Profiles in Success...Volume 11 eBook

Copyright 2017 © Gordon J. Bernhardt, CPA, PFS, CFP®, AIF® ISBN: 978-0-9972483-1-9 All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, distributed, or transmitted in any form or by any means without the prior written permission of the publisher, except in the case of brief quotations embodied in critical reviews and certain noncommercial uses permitted by copyright law. For permission requests, or to obtain additional copies of this book for $29.99, contact the publisher below: Gordon J. Bernhardt, CPA, PFS, CFP®, AIF® 7601 Lewinsville Road, Suite 210 McLean, VA 22102 703-356-4380 Toll-free: 888-356-4380 www.BernhardtWealth.com First edition – Volume 11 All profits from the sale of this book will be donated to a qualified charity, including but not limited to BEST Kids, Inc. (www.bestkids.org), YouthQuest Foundation (www.youthquestfoundation.org) and Network for Teaching Entrepreneurship (www.nfte.com).

Gordon Bernhardt conducts interviews of business leaders in the Washington D.C. area who come recommended by their peers. The enclosed profiles are a result of these interviews. As a result of these additional insights Mr. Bernhardt has published these case studies. Gordon Bernhardt is President/CEO of Bernhardt Wealth Management, a registered investment adviser with the Securities and Exchange Commission. Registration is mandatory for all persons meeting the definition of investment adviser and does not imply a certain level of skill or training. The business leaders may or may not be clients of Bernhardt Wealth Management. These interviews are independent of investment advisory services and do not imply any endorsement of Gordon Bernhardt or Bernhardt Wealth Management by the business leaders.

This book exists because of all the inspirational individuals who so graciously shared their stories with me. I am thankful for the opportunity to get to know each and every one of you.

To my team at Bernhardt Wealth Management—Tim Koehl, Solon Vlasto, Cameron Farbotko, Bonnie Armstrong, Olivia Lee, Chay Willette, Reed Hurt and Zachary Larmour—I would never have been able to do this without your efforts and support throughout the process.

I am deeply grateful to Chris Hayes, Founder and Chairman of Revere Bank, and Peter Schwartz, Host of Executive Leaders D.C. and President of Peter Schwartz & Associates, for your help and encouragement on this project. Thank you.

And lastly, this book would not have been possible without the guidance and creative support of the Impact Communications team.

Contents _________________

1

Foreword

91

Brian W. Martin

3

Introduction

95

Juvy McCarthy

99

Michael Mosel

Profiles in Success 5

Ahmed R. Ali

103

Brad Nierenberg

9

Barbara Ashe

107

Mark O’Donnell

13

Ed Barry

111

Craig A. Parisot

17

Steve Bartlett

115

Renee D. Parker

23

Edward H. Bersoff, Ph.D.

117

Melvin Petty

27

Brianna Dunbar Bowling

121

Theodore M. Prociv

31

Guy G. Brami

125

Linda Rabbitt

35

Katie Crotty

129

Luis Riesco

41

Matthew Dean

133

Devin Schain

45

Tom DeWitt

137

Eugene N. St. Clair II

49

Lynda Ellis

141

Bill Suffa

55

Susan M. Evans

145

Dale Sutherland

59

David Goodenow

149

Carolyn Thompson

63

Ken Gosnell

153

Joe V. Travez

67

Michael Harden

159

Rosemarie Truman

71

Annette Y. Harris

163

Mitchell Weintraub

75

Alan Horowitz

167

W. Douglas Wendt

79

Greg S. Jones

171

From Gifford to Hickman

by Gloria J. Bernhardt

83

Dr. Sylisa Lambert-Woodard

87

Larry Letow

Foreword _________________

As I reflect on the Profiles in Success stories assembled here, I wonder how different the stories of our parents and their parents would be from today’s Profiles. And how will these Profiles be different a generation from today?

Certainly, Gordon’s parents on a farm in Nebraska were more productive than previous generations due to advances in farm processes, raw materials and equipment. Today, those engaged in farming, less than one percent of the world’s population, can produce the food to feed nine billion people at a lower price than ever before.

As farming has seen tremendous gains in productivity so too have other industries, skilled and unskilled. In 1950, 20 percent of the U.S. workforce was categorized as skilled. Today that number is about 65 percent.

The gains from technology infrastructure are accelerating, as access, speed and storage have seen exponential improvements while prices have continued to drop.

These advances have made it easier for the rest of us to pursue our dreams in whatever field or endeavor that interests us. In the last 15 years, we’ve seen seismic shifts in how we work, what we do and with whom we choose to work. Excluding the regulatory environment, it’s never been easier to start a business as the Internet has made distributed services available almost everywhere.

We can see transformational change in financial services, continuing and accelerating advances in medicine and pharmaceuticals and life expectancies in the U.S. approaching 80 years of age.

Robots are coming. George Jetson devotees will have to wait a little longer for flying cars, but selfdriving ones are literally around the corner. Consider the massive effects on productivity if we can add one hour of productive time to our workdays in lieu of driving.

As you read the Profiles in Success in this edition, I hope you’ll reflect on the impact these business leaders have had in our communities, our states and our country. How will those leaders profiled here help drive the way to other advances? What advances will they make in medicine, technology and other fields which will improve the lives of countless others? And what will the stories of the next generation of leaders be?

"I find that the harder I work the more luck I seem to have." -- Thomas Jefferson

Christopher C. Hayes Founder & Chairman Revere Bank

Chris Hayes is a founder and Chairman of Revere Bank. Since 2006 Chris has organized and led peer advisory groups of CEO’s, business owners and senior executives. From 1981 until its sale to the Thomson Corporation in 2005, Chris was the founder and CEO of CourtEXPRESS, a legal information company.

Foreword

1

2

Profiles in Success: Inspiration from Executive Leaders in the Washington D.C. Area — Volume 11

Introduction _________________

“Before you are a leader, success is all about growing yourself.

When you become a leader, success is all about growing others.” – Jack Welch

What does it mean to be a “great leader?” This question has been raised often throughout the 2016 presidential election. After all, it was the time to determine who would not only be the next President of the United States but also the leader of the free world.

The job is a tall order for any mere mortal, but according to Michael Siegel, author of “The President as Leader,” there are four leadership qualities that define excellence in the White House: a compelling vision, the wherewithal to implement that vision, focus on just a few major goals at a time, and an understanding of the process and implications of decision-making. So do the same qualities apply to political and business leadership equally?

Politics and personalities aside, at their core I think that anyone who wants to take on the leadership of this country and the world absolutely must maintain focus on serving the best interests of their people first. As a trusted advisor to my clients, as well as the CEO of my team, this principle drives all significant decisions and actions.

When interviewing and writing these profiles I try to pinpoint commonalities and discover the secret sauce for executive leadership. While there are many similar qualities, there are also vast differences among equally successful individuals. Lynda Ellis, owner and CEO of Capitol Concierge, and Brad Nierenberg, founder and CEO of RedPeg Marketing, are an example of what I mean. Both followed winding paths, honing new skill and lessons along the way, before finding what they really enjoyed and leveraging the opportunity to lead. However, each has a very different leadership style that has helped them achieve personal and business success.

Lynda chooses to operate from a state of peace by going to what she calls “the temple in my mind” and reminding her that we are all our own gating mechanisms to achieve whatever we aspire. Life is anything but tranquil. But thanks to her inner solitude nothing, not even high-stakes meetings or extremely

stressful interactions, can deter her. With a calm determination Lynda leads her employees, as well as her clients, by setting clear expectations with strict adherence to them. Her father taught her at a young age to do the right thing not because you might get recognition for it but because it was right. It’s a principle she’s embraced throughout her career and has sown into the fabric of her company.

Brad believes it is his responsibility to create optimism and motivation in the office and to show his team that anything is possible. He does this by actively engaging everyone from the ground up in order to make each person a part of the solution process. Brad also makes a point to go above and beyond for his employees just as he expects them to go above and beyond for their clients. This very often is achieved through celebration, something he contends is not just a pastime or recognition of an important achievement but a crucial part of the community/team building process.

Perhaps there is not one recipe for making a great leader because it’s not about being the best leader. It’s about being the best person to lead the situation.

Throughout history, some leaders who were considered great were also awful in other circumstances. Success at leading from a place of popularity, the ability to motivate or the means to get goals accomplish may just depend on the organizational environment, conditions and expectations. I’m certain a personal enthusiasm for the mission must also play a significant role.

The narratives of the transparent, accountable and principled individuals featured in Volume 11 are encouraging. I am motivated by them to further my own outreach towards those who could benefit from my experience and insight, and doing so with their best interests in mind. I urge all of us to share our stories, offer advice or lend a hand as an opportunity to proliferate ethical leadership values that keep this country flourishing.

Introduction

3

Gordon J. Bernhardt, CPA, PFS, CFP®, AIF® President and Founder Bernhardt Wealth Management, Inc. www.BernhardtWealth.com

4

Since establishing his firm in 1994, Gordon Bernhardt has been focused on providing high-quality service and independent financial advice in order to help his clients make smart decisions about their money. He specializes in addressing the unique needs of successful professionals, entrepreneurs and retirees, as well as women in transition throughout the Washington, D.C. area. Over the years, Gordon has been sought out by numerous media outlets including MSN Money, CNN Money, Kiplinger and The New York Times for his insight into subjects related to personal finance.

Profiles in Success: Inspiration from Executive Leaders in the Washington D.C. Area — Volume 11

Ahmed R. Ali _________________

Grounded in Service In a small Bangladeshi village located at a bend in the Tista River, 50 orphans were given a new lease on life when a new orphanage opened its doors. They now receive three meals a day, shelter, education, and medical care—gifts that will mean the difference between life and death for many of them.

The initiative was funded and led by Ahmed Ali, and the village is his father’s hometown. It’s a stone’s throw from the village where Ahmed, himself, was born—a small farming community where the Ali family buried their firstborn son, dead from pneumonia that would have been easily treatable with even minimal resources.

Fueled in part by the loss of his child, Ahmed’s father committed himself to bettering humanity, with particular focus on the plight of children.

Ahmed was able to honor his father with the founding of the orphanage thanks to the vision and success of his company, TISTA Science and Technology Corporation (TISTA). As its founder and President, Ahmed named the business for the river he left behind when he was only four years old—a constant reminder of his roots that keeps him grounded in the fast-paced world of Washington government contracting. “I started TISTA, first and foremost, because I care deeply about our federal government and our company’s mission to support our nation,” he says, echoing his years of service in uniform. “I’m grateful that it gives me the opportunity to give my three children a better, more stable upbringing than I had. But beyond that, it allows me to engage in the meaningful work of giving back to humanity—the kind of work that will last long after I’m gone.”

Ahmed launched TISTA on September 19, 2005, when he decided to leave his post as Information Assurance Manager at Alion Science and Technology. He was so valued by the client that the company asked what it would take to make him stay, so he gave it some thought. He had always wanted to start a company, so he asked if they would consider him being a subcontractor. They ultimately agreed, and for two years, Ahmed’s company was a one-man show. Then, as TISTA started to grow, he brought in two consultants who are still with him today as his business partners. “It took blood, sweat, tears, heartaches, hospital trips, and three nearbankruptcies, but we got through it to become a force to be reckoned with,” Ahmed details.

In the beginning, TISTA focused on Ahmed’s core skill set of IT and cybersecurity for the Defense Infor-

mation Systems Agency (DISA). Over the years, the company expanded its expertise to include healthcare IT as well. “Under the cybersecurity umbrella, you have certification and accreditation, identity access management, systems integration, enterprise architecture, disaster recovery, and more,” Ahmed explains. “Then the healthcare IT space includes IT, cybersecurity and application development for agencies like the Center for Medicare and Medicaid, the Department of Health and Human Services, and the Department of Veterans Affairs. We accept other work when clients ask us to, like support of training, logistics, administration, and procurement, but strategically we’re really focusing our growth on our core competencies in cyber and healthcare support for DOD and civilian agencies.”

Ahmed resolved to make his dream come true from the grassroots up, refusing to accept venture capital backing, angel investment, or loans from family and friends. Guided by this philosophy, TISTA has a record of growth every single year since its inception, but the road has been far from easy. Ahmed remembers the fears that plagued him in the company’s early years— anxiety about how he would make payroll, or how he would pay his bills, which kept him up at night as his wife, Sonia, slept peacefully beside him. “She’s very riskaverse and didn’t want me to start my own business because she knew it would be hard on me,” he remembers. “She just wanted a simple life for us, and she had just given birth to our second child around the time I started the company, so it was very important to me to shield her from the stress and uncertainty I was going through. No matter what was happening at work, when she asked me how my day was when I got home, I’d tell her it was fantastic.”

Ahmed also remembers the chaos of sequestration and the government shutdown—challenges TISTA survived by remaining true to its core. The company had sixty employees at the time that would be required to stay home from work, so Ahmed decided to forego his salary and donate his vacation hours to help free up resources to pay them. All of TISTA’s executives followed suit, and in the end, all sixty employees received their normal paycheck during the three weeks the government was closed. “Employees are the foot soldiers on the ground doing the work of the company, putting forward its best face,” Ahmed explains. “As the company’s leaders, we wanted to take the hit for them because we know that a company is only as good as our employAhmed R. Ali

5

ees. We value them deeply and recognized that they had mortgages to pay and mouths to feed.”

While technically on leave without pay, Ahmed and his executive team worked 15-hour days to help pull the company through the shutdown. Grateful and happy, the employees passed the team’s good will on to the clients, filling them in on what TISTA had done to help them. Ahmed began receiving phone calls from agency leadership—people so moved that they wanted to call and personally thank him for taking care of his people.

“We aren’t a publically traded company, so we can operate the way we want and can take care of our employees first,” he says. “We don’t pursue ‘lowest price technically acceptable,’ or LPTA work, because I firmly believe that you get what you pay for. We believe in quality and running a business that attracts and retains top talent. I truly believe that if we can make our employees happy, value them, and show them that they can have a long-term career here, TISTA and its clients ultimately benefit.”

TISTA is now a company with over 150 employees that exceeds $40 million in annual revenue, with plans to double by 2018. Under Ahmed’s leadership, it has been recognized on the Inc. 500 and the Washington Technology Fast 50 as one of the fastest growing companies in America, and was honored as the 2014 Montgomery County Maryland Veteran-Owned Company of the Year. Among various other awards, TISTA was named the NASA Johnson Space Center Small Business Prime Contractor of the Year in 2014, as well as the Service-Disabled Veteran Small Business Prime Contractor of the Year for the US Department of Agriculture, Food Safety and Inspection Service (FSIS), in 2015. Ahmed was named the 2014 Executive of the Year by the Tech Council of Maryland, the 2016 Washington Business Journal Minority Business Leader Award Honoree, and in 2016 was recognized as the Small Business Administration (SBA) Person of the Year for the State of Maryland. “I’m so appreciative of these awards because they represent the hard work and incredible talent of our employees,” Ahmed says. “Their dedication to our mission is so remarkable, and the community sees it.”

Despite the success and recognition, Ahmed remains down-to-earth. Touting the phrase, “American made, American muscle, American pride,” he drives a black Silverado pickup truck, busting out a Corvette only when he indulges his passion for racecar driving several times a year. His nature is grounded through the example of his parents, who have always been humble—more interested in making a difference in the community and for humanity than in materialistic concerns. “They remember when the Independence War freed India from British control and broke the land up into India, Pakistan, and Bangladesh,” Ahmed says. “Amidst the war, my brother died, and I was born. My parents had seen a lot of adversity, crisis, and death. They didn’t want to lose their second child, so my aunt in America sponsored us to come here in 1976.”

6

The Ali family eventually settled in Bethesda, Maryland. Ahmed’s father had earned his electrical engineering degree in Bangladesh but needed to be recertified in the U.S., so he and Ahmed’s mother were forced to work various odd jobs to make ends meet while he took classes at night. “Times were very hard,” Ahmed remembers. “We were living below the poverty line, on food stamps, and in dangerous neighborhoods infested with crime, drugs, and gangs. We moved around a lot trying to find safer places, but things didn’t get better until I was in high school, when my father started to become more established.”

As a result, Ahmed attended five different elementary schools, two junior high schools, and two high schools, creating a fractured existence where he was able to form little sense of identity or direction. The moment he’d get settled in one school, he was moving on to the next, never able to cultivate a sense of belonging. “Because there was so much change, my memories from childhood are remarkably vivid,” Ahmed says. “Unfortunately, a lot of what I remember was my father being held up at gunpoint, our apartment getting broken into, getting into fights, and my video game getting stolen.”

The environment took a psychological toll on Ahmed, and he grew very introverted. When he fell in with a group of friends, it was often the wrong crowd. One bright spot, however, was Eric Kang, a brilliant young boy who had learned to play Beethoven pieces by the time he was in third grade. The two struck up a friendship and after losing touch for a number of years, have reconnected and are still friends today. “My mother couldn’t pick me up until 5:30 or 6:00 in the evenings, so I was left alone for three hours after school, just waiting,” he remembers. “Eric noticed, and he started inviting me over to his house so I had a safe place to go.

His mother was incredibly kind to me, and that really helped.”

In high school, Ahmed mowed lawns and shoveled snow for pocket change. A natural athlete, he excelled at football and wanted to play on the school team, but his parents wouldn’t allow it. “They were too worried their only son would get hurt,” he says. “So I played informally with friends, and I went to the gym a lot. Working out became my outlet.”

Ahmed landed his first internship the summer after he graduated high school for a small engineering company in Rockville, where he filed draft engineering plans. Then came time for college, and Ahmed began his higher education career at Howard University.

“Coming from an Asian background, education is everything,” he says. “I actually didn’t want to go to college at first—I wanted to take a year off to work and explore a little because I had no idea what I wanted to do or what direction I wanted to go in life. But my parents wanted me to go to engineering school, and they would have been so upset if I put it off, so I went.”

