to our Ross Wilkers how V2X is working to optimize the broader portfolio it now has in the name of growth and expansion across the government market. 

Wensinger also describes where he sees V2X residing in the still-very fragmented federal services landscape, how it approaches technology insertion and what this new chapter means for the company’s 16,000 employees.

This episode sees Steve Arnette, chief operating officer at what we can now call “New Amentum,” take our Ross Wilkers through all that went into putting this larger company together and where everyone wants to go from here.

Underpinning this new version of Amentum’s vision and goals is what it calls a “technology-enabled growth strategy.” Arnette walks through that very strategy, how it applies to the company’s priority markets and what all of this means for Amentum’s 53,000 employees around the world.

Some of the key findings that McGinn discusses with Editor Nick Wakeman include the importance of leadership, government and industry collaboration, and the need to design systems for more rapid production.

The U.S. industrial base has responded before, as McGinn says. He offers some of those important lessons from World War II, COVID-19 and the U.S.' response to Ukraine.

The full report is available here.

For this episode, Bryce Tech's founder and CEO Carissa Bryce Christensen shares the secrets behind her company's rapid growth and success in the federal market.

Christensen discusses Bryce's strategic approach to building a scalable business, focusing the pipeline on the right opportunities and nurturing a company culture that empowers employees. She also tells Editor Nick Wakeman about the firm's ability to apply its expertise across both government and commercial sectors, especially in the dynamic space industry.

She also provides advice for aspiring entrepreneurs that emphasizes the importance of self-awareness, building the right partnerships, and staying true to your vision.

Everything starts with strategic planning and that is also where the conversation begins for this episode featuring James Calver, a partner at fractional executive services provider TechCXO and multiple-time CEO in the health care and financial services industries.

Growth-oriented mindsets are required for all companies, as Calver tells our Ross Wilkers. That also inevitably leads to acquisitions, of which Calver oversaw dozens throughout his long career and draws lessons from that he gives to other CEOs.

The differences between management and leadership are also on the agenda, as is how to incorporate uncertainty into a plan and vision.

Where agencies are putting most of their technology budget dollars to work is the starting point for this episode featuring John Caucis and James Wichert, public sector analysts at the market intelligence firm Technology Business Research.

Caucis and Wichert take our Ross Wilkers through how companies are positioning themselves for that spend, including their organic investments and acquisitions that are signposts for where they want to go.

Also on their discussion agenda: how some companies are looking to wear both the integration and consulting hats, the future of Peraton with a new CEO in place and realities of the artificial intelligence landscape.

But the Commerce Department wants many more companies to be a part of the push to restore U.S. leadership in semiconductor manufacturing.

Larry Sher, a government contracts attorney and partner at Winston & Strawn, centers the discussion for this episode around how and where the GovCon industry can get involved as well.

As Sher tells our Ross Wilkers, the nature of the chip market’s supply chain means that Commerce has to cast its net far and wide beyond just the semiconductor makers themselves. Sher also explains some of the trends he is seeing in who is getting the grants and the homework companies must do before applying for the money.

What we can gauge from Intel's $3B military chip grant

IBM awarded $576M DOD chip manufacturing contract

First CHIPS Act award signals start of U.S. semiconductor push

NIST seeks industry support for chip funding applicant checks

NIST builds infrastructure for CHIPS loan program

Audrey Decker essentially functions as Team GovExec’s Boeing correspondent in her role as Air Force and Space Force reporter for our partner publication Defense One.

For this episode, Audrey breaks down the ongoing turmoil in Boeing’s defense and space segment amid a labor strike and search for a new leader after Ted Colbert left the company on Sept. 20.

This discussion with Ross Wilkers also goes over some of these key priorities for the customers that Audrey covers: a robot wingman program, commercial imagery, space domain awareness and the B-21 bomber.

Kim Koster, vice president of product marketing at Unanet, joins WT Editor Nick Wakeman for this episode to discuss how and where contractors are adopting AI in their own operations as found in the newest edition of her company's GAUGE report.

Unanet and CohnReznick work each year to release GAUGE -- Government Contract Compliance, Accounting, Utilization, Growth and Efficiencies.

In explaining the 2024 GAUGE findings, Koster shares insights on AI usage trends, maturity levels and implementation strategies. Still not on your AI journey yet? Koster has some advice on how to start that as well.

Adam Rentschler and his partners started Valid Eval in 2011 to help agencies make better evaluations at scale. All throughout this episode, the latter two words of that sentence come up frequently in the conversation between Rentschler and our Ross Wilkers.

Rentschler’s vision is for the acquisition ecosystem to have more humanity in it and the use of data to help lead that effort.

Those concepts may seem contradictory on the surface, but Rentschler brings them together throughout the discussion.

NobleReach Foundation launched in 2022 to be at the forefront of making more of those links happen. In this episode, NobleReach’s chief executive Arun Gupta describes how the nonprofit looks to do just that by taking others with them along the way.

Entrepreneurs out there who want to be part of solving big problems are both a core constituency of NobleReach and agencies that want greater access into that part of the innovation ecosystem, as Gupta explains to our Ross Wilkers.

Gupta co-authored the book “Venture Meets Mission” alongside his colleagues Gerard George and Thomas Fewer to lay out a roadmap and guiding principles for better alignment.

Sam Skove, who covers the Army and Marine Corps for our partner publication Defense One, has seen much of this action first-hand from visits to bases in the U.S. where the drones are tested and in Eastern Europe where they are fielded.

In this episode, Sam takes our Ross Wilkers through his reporting on how the Army's desire to bring more small drones into its fold does not necessarily match up with the U.S.' industrial capacity to make them in large quantities.

The reasons for that disconnect are myriad as Sam explains, as are some of the solutions he has heard from informed observers on how to bridge that gap.

Wartime need for drones would outstrip US production. There’s a way to fix that

Army puts new unit loaded with cutting-edge tech to the test

US shouldn't learn the wrong lessons about Ukraine’s drones, expert says

What Estonian drone companies are learning from Ukraine

Across the Army, units lean into drone experimentation

Army brass opposes drone branch

FPVs, tethered drones could become formal Army programs in 2025

Now as CEO of Tyto Athene, Kelly brings that experience of building and scaling multiple businesses in a dynamic market.

In this episode, Kelly describes his approach for doing that in a conversation with WT's Editor Nick Wakeman and lays out Tyto Athene's path for growth.

Kelly also provides candid reflections on his journey from Navy veteran to federal tech CEO and shows his passion for supporting critical national security missions.

Tyto Athene hires Kelly as chief executive

BlueHalo to combine with Eqlipse Technologies

CIS Secure Computing acquires intelligence community IT firm

The drivers behind KBR's 'largest to date' & 'most transformational' acquisition

PAE closes A-T Solutions acquisition

Now Raft is in a place where Shubhi Mishra, who started the software engineering company in 2018, believes there is much more greenfield in front of it. That led her to start looking for an investor in the company.

In this episode, Mishra tells our Ross Wilkers all about how she went against the advice of many other founders that told her to not go down that path and why she chose Washington Harbour Partners to back this phase of Raft's strategy.

Also on their agenda: the so-called "digital battlefield" concept and a significant paradigm shift Mishra wants to see in the prime-subcontractor relationship in the interest of advancing innovation.

David DiMolfetta, who covers cybersecurity at our partner publication NextGovFCW, led the bulk of GovExec's coverage of the aftermath even though the outage was not technically a cyber situation. But all that happened does bring up questions about network vulnerabilities and resilience.

In this episode, David tells our Ross Wilkers all about how federal agencies are working to recover and learn from an event that was truly historic in scale.

Blue screens of death were everywhere on July 19 and the entire situation was weird. As David explains, the scale of the outage is leading agencies to re-examine how they approach cyber and keeping tech assets healthy.

Summer-only sessions helped blunt CrowdStrike outage impact on US schools

Crowdstrike IT outage linked to update using new threat detection system

How the CrowdStrike outage carved out new opportunities for hackers

Biden briefed on CrowdStrike IT outage as multiple federal systems impacted

Frank Konkel, editor-in-chief for GovExec's publications including us, wrote a deep dive article earlier this month that includes his conversations with some intelligence community leaders on where their agencies are at in Gen AI.

In this episode, Frank tells our Ross Wilkers all about what they told him and what else he found in putting together that story to explore what IC agencies are up to in Gen AI and their grander visions for the technology.

As you will hear from Frank, they want to go fast and also be thoughtful about mitigating some of the risks in doing so.

The US intelligence community is embracing generative AI

The CIA is taking a ‘crawl, walk, run’ approach to GenAI

2023 was just the start of generative AI’s rise, government and industry leaders say

Proceed with caution: Industry advises a careful approach to generative AI

3 in 4 Americans Worry AI Will Take Their Jobs

CIA Awards Secret Multibillion-Dollar Cloud Contract

Pentagon awards $9B cloud contract to Amazon, Google, Microsoft, Oracle

Edward Graham has a front-row seat to many of those conversations in his role at our sibling publication Nextgov/FCW, where he reports on national security technologies and policies.

For this episode, Edward tells our Ross Wilkers all about the current state of play for where the Defense and Homeland Security Departments are at on their generative AI journeys.

Guardrails and pilots are more than just buzzwords for generative AI. As you will hear from Edward, they are the key words to hone in on for understanding where generative AI is today and the direction it is going in.

DOD’s generative AI task force will help set guardrails for broader use

DHS generative AI pilot embraces hiccups of emerging tech

AI can enhance border security but won’t close workforce gap, lawmakers say

DHS hires initial cohort of 10 to join its AI Corps

VA is already using AI to identify and assist veterans in crisis, officials say

His description to Wall Street is also the starting point for this episode, where Bright explains how Company No. 17 on our 2024 Top 100 tailors that idea to U.S. government work and sheds further light on the worldwide nature of what KBR does.

The trilateral AUKUS security partnership between Australia, the U.K. and U.S. is an example of how KBR thinks globally. Today's AUKUS activity remains mostly government-to-government, but Bright believes that will open up opportunities for industry after more is figured out.

Bright also overviews KBR's work to build out a franchise space business and the technology angle to everything the company does.

