From Jim Garrettson, Executive Mosaic President & Founder
The House this week passed a fiscal year 2015 budget that would allocate an estimated $600 billion to the Pentagon in a move that could potentially change the contracting environment for GovCon firms competing for work with the Defense Department.
The House’s proposed National Defense Authorization Act would raise the Pentagon’s goal of awarding 23 percent of prime contracts to small businesses to 25 percent and target 40-percent of subcontracts to be awarded to those firms.
The Senate’s version of the NDAA has not yet been voted on by the full chamber.
House Small Business Committee Chairman Sam Graves said his chamber’s version of the NDAA seeks to “provide opportunities for small companies trying to break into the federal marketplace.”
Bill Jaffe, EVP and GM at Alexandria, Va.-based services contractor TAPE, told ExecutiveBiz that much like when his firm was emerging, partnerships with other GovCon firms remain key.
“As a really small business, most of your customers are really the large businesses that are going to be your primes in subcontract arrangements until you’re big enough to step out on your own,” Jaffe said.
Tim Lamb, president of Chenega Security & Support Solutions, said his company entered the SBA’s Small Business Development Program “in the fall of 2011 and we graduated January this year.”
“We were only in the program about 17 months and now are a large business.”
Click here to review these and more of our spotlight interviews with industry leaders on ExecutiveBiz and continue reading below for the other headline-leading executive activity in GovCon this week.
David Fisher Joins SRA as VP and Business Transformation Officer
David Fisher has been named VP and business transformation officer at SRA, where he will oversee the company’s work to improve business processes and operations.
Fisher most recently served as chief risk officer and senior adviser to the commissioner of the IRS.
He has also held government leadership roles that include GAO CFO and DoD director of the Business Transformation Agency.
Fisher is also the author of a book about enterprise optimization and was a managing director at BearingPoint before working in government.
Jill Pomeroy and Michael O’Hara Appointed to Ball Aerospace Leadership Roles
Jill Pomeroy will be responsible for Ball Aerospace & Technologies Corp.’s relations with Congress as director of legislative affairs for defense and intelligence programs.
She previously served as DigitalGlobe’s legislative affairs director and has held similar roles at Harris and the National Association of Manufacturers.
Michael O’Hara has been named director of space business development and will lead the company’s space technology offerings and services.
He has served as director for civil space propulsion development at Aerojet Rocketdyne, has been a NASA Congressional Fellow and worked at the NASA Langley Research Center.
John Jordan Appointed President of Wyle’s Weapons Systems Support and Analysis Group
John Jordan has joined engineering services contractor Wyle as president of the CAS group and will report directly to Chief Operating Officer Roger Wiederkehr.
In his new role, the 30-year company veteran will be responsible for the firm’s DoD business and focus on weapons system and analyses services.
“His dedication to our customers’ missions and his focus on providing outstanding service will be key elements in continuing to grow Wyle’s missile defense and aviation practice,” said Wiederkehr.
Jordan previously led Wyle’s technical services for the management of the U.S. Army’s weapons program.
ManTech Closes Acquisition of Healthcare Firm 7Delta
ManTech has bought healthcare community applications and software development firm 7Delta Inc.
The acquired company will be a part of ManTech’s mission solutions and services group.
George Pedersen, ManTech chairman and CEO, said the company aims to grow its presence in the healthcare market and gain access to the Department of Veterans Affairs community.
ManTech will provide IT modernization services to the VA under a contract 7Delta holds a prime spot on and ManTech expects the acquisition to raise its FY 2014 revenue by nearly $50 million.
Fluor-Backed Company’s Nuclear Energy Project Receives Energy Dept Investment
NuScale Power, which Fluor Corp. is the majority investor in, will receive a potential $217M investment from the Energy Department to help develop and market a small modular nuclear reactor.
“DOE’s significant investment in the technology is helping us show the value of NuScale’s SMRs to investors, manufacturers and other supply chain partners so that we can help build the future of nuclear power,” said Dave Dunning, Fluor EVP of BD and strategy.
NuScale has built an engineering and operations center in Charlotte, N.C. to support the reactor project.