Because his heart wasn’t in it, and because he was working to help put himself through school, Ahmed remained a mediocre student. He felt particularly

Profiles in Success: Inspiration from Executive Leaders in the Washington D.C. Area — Volume 11

drawn, however, to the few business classes he took. “I was fascinated by the process of how someone starts and grows a business,” he recalls. Meanwhile, he flipped burgers at Roy Rogers on the weekends and spent his free hours doing drafting and clerical work for an engineering firm. Despite his best efforts, however, two years into his college career, he could no longer afford the tuition bills himself. “I decided my parents had already done enough for me, and I didn’t want to burden them,” Ahmed explains. “It was my responsibility to figure out. I had always wanted to serve my country someday, and I wanted to see the world, so I decided that instead of working odd jobs as my parents initially had done, I was going to join the Navy.”

With memories of war-torn Bangladesh, his parents tried to dissuade him at first, especially his mother. But Ahmed had recently seen Top Gun, which he describes as the greatest recruiting movie ever. Ahmed asked for the most technical engineering job he could get and was given a post as an Aegis Spy Radar Technician—a rigorous assignment that took almost two years of intense schooling. Mastering the Navy’s most advanced electronically-phased fire-control radar system even as many other students dropped out; he graduated third in his class, which gave him the opportunity to claim orders to Pearl Harbor, Hawaii. He was immediately sent to Bahrain to catch up with his ship, which was deployed in the Gulf. On the way back, they stopped in the Fiji Islands and Australia. Finally, Ahmed Ali was fulfilling his dream of seeing the world.

Ahmed excelled during his career in the military, graduating first in his class in boot camp, selected as the Sailor of the Year for his shipboard command, and then becoming the Sailor of the Year for his destroyer squadron (among six naval warships and 1800 Sailors).

Ahmed’s time in uniform proved to be among the most defining, positive experiences of his life, bringing the sense of purpose and camaraderie he had missed out on all through childhood. “To get anywhere in life, I knew I needed good skills and good work experience, and I knew the military would provide that,” he explains. “But more importantly, it was the first time in my life where I felt like everything was coming together and starting to make sense. For the first time, I understood what I wanted to do with my life, what I was good at, and what my passions were. For the first time, I had a steadfast set of people in my life—brothers and sisters I served with, deployed with, and put my life on the line with. We looked out for each other and shared a common goal, mission, and vision. It was powerful, and once I had that understanding of myself and my identity, I was able to carve out a path for my future.”

Through his multiple deployments, Ahmed worked shoulder-to-shoulder with government contractors responsible for supporting the day-to-day operations of the mission. He grew fascinated with the role they played in serving the country, and with the high-tech equipment they used to provide vital IT and engineering services. It seemed the perfect melding of his

technical expertise, entrepreneurial spirit, and love of service, and he resolved to dedicate his post-service years to gaining the experience needed to launch his own company. “Anyone can start a company, but can they do it the right way?” he asks. “I knew I would need exposure across the gamut—small business, large business, government—to really build the company I wanted to build.”

Ahmed would have been happy serving in the military his entire life, but after he married Sonia in April of 2000, his six-month deployment starting in June was extended for another month after he was called into the Persian Gulf. As his six-year enlistment approached, the Navy couldn’t guarantee that he’d be stationed at a local base in D.C. if he accepted a commissioned officer route. In fact, they guessed he would be deployed for two more tours overseas. “Sonia and I wanted to settle down, start a family, and lead a normal life,” he recounts. “So I decided to get out after my six-year commitment was up. I miss the military, but it was a good decision.”

Ahmed took a research job at a small 8(a) company in Annapolis, where he worked on radio frequency engineering with the Department of Defense while finishing his undergraduate degree with a new focus in IT. After two years, he enrolled in an IT master’s program at Capitol Technology University at the suggestion of an Army Colonel who had agreed to mentor him. As soon as he started the program, doors began to open, and he took an IT security job with the U.S. Department of Commerce as a government employee.

After completing his degree in Information Assurance, he decided to return to the private sector, where he worked in support of DOD and civilian agencies.

“Those various positions gave me a lot of exposure and allowed me to understand the workings of small businesses, big businesses, the government, the military, and government contractors,” he says. “And I developed great relationships along the way.”

Ahmed was the first person in his family to serve in the U.S. military. He was the only one to forego a career in medicine, law, engineering, or government to study IT. And in 2005, he became the first one to start his own business and get his MBA. Over the next few years, his father retired after 33 years of government service, while his mother retired from her work as a teacher. Like Sonia, neither could understand why he would take on such a risky endeavor, but today, they’re deeply proud.

“I was always the black sheep of the family, straying from the norm,” he recounts. “At first nobody can understand why I do it, but then when I come out on the other side, they get the importance and the impact, and they’re so happy about it.”

This ability to go against the grain and see his dreams through to fruition is a token of Ahmed’s leadership style, which involved thoughtful deliberation followed by resolute action. Never one to shoot from the hip, he thinks through a decision carefully and then goes all in. “I will either fail, or I will make it a success— Ahmed R. Ali

7

there is no halfway mark for me,” he says. “I don’t just stop because I get tired or knocked down. I never want to look back in my career and wish I had done things differently, so once I made that leap into launching TISTA, I focused like a laser pushing forward, giving it my all, and never looking back.” This fierce resolve has been a defining force behind TISTA’s success, carrying Ahmed through the monumental risks that went in to founding the company.

In advising young people entering the working world today, Ahmed underscores the importance of honing expertise and demonstrating consistency. “You may land in a job you don’t like, but it’s advisable to stick it through for a year or two to learn what there is to learn from the experience,” he says. “It’ll help teach you how to adapt to different kinds of work environments and people. If every job were easy, you wouldn’t learn life skills.”

He also encourages young people to think long-term in managing their money, making an effort to save for the future. “Like my father, I have a big heart and always try to help when they ask, even when I had nothing to give,” he recounts. “Sometimes it would put me in even greater financial strain, so it’s important to have a plan you can stick to.” Beyond that, he underscores the importance of valuable experience before starting a business. “Young people have big dreams, but it’s important to get the worldly experience that will enable those dreams to become reality,” he affirms. “Nothing happens overnight, and TISTA would not be the com-

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pany it is today if I had started it right out of the military.”

Today, Ahmed still wears his Navy ring—a token of his service that reminds him of all he’s overcome and all he stands for. Indeed, the leadership he brings to TISTA is grounded in the core principles of loyalty, commitment, and integrity that were cultivated in him through his time in the Navy. “Thanks to my Navy days, I’ve always wanted TISTA to have a culture of camaraderie,” he says. “And I strive to be the kind of leader that employees truly respect as a person. When people respect you, they operate with a sense of pride and accomplishment in the mission, and they’re willing to go above and beyond. When clients and business partners like you, synergy happens. When you focus on having an impact on the individual level, everyone is better off.”

In some ways, Ahmed continues to serve his country just as ardently and meaningfully as he did in uniform.

It’s a mission that grounds him, just as he’s grounded by the memory of his roots every time he hears the Tista River referenced in his company name. “While I was in the Navy, I had a great sense of pride in being a service member in the support and defense of our nation,” he says. “But there are countless non-uniform people— government employees or contractors supporting government agencies—that are also playing a critical role in supporting and protecting our country. We’re all part of this ecosystem supporting a common mission. TISTA is my continued service to my country, just as it is the wellspring of my continued service to humanity.”

Profiles in Success: Inspiration from Executive Leaders in the Washington D.C. Area — Volume 11

Barbara Ashe _________________

Beyond No Most people live their lives within the confines of the word “no,” both real and imagined. Some are so deterred by the very idea of the word that they go to great lengths to avoid it, eliminating risk from the equation of their destiny—and immeasurable potential along with it. Barbara Ashe, however, grew up in a world where daring suggestions were acted upon. Her parents demonstrated time and again that they weren’t afraid to sell successful businesses, move to new cities, and start all over from square one—a fearlessness that taught Barbara a unique kind of limitlessness. “I’m not afraid of people, places, and possibilities,” she affirms today.

“I’m not afraid of the word no.”

In high school, she used this disposition to try her hand at leadership for the first time when she switched schools midway through her sophomore year and discovered her new environment was completely lacking in school spirit.

Her classmates in Florida had lived for the football games with all their pep rallies and chants, whereas the games of her new Atlanta school were rarely brought up in conversation, let alone attended. “It’s not that they didn’t want to come together as a team—they just didn’t know how,” she recalls. “So I decided to become an officer and change it, selling the idea to the principal and transforming all aspects of student life. It was the first time I realized I could get people to take on a cause and convene to enact change.”

It’s a skill Barbara has used time and again throughout her career in corporate, community, and charity work, allowing her to bring together diverse groups to test the limits of “no.” Now, in her role as President of the Montgomery County Chamber Community Foundation, Barbara serves as the Founder and National Director of the Veteran Institute for Procurement (VIP), a high-caliber training program designed to accelerate the success of veteran-owned small businesses doing work with the federal government. The program is the opus of her lifelong passion for bringing marketbased best practices to the government arena, using them to advance the collective good.

VIP, like the many other improvements Barbara has worked to bring to the world around her, was forged through observation and discontent. In October of 2004, the federal government set the modest goal of ensuring that three percent of its contracting dollars go to service-disabled veteran-owned small businesses.

With the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan in full swing and the government engaged in record spending, the goal seemed wholly attainable, yet agencies fell short year after year.

After observing this trend, Barbara had a conversation with a Lockheed Martin employee who proclaimed they should be doing more for veterans. Several years later, over coffee, a service-disabled veteran business owner named Barry Kane said the same thing to her.

Later that day, Barbara convened the two men to discuss strategy. They knew that veterans, highly trained and mission-oriented, could do the work, and after hearing of the industry’s interest in working with veterans, they knew the opportunities were out there. “That begged the question, why weren’t things lining up?” says Barbara.

Most immediately, Barbara was disappointed by the realization that America was failing the men and women who had worked so hard on the battlefield to ensure people back home were safe to thrive. “We were spending so much money on federal procurement at the time, and I just couldn’t believe that we, as a community, couldn’t figure out how to hit our service-disabled veteran-owned small businesses goals,” she remembers. “And what was even crazier to me was that people weren’t as upset as I was when I brought it up to them. Many made excuses. There was no way we were going to be okay with the status quo.”

With that, Barbara and her team at the Montgomery County Chamber of Commerce began asking what veteran-owned small businesses really needed. And through this line of inquiry, they uncovered a glaring gap in the support service offerings available to this unique demographic. Indeed, veterans had the technical skills, the relentless dedication, and the top-notch leadership training necessary to succeed in the marketplace.

What they needed was the business acumen, best practices, network, and resources specifically geared at making sure a small business operates effectively.

“When you come out of the military and want to be an entrepreneur, you have all these incredible assets, but you don’t have the advantage of having spent the last two decades building your business resources,” Barbara explains. “While the rest of us were here on American soil with easy access to these resources, our service members were focused on protecting our free enterprise. VIP is a signal that the business community is stepping up to provide veterans with an accelerator, helping to shorten their learning curve.”

Barbara Ashe

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Thus, VIP was launched in 2009 as a way to equip veteran-owned businesses with the experience to win contracts, deliver the work, and remain compliant. The program teaches companies how to scale successfully, detect and avoid landmines before they become a problem, and mitigate risks. As well, the government has come to recognize VIP graduates as sound and attractive partners, setting it apart as a program everyone seems to be able to get behind. “There’s something unparalleled about veteran business owners,” she says. “It’s something in their stories, in their dedication, and in their leadership. Their passion for the mission is absolutely contagious, and you’re driven to be part of their success.”

Today, businesses hoping to participate in VIP must be at least two years old and have a minimum of three full-time employees, demonstrating at least some success as a government subcontractor or prime contractor. These parameters ensure that the program is building on the support provided by other programs, which already provide introductions to federal procurement. “We tackle the questions that arise once you’re already in,” Barbara says. “How do you scale?

How do you manage HR? For multiple contracts and employees, what are the best practices? Business owners face greater risks as their companies grow because they have more on the line, with the greatest areas of concern stemming from the security of employees, partners, customers, and the owner’s invested assets. VIP aims to mitigate all those risk areas.”

Still among the only programs nationwide that focuses on later stage early companies, VIP has now trained 546 veterans from 36 states and Guam, all at no cost to them. It has also landed a $500,000 grant from the U.S. Small Business Administration, supplemented by $150,000 from the State of Maryland and matched by private donations. This yields an operating budget of around a million dollars, which VIP plans to use to expand its impact far beyond the three percent servicedisabled veteran-owned small business procurement goal that was finally attained for the first time in 2012.

“I’m glad that people are starting to open their eyes to the fact that it makes no sense to plant a seed if you’re not going to water it,” Barbara says. “Just as a veteranowned small business is getting its footing in the government procurement world, we stopped investing in the company’s training, which made no sense. VIP shows that this training does make a difference, and this holistic way of thinking is finally starting to catch on.”

Leveraging its location in the D.C. metropolitan area to cultivate a top-notch talent bank, Barbara has vetted and identified the very best in the government procurement industry to teach a curriculum that evolves with the marketplace, resulting in a highly relevant course of 27 hours taught over three days by 28 instructors. “In sports, it’s very clear that success or failure is just as much owned by the coaches as by the teams,” Barbara points out. “I firmly believe that coaches are just as important in business. We need the best coaches 10

to help veteran business owners be the best, and VIP is a way of creating that network and knowledge base.”

Through this strategy, graduates from VIP’s 2013 class grew an average of 46 percent in the year following the program, while graduates from the 2014 class grew an average of 49 percent during the same timeframe. In total, VIP graduates have added 2,100 jobs to the economy, and this is only the beginning.

VIP remains the Foundation’s biggest program, but Barbara also helped to launch its Green Business Certification program, a partnership with the Montgomery County Department of Environmental Protection and Montgomery College. The product of two years of work with industry, the program sets up a process whereby businesses can become green-certified by the county government. “This was a response to an Executive Order by the Obama Administration describing the federal government’s new commitment to greening its supply chain,” Barbara recalls. “I knew we needed to position our companies to understand the new marketplace quickly, helping them succeed by embracing ways they could be part of the solution.” The Foundation also runs a scholarship fund for public safety and fallen officers at Montgomery College publishes a white paper on economic development, and heads up additional educational programming.

The Foundation’s inventory of aims and successes is a testament to Barbara’s work ethic, fueled since the earliest days of her childhood watching her own parents defy the confines of no. Barbara was born in Chicago and raised in Glenview until she was nine. Her mother stayed at home to raise Barbara and her two siblings, getting deeply involved in community organizing and local issues. Her father, the son of a tin artisan, owned a small ductwork business in the days before prefab, drawing the systems out and then cutting and forming the sheet metal himself. “We’d all help him out in the garage when the business was just starting,” Barbara recalls. “We’d help him feed the sheet metal into the break before bending and soldering it.” Her father worked on the first McDonald’s in Chicago.

Because he could easily maintain a building, he also got into real estate and made most of his money by owning rentals in the city. He could fix most issues that arose, and for those he couldn’t, he had close relationships with other plumbers and handymen who provided service at good rates. “From watching that at such an early age, I came to understand the value of a good team,” Barbara says. Her mother was part of that team, handling the clerical work for the businesses and joining her husband in obtaining real estate and brokers’ licenses so they could close deals on their own.

Barbara’s family had always been drawn to sunshine, and when she was nine, her father decided to sell all his assets in Chicago and move to Florida to start over. It was there that Barbara fell in love with the sun in earnest, spending all her time playing outside. She took tennis lessons with Chris Everett’s father, a disciplined drill sergeant who taught her that every point mattered.

Profiles in Success: Inspiration from Executive Leaders in the Washington D.C. Area — Volume 11

His teachings threaded into her world view, setting her up to be a demanding leader with high expectations who always strives for excellence. “Now, it’s important to me not to leave anything on the field at the end of the work day,” she explains. “A colleague I worked with later on in life put it another way—you’re either with the company, or you’re against it. Like her, and like the tennis coach I had when I was young, I have no patience for in between.”

Proficient at the dying art of doing fancy custom copper fixtures, Barbara’s father was highly sought-after

by Fort Lauderdale businesses looking to retrofit. He also invested heavily in real estate again, including a hotel and a restaurant. “When you’re a small familyowned business, it’s all hands on deck,” Barbara remembers. “My brother had to paint every room in the hotel, which he didn’t like so much. But I was in charge of the Coke machines, which meant I had a key and access to an unlimited supply of drinks. There wasn’t anything better than that! My father always made business fun for me.”

Barbara remembers her father taking safety incredibly seriously because he couldn’t afford to have a broken leg. He knew that if he didn’t work, his family didn’t eat. “Even when I was a girl, I got that sense of how vulnerable a small business owner is,” she recalls.

“In this respect, he was aware and careful. Yet he was always fearless, unafraid to reinvent himself time and time again.”

The next opportunity to do so came when Barbara was in her sophomore year of high school. Her mother’s sisters had all moved from Chicago to Atlanta, and her mother longed to join them. With that, her father sold everything again and made the move. In no time, her mother realized she couldn’t stand the weather, and by Barbara’s senior year, they returned to Fort Lauderdale.

Barbara had always wanted to be a teacher when she grew up, but when her senior year typing teacher told her she’d hate it, she began considering other options.

Her parents agreed to take her college visiting to Florida State University because it had one of the best teaching programs in the country, and by the end of the visit, they began filling out the paperwork for her enrollment.

When the enrollment counselor asked her what school she’d be joining, however, she promptly answered business instead of teaching. Her parents were shocked and dismayed at first, but Barbara was firm. “It was more than the fact that the teaching facility was part of the newer campus, away from the student union and the center of activity,” she says. “It was a choice tied to my former teacher’s insights, and to the fact that I had always loved my dad’s businesses. Later in life, I would come to realize how much business and education actually intersects.”