The 2024 Washington Technology Top 100

How we got our numbers

Our 2024 Top 100 reader's guide

Trends driving today's Top 100

Diversity gaps persist among the Top 100 C-suites

Joe Cormier, both chief operating officer and chief financial officer at GovCIO, explains in this episode how the technology integrator has become what it is today as a result of that transaction. For context: GovCIO was at 500 employees when its private equity owner entered the investment and now has 3,000 on staff.

Company No. 41 on our 2024 Top 100 is now almost solely focused on organic growth, including its capture of a recompete almost four times the size of its predecessor. Cormier describes that win to our Ross Wilkers in their wide-ranging conversation that also covers how GovCIO approached the integration and is thinking about what's next for itself.

Dive into the rankings and more surrounding them by clicking the links below:

The 2024 Washington Technology Top 100

How we got our numbers

Our 2024 Top 100 reader's guide

Trends driving today's Top 100

Diversity gaps persist among the Top 100 C-suites

Jason Schulman, national vice president of federal government sales at Lumen Technologies, explains in this episode how the company works with agencies to make that happen regardless of where they are in their innovation comfort levels.

For Company No. 38 on our 2024 Top 100, that also means looking beyond the current Enterprise Infrastructure contract vehicle as the government is already thinking about its successor. Schulman tells our Ross Wilkers all about how the work begins now on that front for carriers and agencies alike.

Dive into the rankings and more surrounding them by clicking the links below:

The 2024 Washington Technology Top 100

How we got our numbers

Our 2024 Top 100 reader's guide

Trends driving today's Top 100

Diversity gaps persist among the Top 100 C-suites

For this second in a two-part episode, Nick and Ross pick up where they left off in part one by highlighting how the complex merger of Amentum with Jacobs' government services businesses will affect the 2025 ranking. This is one of several examples they highlight of how mergers and acquisitions affect the rankings every year.

Nick and Ross also highlight how just about every IT systems integrator ties their strategy to working well with global commercial tech providers. Company No. 100 on the ranking also gets the spotlight in their discussion.

Dive into the rankings and more surrounding them by clicking the links below:

The 2024 Washington Technology Top 100

How we got our numbers

Our 2024 Top 100 reader's guide

Trends driving today's Top 100

Diversity gaps persist among the Top 100 C-suites

This latest episode of WT 360 has Nick and Ross start their talking through the companies and numbers that feature on the ranking, but particularly what they tell us about the government market's directions.

Here is *some* of what was on their agenda for this first in a two-episode series on the Top 100:

• The top quadrant's significant market share concentration
• How tech implementation and consulting are becoming more intertwined
• What Science Applications International Corp.'s new CEO wants the company (No. 11) to grow into

We will post the second half of the discussion next Monday morning. Same time, same place.

Dive into the rankings and more surrounding them by clicking the links below:

The 2024 Washington Technology Top 100

How we got our numbers

Our 2024 Top 100 reader's guide

Trends driving today's Top 100

Diversity gaps persist among the Top 100 C-suites

Telos' chief executive John Wood spoke to us shortly after the completion of that IPO and returns for this episode to provide an update on the security technology company's execution since then.

A significant aspect of Telos' journey as a public company can be characterized as a transition. As Wood describes to our Ross Wilkers, that also involves going toward a destination and not just an exit from something.

The overall security landscape for government and industry also features prominently in their discussion, both in the cyber realm and elsewhere.

PROJECT 38: Inside Telos' path to its IPO and what's next

Telos lays out plan for its year of transition

Where to now for Telos & its IPO proceeds?

Why Telos decided the time is now for its IPO

Already somewhat public, Telos' IPO further illuminates strategy

Melissa Carson, vice president and general manager of Iron Mountain's government solutions business, starts out this episode with facts and figures to help quantify the volume challenge agencies have with one mind-boggling number on government forms to pay attention to.

She then tells our Ross Wilkers all about how the government, and companies like Iron Mountain, are connecting efforts to make data management easier with the overall customer experience agenda.

That work includes turning physical assets into the digital form, which is no easy feat, but becoming more so with the advent of generative artificial intelligence and other AI techniques. Having the right guardrails in place is key to making that a success though, according to Carson.

The 2,800-employee company was created through a pair of acquisitions by private equity firm Brightstar Capital. Zolet is busy creating a new company culture that he calls the "Astrion Way" -- a blend of technical skills with deep customer knowledge and focus. 

As Zolet tells our Editor Nick Wakeman, he wants Astrion to be a company that can look around the corner and see what's coming so it can bring solutions to customers that help them meet their missions faster and more efficiently.

Zolet shares the company strategy and future plans in this conversation.

This is episode three in our 2024 series on mergers and acquisitions across the government market.

Now the defense technology integrator is joining forces with another like it that has the same private equity owner in Arlington Capital Partners. In this episode, BlueHalo's chief executive Jonathan Moneymaker explains the decision to combine with Eqlipse Technologies and the overall demand landscape that is behind the move.

"Transforming the Future of Global Defense" is the tagline all over BlueHalo's website and other promotional materials, and one Moneymaker spoke to us about in 2021 early on in the journey. Moneymaker returns now to tell our Ross Wilkers about what that transformation looks like here in 2024 and shares some first-hand anecdotes of how he has seen it.

This is episode two in our 2024 series on mergers and acquisitions across the government market.

BlueHalo to combine with Eqlipse Technologies

PROJECT 38: BlueHalo's strategy for transforming modern warfare

Private equity drives high transaction volume in 2023

2024 M&A Round Up

WT 360: All about Guidehouse's vision to be a 'next-generation consultancy'

In this episode, Guidehouse's chief executive Scott McIntyre describes the blueprint laid out by the company and its new owners Bain Capital with respect to what's next and how they plan to get there.

A bulk of that can be seen in how Guidehouse has adopted this approach for itself – "Building our next-generation consultancy." McIntyre explains what that means to our Ross Wilkers, plus how consulting is now much more than just providing clients advice, and the ways Guidehouse works with customers that are regulators and among the regulated.

This is episode one in our 2024 series on mergers and acquisitions across the government market.

Private equity drives high transaction volume in 2023

2024 M&A Round Up

Guidehouse to get a more global private equity owner

Frank Konkel, editor-in-chief for GovExec's publications including us, had a front-row seat to that announcement and at Google's flagship cloud conference April 9-11 in Las Vegas.

In this episode, Frank joins our Nick Wakeman and Ross Wilkers to explain what Google's receipt of that key security authorization means for both the tech giant itself and the larger cloud computing landscape with respect to federal.

Google had much to share at its Cloud Next conference and Frank had much to talk about with key government and industry leaders there: conversations on all things cloud and artificial intelligence that he provides a glimpse into for Nick and Ross.

Google is now authorized to host classified data in the cloud

Google Public Sector ‘hitting our stride’ in government market, CEO says

Google centers public sector strategy on alliances with integrators

Google Bets Big on Government Business with New Division

Pentagon Awards $9B Cloud Contract to Amazon, Google, Microsoft, Oracle

CIA makes awards for intelligence community's next massive cloud contract

The NDAA also functions as a roadmap for companies to shape their business strategies as explained in this episode featuring Luis Avila and Stephanie Smith, government contracting market analysts at RSM.

Avila and Smith take our Ross Wilkers through some key signposts of the legislation that they believe contractors should take particular note of. Procurement, the industry's pool of participants, supply chains, data rights and artificial intelligence are on the discussion agenda.

This fiscal year's NDAA comes out to around 3,100 pages, but as Avila and Smith explain: doing the homework on what is in the law helps contractors know their customer before it's time to pursue the contract.

DOD's emphasis on cyber through that strategy and beyond is an ongoing storyline that Lauren Williams stays on top of for Defense One, a sibling publication of Washington Technology.

For this episode, Lauren explains the vision and goals of that new strategy in conversation with our Ross Wilkers.

Lauren also provides a snapshot of what she found in the Army Applications Lab -- a technology incubator that the service branch stood up in 2019 to grow the network of startups it works with.

The Pentagon wants to help boost cybersecurity for small contractors

Meet the Army’s tech incubator

The Federal Trade Commission's effort to make these pacts illegal in the U.S. has a long runway ahead of it before becoming official, but is still a move that the government contracting ecosystem should take note of as it unfolds.

In this episode, attorneys Marlena Ewald and Grace Williams of the national security-focused law firm Fluet explain the bigger economic-wide picture of the FTC's push to ban noncompetes and then take the conversation to GovCon.

Both attorneys told our Ross Wilkers that questions about what this already means and could mean for the employer-employee relationship are starting to come up, so they provide some answers to them here. They also provide some key signposts to watch as the FTC's effort progresses.

The Proposed Nationwide Ban on Non-Competition Agreements by the Federal Trade Commission

Will the FTC Finalize a Complete Ban on Noncompetes?

Noncompete agreements explained

She dives into those topics and more in this conversation with WT Editor Nick Wakeman. 

From her perch, Natalie has a unique perspective on the challenges agencies face in trying to modernize how they provide services to citizens. She explains that while AI holds great promise to improve how the government operates, there are also many hurdles to clear.

Related articles:

IRS touts launch of Direct File pilot

White House stalls on digital identity mandate, despite billions in fraud

Experts warn that OMB’s AI guidance could slow federal adoption of the emerging tech

On the heels of Biden's executive order, agencies get White House directive on implementing AI

The CX executive order turns one

In this episode, Fortinet's federal chief technology officer Felipe Fernandez tells Editor Nick Wakeman that companies should focus their efforts around the standard shaping the rule regardless of how CMMC evolves.

Companies have checklists and questionnaires available to them for use before they go through a third-party assessment. For those that prepare early, there may be an opportunity to separate themselves from competitors.

Fernandez shares insights on that preparation and more as he and Wakeman dive into CMMC as it moves through the rulemaking process.

The cybersecurity business formerly known as Forcepoint Federal, and before that as Websense, now exclusively focuses on global government and critical infrastructure clients as a portfolio company of TPG. 

In this episode, Everfox's chief executive Sean Berg goes over some of the 700-employee company's investment priorities and the overall cyber landscape's current state of play.