Barbara met her husband, Dan, at college. Upon graduation, he enrolled in graduate school at the University of Washington, so the young couple found themselves moving cross-country in two cars and a UHaul during the oil embargo of 1979. Interest rates were

17 percent, and it was incredibly hard to land a job. Still, Barbara managed to secure a position at Burroughs Corporation, the manufacturer that later became Unisys. There, she did sales and business development for three years and then relocated to Washington, D.C. for the next four, discovering early on that she had a remarkable affinity for the work. “I was dead-set on hitting my numbers, and I won every award they had straight out of the block,” she recalls. “I became the youngest female manager on record for the company.

Later on in my twenties, I closed the largest deal in history for our division. As the youngest person on the team, I ran their Baltimore office and its sales team of 28 men. I was the most successful zone manager in the world—and then I got pregnant. I decided to leave at that point, because I knew there was no way I could do what I was doing while raising kids.”

By that time, Dan had become Staff Director for the Merchant Marine and Fisheries Subcommittee in the U.S. House of Representatives. After fifteen years on the Hill, he left the Legislative Branch to work at the U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service, and in 2011 was nominated by the President and confirmed by the Senate to serve as its Director. “He absorbed so much during his time on the Hill and in various leadership roles at FWS, and now runs a federal agency with a multi-billion dollar budget,” Barbara says. “I’ve learned so much from him over the years. Going through the hoops to get things done in government is just a different world, so it’s helpful to understand the process of how you get an idea communicated, sold, and funded.”

Such lessons came in handy several years after Barbara and Dan bought a house down the street from a lot that was to be turned into a park. After the birth of their two children, Barbara noticed the lot still hadn’t been developed, so she called the Park and Planning Department to determine the holdup. They reported they had no money, and that she would need to call the County Council. From there, she learned she needed to form an organization and rally the voices, so she mobilized a thousand residents in favor of getting the park built. In the end, the effort was successful. “I learned what it meant to make something happen,” she explains. “I read through the whole budget, and it turned out the county had plenty of money, but they just weren’t choosing to spend it on the park. So I organized the neighborhoods, got our precinct to show up to vote, and made sure everyone knew who supported our park and who didn’t. It was an invaluable lesson in how to channel fearlessness into action and results.”

Over the fifteen years Barbara spent caring for her children while operating outside of the typical workforce, she invested her time and talent into changing Silver Spring, Maryland, for the better. She often put in more hours than she had on the payroll for Burroughs, still finding time to work as a substitute teacher for six years. “In that capacity, I had the opportunity to observe the art and skill of true teaching,” she reflects. “Now, my greatest challenge at VIP is being able to identify the Barbara Ashe

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truly gifted educators amongst the SME’s. There’s no shortage of incredible government contracting knowledge around the beltway, but the question is, who can teach it?”

Barbara began working with the Chamber of Commerce in 2003 after she had done some community work with its then-president. He invited her to come aboard working 100 percent commission to bring in members and sponsorships, which Barbara’s husband initially balked at. She remained wholly undeterred, however, and was soon earning more than the president at times. Her rise to Executive Vice President of the Chamber, and then President of the Foundation, was followed by the creation of VIP in 2009 as a somewhat

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casual regional program. It then evolved into a national program in 2011 that would come to have the structure, impact, and prestige it has today.

In advising young people entering the working world today, Barbara stresses the importance of selfsufficiency and perseverance. “No excuses,” she says firmly. “Failure’s not an option, and help is not on the way. Every day, wake up and remember that success is your responsibility, so own it fearlessly. And above all else, remember that you can take no for an answer, but never for an ultimatum. If something doesn’t feel right about the world, believe in your power to fix it, overcoming the roadblocks to reach that solution beyond the ‘no’s in your way."

Profiles in Success: Inspiration from Executive Leaders in the Washington D.C. Area — Volume 11

Ed Barry _________________

A Bet on Yourself Often, the most defining aspects of one’s life and character, spring forth from moments of serendipity that at first seem commonplace and unremarkable. Like the night Ed Barry took up an offer from a friend to see the Rolling Stones play at RFK Stadium, struck up a conversation with the young woman sitting next to him, and married her three years later. Or like the day he saw an advertisement on LinkedIn for Capital Bank, a midsized institution serving the D.C. metropolitan area that was looking for a new CEO. “Up to that point, I had worked in bigger organizations whose stock rose and fell largely independently of my actions,” he recalls.

“But I saw that the success or failure of Capital Bank would be tied directly to my own successes or failures as CEO. Accepting the position was really a bet on myself and I was ready.”

Capital Bank was launched in 1999 as an avenue for Chinese investment in the United States. With little experience in the highly regulated industry of banking, the founders had faltered by 2002 and sought the help of a turnaround specialist to right the bank. With Steve Ashman taking on the CEO role, they retooled the board, recapped the company, replaced the management team, and brought into the fold several successful investors who were well-connected in the community and willing to put their resources toward the bank’s success. The institution stabilized and then flourished, and by 2010, Steve decided to retire from his position and began looking for his replacement.

In the wake of the financial crisis and the subsequent new wave of regulation that swept the sector, Steve knew the recipe for success in the banking industry was changing. He needed someone who’s leadership approach was decidedly different and markedly active— someone who understood that the changing terrain and technology demanded new and innovative solutions.

It took Steve over two years and 350 interviews to find Ed, but after one phone conversation, he knew he had come to the right person. “When he asked me what I thought about banking, I told him that too many people were just replicating what they had done the past ten or 20 years,” Ed recounts. “I told him I thought we needed to do things differently. We really clicked.”

When Ed assumed the helm of the bank, he set to work—not replicating what had been done before him, but starting over. With Steve’s mentorship, he learned the ropes of the CEO position and formally took on the title after three months with the bank, which was then a

$400 million institution. After only four years of his leadership, Capital Bank is now an institution of $800 million that focuses on the four lines of business of commercial banking, mortgages, credit cards, and a small private equity arm. Its stock prices have risen 130 percent in that time period, with record earnings year after year that have amounted to average annual growth rates of 25 percent. “We’ve been able to keep shareholder returns high while growing the top line and our team has expanded from 65 to 185 employees,” Ed says. “I’ve really enjoyed building on what Steve accomplished and taking things in a new direction.”

That has meant capitalizing on trends shifting away from brick-and-mortar stores toward electronic banking, and today, 70 percent of its credit card customers interact with Capital Bank via cell phone. The bank retains three physical locations in downtown D.C., Bethesda, and Rockville, but has expanded to provide nationwide consumer lending services from an office in Philadelphia and a mortgage office in Annapolis that competes in 35 states. Thanks to the equalizing force of technology, Capital Bank also does business wherever their clients do business, which takes on a global reach.

“Our ideal customer is someone with complex needs,” he explains. “Companies like Bank of America and Capital One have diverse service offerings, and they do that quite well, but they don’t offer customizable, unique service.

That’s where we excel.”

Beyond the technical, tactical demands of the job that involve solving complex problems, Ed loves the variance and exposure that each day brings. “Through my work, I’m often out experiencing different slices of life,” he says. “Local communities, large corporations, startups, mature businesses, families, and individuals across all kinds of industries—I get a lot of energy from being out working with people directly. I’m driven because I know that 185 people count on me for their jobs, 250 investors trust me to be a responsible steward of their investments, and countless businesses depend on us to be there for them. The impact is profound, and it’s not a responsibility I take lightly.”

The spirit and stamina to assume this responsibility first took root when Ed was very young. Born in Staten Island as the youngest of three brothers, Ed benefitted from the grueling work ethic and staunch commitment to education deeply rooted in both his parents. His father was an elementary school principal in the Ed Barry

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Chinatown neighborhood of New York City at a time when it was uncommon to see tall white men in the area, but was deeply engaged in the community and became a voice for its voiceless. “An Irish immigrant himself, he really pushed the importance of education as the road to the American Dream,” Ed says. “He also came from a Catholic background and would always step in when the Chinese immigrants were being taken advantage of in some way. He was very well respected because of that, and it taught me to look for ways to help others.”

Ed’s mother’s family had emigrated to the U.S. from Italy, and she worked as a high school Spanish teacher.

A strong, analytical, independent thinker, her example taught Ed to always be perseverant and to form his own opinions. “My parents were both very driven, hardworking people who taught me to apply myself,” he continues. “We had no wealth or legacy to our name, and I knew I’d had to work harder than everyone else to create my own path in life with hard work, a good education, and the will to always help others.”

As a kid, New York City was Ed’s playground. He roamed around with friends and played local sports, although his parents preferred he spend his time studying instead of joining Little League. “I played relentless amounts of basketball,” he laughs, identifying athletic activities with other kids in the neighborhood as the earliest incubator of his leadership skills.

Because their parents spent long days at work serving the city’s public schools, the Barry brothers were traditional latchkey kids, and when he wasn’t outside playing, Ed was a voracious reader and a budding entrepreneur. He would carry groceries to peoples’ cars for a nickel, and he would buy beer and soda to sell from a Styrofoam cooler on the golf course near his house. In the summers, when his mother and father had more time off, the family would pile into the car to head to the beach on Sundays.

Ed attended Catholic school through childhood and passed a highly rigorous application and testing process to gain admission to an elite high school in Manhattan, where each student’s tuition was funded by a wealthy family. The school had strict performance requirements, and Ed excelled both academically and socially.

“Academically speaking, I was surrounded by the best of the best,” he recounts. “But the school also valued service and required us to continually examine how we were helping others. We had to engage in community service projects to graduate, so I served as an assistant math teacher at a school in an underprivileged neighborhood during my senior year. It echoed my upbringing of watching my parents always taking care of people who were down on their luck.”

Upon graduating, Ed pursued his studies at Cornell University, where he planned to be a lawyer for the job security and lifestyle promised by the profession. He majored in industrial relations—a blend of sociology, business, and human resources courses—and joined a fraternity that fostered strong friendships.

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Ed’s carefree college life took a hard blow in his junior year, however, when his father died of cancer. “He kept working to the bitter end to secure his pension for my mother, and it was just heartbreaking to watch this man who was so full of life waste away so quickly,” Ed says. “I still hold on to the two plastic hair combs he gave me before I left for college. It was the last gift he gave me, and even today they still connect me to him and what he stood for.”

A year later, Ed’s uncle died of AIDS, and when Ed graduated from college into the recession of the early 1990s, he returned to New York City to care for his grief-stricken mother. He set out to build a life for himself—something he quickly realized he had no idea how to do. “Opportunities for someone just out of school were scarce, and I struggled for several years to find a job,” he recalls. “How did one even find a job? I was surprised that the real world isn’t like college with an array of opportunities and trajectories laid out for your selection. And there was no one to really show me where to even start, so it was a real challenge to figure out how to chart my own destiny. That was a defining moment that has stayed with me my whole life—that you can’t take anything for granted. You must think ahead and make sure you stay relevant. It’s on you to figure things.”

Ed decided to leave New York and head to Washington, D.C., where several friends from college were trying to scrape by as well. He wanted to chart his own course, away from the expectations of family and the weight of the past. Through trial by fire, Ed clawed his way to employment, picking up skills and learning that success means taking responsibility for adding value wherever possible. After several dead ends, he took a position on commission in a commercial real estate firm, where he quickly realized he had to find a way to add value or he’d go hungry. He apprenticed himself to several senior executives who were more than happy to pass off administrative work—and a portion of their commissions—to Ed. Then, six months in to his employment, he was asked to handle a sales pitch to a client. “I went in and starting talking about what I thought the markets were doing and what I thought the client should do,” he recalls. “I had always looked up to my senior colleagues and to the clients we worked with, who were very successful. But it dawned on me that I had cultivated my own expertise, and it hadn’t been as daunting as I thought it would be. So many people out there are operating with pretty thin knowledge on a given topic, and I found I could really stand out by honing my expertise and showing people that I had something to say.”

With his newfound confidence, Ed leaned into his work and began to have fun with it. When he made his first big commission sale, it felt like he had won the lottery. What felt even better, however, was meeting the young woman at the Rolling Stones concert. Virginia was just finishing up a summer internship before heading back to Florida to finish her senior year of college,

Profiles in Success: Inspiration from Executive Leaders in the Washington D.C. Area — Volume 11

but the two were virtually inseparable from the time they met to the time she headed back south. They dated long distance, and when she graduated, she joined Ed in Washington.

In 1995, Ed decided to take an associate position with First Union Real Estate Capital Markets, where he structured and marketed debt, equity, and joint venture commercial real estate investments. With burgeoning expertise in this sector, he mastered those aspects of sales and left in 1997. Ed and Virginia were married that summer, and in the fall he enrolled in the MBA program at the University of Virginia’s Darden School of Business Administration, focusing on marketing and finance.

Ed thought he might return to New York to work at a big Wall Street firm, but after a summer job in that environment, he quickly changed his plans. “It was just mindless drudgery, when I loved the entrepreneurial challenge of working on commission, creating your own success and dealing with different kinds of investments on a daily basis,” he reflects. “One of my brothers worked on Wall Street for a while but then left to become a teacher and to work with developmentally disabled children. He’s so much happier now than he was before, and I know I made the right choice veering away from that path when I did.”

Instead, Ed took a management consulting position at Ernst & Young, where he helped build a strategy practice. In that capacity, he had the latitude to shape the path, platform, and process of the new practice, which fit his entrepreneurial and pioneering inclinations perfectly. The company asked him to move out to San Francisco at the outset of the tech boom, and Virginia had a flexibility and openness to new things bred from her upbringing in a military household, so they decided to try California. “More than about pure sales, that job was about working with people, which was a great experience,” Ed recounts. “I was figuring out how to really help people think through complex problems, and I was really vested in their success. It was a good fit for me.”

After five years there, the Barrys had had their first child, and Virginia yearned to move back east, closer to family. Ed, as well, was ready for a job with less travel obligations, so he took a corporate strategy and business development position with Bank of America in North Carolina. There, he worked on consumer banking, ecommerce, and payments, ultimately assuming the role of Senior VP of Strategic Marketing under Lynn Pike, a charismatic division leader. Later, when Lynn took a job as the President of Capital One, she invited Ed to come with her, and the Barrys leapt at the opportunity to return to D.C. Ed started at Capital One’s small business division in the summer of 2008, just before the financial sector began to melt down—a climate that would compel instability and angst over the next several years.

Through that time, Ed managed a team of around eighty people and ran the products, analytics, and data

used to grow businesses, develop strategy, and build volume-driving infrastructure and marketing campaigns.

When the opportunity with Capital Bank arose in 2012, Lynn pointed out the tremendous opportunity for personal growth, professional evolution, and purposedriven success, urging Ed to give it serious consideration. He had wanted to take a year away from work to relax and reconnect with family, but in the end, the fit was too perfect to turn down. “Lynn told me the opportunity with Capital Bank would change my life because I’d be forced to expand, reevaluating how I view the world and interact with people,” he recalls. “Win, lose, or draw, I’d be a different person at the end of it. And she was right. My time here has been a great transformational experience for me, and I look forward to our continued upward trajectory.”

Today, Ed leads with a style that is more collegial than authoritarian. His goal is to help his team members achieve theirs, with a focus on removing the roadblocks along the way to success. “I’m focused on helping our employees push through obstacles to achieve the change we’re trying to drive,” he says.

“There’s a time for leading from behind by lifting people up, and there’s a time for leading from the front by setting the direction and making sure everyone understands how the pieces connect. Whether I’m coming from the back or the front, I focus on empowering people to make their own decisions and own their failures and successes.” Under Ed’s leadership, Capital Bank has been consistently rated one of the top-performing small banks in the nation, and has also been recognized for innovation.

Ed’s vision and talent are also employed as Chairman of the Board for the Make a Wish Foundation’s Mid-Atlantic Chapter—a role he assumed in 2013 when the branch was trying to rebuild from scratch. “I really enjoyed helping with that turnaround,” he says. “The organization is about delivering incredible experiences to people in the midst of despair. We try to give children back their childhood and give people hope in finding good in their lives. It’s inspiring work.” Ed and Virginia are also very active in their church and in the school of their three children—a son and two daughters.

“I’m very grateful to have Virginia as my life partner through all of this,” he affirms. “She’s incredibly driven and direct, and as a sounding board she always helps me keep perspective and balance in life.”

That life, a constellation spanning consulting, commercial real estate, marketing, technology, and banking, is united by the common theme of agency and impact.

“I didn’t grow up dreaming of being a banker,” Ed says.

“I dreamed of charting my own destiny and putting my thoughts of the world into action. My interest wasn’t rooted in the ‘what’ of any particular job; it has always been rooted in the ‘why’ and the ‘how’. And I’m successful not because I only did one thing, but because I tried a number of things and then put the pieces together.”

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In advising young people entering the working world today, Ed underscores the importance of trying new things and taking chances. “Most people try to map out their next twenty years, but you have no idea where life will lead you,” he affirms. “You have to be open and make your own luck. I’ve always been willing to take the harder route, choosing experiences that were riskier and

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murkier because I could see the opportunity in them and I was inspired by the opportunity to shape them myself.

He continues, “instead of looking at an experience and thinking about what could go wrong, ask yourself what could go right? Where could it take you? There is no set path. Life is a bet on yourself, so go all in.”

Profiles in Success: Inspiration from Executive Leaders in the Washington D.C. Area — Volume 11

Steve Bartlett _________________

The Power of Purpose When things got tough in the halls of Congress and it looked as though his legislation might not pass, or in the midst of the constant turmoil of City Hall politics that filled his days as Mayor of Dallas, Steve Bartlett’s thoughts would return to his family’s farm in central Texas. He would remember how, when he was five years old, his father was just beginning to build a house on their small farm and came home one day with a newborn calf named Little Red. The calf was entrusted to Steve’s care, and though neither the boy nor his father had any idea how to raise livestock, Steve began taking care of Little Red the best he knew how.

Before long, however, Little Red contracted an illness. Steve cleaned its stall every day and tried to feed it milk, but Little Red faded fast. Soon, the calf died, and when Steve dug a hole to bury it in the pasture, his mother saw him saying a prayer.