Everfox has two decades of history behind it and to say that cyber has changed over that timeframe would be an understatement, but the emergence of nation-state actors is one of the trends Berg explains to our Ross Wilkers.

Also on their agenda: the new name itself of course, commonalities between Everfox's government and critical infrastructure customers, how and where the company plans to grow its talent base.

That has not changed for LMI, but its change in 2022 from being a nonprofit to for-profit appears significant on the surface. In this episode, LMI's chief executive Doug Wagoner explains the rationale for making that shift and who the investors in the company are.

Of course, the conversation between Wagoner and our Ross Wilkers works its way toward what LMI plans to do with its private capital backing. 

LMI now has more resources for acquisitions and support for its continued push to lead in logistics, an area that has become paramount for federal agencies in light of all that has happened to supply chains during the past three years.

Most of the largest companies in the market have used acquisitions as a catalyst for organic growth. But according to Hester, the director of merger and acquisition strategy and deal generation at Bluestone Investment Partners, there are plenty of opportunities for the small and midsized players to be active in M&A as well.

Hester says the critical element a mission focus and using that to drive your acquisition choices. Buyers can add capabilities, talent and broaden your depth. It can send a signal to customers that you can take on larger opportunities.

The volume of deals may ebb and flow from year to year, but there is little doubt that M&A has become a powerful force.

Digital transformation remains the core focal point of the new SMX's strategy and a main topic of this episode featuring chief executive Peter LaMontagne, who joined in 2020 as OceanSound Partners acquired the business.

LaMontagne also shared with our Ross Wilkers his view on what private equity investors like OceanSound do for the government market's middle tier and how SMX defines digital transformation for its strategy.

As LaMontagne sees things, cloud computing is absolutely part of that but far from exclusive to it. The conversation closes with LaMontagne's perspectives on the Pentagon's National Defense Industrial Strategy and what companies should do to make it a success.

The White House has started to work on changing that through a Jan. 31 memo that tells agencies to use that golden rule of government contracting for multiple-award vehicles and their task order business.

What that means for small businesses is the focal point of this episode featuring Stephen Bacon, government contracts attorney at the law firm Rogers Joseph O'Donnell.

Bacon tells our Ross Wilkers all about what the memo does and doesn't do, plus what comes next for the directive to become final and how small businesses can use it as an informational tool for their customers.

These links below have more on the Rule of Two expansion memo: 

Stephen Bacon on LinkedIn: OFPP Memo Small Business Participation on MACs

GovCon's 'rule of two' is about to widen in scope

That test looks at how compliant companies are with the standards at the heart of CMMC, which will formalize how contractors should protect controlled unclassified information in their systems.

This episode features Editor Nick Wakeman's conversation with Derek Kernus, director of cybersecurity operations at professional services firm DTS, who explains how his company became compliant with the National Institute of Standards and Technology's 800-171 standard that is the basis for CMMC.

Kernus led DTS and one of its clients, IVA’AL, through DOD’s Joint Surveillance Voluntary Assessment program that measures their processes against the NIST standard.

DTS and IVA'AL got perfect scores and that will get them an automatic CMMC Level 2 certification when the rule goes into effect, probably in early 2025.

Kernus shares what they went through, what they learned and what comes next.

But another much faster-moving sector of the economy looms large in DMI's strategy for public sector. In this episode, DMI's chief executive Rocky Thurston explains to our Ross Wilkers what the auto industry teaches the company about taking modern technology into federal environments.

Think connectivity and automation in particular when listening to Thurston describe how DMI draws lessons learned from the auto industry. DMI's overall strategy and the role of its private equity backer Oceansound Partners are also on the discussion agenda.

In this interview with Editor Nick Wakeman, ACT-IAC's CEO David Wennergren describes both the challenges ahead for agencies and contractors, plus the for optimism.

One key piece of advice from Wennergren stands out: There are many serious issues to resolve, but there are no excuses for individuals and companies not to get involved with each other and more importantly their government customers and with each other.

Industry also needs to put more focus on mission outcomes. Look for opportunities to make significant changes.

Our first episode of 2024 serves as that initial glimpse into what is important for the government market in this new year with the insights from Stephanie Smith, GovCon industry senior analyst and valuation services director at the global professional services firm RSM.

Smith told our Ross Wilkers that she and her colleagues at RSM are fielding many questions from clients about the evolving interest rate environment, which touches every aspect of the economy and certainly something GovCon has to take note of.

They also go over investment activity among non-traditional financing sources and the business opportunities for contractors in these three buckets: the industrial base's new CMMC cyber standard, the government's push to go green and defense on the global stage.

This episode has Jean Stack, co-lead of the investment bank Baird's defense and government services practice, join WT Editor Nick Wakeman to discuss how M&A activity can explain priorities and trends across the federal market and some subtle changes she sees taking place.

Her outlook covers what to watch for in venture capital and private equity involvement, as well as the potential for more privately-held companies going public.

What those deadlines mean for government contractors is the starting point for this episode featuring David Berteau, CEO of the Professional Services Council, one of the main trade associations representing the GovCon industry.

A second major signpost on GovCon's roadmap for 2024 is the Cybersecurity Maturity Model Certification, the emerging industry-wide standard for protecting information and systems. Berteau tells our Nick Wakeman and Ross Wilkers all about what contractors are looking for in the final version of CMMC's draft rule, whenever the Defense Department is ready to unveil it.

The agenda for this episode also includes discussion about technology trends and the National Defense Authorization Act, a key piece of policy legislation that also helps set the tone for how contractors work with their agency customers.

What led ASRC Federal to those two businesses and where does it want to go next? In this episode, ASRC Federal's chief executive Jennifer Felix describes the strategy and market-wide trends behind both of those moves.

In speaking with our Ross Wilkers, Felix also explains how federal agencies are working with companies like ASRC Federal to position for the future in terms of supply chain reliability and the adoption of next-generation technologies.

The pace of change across the entire federal landscape is not getting slower, but the partnership between government and industry is ramping up as Felix described it.

How the government buyer goes about its purchasing is of equal importance to knowing what the customer is asking for, as explained in this episode featuring FedSavvy Strategies' founder and managing principal Brian Lindholm.

In speaking with our Ross Wilkers, Lindholm goes over the work that business development teams can do in understanding the buyer profiles of prospective customers before starting to write proposals. That pre-bid exercise also shapes business decisions on whether to compete for a certain contract or not.

Our guest for this episode in Kirk Konert, a partner at AEI, joined the firm at around the time it started to further scale out its investments in the mid-2010s.

Konert describes to our Ross Wilkers how that approach has evolved, why AEI focuses much of its portfolio on companies that are founder-led and what the firm looks for an investment.

The discussion also includes Konert's observations on what is driving private investment activity across the entire government market landscape, plus the attributes that make for successful leadership teams at companies.

But even with AI's promise, its effectiveness depends on the person using the tool. Which makes AI just like any other tool we have, in that it often comes down to knowing the right questions to ask.

This episode goes over many of those questions with the help of Bruce Feldman, a former senior vice president from Science Applications International Corp. who now monitors AI in his current role as a principal consultant at Lohfeld Consulting.

Feldman tells WT Editor Nick Wakeman that even with his advocacy for using AI and seeing its potential, he also will warn of the shortcomings and risks.

But the focus on speed puts artificial limits on the promise and potential of what OTAs can do when used correctly, as NSTXL’s founder and chief executive Tim Greeff tells our Ross Wilkers in this episode.

Greeff leads NSTXL in its mission to manage consortia that work with agencies when they decide to run OTA processes, many of which are being used for programs of increasing size.

How OTAs work and what agencies are using for are focal points of the conversation that also has the backdrop of near-peer competitions for new technologies, and not just of the international type.

Funding delays and protracted procurement cycles are also facts of life in the market that are the starting point for this episode featuring John Caucis and James Wichert, public sector analysts at the market intelligence firm Technology Business Research.

Caucis and Wichert take our Ross Wilkers through how in one sense the work goes on and the budget environment looks promising for contractors on the surface, but that other factors get in the way of a more ideal picture.

Also on their agenda: the competition for tech talent, merger-and-acquisition highlights, leadership transitions at some of the largest companies and what the federal market's cloud computing landscape looks like today.

How this blue chip aerospace-and-defense hardware giant is taking on the role of business and technology scouting hat is the focus of this episode featuring Dan Ateya, president and managing director of RTX Ventures.

The former Raytheon Co. was a player in the venture game before its merger with United Technologies to create RTX in 2020. But as Ateya explained to our Ross Wilkers, RTX formalized the venture fund as a means to link the corporation's own innovation agenda with the Defense Department's critical technology priorities.

Also on the agenda for this conversation: what happens after RTX Ventures invests in a company, why the overall innovation and investment ecosystem is growing, and Ateya's advice for how to connect with the ventures team.

But those investments are just the first step in what Lockheed Martin and those companies are looking to achieve together as explained in this episode by Chris Moran, executive director and general manager of Lockheed Martin Ventures.

What happens after the capital is committed from the fund? Moran tells our Ross Wilkers that the post-investment relationship has been a focus area for the ventures team with new staff on-board after the fund doubled in size one year ago.

How does the startup ecosystem that Lockheed Martin Ventures taps into really operate? Moran saw it up-close during his time as a Silicon Valley executive and leans on that experience in his answer, which also includes perspective on why more startups are entering the defense market.

Where the federal government's second-largest services provider is concentrating its time and resources in technology is the focus of this episode featuring Jill Bruning -- president of Amentum's engineering science and technology group.

Bruning explains to our Ross Wilkers that much of Amentum's tech focus centers on the front end: so think of work like research, development and testing of advanced systems.

The conversation also works its way to hypersonics and counter-unmanned aerial systems, two areas that Bruning sees as being like most technologies: on an accelerated development cycle that means today's inventions can often get quickly outpaced by tomorrow's.

Dr. Sarbari Gupta founded Electrosoft in 2001 to focus on helping agencies with their own postures in cyber, the evolution of which she describes in this episode that also goes over what the government is asking of industry in today's cyber landscape.