That evening at dinner, his mother tried to comfort him by saying it wasn’t his fault, and that he’d done everything he could do to save Little Red. But his father said bluntly, “Son, you didn't do everything you could have done. You could have cleaned the stall out four times a day,” he said. “You could have warmed the milk and let the calf suck it from a rag to get nourishment. I could have called a veterinarian to bring antibiotics. And when the Norther blew in, you could have brought him into the kitchen to the stove and slept with him on the towels. If we had done everything we could, Little Red would still be alive.”

Steve’s mother couldn’t believe his father could say such a thing to their son, but Steve himself realized the words were true. “I could see he was right, and it had an amazing impact on me,” Steve reflects today. “Most people make excuses to shirk responsibility for the things that happen in life, but I resolved that from that moment on, whenever I was faced with a challenge, I would do everything I could to succeed. Only after giving it my all would I let myself accept defeat or success.

And as it turns out, if you face life with that tenacity and commitment, you generally do succeed.”

Though he doesn’t like to admit it, Steve was born in Los Angeles. After World War II, several minimigrations swept the country, and his father rode a wave from the West Coast to Texas to work as the young manager of an apparel company in 1951. They settled in the small town of Lockhart in central Texas when Steve was four years old. There, the wives of farm-

ers had started sewing clothes for “cash money,” as they say in the country—labor that had, for the previous two decades, been the lot of immigrants in sweatshops along the coasts.

When the Bartletts decided to move from a house in town to a shack of only three rooms on some farmland five miles outside of town, Steve’s father began drawing up the plans for the house they would build. Three months later, he installed indoor plumbing for the shack and set to work on the house, one room at a time.

“He was an engineer, and I would watch him at night as he sat at the kitchen table with his drafting materials, finalizing the plans for that weekend,” Steve recalls.

“The goal was to build a good house— one that fit our family. No way that we could afford to hire a builder, or even a carpenter or plumber, so we did it ourselves. Once again, it was setting a goal and doing everything possible to accomplish it. The family was purposeful in all we did, with choices we made on a daily basis aligning with our goals. We only went out to eat once a year, not because we couldn’t afford it, but because eating out would slow us down from finishing the house or buying another cow.”

Steve was the eldest son on the farm, an honor that carried unique and considerable responsibility. While his father was at work managing the sewing factory, he drove the ship at home, turning off the TV on Saturday mornings and sending his siblings out to do the chores he assigned them. He learned to run a disciplined operation at an early age, managing any crisis that arose and ensuring the farm ran smoothly. He collected pecans that fell from their trees by the creek and sold them for forty cents a pound in town, setting aside ten dollars to buy Christmas presents for his family and stashing the rest in a savings account that would later cover tuition for his freshman year of college. “There wasn’t any magic to it,” he reflects. “If you want to go to college, you have to save money. I had learned from my parents that, if you want to save, you should focus on decreasing spending and saving the rest.”

Like this lesson, the life truisms learned on the farm were simple yet powerful. If Steve didn’t mend the fence today, the cows would get out and he’d have to spend tonight looking for them. Taking responsibility for little things early translated to improved outcomes later. Unfortunately, even these precautions can’t always ward Steve Bartlett

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off unfortunate outcomes, and Steve’s father lost his job in 1963, forcing him to take a job in the big city at a Dallas production factory. “It was devastating for the family to have to leave the farm and the house we built, but all in all, the move was great for me,” Steve says. “I was fourteen at the time, and Dallas had two things our town did not—Republicans, and a lot more girls.”

Steve had started cultivating an interest in politics in sixth grade, when his social studies teacher picked up on his innate proclivity for the field. His family often talked politics at the dinner table, and his father had run a losing campaign for the school board in 1957 on an integration platform, but Steve himself hadn’t given it too much thought. His teacher began bringing in her old copies of Newsweek for him, and as the young man devoured the material, he came to understand how much politics matters in the lives of people. “Reading cover to cover, I discovered that every story about politics or policy or government was actually a story about how peoples’ lives were being changed,” Steve explains.

“Whether someone was building a highway or a bridge or a road, or making a change to how savings accounts work, or going to war, politics shapes everything. It also clicked for me that you shape policy by getting elected, not just by running for office. After all, the stories in Newsweek were about the election winners, not the second place runner-ups. And I saw that the trick to getting elected was getting more votes than anyone else.”

The following year, Steve took a Texas history course with Dr. Abraham Lincoln Weinburger, a forthright, headstrong, disciplined man who was both a professor at the University of Texas and an Associate Superintendent at Lockhart Public Schools. He would often tell his students to reach for the stars, because even if they didn’t catch one, at least they wouldn’t end up with a handful of mud. Dr. Weinburger observed Steve’s passion for politics and world events, and invited him to sit down in the cafeteria one day. “Mr. Bartlett, I see you’re interested in politics,” he had said. “I think you can make it. I don’t know what you’re going to be, but if you do everything right, you can run for office, and you can win.” Cocky but humbled, Steve responded, “Yes sir, I believe I will.” It was the moment that things solidified for Steve, and the prospect of a life in public service became a real possibility for him.

With the move, Steve’s mother was told that Lockhart wasn’t accredited like Dallas. Steve was told he’d be behind when he tried to start ninth grade in Dallas, and some of the teachers even proposed holding him back, but Steve rolled his eyes and would have none of that.

“Like hell I was going to be behind,” he laughs today. “I convinced them to let me enroll in ninth grade, and if I flunked, then they could hold me back. And just as I did at Lockhart, I got straight A’s. It turned out the Dallas schools were actually a lot easier, and I wasn’t challenged there the way I had been in Lockhart.”

Steve enjoyed participating in athletics in high school, but he readily admits his lack of hand-eye coor18

dination, and his heart truly lay in academics and politics. As a fourth grader, he regularly tore through thousand-page books about the history of the universe or civilization. “I absolutely loved absorbing knowledge,” he remembers. “I read all 24 volumes of the World Book Encyclopedia. There’s so much to learn in the world, and I just devoured it all.”

Before long, however, politics became just as important. In Dallas in tenth grade, Steve began engaging in Barry Goldwater’s Presidential campaign, and when the Senator received the Republican Party’s nomination for the 1964 Presidential election, Steve called GOP headquarters about joining the Young Republicans. He was literally told, “We don’t have Republicans in your part of town.” Undaunted, he recruited five students and called back the next day to ask about a charter. He was told five wasn’t enough, so he spent the next several days gathering a group of 42 members. The next time he called headquarters, each member had filled out an application and paid dues, and they had a list of a hundred locations for Goldwater yard signs. Just like that, they went from being nonexistent to being the largest Young Republican Club in Dallas County—although his best friend, from the other side of town, believes to this day that his own club reigned supreme with 43 members.

“From that, I learned that one person taking initiative can affect the outcome of politics,” he recalls. “One person reaching out and organizing other people can change the outcome of an election. Goldwater didn’t win, but we got more votes for him in my part of town than were ever expected, and I realized that if you set your goals right and focus on serving others, you can get yourself elected.”

At the end of the campaign, Steve was elected the President of the Young Republicans for all of Dallas County. But the most seminal event during that time of his life, and indeed perhaps the most transformative moment he would ever had, came while visiting a Young Republican bake sale. There, Steve met a young woman named Gail and fell in love at first sight. He had come to ask the club for money for more yard signs, and as soon as Gail handed over the check, he asked her for a date. Now married for 46 years, her role in his life as a partner, compass, and support system cannot be overstated. They’ve done everything together.

Upon graduating, Steve and Gail enrolled at the University of Texas in Austin, where he was elected Vice Chairman of the Texas Young Republicans as a freshman. Shortly thereafter, the Chairman lost his position, and at age nineteen, Steve assumed leadership of the federation of 13,000 members divided amongst 150 clubs. It was a tremendous responsibility, and when Steve and Gail married after his sophomore year, she sat him down and told him he needed to focus on his studies for the rest of college. “I had been putting myself through school by working part-time, and with politics on top of that, I had little time to focus on academics,” he concedes. “My grades suffered and my graduation was in doubt. She firmly reminded me that my goal here

Profiles in Success: Inspiration from Executive Leaders in the Washington D.C. Area — Volume 11

was to get my degree, so I quit everything else and really focused. One semester, I took 22 hours of courses and still made straight A’s, reminded by the memory of Little Red to do everything I could.”

After college, Steve and Gail moved to Dallas, where he got his first job in real estate. It was commissiononly, so she was nervous at first, to say the least, but he landed his first sale in six weeks, officially marking the start of his business career. At 24 he became the Chairman of the City’s Urban Rehab Board and President of the Dallas County Republican Men’s Club. He continued his work volunteering to help candidates with their campaigns, as well as learn the hopes and aspirations of the people around him with the goal of helping others accomplish their own goals. He didn’t let go of his dream of running for office himself, but he also didn’t set his sights on a given office and force anything. “Public service is about serving the public, and that’s where you have to start,” he explains. “If you want to be elected to Congress, you don’t set out to get elected to Congress. Instead, you set out to help a whole bunch of people in a Congressional district, and at some point your name will come around. Public service cannot be a scheme, or a ladder for your career path. Everything in your life has to be about serving others with genuine intent.”

While building political capital, the real estate market tanked, so Steve set his sights on starting his own business and invested significant time and energy into finding the right field for his entrepreneurial aspirations. After reading every business magazine and catalogue at the Dallas Public Library and conducting a series of interviews with industry experts, he decided to launch Meridian, an injection mold plastics business.

He invested in the necessary equipment in 1975 and then began knocking on doors in the industrial district for customers, eventually growing the enterprise to $5 million in sales by the time he sold it in 1999.

Two years after launching Meridian, and after spending fifteen years helping other candidates, causes and projects, a Dallas City Council seat opened up. After several days of closed-door meetings with trusted friends and advisors, Steve felt it had his name on it.

They put together a campaign plan, and in a dramatic defiance of expectations, he won in 1977. “Living a purposeful life must translate into running a purposeful campaign,” he says. “It’s not about raising a bunch of money, putting up a bunch of signs, and making a bunch of speeches. You have to plan out on paper the demographics of the region, which the voters are, what they care about, and how you can best serve them in achieving their aspirations. I literally mapped the city into ten distinct neighborhoods, set a goal for number of votes for each, wrote those goals on a chart, and carried the chart with me through the entire campaign, letting it guide my focus each day.”

Several years later, in the spring of 1981, Steve and his team realized he could win the Congressional race for the district in which he lived. It was a Republican

district, so everything rested on the primary. Again, Steve divided the district into eight distinct neighborhoods, set a vote goal for each one, created a chart, and following that chart. All was going well until seven weeks before the election, when a federal judge redrew the district lines by an astounding 70 percent despite having five established candidates already in the race.

“Don’t give up, and don’t let the calf die,” Steve thought to himself. “Do everything you can.” With that, he drew up a new chart with new goals, and to the surprise of most observers, he won the nomination and the election.

Politics is rougher now, but Steve resolved to never say an unkind word about any of his opponents, staying out of negative campaigning as he had done his whole career. Rather, he picked the three issues he believed would resonate most with voters, and which highlighted his contrast with his opponents. He won the election in 1982, becoming the representative of Texas’s Third Congressional district at age 34.

Steve had run for Congress to prove what he had seen through his professional career up to that point— that one person could make a difference. He believed he could pass meaningful legislation even without seniority, and from the minority party. To guide his path, he decided to interview a hundred incumbent members of Congress. What advice did they have for a young whippersnapper looking to be an effective Congressman?

“Really, there were only two answers,” Steve reports.

“One set advised me to focus on getting my newsletters out and getting reelected, and after a decade or two, I’d finally be able to pass legislation as a Committee Chairman. But the other set said I could do anything I wanted to do. Come up with a good idea, follow the rules, master the subject, and never give up, and I could pass any sensible legislation I put my mind to.”

Later, in comparing the two sets, Steve saw that the former never quite became effective lawmakers, even as Committee Chairmen. The other set were effective legislators, deciding the outcome of policy and the country’s path. He resolved to be among the effective group through being purposeful, and within his first ninety days in office, he succeeded in passing an amendment to let the market set Federal Housing Authority (FHA) interest rates, rather than a Housing and Urban Development edict. It was a brutal eight-hour fight on the House Floor, with two roll call votes and intense rhetoric aimed at a freshman Congressman, but Steve’s winning argument was sound: if you set the interest rate too high, people can’t afford the loan, and if you set it too low, they can’t get a loan.

Later, when the bill was signed into law, Steve found himself sitting next to the wife of a Rotary Club Chairman at a speech. She mentioned how they’d tried to get a house two years prior, but they lost it at closing “because the interest rates weren’t set right at FHA.” She had been devastated, thinking they’d never be able to buy a home. But they had recently tried again, and this time everything went through. She said she thought Steve Bartlett

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somebody had changed the law. “That was another seminal moment for me, seeing how profoundly my work had impacted her life,” he says.

By the time Steve decided to retire from Congress after nine years of service, he had authored or coauthored 18 pieces of prominent legislation, including the Americans with Disabilities Act, the East Texas Wilderness Act, and amendments to the Fair Labor Standards Act. It was an outstanding run that affirmed all he believed public service could be.

Then a new cause and purpose came his way: he believed the City of Dallas had lost its way, and he felt compelled to action. “The City had never truly engaged in the Civil Rights movement, and power wasn’t shared with Black and Hispanic communities,” he remembers.

“Crime was out of control, with an increase in all four categories of violent crime every single month for twenty years and a loss of 120,000 jobs in downtown Dallas over ten years. The City Council was literally throwing punches and chairs during their sessions. I said, okay, I can fix this.”

With that, Steve resigned from Congress, ran for mayor, and won. It would take all the discipline, purposefulness, and focus he had to set the city on the right course, and on his inauguration day, he publicly set the goal that the City would, within one year, reduce violent crime in all four categories of murder, rape, armed robbery, and aggravated assault. A true testament to Steve’s purpose and drive, the City achieved this goal in only five months, going on to hit the target crime reductions every single month thereafter while Steve was Mayor.

He helped improve race relations by bringing minorities into the decision making process, and there were no more fistfights or flying chairs at City Council meetings.

Steve quickly began bringing businesses back to downtown Dallas and the rest of the city, taking the time to focus on seemingly little things like making the city brighter with the installation of energy-efficient light bulbs that put off twice as much light and saved millions of dollars in energy costs. Other times, he knew it would take the big things, like developing and passing a $5 billion capital plan for infrastructure that guided the city for 15 years or recruiting the Dallas Stars to relocate to Dallas and make it the first sunbelt city with an NHL franchise.

Once he was sure the city was on the road to renaissance, Steve left his post to focus on running his business. It was tedious work, and though successful, the family wasn’t making much money. A couple years into it, Steve was enjoying dinner with Gail when she observed that he was an average businessman at best, and maybe even below average. “But,” she said, “you are the best politician I have ever known.” He had already told her he wasn’t running for office again, so he asked what she was getting at. “Oh, you’re a clever boy, you’ll figure it out,” she said with a smile.

The next day, a light bulb went off for Steve, and he decided to find a way to use his political skills to achieve financial success. He applied to several jobs in Washing20

ton and was ultimately recruited by the nation’s 50 largest banks to as CEO of their trade association, empowering it as the new face of the industry. The association was bleeding money and losing members, and would have to close its doors in perhaps 18 months, unless things changed dramatically. With his Board’s support, Steve set his goals: clarify the mission, bring new energy, redefine the membership, and double its size to one hundred large financial institutions. Soon, the Financial Services Roundtable became the premier financial services trade association in Washington.

Then the Great Recession hit; caused in part by bad lending policies at some of the banks. The industry was in the tank politically, but more importantly, Americans were being hurt by the foreclosure crisis. Setting his purpose, Steve used his role to launch HOPE NOW, a program designed to keep people in their homes if at all possible. If struggling homeowners had even a meager income, their mortgage could be modified to become manageable. People who had only gotten behind on their mortgages were quickly set on the right path again with a little help. And, for those without any prospects of income, the program offered an option to deed in lieu of foreclosure. It was neither easy nor smooth, but to date, HOPE NOW has modified 8.5 million mortgages that would otherwise have gone into foreclosure.

Steve also raised $5 million through five phone calls to create the HOPE Empowerment Center at Ebenezer Baptist Church, Dr. Martin Luther King, Sr. and Jr.’s home church in Atlanta. The program offers financial education, home ownership counseling, and entrepreneurship education.

By the end of 2012, Steve was satisfied he had done all he could in that capacity to help America succeed through its struggle. Exhausted and ready for the next chapter, he decided to retire. Now, Steve continues his purpose driven life at Treliant Risk Advisors by advising banks in regulatory compliance. He serves on two corporate Boards, Ares Capital and Intersections, and on two Advisory Boards, Alexander Proudfoot and EverFi. EverFi, founded by Tom Davidson of D.C. and Jeff Bezos of Amazon, achieves a particular passion of Steve’s by providing online financial education to one million students a year in 12,000 schools. He also continues to work in the nonprofit world with the Homeownership Preservation Foundation, the Easter Seals, Operation HOPE, and the African New Life Mission in Rwanda.

In recent years, Gail and Steve have also encountered several individuals who just need mentorship and a little help along the way: a victim of domestic violence, a high school boy with a criminal record who was considering dropping out, several Millennials suffering from “failure to launch” syndrome, and others. “It doesn’t take much—just some attention and a little help getting over the hurdles of life,” Steve says. “The young man who almost became a high school dropout ended up graduating Valedictorian and is now enrolled at Northern Virginia Community College.

Profiles in Success: Inspiration from Executive Leaders in the Washington D.C. Area — Volume 11

Most importantly, though, Steve and Gail are purposeful grandparents to seven amazing grandchildren.

“We do everything, absolutely everything, to create a foundation for their lives,” Steve affirms. “Beyond a financial foundation, that means values, attention, kindness, time, education, and inspiration. Grandkids need someone to listen to them, to say yes as the first answer to any request, and to offer a little gentle encouragement. In all my life, the best compliment I ever received was from my eleven-year-old granddaughter when she said at the breakfast table one morning, ‘Grandpa, you are the nicest person I know.’ Whew, it doesn’t get any better than that!”