Gupta explains to our Ross Wilkers how companies such as hers have carried out their own cyber practices and cultures amid the emergence of standards like CMMC as the final rule is in-the-works for that particular program.

She also shares her lessons learned along the way on growth, entrepreneurship and industry teaming as a small business founder.

Click here to watch Gupta's Ted Talk that was discussed in this episode.

This episode features an update on the integration and where that combination fits into IBM's larger, global vision for itself. The guests are Susan Wedge, managing partner for the U.S. public and federal market at IBM Consulting; and Mark Johnson, vice president of technology for the U.S. federal market at IBM.

One way IBM characterizes that vision is in its push to make a bigger impact for its clients, including those in U.S. government. Wedge and Johnson explain to our Ross Wilkers what that means and how they see the combined IBM-and-Octo team contributing to Big Blue's larger strategy and vision that centers around artificial intelligence and hybrid cloud computing.

IBM ranked at spot No. 28 on our 2023 Top 100.

How contractors are navigating a world of inflation and higher interest rates is the launch pad of this episode featuring Ruth Ann Clark, managing director for aerospace, defense and government services at JPMorgan Chase Commercial Banking; and Don Irwin, managing director and banker team leader at J.P. Morgan Private Bank.

Unlike other markets, GovCon has the unique fabric of how its singular customer set buys and adopts technology and that shapes how companies position themselves to win contracts.

Clark and Irwin share with our Ross Wilkers their perspectives on how companies are deciding which tech domains to focus on, plus where the middle-tier contractor fits in today's market landscape that often looks like a barbell shape between small businesses and large multibillion-dollar corporations.

The path Empower AI has mapped out for itself is the focus of this episode featuring Jeff Bohling, who was named chief executive in February as the global investor KKR took majority ownership of the company.

Empower AI is starting to talk about itself more as a solutions-oriented business versus one focused on making products, a shift Bohling describes as giving the company greater focus and alignment with how agencies are looking to buy AI.

ChatGPT featured prominently in this conversation. Bohling shares with our Ross Wilkers his perspective on what that technology has done to the overall AI dialogue, and how his time as cofounder and owner of a restaurant informs him in this current role.

Jason Salzetti, who leads Deloitte's government and public services practice, explains in this episode how that 26,000-employee team is working with its federal clients today on navigating the increasing speeds and rates of change with technology and how they operate.

A big component of that approach means Deloitte looks to be at the intersection of implementation, integration and consulting. In speaking with our Ross Wilkers, Salzetti goes over how Deloitte does that and why he sees federal clients now thinking differently about risk when it comes to innovation.

Other topics on the agenda included how the "GPS" team will work with Deloitte's space practice, and Salzetti's perspectives on human capital macrotrends his colleagues at the Deloitte Center for Government Insights studied.

Deloitte ranked at No. 15 on our 2023 Top 100.

Peder Jungck, vice president and general manager for intelligence solutions at BAE Systems Inc.'s intelligence and security segment, knows both of those worlds well given he was chief executive of a cybersecurity company that became a government contractor in the early 2000s.

As Jungck explains in this episode, knowing the market will be disrupted and where said disruption is coming from means his business is off to a good start. Jungck and our Ross Wilkers also go over today's role of the federal integrator, data management trends across government and what the I&S business is up to in working with BAE's Fast Labs advanced research team.

BAE Systems Inc. ranked No. 24 on our 2023 Top 100.

For this episode, Noblis' chief executive Mile Corrigan explains how company No. 76 on our 2023 Top 100 is carrying out the seven-year blueprint for itself that the team calls "Vision 2030."

Vision 2030 at its core is all about aligning everything inside Noblis to those common goals, including its many teams of employees and how Noblis recruits the people for them. Corrigan describes to our Ross Wilkers how Noblis focuses on both how new hires get onboarded and the experiences prospective candidates have when applying to join the firm, including so-called "boomerang hires."

Corrigan also updates Wilkers on the continuing shift in Noblis' delivery model they went over on this podcast nearly two years ago, where the firm finds itself writing "more code than papers."

This latest episode of WT 360's Info Session series has our Nick Wakeman and Ross Wilkers do some talking about some of the numbers, including those that do not jump off the page. But the majority of their chat is about what the Top 100 tells us about what directions these government contractors are going in and that of the market.

One company of particular interest to everyone in the market is No. 9 Peraton, whose CEO Stu Shea sat down with Nick for an on-stage interview at WT's June 6 event to unveil the list. Nick summarizes his takeaways from that conversation, as does Ross from the perspective of an audience member.

The upcoming CEO transition at Science Applications International Corp. is on the agenda for this episode as well.

For this episode, we turn the lens on the Ultra Intelligence & Communications business unit by hearing from its president Jon Rucker on how that team contributes to the larger whole that is Ultra Electronics.

Rucker is six months into this role in leading Ultra I&C, whose core product and service lines also include cybersecurity and electronic warfare. Where the business is looking to invest is a main focus of this conversation between Rucker and our Ross Wilkers, as is how Ultra balances honoring its nearly 100-year brand amid the push into new markets.

Joining WT 360 to take us through the team's mission and its place in ICF's overall strategy are Mark Lee and Kyle Tuberson, respectively chief technology executive and CTO at ICF.

This is merely the latest in a series of moves by ICF to place itself further at the intersection of tech implementation, advisory and consulting work for government and commercial clients.

As ICF sees things: the client demand landscape has similar themes no matter which market is of discussion. As Lee and Tuberson tell it to our Ross Wilkers: those with the job title of technologist and others more in the domain knowledge type of role all have equal importance.

Our guest for this episode to go over that strategy is Zee Hussain -- president of public sector, FirstNet and healthcare at AT&T. He explains how the public sector team works to align itself with the goals and vision of the corporation at-large to be a world leader in technology and connectivity.

In speaking with our Ross Wilkers, Hussain highlights both the investments AT&T has made in its core network and partnerships with other companies in the federal market to make both 5G and its augmenting capabilities a reality for agencies.

What's next for the FirstNet public safety network AT&T has been building out since 2017? Hussain answers that question as well.

Jacobs had spent the past decade building that unit and creating a $4.4 billion-annual revenue entity with close to 16,000 employees. But Jacobs now sees itself going down a different path and believes Critical Mission Solutions is better off pursuing its own goals and vision as a standalone.

All of that said: Jacobs has left the door open to different options for that business if they present themselves again, as the executive team stated to an audience of inquisitive investors.

FCW's executive editor Adam Mazmanian and NextGov reporter Edward Graham join our Nick Wakeman and Ross Wilkers to update the current situation regarding the ongoing electronic health record integration programs at the Defense and Veterans Affairs departments.

On the surface, both programs appear to be going on very different tracks. But nothing in the world of government technology at this scale we're talking about is simple.

Mazmanian and Graham explain where both departments are looking to go with their EHR programs, how they got there and the roles of the companies involved in each. The common thread between them is in how both adopting variants of Oracle Cerner's electronic health record.

Leidos is the lead contractor for DOD's EHR program with Oracle Cerner, Accenture, Henry Schein One and 35 other supporting businesses as teammates. Oracle Cerner is the prime for the VA EHR program with Leidos and Accenture included as teammates.

For this episode, V2X's chief growth and client service officer Sue Deagle describes to our Ross Wilkers how the combined company is looking to build off that foundation and expand into new areas of the market.

One significant leg of the corporate strategy is converged infrastructure, which V2X defines as integrating digital offerings into large physical assets with the end goal of creating smarter buildings including many military bases.

V2X also has to be a scout for technologies and partners to make that converged infrastructure a reality. Deagle also explains how V2X thinks about technology and goes about identifying the right tools and partners for more than just an individual program.

How Arcfield has come to be and where it is looking to go is the focus of this episode featuring chief executive Kevin Kelly, who explains to our Ross Wilkers the systems engineering provider's overall thesis and approach with the backing of private equity firm Veritas Capital.

Peraton and Arcfield both share Veritas as their owners but with a slightly different twist. Arcfield's strategy and execution is supported by on Veritas' Vantage Fund that focuses on mid-sized companies in the government technology landscape.

Kelly describes how Arcfield identifies and decides on the right larger opportunities to pursue, plus how the company thinks about further acquisitions and his perspective on overall trends in the space and national security domains.

Lauren Williams and Marcus Weisgerber of our partner publication Defense One jump in to share what they heard and wrote about at Sea-Air-Space, a Navy-focused trade show and one of a handful of the defense industry's largest conventions. The topics there represent key areas of interest for government contractors.

The group also goes over the impacts of Silicon Valley Bank's collapse and other banking sector difficulties on the industry. Also up for debate are the emerging cybersecurity rules and practices for companies and where L3Harris Technologies' acquisition of Aerojet Rocketdyne stands. The JADC2 networking construct also gets discussed and how the military is moving on its integration of commercial cloud computing.

Click here and go to page three to see the Defense Department's rendering of the Joint All-Domain Command-and-Control vision. It is exactly as complicated as we said it was.

This episode covers what BigBear has done and where it wants to go as told by chief executive Mandy Long and Tony Barrett, president and general manager of the federal segment.

BigBear is 15 months into its life as a publicly traded company, while Long joined in October 2022 as CEO. Long, Barrett and other BigBear leaders have since been at work explaining to investors the company's strategy and where it sees itself in the broader AI landscape.

Also on the agenda for their interview with our Ross Wilkers: distilling fact from fiction in the world of AI, how BigBear works to keep its federal and commercial segments in sync, and how making AI a greater reality for federal agencies requires multiple companies.

Fast forward to 2023 and what is now Aeyon is pushing to be a leading integrator of robotic process automation and other similar technologies for federal agencies.

In this episode, Singh joins the WT 360 conversation to explain why Aeyon decided to partner with the investment firm Enlightenment Capital in support of that ambition and what that backing has done for the company so far.

Singh also gives our Ross Wilkers a glimpse at how Aeyon blends its integration and consulting roles, plus what federal buyers are looking for with respect to RPA and other technologies under the umbrella of automation.

Noted GSA watcher and Schedule contract specialist Courtney Fairchild returns to WT 360 to provide an update on where the consolidation is now, next steps for companies to take and why they should view their actions as a series of business decisions versus purely administrative work.

Fairchild's role as CEO of the proposal consultancy Global Services Inc. means she is continuously peppered with questions on what companies should do next in this third phase of the Multiple Award Schedule consolidation. Consider this episode a collection of "Frequently Asked Questions," which our Ross Wilkers asks Fairchild, on pitfalls to avoid.

GSA's end goal for the consolidation is simplicity for agencies and companies alike. Simplicity should also drive contractors' actions in order to make the process straightforward for GSA employees, as Fairchild told our Ross Wilkers.

For more background and context, here are two articles written by Fairchild on the consolidation:

Top Four Ways to Avoid MAS Modification Rejections in 2023

MAS Contractors: Keep These Things in Mind for 2023

Nick Wakeman and Ross Wilkers review the tenure of Leidos' retiring CEO Roger Krone that started with his initial appointment in 2014. Krone's first big move happened two years later through the merger with what was Lockheed Martin's IT services business, which laid the groundwork for what Leidos is today.

What kind of company is the incoming CEO Thomas Bell going to arrive at on May 3, and what background does he bring? Ross and Nick go over that element of the transition as well.

The WT team also attempts to get a handle on the endlessly troubled National Institutes of Health's CIO-SP4 IT contract vehicle, plus the Veterans Affairs Department's strong preference for speed regarding its T4NG2 vehicle, also for technology solutions.

The merger-and-acquisition portion of this episode goes over these transactions: IBM's acquisition of Octo, LinQuest's own run of buys and all the venture activity being driven by GovCon companies themselves.

WT Editor Nick Wakeman sits down with attorney Stephen Bacon to discuss what and how GAO made its ruling, plus what it means for small businesses looking to move their SBIR solutions to the next level.

Phase one and two SBIR awards are common, but a phase three award is not guaranteed. The onus is on companies to educate and convince a potential government customer about their SBIR product and how it meets that agency's needs.

Courtney Buble of Government Executive and Chris Riotta of FCW join to share their initial reactions to President Biden's mention of "Buy American" supply chain initiatives during his State of the Union address, and new regulations and legislation regarding climate reporting and cybersecurity compliance.

The panel also goes over the Defense Department's move to go its own way with respect to the use of best-in-class contracts that all federal agencies feel some pressure to lean on, plus the shared workforce problem across the entire public sector ecosystem highlighted by a key vacancy at the government's most senior level.

In today's landscape, that means working with the customer base on how to tie data and technology into those efforts. For this episode of WT 360, Jacobs executive John Karabias explains what he calls the current "wave three" iteration of his company's strategy.

Jacobs' vice president of strategy for its new divergent solutions operating unit takes our Ross Wilkers through the company's gameplan unveiled in the spring of 2022 and how it came together. Divergent Solutions is a key leg of that, given its mandate is to develop and roll out digital offerings across all of Jacobs' end markets in government and commercial.

All throughout the conversation, Karabias harkens back to the company's origin story and shares how he sees much of what Joseph J. Jacobs started as still shaping the firm today.

How and where the global government services company has focused itself is the subject of this episode, where Amentum CEO John Heller explains to our Ross Wilkers what they are up to now.

This includes the identification and pursuit of opportunities in adjacent markets to extend beyond Amentum's core. Heller shares examples of those and how fast many of them are changing, including the energy market that Amentum views as part of national security.

This episode is all about answering that question in the form of a discussion featuring our Ross Wilkers and Stephanie Smith, government contracting industry senior analyst and valuation services director at the global professional services firm RSM.

Analysts and reporters have similar jobs: take in information, find the larger narrative and context, then present their findings to the respective audiences.

Smith does that at RSM to help its government contractor clients make informed decisions on strategies. Consider this conversation between Smith and Wilkers as an exchange of notes on what they have heard across the industry regarding what is important and gaining in prominence.

He finished his new book "Ever Vigilant" before he died in January 2021. Two years later, the book has been published. 

His wife Jennifer put finishing touches on the manuscript. This episode features Editor Nick Wakeman's conversation with Jennifer about the meaning and lessons lessons from Jack's life and career when it comes to curiosity, persistence, vision and entrepreneurship.

"Ever Vigilant" is a business book, but is also a personal memoir featuring stories about Jack's childhood and family. He also explains some decisions he had to make during his career.

Chairman and CEO John Wasson has a unique vantage point given his career at ICF coincides with its time at the Fairfax headquarters campus.

That relocation is the launchpad for our Ross Wilkers' interview with Wasson in this episode of WT 360, which also goes over how ICF has added technology implementation to its offerings on top of the company's longstanding work in an advisory role at federal agencies.

The overall direction of federal technology and infrastructure spending was also a focal point of this discussion.

What is now WT 360 remains all about the business of government contracting and all about the technologies involved in it, from the perspectives of leaders across the public sector ecosystem and others who observe the happenings.

This premiere episode also introduces a new regular feature called the Info Session that brings together our reporters and others across our GovExec partner publications Defense One, FCW, Government Executive and Nextgov.

WT's own Nick Wakeman and Ross Wilkers, Frank Konkel of Nextgov and Carten Cordell of FCW go over the storylines they are watching in 2023 and reflect on the Defense Department (finally) awarding its big-ticket commercial cloud contract back in December.

For more on the mission of WT 360, click here to read Nick's article that introduces the new name and the kinds of conversations we look to steer through our podcast.

(NOTE: When we recorded this episode, no one had received enough votes to be the next Speaker of the House. Who knows when anyone will get the votes, we sure don't.)

Berteau joins this episode of Project 38 to wrap up 2022 that was for GovCon and look ahead to what 2023 is shaping up to be for the industry.

Inflation, cyber and supply chain priorities, COVID vaccine mandates, and the connection between contracting and policy goals made the conversation led by our Ross Wilkers and Courtney Bublé of WT's sibling publication, Government Executive. Bublé is a staff correspondent who covers government management, which includes procurement matters.

NOTE: We just so happened to have recorded this episode on the very morning that lawmakers released the text for an omnibus bill to fund federal agencies  More homework for everyone involved in this discussion, it seems.

This episode of our podcast has Editor Nick Wakeman talk with Dominic Delmolino, vice president of field technology and engineering for Amazon Web Services' public sector business, about advances in cloud computing technology.

Delmolino explains how those advances can enable agencies to get better use out of the massive amounts of information they generate each day.

In this episode, our Ross Wilkers speaks with two leaders at one of the market's most active venture investment firms that has been busy in putting its third fund at $340 million in capital to work after completing the raise in the fall.

Mark Spoto and Matt Robinson, respectively a managing partner and vice president, explain the Razor's Edge investment thesis and the kinds of companies they look for when determining who they should back.

Financial criteria is a significant component of their strategy, but so is the U.S. national defense strategy that was unveiled in the fall. Spoto and Robinson also detail how Razor's Edge uses that document to inform the firm's own strategy and decision-making on what to do with the capital.

But there is also stability with the transition to new CEO Matt Tait, formerly its chief operating officer. Tait shares his priorities with editor Nick Wakeman in this episode along with the marching orders he has from The Carlyle Group, the private equity group that acquired ManTech.

Put simply, Carlyle wants ManTech to be ManTech. That means focusing on the national security missions of its customers and delivering innovation. In turn, Tait’s focus is on the company’s people and differentiation from competitors.

He sees plenty of opportunities ahead for the company, both organically and with acquisitions.

Many small businesses share the same challenges in achieving growth and success. Barnes shares his experiences and why he made some of the choices he made, including recently teaming with private equity firm Enlightenment Capital to fuel his company's next stage of growth.

All companies have to eventually decide if they want to race with stronger and faster runners, or stay in their comfort zone. Barnes has definitely chosen the former. He also knows big decisions lie ahead -- strategic hires, acquisitions and winning bigger contracts.

Raft's method for doing just that is "innovation theater" -- a concept Mishra explained earlier this year at an entrepreneurs forum focused on defense and does so again in this episode with our Ross Wilkers.

Mishra concedes some may not view innovation theater in a positive light at first glance, but sees that model as necessary to breaking the status quo and finding solutions to federal agencies' hard challenges.

She also gives an alternative view on today's talent challenge in the public sector ecosystem and why that problem also requires different thinking than many of the oft-spoken perspectives.

This episode of Project 38 sees Chris Copeland and Kyle Michl, respectively chief technology and chief innovation officer at Accenture's federal subsidiary, introduce our Editor Nick Wakeman metaverse and explain how the physical and digital worlds are converging.

As they see it, everyone is already in the metaverse to a certain degree. The metaverse is merely new way of interacting with data and making use of it. It’s a new way of working that will touch nearly every aspect of government operations and how contractors deliver solutions to clients.

Companies and agencies are already adopting the principles of the metaverse into solutions for training, modeling and simulation, and other areas. Even if they call it something else other than the metaverse.

Which naturally leads to the problem of data generation outpacing the technology needed to make sense of the volume.

For this episode of Project 38, Babel Street CEO Michael Southworth takes our Ross Wilkers through what dual-use technology companies such as the one he leads are up to in working with agencies on solving that data challenge.

Some of the data volume statistics Southworth cited are overwhelming but illustrate the point of what problems need solving.

What they are navigating and how they are going about it is the umbrella topic of this episode that sees our Ross Wilkers exchange notes and takeaways with John Caucis and James Wichert, public sector IT analysts at the market intelligence firm Technology Business Research.

Just like us: the coverage area of Caucis and Wichert encompasses federal IT integrators and the mission systems businesses at large defense companies, but with a heavy influence of how companies and technologies from other verticals are shaping the government market.

The agenda for this episode includes discussion of how contractors are prioritizing their investments, headwinds such as supply chain and talent, and the evolving dynamic between integrators and cloud computing infrastructure providers. 

Which brings up these questions that are the focus of this Project 38 episode: What tech tools are best for certain efforts? How do agencies apply those tools? How do agencies go about buying them?

Senior Staff Writer Ross Wilkers got some answers to those questions and more from Greg Gershman, co-founder and CEO of a digital services company looking to be a part of the citizen experience transformation.