Whether it’s guiding grandkids or counseling Millennials, Steve’s advice starts with purpose. Set your goals with clarity and then do everything you can to achieve those them. “First, look at your calendar and pick a date, time, and location where you can spend

four to six hours on your own,” he instructs. “Write down the goals you want to achieve in the next two years. Post somewhere you can see them every day. You can then keep them clearly in mind, using them to shape what you’ll do in the next ninety days, in the next week, and tomorrow. Decide where you want to go with great clarity, and then adjust your life every day to help get there. It’s really not complicated.”

Other times, Steve revives the mantra he adopted when he arrived in Congress—the purpose blueprint that achieved real results for Steve and the country he served. To wit: • Get there early and stay late, • Do your homework, • Know more about the subject than anyone else, • Follow the rules, including the rules of courtesy and civility, and • Never, ever, ever, give up.

Steve Bartlett

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Profiles in Success: Inspiration from Executive Leaders in the Washington D.C. Area — Volume 11

Edward H. Bersoff, Ph.D. _________________

An Object Called Mission One afternoon in 1995, Edward H. Bersoff, Ph.D. took a few deep breaths in the West Wing of the White House. As a youngster, his parents had always pushed him to get his doctorate. “If nothing else,” they said, “you can teach.” And although he had made his career as an executive, leading companies of all shapes and sizes, today he was to teach the nation about a new commerce bill. In doing so, he would introduce the man who would sign the bill into law, President Bill Clinton.

Later, Ed showed his parents the video of his speech introducing both the bill and the President. His father, a World War II veteran and a small business owner himself, had never been one to lavish praise on his two sons.

Yet upon seeing the tape, a tangible manifestation of the making of his son’s remarkable legacy, the man’s eyes brimmed with tears of pride.

For Ed’s parents, it was a sign that they had succeeded in one of their most sacred missions.

Now the founder and former President of BTG, Inc., and having impacted countless other organizations through his leadership and board participation, Ed’s path to the White House and beyond has been driven by many things—family, security, a testing of limits, a commitment to community. But with the passage of time, each has found its place in the broader mosaic of mission that guides his steps. “I’m not sure when my motivation coalesced from a series of disjointed cells to an object called mission,” he says now. “But I wouldn’t have made it to where I am today without it.”

Ed grew up in New York City’s Greenwich Village neighborhood in the late 1940s, where his father and mother owned a small shop specializing in window and glass furnishings. As a young boy, he played heated games of street ball, stoop ball, and handball, absorbing the diversity and energy of the vibrant neighborhood. A diligent and tenacious worker from early on, he would wake up at 4:30 in the morning to assemble newspaper packets for delivery.

Ed’s father never had the opportunity to finish college himself, and though he appreciated the security the family business afforded them, he wanted something more for his sons. Ed’s mother, an exceptionally bright woman, never had the opportunity to pursue her studies either, and both parents put an extremely high premium on education. “There was no question that my brother and I would go to college, and our parents dreamed that we’d get our doctorates,” Ed recalls. “I

adopted that as my plan, putting a stake in the ground and committing to making it happen.” He embraced this undertaking with incredible drive and palpable curiosity, earning a spot at the prestigious Stuyvesant High School.

After skipping two grades thanks to advanced placement, Ed earned his high school diploma by the age of fifteen, showing an uncanny ability in mathematics. He chose the subject as his major during his early years at New York University, the school that became his Alma Mater. Much to the dismay of his parents, he switched his minor from Physics to Philosophy after a series of mind-expanding courses. “My parents were convinced I wouldn’t be able to get a job because of that,” he laughs. “But I reassured them that I could always teach math. And those ideas have contributed substantially to the business leadership philosophy I adhere to today.”

The other “given” guiding Ed’s course through life was his father’s goal that his sons become officers in the military, so they both joined ROTC in college. Ed received a Distinguished Military Graduate designation at the time of his graduation in 1962, which would have allowed him to achieve Regular Army Officer status if he were 21. Because he was only 19, however, he entered the Army Reserves upon graduation, and chose to follow in his father’s footsteps by specializing in the Army Corps of Engineers. “My father wore his uniform to my graduation so he could pin on my insignia,” Ed recounts.

“That was a great experience.”

As he commenced work on his Ph.D., Ed fulfilled his parents’ lifelong dream for him by applying for a state teaching fellowship. He supported himself by teaching college math and working at the NYU bookstore, nearing completion of his study in 1968. By that time he had been promoted to First Lieutenant, acting as the Senior Officer within his class, and applied for an assignment at NASA. His character was tested at engineering training in Fort Belvoir, where he was introduced to the Commandant of the Engineer School. When Ed was asked what he would do if he were sent to Vietnam instead of NASA, by that time a bloody and heartbreaking war, he replied, “I serve at your disposal—wherever you send me is wherever I go.” Fortunately, shortly thereafter, he received orders to report for duty at NASA’s Electronics Research Center in Cambridge, Massachusetts.

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“Like a GPS, life has many waypoints, and there are times you’re faced with a decision that will change your course,” Ed reflects. He came to one such waypoint in 1970 when, with a breadth of experience in mathematics and software engineering under his belt, he found his potential constrained by the bureaucracy of the civil service promotion system. With that, he decided to end his service and accept a job offer from Logicon, an IT contractor based out of California. With his newlyminted Ph.D., Ed was sent to help launch the Washington, D.C. office and build their East Coast operations.

Though he was young, he rose quickly through the ranks, handling the company’s software engineering programs as Project Manager and landing large contracts with both NASA and the FAA. He ultimately left the company in 1974, hoping to bolster his expertise elsewhere.

Having established himself as an expert in software systems, Ed signed on as the sixth employee at CTEC, Inc., a Washington-based startup specializing in intelligence systems. As the small company landed opportunities in Naval intelligence, it was rapidly successful and grew to around two hundred employees over the next several years. And just as he had done in Logicon, Ed climbed through the ranks quickly to the role of Executive Vice President. Then, when the President became severely ill, Ed was named Interim President, and then President. “I had set a goal for myself to be a President by the age of forty,” he recalls.

“There are very few earned presidencies by that age, and I was honored that they decided to appoint me.”

Ed’s most profound experience at CTEC came one day when he was visiting an intelligence facility in Spain. His team was working to put in place computer systems to help the Navy manage the data it was collecting—a job where someone could easily get lost in the mundane details of the task. “I remember passing a sign on the wall that read, ‘What have you done to support the fleet today?’” says Ed. “In that moment, the mission really clicked for me. The world was really tense at the time, and our job was to provide data to the fleet to help keep them out of harm’s way. We were there to make a difference.”

The realization would prove key for the leap of faith to come. In 1982, Ed knew his tenure at CTEC was coming to a close and found himself at a major crossroads—another waypoint on life’s course. “I hadn’t planned on starting a company, and I never felt particularly entrepreneurial,” he recounts. “But I suppose it was always in my DNA, because when I turned in the keys to the company Jaguar along with my resignation, I announced that I was starting something new, something entirely my own.”

The first seeds for the new venture came from the Navy intelligence community, where he had become firmly enmeshed. When Ed was asked to serve as a consultant, he forged the deal that would kick-start and grow his new venture. “I said no to the consulting opportunity, and told them I wanted a real contract of my 24

own,” he says. “They came up with one a couple weeks later, so I brought a couple people along, and just like that, we were off and running.” With that, BTG, Inc. opened its doors in 1982.

BTG, which Ed jokingly refers to as an acronym for “better than good,” evolved at a staggering rate. Ed piloted the organization through a small business contract before finding its niche in the Naval Intelligence Community and expanding to land contracts in other branches. BTG then engaged in a series of acquisitions that contributed to its growth and success.

In the early 1990s, Ed began to contemplate the mammoth task of taking the company public. At the time, no government contractor had succeeded in a bid for Initial Public Offering for nearly ten years. And while he watched contract firms larger than BTG as they tried and failed, the BTG board decided to push forward. In 1994, their bid was successful, and the company was valued at roughly $600 million. In 1996, they did a follow-on offering.

It was also in 1996 that Ed was selected for the Fed 100 by Federal Computer Week and AFCEA, identifying him as one of a hundred honorees from the professional technology field in government and industry. In earning this distinction, he was also chosen from industry representatives to receive the coveted Eagle Award for his role in the federal government's effective use of information technology. Ed, a mathematician and intelligence software developer by trade, was now a seasoned entrepreneur and the visionary leader of a renowned public company.

Ed’s parents couldn’t have imagined that his college studies of philosophy would one day shape his prowess as a captain of industry. Indeed, as founder and President of a major organization, he suddenly found himself closer to his philosophical roots than ever before, particularly with regard to his outlook as a leader. “I came back to my studies of René Descartes, one of the French philosophers I studied in school,” he says. Descartes’s foremost philosophical statement, “I think, therefore I am,” put a high emphasis on purpose, defining it as the key factor in guiding a goal-oriented life. The phrase became profoundly meaningful to Ed, who developed his own incarnation. “For me,” Ed explains, “the question of purpose became huge — if you exist, then why do you exist? What do you want to do? When it comes to business and living life, I tell people that the first thing they should do is think long and hard about why they do what they do. It’s something that people don’t think about as much in their younger years. Often, when you’re young, your decisions are shaped by the opportunities that arise, and you’ll end up in a good place regardless of which road you take when you come to a fork. That’s how it was for me.”

Yet as Ed found himself in command of a major business, he reconsidered his own purpose and he profoundly changed his outlook—both as President of BTG, and beyond. “As I became older, the answer to the question of purpose became different,” he says. “I real-

Profiles in Success: Inspiration from Executive Leaders in the Washington D.C. Area — Volume 11

ized that I do what I do because I want to make the world a better place. It becomes a matter of evaluating what you’ve done, by the end, to have made a difference. It all comes down to realizing that, in the long run, you do what you do for reasons that extend far beyond the need to make a living. You do what you do because you realize the role you play in the larger mission, whatever that mission may be, and because you want to serve.”

This concept of purpose, newly reevaluated in his adulthood role as corporate leader, constitutes the first in Ed’s renowned list of the “Seven P’s”, a memorandum of tenets that he formed as a reference of guiding beacons. Purpose is followed by Principles, reminding us that success at any price is no success at all. Next comes the importance of having a Plan—a stake put in the ground and made public so everyone knows the direction you’re headed. This roadmap, pursued with Passion fueled by a true belief in Purpose, must allow for Pivots—changes in course based on data and observations of a changing world. Work-life balance must always be maintained through Perspective, and Perseverance is the momentum needed to push through the challenges that come along every road to success.

With this philosophy, Ed staked his claim on future success by charting a growth path that fell squarely in the middle of the spectrum of possibility. He told the world that BTG would double in size annually, reaching $25 million in seven years. “That was the plan, and I told everyone who would listen,” he recounts. “And by God, we hit that curve almost exactly. If you set your objective and tell everybody what it is, you have a much better chance at success than if you keep your mission secret, leaving everyone to wonder what the plan is.”

By the new millennium, BTG had grown into a tour de force in its own right, making its mark as one of the foremost innovators in IT contracting. Guiding his team as a benevolent manager, Ed remained engaged with the details of the company’s operation while empowering his team to act with authority and succeed independently. In the summer of 2001, after 19 years of operation, BTG was sold to Titan Corporation, where Ed served on the board until Titan too, was sold in 2005. But his company’s legacy continues to live on, most notably in the countless people who grew through its ranks and are now exceedingly successful executives in their own rite. “When BTG had its thirtieth anniversary party in 2012, several hundred alums showed up, and it was incredible to hear what they’re up to now,” Ed recounts. “It means a lot that we were able to contribute to the personal legacies of our employees.”

Ed’s wife, Marilynn, was beside him every step of the way through the BTG journey. In fact, several years before they married, she left CTEC and became Ed’s first employee at BTG. “She’s my moral compass,” he says. “Through all the ups and downs, she’s always kept me on the straight and narrow, and is an exceptional judge of character. She’s got this sense about her, and she keeps me grounded.” Ed is also grounded by his

remarkable daughters—one a research physician and professor at Harvard Medical School, and the other a practicing physician in D.C. who successfully treated one of the anthrax patients. “As proud as my parents were of me when I showed them my speech at the White House, I’m equally proud of my daughters,” says Ed. Ed’s engagement in the business community has remained strong in the wake of selling BTG. In 2006, he joined with a team of investors to form a Special Purpose Acquisition Corporation, raising $126 million in the public market to purchase a civilian government contractor called ATS Corporation. Ed served as CEO of ATS, leading it to flourish until it was sold in 2010 to Salient Technologies, Inc. Ed then shifted his focus full-time to his participation in nonprofit and for-profit boards—commitments he has prioritized since 1984. Using his “Seven P’s” as guiding beacons, he has served as a Board member, Advisor, or Committee member of over fifty organizations, including Virginia's Center for Innovative Technology, the Northern Virginia Technology Council, the Technology Work Group of the Virginia Economic Recovery Commission, and Holy Cross Hospital.

Education, as well, has remained a passion for Ed, and although full-time academic teaching never became the focal point of his career, he taught mathematics at NYU and Kingsborough Community College. During his tenure at NASA, he taught similar courses at Boston University and Northeastern University. Later on, he continued to teach at American University, the University of Maryland, and George Mason University. He served as President of the Board of Directors of the Northern Virginia Community College Educational Foundation, as well as on the Board of Trustees at Virginia Commonwealth University. One of his greatest honors came when he was asked to serve on the Board of Trustees at New York University, his Alma Mater, and more recently, he was invited by Governor Terry McAuliffe to serve on the Board of the Virginia 529 Program. “It’s a lot of fun,” he says. “We have to think about how you finance a college education, and what the return on capital for that education will look like in 20 years.”

In advising young people entering the working world today, Ed underscores the importance of commitment as a foundation for laying out the Seven P’s.

“Nothing is easy,” he says. “Don’t flounder. Figure out what you want to do and then go do it. And when you face setbacks, remember you have two choices. You can go back to bed and hide, or you can go to work and put on a brave face. Those moments will be your waypoints, and I hope you choose to do what you have to do, rather than what you might want to do in that moment.”

Beyond that, Ed has found that the Seven P’s tend to lead people to that ideal ground where altruism and self-interest intersect. “Self-interest is fine, but never at the expense of others,” he says. “Altruism is wonderful, but you can’t have a mission without money. I think the Edward H. Bersoff, Ph.D.

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real value set is all about pursuing something of importance, but in a business-like way so you ensure you have the resources to actually accomplish it.”

From his days delivering papers and playing street ball in Manhattan, to his introduction of President Bill Clinton at the White House, to his legacy of leadership throughout the D.C. business community Ed’s astounding accomplishments are the projection of the mission sense that has always guided him—a pixel-precise vision

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he hopes the entire country will reclaim with time.

“When I graduated from college and started work at NASA, every single person in that organization—and across the U.S.—was aligned and motivated in our goal to make it to the moon,” he reflects. “Now, I attribute our national sense of malaise to the fact that we’ve lost our mission sense as a country. Everyone needs that object called mission—the new moon that inspires them to write their future, and then go out and live it.”

Profiles in Success: Inspiration from Executive Leaders in the Washington D.C. Area — Volume 11

Brianna Dunbar Bowling _________________

The Can-Do Course The most important business lunch of Brianna Bowling’s life occurred on her farm in rural Maryland.

The entrée was homemade grilled cheese sandwiches, and the company was another stay-at-home mom who, like Brianna, had joined a casual networking group for women in the region interested in internet and technology opportunities. The afternoon didn’t consist of much more than a leisurely stroll around the property with the children, petting cows and collecting eggs together.

Six months later, Brianna received a call from the woman, who had since taken a job with a tech company that needed help converting Word documents to HTML for a contract they had landed with the Department of Justice. She knew Brianna had grown proficient in HTML conversion in an effort to keep her mind stimulated since leaving her job to raise her two young kids—a skill that was formalized through her decision to launch Zekiah Technologies. The woman offered Brianna the contract; officially turning Zekiah into a government contractor and landing the fledgling firm enough business to warrant the full-time focus of Brianna and her husband, Dan. “I still teach my employees the wisdom of the Grilled Cheese Theory,” Brianna says today. “It’s important to consider every single person you meet as a potential client, customer, or contact, treating them with the utmost respect. You never know what a person’s past holds, and you never know what the future might hold for you together.”

To many D.C.-area executives, Brianna’s own past is the stuff of storybooks, and soon will be—she expects to finish her first childhood memoir in the coming months. She was born when her father was stationed in Norfolk, Virginia, with the Navy, and when he finished his service, the family moved to Kentucky so he could enroll in forestry school. They lived in a tiny trailer for two years, where Brianna slept under a table and her baby sister slept in an apple box.

The family moved around a few more times before her father landed a job as a forest ranger at Cedarville State Park in Maryland, providing adventurous terrain for Brianna’s early roaming. The park was a popular destination for celebrations and family reunions, and she readily joined whatever festivity was taking place at the moment. When she was seven, her parents bought some land in Charles County and began building a house with trees they cut down themselves, sometimes sleeping under a lean-to as their home took shape.

The resulting house had no running water or electricity, so they pumped water by hand and then brought it in to heat on the wood stove. Showers consisted of hot water poured over one another from an industrial-sized mayonnaise jar, and meals were animals raised, caught, or sometimes even found dead on the side of the road.

It was an unusual childhood to say the least, but a great one. “My mother stayed home with us, and we did every activity under the sun,” Brianna recalls. “They believed in a free-form way of parenting, and we were poor, but it was a good life.”

4-H was a hugely positive presence through Brianna’s upbringing, thanks in part to organization leaders like Mrs. Marvin, who devoted her life to the children in her care. Because of 4-H, Brianna met her husband, Dan, as a young girl at the county fair, where he was showing steers and she was showing sheep. In 4-H, she learned public speaking, livestock and poultry judging, photography, and citizenship. The organization even had a program that flew her to Chicago when she was fourteen to report on a conservation project she had undertaken.