Gershman was one of the core team members responsible for fixing HealthCare.gov after its troubled launch and helped start Ad Hoc with the idea of using some of those lessons learned to improve government service delivery.

King can rattle off a series of wins as Peraton's chief growth officer. But as you will hear in this interview with Editor Nick Wakeman, King also quickly turns to subjects such as integration and the new culture Peraton has created.

Peraton is working hard to make the most out of those acquisitions and position itself for future opportunities around customer missions involving cloud computing, digital transformation and cybersecurity.

Throughout the conversation, King also shares what it takes to be successful in today’s market environment.

In this Project 38 episode with Editor Nick Wakeman, Opiekun explains Leidos' philosophy for pursuing contracts and what they mean to the missions of federal customers.

Opiekun also provides insights on how Leidos decides to bid for a business opportunity, including those times where the company decides not to go for it.

So much so that Booz Allen has stood up a venture capital organization to invest in emerging tech firms and given that team an initial $100 million in funding to start out with.

Why formalize it after having already made three such investments? Here to explain why and the gameplan for Booz Allen Ventures is Brian MacCarthy, vice president of tech scouting and ventures.

MacCarthy explains the goals of Booz Allen Ventures as including finding dual-use technologies that can be scaled for government missions, letting product development companies remain such and keeping customers at the forefront of tech adoption.

Their creation of Groundswell through three acquisitions and a rebranding presents a company whose services center around low-code/no-code application development and digital transformation, among others.

Groundswell's specific focus right now is on the Appian enterprise software offering but there is more to come, as Batsakis and Spiegel explain to Editor Nick Wakeman.

So what's next on Amentum's agenda? CEO John Heller updates our Ross Wilkers on the integration of PAE into Amentum, which wrapped up the integration of DynCorp International when Heller became CEO in March.

Company no. 12 on our 2022 Top 100 rankings is a nearly $9 billion-annual revenue business with close to 50,000 employees around the world supporting U.S. and allied government programs.

Heller explains Amentum's rationale for scale and capability as both being interconnected and in-line with what the customer wants its contractors to have: broad offerings on the procurement cycle's end-to-end timeline that includes everything from technology infusion and development, to the operations-and-maintenance aspects of platforms.

Those have taken place as the pandemic exposed multiple weaknesses in how services are delivered to citizens, but company no. 19 on our 2022 Top 100 sees those gaps as space to grow.

For this episode, CEO Bruce Caswell and federal business leader Teresa Weipert talked with Editor Nick Wakeman about the changes at the company and how Maximus is melding its old culture with new ones.

This episode of Project 38 is a deep dive into the journey company no. 13 on our 2022 Top 100 rankings is now on as told by Tiffanny Gates, former Novetta CEO and now AFS' national security portfolio leader; and Ira Entis, growth and strategy leader.

They update WT Editor Nick Wakeman on how the integration has gone, what's changed about the combined business, and the opportunities and challenges they see ahead.

Some market trends are driven by technology and others by evolving customer missions. Government customers want to make better and faster decisions. That desire drives decisions around data, technology and processes.

L3Harris Technologies' move in that direction is the focus of this episode featuring our Ross Wilkers with Sean Stackley, president of the company's integrated mission systems segment and a former assistant navy secretary for research, development and acquisition.

Stackley explains what L3Harris means in talking about itself as the "Trusted Disruptor" and how these two moves by the company earlier this year are part of that identity: a new agile development group, and a partnership with investment firm Shield Capital to work with startup technology firms.

Embracing those dual-use technologies made in commercial markets but scalable for the government is key to L3Harris' vision of being the "Trusted Disruptor" and shows how the shape of innovation has changed, as Stackley explains.

What that means for federal and public sector customers is a pillar of this episode featuring our Ross Wilkers' interview with Zain Ahmed, senior vice president of Lumen's public sector business.

Ahmed explains how company no. 31 our 2022 Top 100 rankings strives to ensure that agencies are not overwhelmed by their adoption and modernization journeys.

The discussion agenda also includes where things stand today on agencies' transitions to the Enterprise Infrastructure Solutions contract, which was awarded five years ago and is intended as the government's main vehicle for modernizing their networks.

Company number 39 on our 2022 Top 100 rankings is also equally a software business in both its government and infrastructure markets as told to us by Peter Torrellas, president of the company's connected communities business.

Our senior reporter Ross Wilkers spoke to Torrellas in conjunction with Parsons' official unveiling of a new solution set and delivery model, which helps explain where the company is going and how it sees markets as becoming converged.

Regarding that word "converged" -- do any lines exist anymore between what is digital and what is physical? Wilkers asks that question too and Torrellas answered.

The focus of this Project 38 episode is NCI Information Systems' rebrand and relaunch as Empower AI 33 years after its founding -- a story that should resonate across the market.

CEO Paul Dillahay explains to Editor Nick Wakeman how that change was years in the making and is much more than just swapping out one name for another. It’s also not just about picking a strategy and sticking to it, but letting all of that transform a company.

Marketing experts Mark Amtower and Sheri Ascencio share the story of their mentor-protégé relationship with Editor Nick Wakeman. While Amtower is the mentor, they describe a relationship where the value flows in both directions.

Their bottom-line advice is that everyone needs a mentor and everyone eventually should look to be a mentor. No one succeeds alone.

For this episode of Project 38, Sagewind Capital's founding partner Steve Lefkowitz and managing partner Raj Kanodia take our Ross Wilkers behind the scenes of how their private equity firm works with contractors to build and grow.

The conversation naturally turns to how the search for acquisitions goes for Sagewind's portfolio companies: Axient, By Light, Federal Advisory Partners, Gcom and Sigma Defense Systems.

But in a portfolio company is also step one in many ways, so Lefkowitz and Kanodia also explain how Sagewind works with businesses on organic growth and infrastructure they need to succeed.

For this episode of Project 38, Gray explains to Editor Nick Wakeman how she acts as role model and coach to others . She shares her best advice for future female executives -- take on challenges, be courageous, be confident and be prepared.

That’s a huge piece of business to keep on a growth trajectory and in this episode of Project 38, she describes to Editor Nick Wakeman her strategy and how she keeps the business focused and pushing forward.

This includes her philosophy for picking contracts to pursue and building the capabilities that will differentiate CACI from competitors. The last thing she wants is to be in price shoot-out. Instead, she focuses on timing, competition, and CACI’s discriminators. And of course, you have to have the right answer to the question, “Why hire us?”

But as part of this Project 38 episode, World Wide Technology's public sector leader Bryan Thomas tells our Ross Wilkers that commercial enterprises are going through much of the same dynamics as government agencies.

The main difference is found in the tools and methods businesses have to navigate those challenges, which Thomas points to as a matter mostly of policy and buying practices within government.

He also triangulates how technology, talent and investments relate to one another with the goal of both bringing government IT systems into the modern age and bringing more workers into the public sector ecosystem.

In this episode of Project 38, SparkCognition’s government leader Logan Jones explains to our Ross Wilkers the company’s self-touted “full-spectrum AI” strategy and how they are working to map it with what the Defense Department is trying to achieve in AI.

AI is a means to the end as Jones sees it, rather than being the end, so the conversation gets into technologies intended to feed into the larger solution.

Check out these articles from WT and its partner publications for more background:

SparkCognition's government shop names lead exec

DOD Debuts Office to Help It 'Move Faster' on Artificial Intelligence

Pentagon adds new top AI role

DOD's AI portfolio skews toward research, GAO reports

For this episode of Project 38, FedSavvy Strategies’ leader Bring Lindholm breaks down to our Ross Wilkers how he sees businesses in the government market repeatedly falling into the same patterns of decision-making when it comes to their pursuits.

Lindholm and his FedSavvy teammates recently dove deep into some common misconceptions they run into with their Deadly Sins in Proposals series and this opinion article written for us -- Can you spot your Achilles' heel in your next pursuit?

As Lindholm sees it, arming one’s company with information and deeper understanding translates to being smarter in how they spend their dollars. This episode is intended as a roadmap for how to get there.

For this episode of Project 38, Hallbach describes to our Ross Wilkers how she leans on experienced gained in a previous role at Verizon’s state and local government business and other key agenda items since her promotion in February.

One of Hallbach’s main priorities will be Verizon’s growth and execution on the so-called “EIS” contract vehicle for network modernization solutions. Where agencies are on their modernization path is a mixed bag however and Hallbach sheds light into Verizon’s conversations with customers on that front.

Taking what Verizon does on the 5G front in consumer markets into the federal environment is always top of mind for whomever leads public sector, so Hallbach shares her perspective on that leg of the company's continued strategy focused on being the "indispensable partner."

But Kate Troendle and Marc Marlin of the investment bank KippsDeSanto also see the government market as maturing and getting more sophisticated, as they explain in this interview with editor Nick Wakeman.

Today’s environment sees a broader range of transactions beyond the traditional one company buying another variety. Small companies are buying others just like them, while other deals just focus on specific contract vehicle positions. Larger companies are divesting so they can shape and hone their portfolios.

Troendle and Marlin also see the momentum continuing in 2022 and even if the volume pulls back a bit, they believe the M&A landscape will remain substantial and robust.

For Gunnison Consulting, closing three transactions over less than 18 months has pushed the company from its status as a small business to solidly in the middle tier. 

In this conversation between Gunnison CEO Gil Dussek and Editor Nick Wakeman, we hear about that journey and how it is just a beginning for the company.

Gunnison nearly doubled in size through its most recent purchase of Centerpoint, which brought the acquirer more full-and-open business and a new governmentwide contract vehicle.

Dussek shares the company’s strategy and how he sees the federal market changing.

But why is it so hard to begin with? That is the launch pad of this latest episode on federal market M&A that sees our Ross Wilkers interview Stephanie Johnson, government contracting senior analyst and valuation services director at RSM.

Johnson’s dual-hatted role at the professional services firm positions her as both an informed watcher of the overall market and practitioner who deciphers what drives true value in a government contractor.

Much of this conversation between Wilkers and Johnson sees her illuminate some myths about valuation that have a degree of truth to them but are not always what they seem on the surface, as well as how companies should think about the notion of their future scale and not just today’s.

In fact, the company has closed eight of them since 2014. But in the recent years, the transactions have become larger and more frequent.

But don’t call Booz Allen consolidator. Chief Strategy Officer Matt Calderone explains to Editor Nick Wakeman in this episode of Project 38 how the company's activity isn't about adding scale, but is focused more on bringing in businesses that bring new capabilities and customers to accelerate growth.

In this episode of Project 38, Mike Sanders, founder and CEO of small business contractor Interactive Government Holdings shares his roadmap and playbook with our Ross Wilkers.

It is true that some of the challenges to success in the federal market are unique for small businesses, but Sanders sees the sector’s biggest challenge as one that companies of all shapes and sizes share in along with their agency customers.

Some of the are the same as well as Sanders sees a common goal: the market’s tent becoming more open and wider.

This episode of Project 38 looks at the megatrends in technology and talent that are poised to shape the public sector ecosystem in 2022 as outlined to our Ross Wilkers by Mike Canning, leader of Deloitte’s government and public services practice.

At the end of each year, the entire Deloitte team contributes to the firm’s annual “Tech Trends” report that is their outlook on the most important technology areas and events to watch in the coming year.

Both tech and talent are of course intertwined and it is people that is very front-of-mind for Canning, who also provided Wilkers some updates on an acquisition Deloitte closed near the end of 2021.

She discusses with Editor Nick Wakeman how a focus on better outcomes leads her strategy and that can mean improving technologies, processes or systems. Most often: it is some combination of all three.

For this second in a two-part episode, Gilliland shares more with Editor Nick Wakeman on her approach expands on how the people part of the business is as important as any technology or service that a government contractor can provide to its customers.

Gilliland talks about how she makes connections throughout her business and how what seem like small decisions add up to major impacts. She believes both professional and personal mentors are crucial no matter where anyone sits in an organization.

In this interview with Washington Technology Editor Nick Wakeman, she overviews the mechanisms put in place to combine the two businesses and how they laid the foundation for how the company responded to the COVID-19 pandemic. 

Chief among those is a focus on people. They were important for the integration post-merger, but will be even more crucial for the long-term success of GDIT.

Understanding technology and customer priorities are just “table stakes,” according to Gilliland. People are what differentiates a company from the field.

How does Justice plan to do that? Via existing authorities under the False Claims Act that imposes financial liability on businesses and people found to have defrauded governmental programs.

So what should contractors take heed of and act on? This episode of Project 38 aims to answer that question with the help of Susan Cassidy and Ashden Fein: partners at the law firm Covington who specialize in government contracting, cyber and national security.

As Cassidy and Fein tell our Ross Wilkers, what companies that work with the government should do today is more of a fine-tuning internal processes than developing new ones. But DOJ’s comments on what it plans to do are putting industry on notice given all the various cyber breaches of federal networks and critical infrastructure, and when considering the U.S. government is the largest collector of data anywhere.

In this episode, Mango explains what that mantra means for the CGI Federal Team and her leadership approach since she became president earlier this year.

CGI Federal’s strategy continues to evolve as customers ask for greater modernization and improved security.

Organic growth will be key to how CGI Federal pursues that strategy, but inorganic growth is always an option too as evidenced by the recent acquisition of Array Information Technologies. 

Mango sees growing opportunities for CGI Federal’s approach that melds technical expertise, innovation and global commercial best practices as the company develops partnerships with customers. She also keeps a focus on her employees, many of whom also are shareholders in CGI.

But what of the world of operational technology that controls industrial equipment and processes? In this episode of Project 38, Forescout public sector executive Tim Jones takes our Ross Wilkers through the intersection of cyber and OT.

Part of that conversation also means learning how IT and OT are becoming increasingly converged, or sometimes one-and-the-same. As a regional vice president of systems engineering, Jones sees that first-hand not just with federal agencies but many of the systems integrators that Forescout partners with on large technology programs.

Jones explains what the Biden administration’s cyber executive order and series of sprints means for the entire government OT ecosystem and the kind of starting point it could be.

The company found success in both the commercial and public sector markets, which right now represent a 60-40 split of the business mix. They’ve also completed nine acquisitions over the last decade.

But Bajaj sees the federal market's appetite growing for the digital transformation that DMI can deliver. To strike while the iron is hot, he turned to the private equity group OceanSound Partners for an infusion of resources to fuel organic growth and support more acquisitions.

In this episode of Project 38, Bajaj explains to Editor Nick Wakeman why he picked a private equity partner over a strategic buyer and why that puts the company toward bigger and better things.

One line of discussion gaining increasing prominence that Dolph sheds light on is how cybersecurity is no longer just an information technology problem, but one that also poses a threat to operational technology.

Digitization of doing business kept things running during the pandemic. And Dolph also shares how she, the SGT team and their clients want to incorporate all they have learned from that experience.

FCW Executive Editor Adam Mazmanian talks about challenges the Veterans Affairs Department is facing with the rollout of the Cerner electronic health record.

Senior Editor and Defense Reporter Lauren Williams gives her take on CMMC 2.0 -- the Defense Department's reboot of its standard for contractors to certify their cybersecurity practices and posture.

Natalie Alms covers the federal workforce: she talks about COVID-19 vaccine mandates and some of the confusion around deadlines for government employees and contractors to be fully vaccinated.

But in this episode of Project 38, Viasat’s government business president Craig Miller says there is a much bigger picture that everyone should consider amid this transition to the next generation of mobile networks.

Miller explains to our Ross Wilkers how 5G also is a foundational architecture by which different networks can be stitched together into a single construct, all in the name of them working together. Interoperability of devices and networks already in the field is crucial to making the 5G revolution work for government agencies and help them move to the next generation of communications.

Fair warning: this discussion waves back-and-forth between happenings in government and commercial markets. That is by design however, given how the 5G technology standard and its predecessors have been developed and iterated over time.
This discussion of network interoperability surrounds all future government networking initiatives like the Department of Defense’s Joint All-Domain Command and Control construct, known as JADC2.

Shrivastava describes the risks Array took such as focusing their efforts on a smaller part of the business as they positioned themselves for future growth. After an initial contraction, the company doubled in size to 300 employees and shifted from 85 percent of its revenue in small business set-aside work to 90 percent from full-and-open contracts. 

Then it came a time for Array to find a buyer. Shrivastava details that part of Array's journey and how they came to pick CGI Federal.

Every small business faces the inflection points that Array has faced, so this first-hand account offers lessons learned and plenty of advice as companies navigate today’s market. Shrivastava shares some of the important questions businesses should ask themselves as they move from one phase to the next.

For this episode of Project 38, the National Defense Industrial Association's CEO explains to our Nick Wakeman how the lure of a return on investment needs to be a consideration as the government regulates M&A activity.

Carlisle believes domestic investors should be attracted to fund young innovative companies, which after some development and nurturing are then sold to larger U.S. defense firms. That type of investment scenario thrives in the commercial world.

But today’s defense environment is still structured around a 1960s-era system for planning, programming, budgeting, and execution that Carlisle says needs to change.

In this episode of Project 38, Peraton Labs President Petros Mouchtaris speaks with our Ross Wilkers about the three-decade history of the team he leads and how fits within the parent company.

Getting a head start on the federal government’s hardest problems is a paramount focus for Peraton Labs and this conversation goes over three big areas: cybersecurity, 5G and networks, and everything under the umbrella of automation including artificial intelligence and machine learning.

Mouchtaris also explains how Peraton Labs works on this existential idea: figuring out how with a little customization and refactoring, federal agencies can use many of the same technologies that the commercial sectors do.

This includes a discussion about the different investment patterns by public companies such as Booz Allen Hamilton as well as large privately-backed players like Guidehouse, with plenty of smaller acquirers in between.

So ahead of an upcoming key deadline in mid-September, this episode of Project 38 goes over everything companies need to know at this juncture of the schedule consolidation with the help of Global Services President and CEO Courtney Fairchild.

All 24 Multiple Award Schedule contracts are becoming one as the General Services Administration pushes to simplify the program so industry and government alike have fewer burdens.

But phase three of this effort is the most complex and is more than just an administrative action, as noted GSA Schedule watcher Fairchild points out in this conversation with our Ross Wilkers. 

Fairchild and her company work with clients pursuing these very contracts, so Wilkers went over some of the most common questions she is asked about the consolidation, frequent misconceptions over what it means for companies and what it will portend for the future of government contracting.

This episode of Project 38 both functions as an update on that integration and a big-picture explanation of HII’s strategy for its technical solutions segment from its president Andy Green.

Much change and portfolio shaping has taken place since HII stood up the technical solutions segment in late 2016 to house its government services work, of which our Ross Wilkers has discussed with Green a few times since.

This latest conversation between Green and Wilkers includes a discussion on where HII looks to make sure its shipbuilding and solutions sides contribute to what the other is doing and the company at-large, plus some of the technical challenges they work on together and particularly in the emerging unmanned maritime domain.

To breakdown what’s driving the deals, Editor Nick Wakeman spoke with Bob Kipps of the investment bank KippsDeSanto. 

Kipps shares his views on why the market has been so good to buyers and sellers as well as the critical role being played by private equity firms, who drive nearly half of the transactions.

The expectation is that the pace of mergers and acquisitions will continue and Kipps explains why.

This episode of Project 38 takes you inside that multiple-year reinvention and how that plays out today as our Ross Wilkers pays a visit to Noblis CEO Amr ElSawy and Mile Corrigan, senior vice president of federal civilian solutions.

In finding that imbalance between code and papers, Noblis is also making an initial foray into the world of solutions and products with launch number one focusing on cybersecurity: which in the past year has found itself top of mind for many agencies again given the many high-profile breaches.

A second part of Noblis’ journey means integrating the acquisition of McKean Defense and that business now helps form the backbone of a new organization to serve defense clients. ElSawy and Corrigan provide an update on that integration and how Noblis is looking to spread the people and resources of McKean across the entire enterprise.

Get the inside view here in this second part of our Ross Wilkers' interview with two AT&T executives in charge of both aspects of that strategy -- Jason Porter, president of public sector and FirstNet; and Jill Singer, vice president of defense and national security.