Thanks to her mother, who was passionate about local politics, Brianna was also very civically engaged. As a child, she would make phone calls and stuff envelopes for various races, and she helped her mother in a successful campaign against the construction of an airport in their area. As her mother worked to improve substandard community housing, provide resources to those in need, and secure home building rights for people who had been living on a given piece of land long enough, Brianna helped and learned.

After growing up watching her mother dive enthusiastically into all manner of projects, Brianna now has a post-it note on her laptop written by her sister that reads, “Stop me before I volunteer again!” She currently serves on the board of her local hospital, which is transitioning from a small community hospital into a facility capable of serving a larger area. She also helps to mentor high school kids in career planning, serves as a 4-H leader, volunteers for her church, and coaches her daughter’s soccer team. “I love mentoring kids and helping to build their self-confidence,” she says. “When I walk through the halls of the school and have kids running up to give me a hug, it’s better than any professional award I could receive.”

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Living in a home with an outhouse never bothered Brianna, nor did the lack of heat. TV was a novelty she thoroughly enjoyed at friends’ houses, but otherwise she lacked for nothing, and enjoyed having friends over to hang out. She also loved playing on the field hockey team at school, and made her first buck cleaning up trash under the bleachers after high school sporting events. She sold donuts door-to-door for 4-H and held other odd jobs to earn money for clothes, but she never dreamed of starting her own company.

Brianna’s parents were always immensely supportive, attending every field hockey game and giving their three daughters room to be themselves, but they never pushed the girls to study or consider their future plans.

Fortunately, Brianna decided very early that she wanted to go to college. She loved animals and thought she might like to be a veterinarian, and she knew she’d make a good lawyer because she thought arguing was fun. She landed a considerable scholarship to Goucher College in Baltimore, and worked long hours in the summers as a legal secretary at a law firm downtown to make up the rest. In the process, she decided neither legal work nor animal medicine were her cup of tea, instead opting to major in English literature. She played field hockey, traveled to other schools to compete with the debate team, worked in the computer lab, and married Dan, whom she had begun dating in high school.

In May of 1992, the same month Brianna graduated from college, Dan was laid off from his job at Citibank.

“We decided to do the responsible thing, grabbing a map and a highlighter and hopping in his Civic to set off on a month-long cross-country camping trip,” she laughs. “We did almost 10,000 miles in three weeks, seeing every national park on my list. It was so much fun!”

Brianna and Dan made a few phone calls during the trip, and by the time they got home, he went back to work for Citibank while she landed a job for an expert witness firm. Ethical concerns prompted her to leave that employer nine months later, and she found work at Aerotek as the assistant for Jim Davis. “He’s a genius and an incredibly hard worker,” she recalls. “He helped me understand that success isn’t just about being smart—it’s also putting your nose to the grindstone and working your tail off. He was a huge influence in shaping my understanding of the business world.”

Soon, Dan got a good job offer in Chicago, where Aerotek had an office. The Bowlings made the move, and Brianna transferred, enjoying her new post until she got pregnant. “I have three children now, and I can say without a doubt that bringing them into the world was the most momentous and defining set of experiences I’ve ever had,” she reflects. “The day you have your first child is the day you, yourself, really become an adult. It changes how you look at the world, from egocentrism to focusing instead on how you can make things better for that person. You put them first always.

Lots of other moments in life are a big deal, like leaving home to go to college, or getting married, or losing a 28

parent. But having children is the biggest deal.”

Brianna decided to quit her job to stay home with her kids—something that was incredibly important to her. Yet while the time spent at home with them was precious, it could also grow boring and mind-numbing.

When she began tallying up the energy savings garnered from not using the dryer for a month, she knew she needed to find something else to engage her mind. By that time the Bowlings had moved back to rural Maryland, and there wasn’t a lot she could do on their remote farm with two children in diapers, but Dan had taken a job for a printing company that needed word documents converted into HTML—a novel task at the time.

It was something Brianna could do at night after the kids went to bed, so she checked out a book from the library and taught herself HTML coding.

Aside from working as a computer lab monitor in college, it was the first tech-related task Brianna had engaged in, but she was a natural. Work flowed in steadily, to the point that she was staying up most of the night to finish it, and Goucher hired her to teach a class on HTML. One of her students happened to be a dentist in need of a website, and Brianna was hired to complete that project. Thanks to the tight-knit nature of the dentist community, she became the hot name in dentist web design, bringing in enough work that she hired her sister on as her first employee.

Dan, a quiet, technically-skilled entrepreneur who was working for Booz Allen at that point, saw tremendous opportunity in government contracting work, specifically in a Request for Proposals put out by the Naval Support Facility in Dahlgren, Virginia. He wanted to quit his job to go after that contract, but with a mortgage and two young children to feed, Brianna wouldn’t allow it until they were on stronger financial ground. She began pursuing more work, but it was the Department of Justice contract attained in 1999 through the grilled cheese business meeting that ultimately made the game-changing difference. They finally had enough stability for Dan to join Zekiah full-time, and they still have that same contract today.

Zekiah did win the Dahlgren contract Dan had set his sights on, allowing the Bowlings to hire two additional partners. The new team members brought a slew of rich expertise and more employees, spurring the company’s evolution into the 30-person, $4 million company it is today. Brianna remains the majority owner with three partners, and in 2013 she brought onboard a COO that could help fill in many of her blind spots. In 2015, she started a Board of Advisors for the same reason. “Aside from working for Jim Davis for a year and a half, I had no corporate knowledge when I started off,” she recounts. “I’m really good at surrounding myself with incredibly bright people and the partners and team members I’ve brought on over the years have lent a ton of specialized knowledge and connections to make Zekiah exceptional. The company couldn’t have grown without them, and now we’re all deeply invested in its future.”

Profiles in Success: Inspiration from Executive Leaders in the Washington D.C. Area — Volume 11

Some of Brianna’s team members have been with the company for over a decade, and her commitment to their well-being is a major driving force behind her will to succeed. “They’re good people—the best of the best— both in their technical skills and in their character as people,” she says. “They have great morals and work ethic, and I feel I owe them so much. They’re my family.

When I’m tired and don’t feel like staying up a third night in a row to finish a proposal, I think of them and find the strength. Zekiah’s success means good lives for the good people that stand with me.”

Indeed, through the school of hard knocks and with the help of a phenomenal team, the accidental CEO became a model leader. In time, the self-taught government cost accounting student was asked to teach classes on the subject. “It helped that I knew how to research and write, but I did a lot of my learning through messing up,” Brianna concedes. “After losing a proposal we should have won, I hired a proposal writing company to teach me how to do it. I wanted the fishing pole, not the fish. In learning how to be a business owner, I wasn’t afraid to throw myself off a cliff and see if I could fly. I’m realistic and I definitely like my data and my spreadsheets, but if you spend too much time analyzing, you can get paralyzed. Often you just have to operate on your gut instincts and what you feel is right.

Making no choice is often worse than making a bad choice, so it’s important to act and learn from the results.”

Today, Zekiah has the majority of its contracts with the Department of Homeland Security and the Navy, specializing in custom software applications and mapping systems. When a large public event takes place, these agencies turn to Zekiah for the lay of the land, both above and below ground. Brianna and her team can map out the sewer systems under a city to develop effective emergency response plans, and they can assess

the ideal location to place a sniper responsible for protecting a public figure. They engineer custom software applications for the Department of Defense, as well as big data used to predict the way various security threats might play out.

Just as Brianna grew up perfectly happily with her modest upbringing, her interest in Zekiah’s success has never been monetary. What matters is the fact that their work makes a difference in the security of the United States, saving lives and serving the nation. “We’re a small, nimble company with the power to actually deliver on our mission and achieve considerable cost savings for our customers, which actually translates into cost savings for taxpayers and the American public,” she says. “Knowing we’re doing a good job for our country is incredibly meaningful to me.”

In advising young people entering the working world today, Brianna underscores the power of hard work. “If you don’t have the education, the tools, or the affirmation you think you need to succeed, you’ll quickly find that working your ass off makes up for a lot,” she affirms. When it comes to her success, she credits Dan for the company Zekiah has become, praising the symbiotic partnership they’ve shared for so many years and the guiding light of his quiet intelligence. “He sees opportunity, and I make it happen,” she explains. “We need each other, there’s no doubt.”

With her belief in her capacity to make things happen, Brianna’s life has followed the can-do course. It’s a road she walked with her parents long ago—two people who weren’t afraid to make something out of nothing, even if that something was just a lean-to out of tree trunks. “I’ve always believed in the mantra, ‘I know how to do everything—I just may not have read the book yet,’” she affirms. “I believe that for everybody. There’s really nothing you can’t do in your life. With hard work and a willingness to teach yourself, you can do it.”

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Profiles in Success: Inspiration from Executive Leaders in the Washington D.C. Area — Volume 11

Guy G. Brami _________________

The Accomplishments that Last In the quiet hour following the passing of his father, Guy Brami and his mother stood side-by-side in the hospital room. When she turned and handed him the ring his father had worn all his life, Guy’s eyes filled with tears. Georges Brami had given rings to Guy’s two older brothers at their Bar Mitzvahs with their initials engraved, just as he and his brothers and his father before him had received rings. But at Guy’s Bar Mitzvah, his father approached him empty-handed. “He told me he wasn’t going to get me a ring because one day he’d give me his own,” Guy remembers today. “We had the same initials, so it worked. That meant more to me than anything, because he was my hero.”

Guy is now a Principal at Gelberg Signs, the fullservice sign design, fabrication, installation and service company his father ran before him. He enjoys the gift of going to work with his brothers and business partners— Jean-Luc and Neil—each morning, and at the end of the day, he’s grateful to return home to his wife and two children. “For me, it always comes back to family,” he says. “No matter what kind of day I’m having, they’re always the best part. The joy I get from my family is why I do what I do.”

As a family business without a stuffy corporate atmosphere, Gelberg Signs is also the ideal climate for Guy to confront and overcome challenges on a daily basis—a process that has driven him since he was a young, disorganized kid challenged by his mother to clean his room. “In thinking about what makes me tick, I’ve come to realize that I’m addicted to the idea of a challenge that leads to an accomplishment,” he says. “Like my father, I like completing a challenge and feeling a sense of pride afterward, even if it’s as trivial as tackling the dishes after a big family dinner. There’s nothing like wringing the sponge out after you’ve wiped down the last countertop and finished a job well done.”

At the helm of Gelberg Signs, now a 50,000-squarefoot manufacturing plant specializing in metal fabrication, plastics fabrication, and carpentry, as well as full screen, digital, and 3D printing, Guy wears many hats and loves the process of confronting and overcoming the problems people bring to him. While most sign companies generally have large format printing like posters, banners, or vinyl for automobiles, Gelberg has mastered the complexities of sign-fabrication and can truly take a project from conception, to permitting, to project management, to fabrication, to installation and maintenance.

Guy’s work spans the gamut of sign manufacturing to include both interior and exterior signage. He does large building and free-standing identification signs, electronic messaging displays on digital screens for stadiums and hotels, architectural sign packages like room or suite identification, way finding, and custom wall coverings or murals. “If you’re going to display your logo or message, we can build it,” Guy affirms. “We did nearly all the signs for Nationals Stadium; for instance, from the big sign on the side of the stadium to the menu board you order your hot dogs from, to the signs directing you to your seats or the restroom.”

Gelberg Signs now has around a hundred employees, up from forty in 1999 when Georges passed away.

As the largest sign company in Washington, D.C., and one of the largest in the mid-Atlantic region, the company is also a Certified Business Enterprise (CBE), designating it as a local, small, disadvantaged business that pre-qualifies them when applying for contracting opportunities with the D.C. Government. In October of 2010, the President of the United States paid a visit to the facility for a tour and then delivered that month’s jobs report from its grounds. “It was quite an honor to have President Obama address our employees and recognize us as such a notable manufacturing company,” Guy recalls.

Having worked together now for 25 years, Guy and his brothers have gotten to know each other in ways they couldn’t have imagined as kids, and have settled into their sweet spot as a team. Each has a business and marketing degree from the University of Maryland, and each is responsible for business development—the main focus of the oldest brother, Luc. Guy splits his time between business development and the installation and service division, one-off internal special projects, and marketing. Their other brother, Neil, handles the internal production and project managers, and all three come together to run the upper level management of the business.

While Gelberg Signs is now the Brami family business, it wasn’t always. The company was launched in 1941 by William (Bill) P. Gelberg as primarily a display and exhibit company. They did traditional sign painting as well as specialty projects like building floats for parades or constructing exhibits for large associations and trade shows.

Guy’s father and mother, who had grown up in Tunisia as French and Italian citizens respectively, Guy G. Brami

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immigrated to the United States in 1959 after the French pulled out of the country in 1956. In the land of opportunity, Georges Brami took work where he could find it to support his wife and young sons, Luc and an older boy who passed away in 1966. The language barrier was a challenge, but fortunately, his sister had married an American doctor who happened to have Bill Gelberg as a patient. Bill mentioned he was looking for hard workers for his small family business, and he knew Georges had managed the legal affairs of his family’s textile business back in Tunisia. More importantly, Georges was an avid painter and an artist at heart, and his creativity could serve the company well. Dr. Mugmon connected them, and Georges was hired.

Over time, Georges proved himself, and young Guy watched it happen. As a child, he saw his father rise around five o’clock each morning for work, not to return home until around six o'clock in the evenings. He would be exhausted from a long day but still made time to sit down for dinner with his wife and sons, impressing upon Guy the sacred value of hard work and a closeknit family. “Anyone who knew my father always said the same thing—that he was the most honest person they had ever met,” Guy says. “Clients will tell me now that they remember working with him and what an honest guy he was. In terms of character, integrity, and loyalty, he was a model, and that shaped the three of us.

I’m always measuring myself to the standard he set through those years.”

While Guy’s father was the breadwinner, his mother was the traditional stay-at-home mom. With an unbelievable inner strength, she survived the loss of her firstborn son to leukemia when he was thirteen—a brother Guy never had the opportunity to know.

“Through the tragedy, and as my father worked long hours, my mother carried on the family beautifully,” Guy reflects. “She didn’t let that loss affect her ability to love us and keep us moving forward together. She was a miracle.”

Guy and his brothers grew up in Hillcrest Heights in Prince Georges County. Sports were a big part of his childhood, and when a relative was married to the coach of the Washington Redskins, the family enjoyed the same season tickets year after year. Guy became an Orioles fan and an avid baseball player himself, starting with Boys and Girls Club baseball and then moving on to Babe Ruth baseball, American Legion baseball, and his high school team. Soccer found its way into the mix as well.

For his youngest years, Guy dreamed of becoming an astronaut and then an astronomer. He spent a portion of his childhood with ambitions of becoming a doctor like his uncle, and in high school he had thoughts of being a professional baseball player. Thanks to the example of his father, the idea of work was always something that excited him, and as an eight-year-old too young to have his own paper route, he convinced his brother to get a larger paper route and outsource the extra work to Guy. 32

He delivered papers until he was fourteen, learning how to make tough business decisions like when to cut off a customer that wasn’t paying. Later, Guy got a job at a pet store, bagging food and changing water in fish tanks until he was old enough to get a job at a Hechts department store. At sixteen, he started picking up summer work at his father’s facility when they had big projects, sweeping up the shop or actually making the signs. Still, he never imagined he might be involved in the business later in life.

Through his early work experiences and at school, Guy loved interacting with people and getting a sense of what makes them tick. A self-confessed geek, he gravitated to science and yearned to understand time, space, the cosmos, and the history of mankind. He was also especially moved by a high school teacher who taught like a college professor, engaging students in an open dialogue lecture that allowed the kids’ questions to shape the discussion. “It was the first time in a school situation that I was really blown away by how the teacher taught the class,” he remembers. “I always wanted to raise my hand and dig into why a given historical event took place.”

Computers were the hot topic of the time when Guy graduated from high school in 1985, and when he started college at the University of Maryland that fall, he decided to pursue a major in computer science. It only took one month of coursework, however, for him to realize that the field was simply not his thing. When he switched his major to business, everything seemed to click—an affinity echoed in the part-time jobs he picked up knocking on doors and generating leads for a home improvement company and manning the drive-thru window at a beer, wine, and liquor store.

“I learned that I really enjoy interacting with people,” he remembers of his college years. “My colleagues would point out how much easier it was for me to just knock on any door, strike up a conversation with the person who answered, and land a lead. Sales came naturally to me, and when the professor of my marketing capstone class told us our first job out of school would most likely be in sales, I knew I was on a path that fit my strengths.”

His professor proved correct when Guy landed a position with Encyclopedia Britannica shortly after graduation. Every new hire at the organization was required to undergo a six-month training program, and Guy was formally schooled in everything from sales, to giving presentations, to overcoming objections and obstacles. “Because of the training I received there, I think of that job as one of the best things that ever happened to me,” he affirms. “And through the three years I worked there, I conversed with people of all types and backgrounds, coming to understand what makes them tick and the psychology behind decision making. I saw what people go through before they can say yes, and how I could make them more comfortable through that process and happier in the aftermath. It was a great experience, and I’ve fallen back on what I learned there

Profiles in Success: Inspiration from Executive Leaders in the Washington D.C. Area — Volume 11

countless times throughout my career.”

Just as Guy was embarking on his first job out of college, his father sealed a deal that would change the course of the Brami family forever. Bill Gelberg had passed away of a heart attack in 1977, leaving the company to his son, an architect running a firm in New York. Georges had worked his way up to Vice President of the company, running the facility and managing their major account with Marriott Corporation, so he naturally stepped into the role of President. He continued running the business through 1988, when it was sold to an investment firm looking for a manufacturing business.

Soon after Gelberg Signs was acquired, however, the investment firm decided to go in another direction, and Georges and his sons were struck with the idea of offering to buy the company. They were able to secure a loan through his good relationship with the bank, and the offer was accepted in 1989. Neil had been working with the company, Luc immediately joined, and in 1991, Guy followed suit.