AT&T counts the governmentwide EIS network modernization contract and FirstNet national public safety network as two franchise programs for agencies, while the 5G revolution has implications for every individual and institutions.

Porter and Singer explain how AT&T looks for synergy and applicability across its consumer and public sector businesses, plus offer updates on both the EIS and FirstNet initiatives.

Part one of Project 38 gets some answers to that question from two AT&T executives responsible for carrying out that vision in the government market -- Jason Porter, president of public sector and FirstNet; and Jill Singer, vice president of defense and national security.

Two particular threads help illustrate AT&T’s re-casted vision: the sales of the media businesses (which we did not go over) and divestiture of the defense IT professional services business (which we went over in detail).

Porter and Singer explain to our Senior Staff Writer Ross Wilkers how they see AT&T’s return to its connectivity core as making more room to invest in the public sector and FirstNet public safety network businesses. They also lift the curtain on AT&T’s vision for the post-pandemic future of work.

In this episode of Project 38, Verizon’s public sector leader Jennifer Chronis explains to our Senior Staff Writer Ross Wilkers how that approach as part of the overall “Verizon 2.0” vision informs the telecommunications giant’s federal market strategy.

Chronis also overviews how Verizon ties these common technology threads between both the commercial and public sector sides of Verizon: 5G adoption, cloud computing, software-defined networks and pretty much everything under the umbrella of modernization.

For many federal agencies that means leveraging the government-wide EIS contract for next-generation telecom services. EIS and Verizon’s future of work strategy were additional topics of discussion.

The aerospace-and-defense giant’s intelligence and space segment is headquartered in our region: Arlington, Virginia to be exact. For this episode of Project 38, that segment’s president in Roy Azevedo takes Senior Staff Writer Ross Wilkers inside the mega-integration at the operational level and the technology synergies Raytheon is looking to capture.

Also on the agenda for this discussion: how Raytheon Intelligence and Space is undertaking its own digital transformation alongside federal customers, that business’ acquisition of a small satellite maker in late 2020 and the overall company’s thinking with respect to the post-pandemic future of work.

Daly isn’t retiring, but the sale of D2S Consulting Group means she can continue to focus on her customers’ missions as a new executive at Smartronix. She describes the acquisition as more of a partnership and that’s just the kind of deal that CEO Peter LaMontagne likes to make.

They explain the opportunities ahead, why sometimes selling your company is the best thing to do and for other instances the bravest thing is to not sell at all.

But how does ManTech go about the tagline in its logo of “Bringing Digital to the Mission?” In this episode of Project 38, Chief Operating Officer Matt Tait tells Senior Staff Writer Ross Wilkers about how that mantra explains both today’s work for customers and ManTech’s longer-term direction.

Acquisitions, talent and technology focus areas all feed into that overall approach for ManTech. Tait breaks all of those aspects down and explains how ManTech seeks to ensure the links between them stay connected.

On the cusp of his retirement, Chief Financial Officer James Reagan talks with Editor Nick Wakeman about what a change culture means at Leidos and why that is a critical element of growth strategy. That outlook drives its decisions around acquisitions, divestitures and where it invests its research-and-development dollars.

The result has been a track record of organic growth in the double digits.

For this episode, Editor Nick Wakeman shares excerpts from his interview with Booz Allen Executive Vice President Karen  Dahut. They talk about the strategy that will drive Booz Allen for the next decade as well as the value the company places in diversity and inclusion. 

They also talk about what it will take for Booz Allen Hamilton, now 107 years old, to make it to the firm's 200th birthday in 2114.

In this episode of Project 38, we pick up on the second half of Senior Staff Writer Ross Wilkers’ discussion with a pair of chief technology officers at federal systems integrators on the right methodologies to help government customers wanting to shrink timelines from years to months and sometimes weeks.

Peder Jungck of BAE Systems Inc.’s intelligence and security sector and Cameron Chehreh of Dell Federal conceded that the shift does create stress on the system, but also explain ways to work through it.

Wilkers closed the conversation by asking Jungck and Chehreh for their views on the global computer chip shortage that has disrupted substantially the entire economy, plus what that could mean for the federal technology landscape and the future global supply chain.

Murphy explains to Editor Nick Wakeman the strategy behind the acquisitions as well as the kind of contracts and customers the company will pursue going forward. The growth will come from more acquisitions as well as expanding the work it does with the Army, Air Force, NASA and Missile Defense Agency.

As larger entity, Axient will now be chasing larger contracts as it also looks to close more acquisitions. Murphy predicts the next deal could come before the end of the years.

This two-part episode of Project 38 has a pair of chief technology officers at federal systems integrators lend their insight and perspective to Senior Staff Writer Ross Wilkers on those matters and how they see a new budget environment impacting how agencies decide on their priorities.

Peder Jungck of BAE Systems Inc.’s intelligence and security sector and Cameron Chehreh of Dell Federal see how those dynamics play out first-hand in their work with customers and also each other given their companies are industry partners.

For part one, Jungck and Chehreh emphasized that key word of “partnership” and how the current situation of work remaining of a different cadence during the pandemic has put more emphasis on collaboration by everyone.

This episode of Project 38 focuses on some of those changes that are here to stay as seen by Kevin Greer and Kyle Tuberson, respectively vice president of consulting services at CGI Federal and public sector chief technology officer at ICF.

At the core of this discussion was the relationship between technology and consulting, which challenges companies to offer agencies a blend of both the digital skills themselves and knowledge of how the tools have worked across multiple markets.

None of that can happen without success on the workforce construction and development front, which Greer and Tuberson believe will and must look different in future to keep talented employees in the industry.

Stack is the co-manager of Baird's government and defense practice. She has a long history of helping buyers and sellers make their deals happen, and has an understanding what those transactions mean.

In this episode, she says why the strong volume of activity will continue and how not everyone should be a seller.

For this episode of Project 38, Qlik Federal’s leader Andrew Churchill describes to our Ross Wilkers how the conversation across the public sector ecosystem stretches beyond just knowing there’s too much data in the world to work with.

That especially holds true for the federal government, which has specific methods that many of its agencies are legally required to use in storing their data. Churchill explains that data literacy and other new practices related to talent development are just as important in that equation as the technologies, namely cloud hosting.

In this conversation with Editor Nick Wakeman, Kelman shares his thoughts about Black Swans and Gray Rhinos -- those often traumatic events that we either didn’t see coming or we knew could happen but we failed to prepare for.

​Critical to that preparation is cultivating the ability to break away from your standard ways of thinking and not falling into the trap of doing things in certain ways because that is how they have always been done. Status quo thinking is often what leaves us vulnerable when disaster inevitably strikes.

That wasn’t the only big news to hit this week. The U.S. Court of Federal Claims ruled that Amazon’s challenge of the JEDI cloud award to rival Microsoft can continue. FCW also published a special report highlighting the trends driving activity at the Defense Information Systems Agency, one of the larger IT buyers in the federal market.

Washington Technology Editor Nick Wakeman and Senior Staff Writer Ross Wilkers are joined by FCW Executive Editor Adam Mazmanian and Senior Editor Lauren Williams discuss what these events mean and what’s coming next, including some topics that aren’t getting as much attention.

But can agencies require contractor employees to get vaccinated and how can they formalize that requirement? We get some answers in this episode from Al Krachman and Brooke Iley, partners at law firm Blank Rome who specialize in government contracts and labor who wrote this article on what such a requirement could look like.

Much is still TBD, but Krachman and Iley told Washington Technology Senior Staff Writer Ross Wilkers that there is some precedence for such a requirement and an emerging view across industry that it will happen for COVID-19 vaccinations. Their advice is to both not be surprised and to start preparing for such requirements.

John Allen, co-founder and managing partner of Bluestone Investment Partners, shares in this episode the philosophy and strategy that drives how the firm made its deals in recent years.

Large and mid-size companies typically dominate M&A activity, but Allen explains to WT Editor Nick Wakeman there is no reason that a small business can participate as well -- with the right partner.

(NOTE: This podcast was recorded and published prior to March 29's news that the CMMC AB hired a new chief executive)

WT Senior Staff Writer Ross Wilkers shares his insights on what's behind the proposed merger of Peraton, Perspecta and Northrop Grumman's IT business, a mega deal that will create an $8 billion-annual revenue business.

FCW Executive Editor Adam Mazmanian talks about the early days of Biden Administration, particularly where the early political appointees are sailing through confirmation and where some of the trouble spots are appearing.

President Biden has been very active with executive orders, particularly with his equity agenda, and FCW Staff Writer Natalie Alms shares her reporting about what is in these orders and how they might impact government contractors.

Also top of mind for many contractors and especially defense firms is the Cybersecurity Maturity Model Certification. So we brought in Lauren Williams, senior editor of FCW and Defense Systems, to bring us up to date on CMMC and what's on the horizon.

Nine months after its launch, Amentum closed its deal for DynCorp International, a transaction that was negotiated and agreed upon in almost exclusively virtual fashion given the coronavirus pandemic. A select group of leaders are meeting in-person to spearhead the integration that still has a large digital component to it.

Vollmer and Senior Staff Writer Ross Wilkers both found agreement in this discussion that the world is not going back to the way it was before COVID-19, though many have different opinions on what that world will look like. How to up one’s digital game for success in the future is a question on Amentum’s mind, which Vollmer gives us a glimpse into.

Dcode's CEO describes in this episode how government buyers are looking for more commercial technologies, while systems integrators are slowly turning in that direction as well and want more direct relationships with emerging tech firms.

She sees a shakeup ahead that will favor the companies that embrace commercial ways of doing business as that is what customers are demanding. To succeed, traditional government contractors need to undergo a mindset shift away from putting butts in seats and toward partnership and collaboration with commercial tech providers.

Williams and Wakeman talk about what compliance with the Defense Department's new Cybersecurity Maturity Model Certification means, the challenges ahead, and what kind of impact the transition to a Biden administration might have.

Williams is an experienced defense reporter who has closely tracked the development of CMMC. Here she offers her insights on what has happened so far and where she is going to focus her reporting going forward.