The opportunity to go to work with his father every day for ten years was a blessing Guy was grateful for in the moment, and treasures even more in retrospect. “By the time I was born, my father was 47 and had accrued a lifetime of wisdom,” Guy says. “Because of that, he taught me things in a much different way than he would have if I had been born when he was younger, and I think that was a huge benefit for me. It was fundamental in shaping who I am and my character, both personally and in business through my twenties. It was incredible to get to spend that time together.”

Guy’s mother and father were together for over forty years, exuding a dedication, loyalty, and sincere appreciation for one another that helps guide Guy’s marriage today. “Michelle is incredibly smart and savvy,” he says of his wife of fifteen years. “If I have a problem, she’s always the first one I take it to, and she usually has the right answer. I always tell my kids that if they hit a home run, they got that from me, but if they come home with straight A’s, they got that from her.”

Michelle had a fifteen-year career at Lockheed Martin and now works as a financial analyst for a federal security agency, all while making the time to be there for their two children as they grow up.

Now, as a leader at Gelberg Signs, Guy channels his love of people and understanding of human nature into his leadership philosophy by keeping his door open to

employees who want to talk and his mind open to anyone who has ideas. “I try to go into every situation and problem ready to listen,” he says. “Our employees have great ideas, and there are many people who know more than I do, so we focus on always being open. I would describe my leadership style as malleable, looking for best practices, advice, and insight. In turn, people listen to me because I’m open and they know I’ll incorporate what they have to offer into decisions that are made.

The answer doesn’t have to be my idea, and people respect that.”

In advising young people entering the working world today, Guy reminds us that expertise takes time and diligence. “Young people want to get there fast, and there are ways to do that in this economy, but putting in the time pays off for long-term success and development,” he says. “If you decide you want to be an expert on something or be successful, you just have to have determination and put in the hard work to get there, and you will.” Guy has a special place in his heart for Covenant House Washington, an organization serving homeless, disconnected, and exploited young people throughout the D.C. area as they work to get their feet on the ground. Gelberg Signs welcomed a group of twelve young interns from the Covenant House workforce development program in 2008, building close bonds with the kids as they put in the work to change their lives. Guy is now chairman of the board at Covenant House, upholding the organization’s holistic approach to ending youth homelessness.

Covenant House helps young people achieve change in their lives that is tangible and real—the kind of achievement Guy lives for. It’s a victory that’s solid, just as one can walk down the streets of D.C. and point out hundreds of his company’s projects. Visual, concrete, they’re the kind of accomplishments that last. “In Washington, incredible services are performed, but I love that we’re manufacturing things and able to see the tangible evidence of our work,” Guy says. “I love feelings of success that can be measured—like when we put up a sign and hear from the client that they love it, or when a young person at Covenant House can finally afford to get their own place because they’ve landed a job, or when I get to sit around the dinner table with my family in the evenings. If you think about it, everything I love about my life now is the tangible accomplishment of the hours my father put in to give us a family business. We’re his living, breathing successes, and that means a lot.”

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Profiles in Success: Inspiration from Executive Leaders in the Washington D.C. Area — Volume 11

Katie Crotty _________________

Say Yes Long before Katie Crotty served in the Iraq surge, and even longer before she founded her own company, her worldview was shaped by the mantra held sacred by her father. “He told me to say no to drugs, but say yes to everything else,” she smiles. When he was working as a military doctor, he was asked if he wanted to go to flight school to double as the team’s helicopter pilot on a mission to Central America. “He told me he had no business doing that, but he said yes anyway,” Katie explains. “In learning how to fly, he also learned the value and the joy that comes from succeeding in situations that seem frightening at first.”

Katie’s parents would tell her other stories of opportunities that had come to them through life— opportunities they may not have wanted at first, but which always proved to be characterdefining experiences. “My parents encouraged me to push myself outside my comfort zone, and I’m a very experientially-driven person because of that,” she says. “So much of life can surprise and delight you if you give it a chance. Saying yes is the most important thing we can do.”

Katie’s mother is the embodiment of this philosophy. “Growing up, life was never about the things we owned,” Katie recalls. “It was about experiences we shared.” Their home never held a lot of presents, and to this day, Katie and her brothers’ spouses wryly joke about how unceremoniously her family treats traditional gift-giving affairs like birthdays and Christmases. Instead of big festivities, Katie remembers January, when flights were cheap and the family would travel somewhere together. The tradeoff was material gifts for the world. “My mother wanted to experience everything, and because of that, there was nothing that didn’t hold wonder in my childhood,” she says. “My upbringing taught me how experiences make you a better person. Ultimately, they challenge you to be the best part of yourself by seeing the goodness that other people bring to the world. I try to think of that on a daily basis, and on hard days, I challenge myself to engage life fully. Saying yes makes you truly purposeful with your life.”

Purpose. Drive. Determination. Confidence. These are the things a business owner, entrepreneur, and leader owe her employees and clients, and when they are imparted, great things happen. Praescient Analytics (Praescient), a big data analytics consultancy that works to solve problems for both commercial and government

clients, is one of those things, and Katie Crotty is one of those business owners, entrepreneurs, and leaders. With courage and conviction, she seeks to bring passion and purpose to each person at her company, from the highest-ranking leadership to entry-level team members. “I truly believe that what we do is changing the world, and it’s my job to convey that depth of conviction to my employees and clients,” she says. “At the end of the day, I’m doing my job well if my team is proud; because we know what we do is meaningful.”

Katie formed Praescient in 2011 with her cofounder and partner, Yvonne Soto. With its team of tech-savvy analysts and mission-savvy engineers, the company works with clients to combat fraud, investigate crime, and run intelligence operations around the globe. They ensure national security not only through defense operations, but also through protection of the commercial realm, such as ensuring banks are safe places for consumers to store their money. From combating health insurance fraud to putting a stop to human trafficking, their mission is far reaching because they see safety as an interconnected, domain-transcending concept.

“Right after the Paris attacks, some of my analysts identified an ISIL agent and were able to support federal agencies in his apprehension,” Katie reports. “They also helped identify Western Union transactions that linked that terrorist group to a human trafficking operation here in the U.S. In this line of work, you come to see how interconnected these problems are, which makes you really good at seeing them— both down range in Afghanistan, and here working with our commercial counterparts and the very significant role they play in protecting the public.”

An anti-terrorism mission demands the examination of terabytes of data. In this context, one analyst reading a report is no longer relevant. Rather, you need one analyst reading 500,000 reports in an hour—something that cannot be done without technology. “We help the fight because we know the ins and outs of how to maximize the use of technology,” Katie affirms. “Back when I was conducting intelligence operations in the military, we were only trained to use a fraction of the capabilities available to us. Today, empowering our clients to maximize the power of data and tech is where we provide value. It’s about using tools smarter and gaining the capabilities to differentiate between a typical anomaly and a vital trend.”

Katie Crotty

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With this mission, Praescient is a services company, living and dying through the strength of its remarkable team. Yet in 2013, one of its primary clients was charged with a mandate to shift its spending away from services.

As a result, Katie was faced with the devastating task of letting almost fifty people go within only a few hours’ notice. People she considered colleagues, friends, and family—people who had helped build the company side-by-side with her—were forced to walk out the door that day.

When asked how the company survived, Katie responds plainly, “Determination and confidence is the key. And belief. As a leader, you need to believe that you and your team can persevere. If not, they will know it. If you have doubt, you need to figure out what's causing it and solve it quickly, because it will show.” Katie believes the drawdown posed a unique challenge for her employees and leaders alike, forcing them to evaluate themselves in times of great challenge. “You have to understand yourself—what you can take, what your breaking point is, and how to come back from it,” she says.

Shortly after the drawdown, Katie suffered a midterm, stress-induced miscarriage that required surgery.

Days after the operation, in the middle of a conference room with a contentious client, she started to silently cry. “I couldn't help it,” she recounts. “I had a momentary loss of perspective when I thought I had sacrificed literally everything for nothing. But I breathed deep. I concentrated on regaining control. And I wiped my face, smiled, and said that we would take their constructive notes and come back with a detailed plan that we could execute on together. Perspective. Define it. Keep it close. It provides you purpose and you owe it to everyone who works with you to be that bastion, even when you are at your very worst.”

Today, Praescient is a company of 70 people. Katie couldn’t be more proud of her team, and she credits their success today as a direct outcome of how Praescient handled this crisis. And despite the heartbreak, Katie was unwavering in her belief that they would be successful, ultimately emerging stronger and better aligned than they were before.

“That experience redefined us as an organization, but it was an incredibly important test of our capacity to keep perspective,” Katie says. “You have to live and breathe your sense of purpose. As a business owner, your perspective is what defines how others view your company. Especially in character-defining moments, you have to believe in what you’re doing and the sacrifices it entails. Incredibly difficult decisions will have to be made. Waiting to make them will not change the ultimate truth that they will have to be made. Do it.

Move on. Don't look back.”

Katie has always had a strong sense of service and conviction. And while she credits her father for her strong patriotism and quirky humor, she believes she ended up being a Founder and CEO before age thirty due to her mother. “From an entrepreneurial stand36

point, my mother taught me that you can be anything you want to be and that it’s okay if your dream evolves, because we do as humans,” Katie reflects. Among many things, her mother was a social sciences teacher, storm chaser, and serial business owner. “She taught me that you are the only one who can define what success means for you—that it’s not an all-in-one endeavor.

You define what a successful marriage, mother, businessperson, or entrepreneur looks like. Whatever you choose, live the hell out of it.”

As a military family, Katie called Kentucky, California, Louisiana, and Washington home, all before she entered the third grade. In Seattle, her mother attended a PTA meeting where the school explained how to look for heroin track marks on their children’s arms, as a fifth grader had been caught pedaling the drug to younger children on school property. With that, Katie’s mother set the wheels in motion to quit her job as a partner at a successful real estate firm, and her father transitioned out of the Army. They settled in a small town in eastern Washington, where Katie’s father set up a dermatology practice and her mother stayed home.

“There was absolutely nothing my parents wouldn’t have done to protect my brother and me,” Katie reflects proudly. “That was a defining moment for our childhood.”

Growing up on a fifteen-acre farm in a small town felt both limitless and limited. With an orchard, a garden, and countless animals, work was an integral part of Katie’s upbringing. Every Sunday morning, she was up working with her family at 6:00 AM. They would break for lunch at noon and then finish their tasks, which often consisted of digging an elaborate set of irrigation tunnels across their property or other characterdefining chores. At three in the afternoon, they’d end the workday and go to the dollar-fifty movie theater together, or spend the rest of the day playing cards. “I’m incredibly thankful for the structure and values I got from that,” she reflects. “We’re such a hard-nosed, sarcastic family. You didn’t come to our house to talk Aristotle or receive relationship advice, but I couldn’t have wished for a better home. We aspired to work hard and create joy.”

Katie loved school and is a self-proclaimed nerd. She was called to the principal’s office only to take new kids on tours—save for one time when she and a good friend were intentionally late to class three days in a row to incur a detention, just to see what it was like. Curious and determined, she had a strong work ethic that earned her a 3.9 GPA, even as she was an avid athlete playing softball, basketball, and volleyball year-round.

“Sports taught me a lot about team dynamics and how you can’t accomplish anything alone,” she says. “I’m also very grateful to my mother, who came to every single game. I didn’t think twice about it as a child, but now as a mother, juggling life’s many priorities, I am awe-struck by her sacrifices. It was a founding-block for the confidence I have today.”

Katie was social in high school and had genuine af-

Profiles in Success: Inspiration from Executive Leaders in the Washington D.C. Area — Volume 11

fection for every member of her 54-student class. With solid friends and an inclusive community, she also benefited from observing the beautiful relationship her parents shared—a model love that she and her husband emulate today. “My parents were unwaveringly unified,” she says. “Even as a teenager, trying to find cracks in foundations to exploit in order to get my way, I remember admiring that strength. Their infatuation with one another was, and remains, so entirely beautiful.”

They taught Katie how to look past what a person says to understand what they mean and why. “Those lessons not only made me a better wife and mother, but a better analyst and leader,” Katie says.

She was also profoundly inspired by her mother’s belief that it was important to understand the world outside their town—an idea that compelled her to serve as the regional coordinator for the Association of International Students. Through the cultural exchange program, Katie’s mother placed foreign students with American families, and Katie’s own family hosted numerous students across the span of her childhood. This constant exposure to other cultures and beliefs was captivating, and Katie’s brother spent six months living in Brazil during his junior year of high school. Katie was so excited to see the world herself that she applied when she was fifteen, and she wanted to be gone for a whole year.

Katie was in charge of helping fund her own experience, so she applied for jobs all over town, landing a position at the TCBY frozen yogurt shop. She spent every possible moment working, saving up enough money to pay for a year-long cultural exchange program in Italy. She left when she was sixteen and was placed with an Iranian family—a time of growth, adventure, and developing close relationships with new people. “I’m so grateful that my parents raised me to have the strength and fortitude to live in a strange place, speaking a language that was foreign to me,” she says.

“Talking about adventures and living them are different endeavors, and my life views changed dramatically over that year abroad—for eventual betterment, but not without its certain hiccups.”

When she returned home for her last year of high school, Katie was audacious and independent. “Although I didn’t go to the principal’s office before Italy, I certainly spent a lot of time grounded by my parents once I returned!” she laughs now. In Italy, Katie lived very independently. She thought she had done it all and was all grown up. In truth, she was a teenager who had experienced some incredible things that, hopefully, would transform into wisdom one day to serve her well in the future. “Years later, in college and living on Top Ramen because I didn’t budget well enough until my next scholarship stipend came, I realized my audacity as a teenager to believe that I was independent in high school under my parents’ care,” she says. She called her mother that day, with two dollars in her pocket, and told her she would dedicate the rest of her life to making up for her senior year and all the trials she put her

mother through.

As for her final year in high school, Katie knew she wanted to join the Army, but she struggled over whether to enlist immediately or pursue an ROTC scholarship, doubling her commitment from four to eight years. “I asked my parents what I should do, but they told me the decision was mine to make,” she recalls. “My parents fervently believed that the role of a parent, aside from showing unconditional love, was to ensure I became an independent, capable person who could make educated decisions.”

Katie earned a full-ride ROTC scholarship to the University of Washington. “In retrospect, the consequences of that decision were huge,” she says. “I’m glad my parents raised me well enough to understand that the long-haul eight-year commitment was the right decision for me.”

With that, Katie started her journey in earnest, embarking on four years of rolling out of bed at 5:00 AM to do physical fitness before class. She remembers the atmosphere as supportive yet challenging. “You had to show up, give your all, and consistently prove yourself,” she recalls. “If you didn’t get the grades and pass the physical fitness test every month for four straight years, you could fail out of the program.” Fortunately, Katie’s work ethic and capabilities were exemplary, earning her the Palace Athene Award for the top cadet in the Western U.S. “I’m my hardest critic, and I believe that if I’m going to commit to something, I owe it to myself and to that organization to be the best I can be,” she affirms. “I push myself very hard and enjoyed that challenge. I wanted to learn it all and be the best at it, because I knew that the day I pinned on my second lieutenant rank, I would be given twenty to thirty people to lead. I owed it to them.”

Through it all, Katie grew closer and closer to Rob Crotty, whom she had met on the first day of orientation during her freshman year. He was an English major in creative writing and the lead singer in a band and after becoming friends, the two fell in love. Rob joined ROTC during their junior year. They shared a passion for foreign diplomacy, histories, cultures, and languages, and were both drawn to futures in military intelligence.

Katie and Rob graduated in 2004 and were fortunate enough to go on to military intelligence training together in Arizona. Katie was excited to see where in the world she would be stationed next, but as luck would have it, she wound up a short 35 minutes from the University of Washington at Fort Lewis. She spent a year and a half there while Rob was a reservist, writing for various travel publications and penning his first book.

“He’s my Hemingway,” Katie says fondly, her pride in him ever-present as she beams about his achievements.

Katie and Rob married, and when Katie was deployed in 2007, Rob volunteered for deployment. They were deployed downrange in Iraq, with Rob working the human intelligence side while Katie was responsible for catching the threats. Fulfilling their two different yet Katie Crotty

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complementary roles, they were apart for two years.

As an Army military intelligence officer in a unit supporting the Iraq surge, Katie was downrange for over fifteen months in a new operating space fighting a brand new enemy. Their young team had no preconceptions of Cold War tactics, free from the weight of old thinking and theory. Instead, they went into the experience asking themselves, how would human beings react and behave? “Our un-indoctrinated ignorance proved a unique strength of ours,” Katie reflects. “And we made up for our inexperience with lots of dedication and passion.”

Because the U.S. was emerging from a peaceful state, forays like Katie’s marked the first chance beltway firms had to test the utilization of various tools in a combat environment. Katie and her team were thus equipped with a lot of new technologies, but very little training on how to employ them. It took grit, smarts, and a lot of trial and error to learn the tools on the fly. “Without the technology, my analysts would have been able to process only a fraction of the information coming at us,” Katie remembers. “Thanks to some key breakthroughs, we were able to identify threats in new ways, and thanks to our tremendous operators, the missions arising from that information were executed successfully. Together, we accomplished something that had not been achieved in theater yet at that point, decreasing enemy operations in our area by over 80 percent. That deployment was hard and heartbreaking, but also character defining. It showed me the combined power of technology and people, which is what Praescient is built around today.”

Thanks to their success, Katie’s unit was tasked with overseeing the Diyala Region at large, an area fifteen times the size of their original terrain. They worked to stymie weapons and suicide bombers coming in from neighboring countries, and by the time their tour was over, they became the smallest unit to receive the highest award given by the National Security Agency.

Once Katie and Rob returned from deployment, Katie was faced with the tough decision of how best to serve her country from then on. She received a rare Vice Presidential Exception to Policy, allowing her to serve in a military role otherwise restricted to only men. Thanks to the Exception, she was permitted to be an intelligence officer serving in an infantry unit, providing unit intelligence and joining operations to capture the people she identified. Katie perceived this as the greatest honor she could have received in the military. She also knew that, in accepting the position, she would deploy again in six months’ time, departing again from a husband she had seen for only 18 days in two years.

Katie loved military service, but she yearned for an opportunity to improve upon the experience she had had downrange in Iraq. She dreamed of hand-selecting teams and technologies to provide mentorship to entities in those situations, affording the training she wished she had had while in theater herself. “Decreasing enemy operations by 80 percent was phenomenal, but what if we could have achieved 99 percent?” she poses.

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“With this goal, I decided to transition out of the military and move from Washington state to Washington, D.C.” Katie and Rob loaded everything they owned in the back of their car and drove across the country, to a city where they had no home and no jobs. Katie interviewed around town and was offered positions as the Afghanistan and Pakistan intelligence lead at the Pentagon, as the Intelligence Chief for Iraq, and with a counter narcotics mission across the Caribbean with the Drug Enforcement Agency. When she was invited to breakfast with Guy Filippelli, however, the path of her future trajectory changed.

Guy, a former Army officer who had done extensive work developing the NSA’s cyber doctrine, had heard about Katie through his work with the NSA. At that time, he was engaged in building a pioneering systems engineering firm called Berico. He didn’t know the exact arc of his company yet, and he didn’t have a job title to offer Katie, but he reasoned that if she had been willing to transition out of the clear she had been on in the military, she wasn’t doing it to walk back into the kinds of jobs she’d been offered before. “I can guarantee you that Berico is going to be different,” he said. “Come help me build a company.”

Katie remembers it being such a unique pitch, starting as coffee ending in this completely unconventional job offer. “But he was right,” she recounts. “I hadn’t sacrificed a future I would have been proud living if it weren’t that I believed I could offer more. So I said yes.”

At Berico, Katie had the opportunity to learn business and entrepreneurship inside and out, mastering the art and science of laying a strong foundation for a company. She saw how a company’s finance, legal, recruiting, and HR departments had to be top-notch in order for everything else to run smoothly. She recruited Yvonne Soto, a savvy businesswoman who quickly picked up military culture, and transitioned over to business development, growing the company from 30 to 180 employees. Once she had that down, she wanted to learn program management of distinct, high-end work, and took over management of the company’s intelligence capabilities across agencies. Katie ultimately became VP of Consulting, playing a key leadership role in a multiple-contract business unit worth over $11 million.

After a magnificent three-year run, Katie’s final request of Guy was to spin out a small team of intelligence analysts to start her own company. With Yvonne as her partner, Katie thus launched Praescient—a bold venture that Katie has led through example from its very first month, when she traveled to Afghanistan to work alongside her analysts there. “It’s not my company, it’s our company,” Katie says, of the whole Praescient team.

“My people make me better every single day, and I hope I challenge them in the same way, because I believe that we are building something truly amazing together. We provide service to organizations that are bettering the world, and I can’t tell you how honored I am to under

Profiles in Success: Inspiration from Executive Leaders in the Washington D.C. Area — Volume 11

take that mission with such an excellent team.”

Beyond the intelligence support it provides all over the world, Praescient’s mission of betterment is also as immediate, interpersonal, and local as it can get. In 2013, the company was recognized as one of the top small businesses in the nation in its commitment to hiring veterans, highlighted by the U.S. Chamber of Commerce Foundation’s Hiring Our Heroes initiative with SpikeTV. “Anyone who’s transitioned from the military understands the very real internal conflict you feel about leaving your team,” Katie says. “Praescient is a safe haven for veterans going through that, helping to show that there is life after military service. Seventy percent of our company is veterans, and we’ve built a community around supporting them in their new mission. That’s very important to us.”

Taken together, Katie’s mission through Praescient serves something greater than herself—a purpose that provides ultimate meaning and fuels her through many months spent away from her husband and children.

After military service, Rob became a diplomat with the State Department, and when Katie decided to launch the company, he was sent to Bolivia for two years. He came home to an eight-month-old son, and when Katie was pregnant with their first daughter, he was serving in Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam. At present, both children live there with their father. “There’s a twelve-hour time difference, so when I go to bed at night, I use Facetime and Skype to kiss my children awake in the morning,” Katie says. “It’s incredibly challenging, but we’re able to do it because of the unwavering sense of purpose we have. I believe wholeheartedly that Rob is designed for his job and is making the world a better place through what he’s doing, as I am. We make the personal sacrifice for something greater than ourselves.”

In advising young people entering the working world today, Katie refers to a study that shows how individuals are deeply influenced by the five people closest to them. Her closest friends are comprised of a Diplo

mat, a Silicon Valley business couple, the general manager of a brewery, the Peace Corps/American University Accessions Head, and a veteran who went back to college to make a dramatic shift from military work. Each of them brings something very unique—perspectives she would not achieve alone. “I don’t always agree with their insights, but they always grow from them as a person,” she says. “I aspire to become the combination of the devout father, dogged businessman, and charismatic public figure, and to have the unwavering courage it takes to both know what you want and have the guts to pursue it—all things I see in my friends. If you want to be better, smarter, and more successful in life, choose your five people with care. I’m very grateful for mine.”

Katie also underscores the importance of audacity and hard work. “If you work incredibly hard and learn how to be good at what you do, then good will come,” she says. “It may not take you directly down the path you thought you’d take, but if you suck the marrow out of every opportunity that comes your way, you’ll get somewhere—and, more importantly, become someone—you want to be.”

Indeed, we are all born with certain variables, and pursue other variables through life that add height and depth to the fundamental building blocks of our story.

But in the end, our life isn’t about those pieces—it’s about the purpose. In aspiring to purpose, Katie’s narrative transcends discrete identifiers like woman, veteran, or entrepreneur. “None of these factors were ever beginnings or endings for me,” she says. “From the time I was a child, I wanted to solve problems. I was passionate about putting my skill set where I could help the most, and through a strong desire to learn and overcome challenges, I am where I am today. It’s hard work, unwavering vision, and a commitment to say yes for the greater good, even if it means personal sacrifice. Regardless of who you talk to, it’s a story you hear again and again. This is my version.”

Katie Crotty

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Profiles in Success: Inspiration from Executive Leaders in the Washington D.C. Area — Volume 11

Matthew Dean _________________

Designing Your Destiny Throughout grade school, Matthew Dean had always excelled effortlessly at mathematics. One can thus imagine his surprise and horror when his ninth grade math teacher recommended him for the second best math class instead of the best. High school had raised the bar somewhat in terms of demand and standards, and the boy’s diligence had not yet escalated along with it. Though the packs of football pencils given out as prizes for elementary school math competitions were a thing of the past, Matt found a brand new source of motivation—his own willpower, and his own destiny.

Determined, he asked Mr. Burns what he could do to maintain his status in the highest class. “You must ace the second half of this school year,” the teacher said.

Matt rose to the challenge and excelled with flying colors, and true to his word, Mr. Burns changed his recommendation.

From this experience, Matt drew so much more than just a renewed drive for math, which carried him through to receive his master’s degree in engineering later on. Beyond the specific skill, the challenge cemented in him something he had always known in his soul but hadn’t actually firmed into a concrete guiding principle. “Nobody’s going to give you anything or carry you. You’ve got to get out there and do it yourself,” he confirms. “Putting in hard work pays off, and will change your life in ways you can’t imagine.” Now the President and CEO of Markon Solutions, a government contracting and consulting company specializing in facilities management and engineering services, Matt could not have gotten to where he is today without this revolutionizing conviction in personal agency.

Markon is a spinoff of MKI Systems, which has since been purchased by L-3’s Command & Control Systems and Software (C2S2) Division. Matt assumed employment at MKI, a full-service professional organization focusing in the needs of the Marine Corps, in 2005 to help diversify the company into the intelligence community market. He started his division as a one-man show which grew to nine team members by 2007 when L-3 decided to purchase the enterprise. The new ownership wasn’t interested in an intelligence division, and Matt was not interested in the new ownership, so Markon was born.

When they first spun off, they specialized in providing consultant services to the intelligence community

and were earning less than $1 million in revenues. “I didn’t have a long-term vision of what the company should look like or how big it should get,” Matt explains. “I just aimed to keep taking that next step to become a little better each month.”

In the beginning, hiring just one additional employee meant a substantial increase in the company’s size, and was thus heralded as a big success. By the time they reached 18 employees, however, Matt decided to take a more active approach to shaping the company’s future.

“We asked ourselves, what does reaching for the stars look like?” he recalls. “A one-hundred-person company was a stretch, but we set our sights on that, calling it MARKON 100. We envisioned what that kind of firm would look like in terms of software, support people, office space, investments, training, internal R&D, and strategy.” Matt sought out CEOs of larger companies to get their advice and joined Vistage International, a coaching group for CEOs. By 2010, they had grown to around forty employees and amplified revenues to $7 million, fanning out across industries through the translatability of their knowledge base. Then, in 2013, MARKON 100 became a reality.

Even before the goal was met, Matt and his team set their sights on the next big milestone, this time set at annual revenues of $40 million. Again, they developed a concrete vision of what that kind of a company looks like and began aligning all decisions and efforts toward that vision. “I openly speak to all our employees about this goal because it’s important that they understand the context of their work,” he explains. “And we realize we’re not a 15-person company anymore. We have more avenues available to us to meet our goal, like joint ventures, prime and sub-prime relationships, government-wide contract vehicles, and options for selling different products. It’s a ‘shoot for the moon’ approach, and we’re excited about where we’ll land.”

Today, in addition to the intelligence community, Markon serves the State Department, the Department of Defense, the Veterans Administration, and the D.C. Courts. 70 percent of their revenue is derived through facilities, project management, and engineering-related services. Being the professional services company that it is, Markon essentially sells time and manpower to federal government organizations with the goal of Matthew Dean

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improving functionality through the use of professional resources. The feature tool in this arsenal is project management, and Markon’s ability to capture key processes and replicate them across subjects has played a vital role in its success. “Our business model has been to serve across government agencies because our method is translatable,” Matt explains. “The Army, Marine Corps, CIA, DIA, DNI, etcetera—the same types of skills are valuable across all these markets.”

Markon’s real value lies not in its method, however, but in its matter. “It’s truly our people and culture that set us apart,” he affirms. “Just like our goals, our core values underlie every decision we make. We take initiative. We lead with humility. We put corporate integrity before personal gain. Respect for our partners, clients, and employees. We are driven by who we are at our core just as much as we’re driven by where we want to take this company.”

The fascinating thing about Matt’s success is that it doesn’t stem from outside influence, but rather from a strong internal focus of control that marked his comportment even at an early age. From his father, he learned a strong work ethic, and from his mother, he learned an equally strong dedication to family.

Throughout his youth, he doesn’t remember being pushed or micromanaged when it came to academics or athletics. It was always expected that he and his three brothers should maintain good grades and attend college, but his parents, who divorced when he was ten, did not actively talk about the future. Matt’s mother had chosen to focus on her family and her children instead of pursuing her career, and this fact serves as a strong source of motivation in his life and work today. “My mom chose not to take her career into her own hands as a sacrifice for us kids,” he remarks. “If I don’t take full advantage of the opportunities in my life, I’m wasting what she gave me.”

Matt was eight years old when he first experienced failure and, conversely, resilience. He was cut from the travel soccer team, relegated to the ranks of the lessthan-stellar athletes of his town’s intramural league. To motivate his heartbroken son, his father offered him a dollar for every goal he scored through the season. In his first game, his team won seven to nothing, and Matt scored all seven goals, setting a precedent for the successful season to come. At the end, the coach of the travel team told him he had made a mistake in cutting Matt. “I was proud that I still tried hard, even when things weren’t going my way,” he recalls. “I got mad, and then I used that anger for motivation to get better.”

Matt’s large high school had only a varsity soccer team, so the odds of making it were extremely slim, but after his failure as a young boy, he was ready to take his success into his own hands. He had heard that the first two weeks of tryouts consisted entirely of running, so the summer before his ninth grade year, he charted out a course through his town. As the same milestones flew by each day—the corner store, a telephone pole, a street sign—he pushed himself faster and faster. By the time 42

fall rolled around, he was in such great shape that he beat the odds and made the team. “It taught me a lesson I tell my kids, my colleagues, my friends now,” he says.

“Hard work doesn’t always have an immediate payoff, but it always pays off. It’s worth doing. I decided it needed to be done, so I did it.”

After starting college at Virginia Tech, Matt acquired a job in database building assistance at the World Bank’s Facilities Group. “I wore a shirt and tie to work for the first time,” he remembers. “It was my first chance to experience a real office job.” When he graduated in 1991 with an Industrial Engineering Degree, he found the job market somewhat barren. After a slew of interviews, he was finally offered a government position with the Department of the Navy as a program analyst in a cost analysis shop. In this capacity, he served to assist different Navy programs in mapping out current costs and predicting future expenses. This was essentially his entrance into the government acquisition and support world while also giving him first-hand training in the client service environment as he worked to develop relationships with different customers.

Though he would receive frequent accolades on his performance excellence, Matt was barred from promotion because he didn’t have seniority, and he was turned off by the lack of control over one’s own destiny that the atmosphere engendered. Not only had he reached the kind of dead end he had vowed to avoid, but his personal learning and evolution had come to a standstill. “I realized I wasn’t going to be gaining any additional skills after the first five years, and I didn’t like the resigned attitude that the system is the system,” he recalls.

“Realistically, I knew I couldn’t change the system, so my only option was to take my career into my own hands.”

With that, he left to enter the Big Six management consulting world through employment at KPMG Consulting, which became BearingPoint in 2002.

Throughout his nine years of employment there, Matt served as a management consultant in a wide variety of industries. The experience allowed him to see how many skills can be translated to different markets and environments, honing his insight for his later leadership with Markon. BearingPoint’s decrescendo commenced in the early 2000’s with its transition from a partnership model to a public company model. Aware of the writing on the wall, Matt left for MKI Systems in 2005 before BearingPoint’s collapse and eventual merger with Deloitte Consulting.

When Matt decided to take the path of small business ownership, his wife, Jennifer, supported him every step of the way. The couple has been married since 1991, and her trust and confidence underscore Matt’s own sense of certainty in business. “She’s very passionate about being principled with the right things in life, and that’s certainly influenced the decisions I’ve made at Markon,” he avows. “She keeps me very morally grounded.”

To most people, the entrepreneurial leap of buying

Profiles in Success: Inspiration from Executive Leaders in the Washington D.C. Area — Volume 11

Markon may have been a risky move, but to Matt, assuming control over his future in that way was the surest way to mitigate risk. Always driven by his own internal compass and measures of success, he easily recognized Markon as his true north. “I’m not driven by material gain,” Matt affirms. “Money is just an objective way of measuring how well you’re doing. What really inspires me is winning, and success, and creating an atmosphere where others can be successful. The idea of helping other people win and achieve financial security is a big motivator for me.”

Now, as the company’s past performance record and reference list grows, Matt knows it isn’t the services that make Markon unique, but the innovative approach of each employee. “Our clients aren’t buying the advanced degrees of our employees; they come to us because we have the ability to be leaders and solve their problems,” he explains. “For this reason, I stress leadership throughout the company. We have several leadership development programs to help train our people to take leadership roles within the company, and that cultivates a culture of unparalleled integrity. It’s hard to make decisions that impact other people and not be bothered by their reactions. The more practice we can give at all levels of the company to take on leadership roles, the better.” This mindset showcases the forward-thinking philosophy that drives the enterprise—one of interconnected fates and genuine interest in the success of others. “It’s all about the team approach,” Matt explains.

“I truly believe that the best way for me to be more successful is for my employees to enjoy this success too.”

In advising others along this quest for collective success, Matt urges the kind of openness and awareness that has kept him in perpetual evolution over the years,

both personally and professionally. His method echoes what seems to be a current trend in American society toward life-long personal skill strengthening and diversification. “I remember reading an article that explained how, for generations, people thought it was risky to change jobs,” Matt recalls. “But now, at least in our industry, staying in the same job allows your skills to get stale.” So, where his role was once in contracts, security, finance, business development, and recruiting, he has incrementally yet steadily shape-shifted into the strategist and broad-scale leader he serves as today.

It is safe to assume, then, that the future of Matt’s role as President of Markon is far from set or static. In this light, he also emphasizes the crucial part that longterm planning and vision plays in success. “The big thing I’ve learned recently is that I’m in this for the long haul, and my decisions are reflecting this realization,” Matt remarks. “Investment in training, going out of our way to hire good people, getting into new markets even though they may not make money this year—all these are an automatic yes for me now.”

Inherent in this recipe success, however, is a certain fascination and will of character. “Be a sponge. Soak up everything,” Matt insists. It’s how we keep life fresh. It’s how we stave off stagnation, keeping the self on a perpetual journey toward betterment. And it’s how we put our future back in our own hands, molding something truly remarkable and unique from the raw material of status quo.”

Beyond that, he urges young people to seize every opportunity to take on a leadership role. “Leadership is hard,” he says. “You’ll fail, but that’s not a big deal, as long as you absorb the lessons and maintain your confidence. Being a leader takes practice, and the sooner you start, the better leader you’ll be.”

Matthew Dean

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Profiles in Success: Inspiration from Executive Leaders in the Washington D.C. Area — Volume 11

Tom DeWitt _________________

Always a New Day Challenge coins are tokens of narrative, the strongest currency of all. They convey the story of an organization and become the anthem of each individual who makes up the whole. They are passed on from members of the organization to important figures that cross their paths, a tangible representation of stories and meaning being handed from one person to another. They are reminders.

In his pocket, Tom DeWitt carries a challenge coin with the peaks of the Blue Ridge Mountains and the sign of the cardinal, representing Virginia—the state where his company was founded. The mesas and saguaro cactus of Arizona signify the location of the company’s first employee, as well as the idea that its mission spans the nation, coast to coast. At the center of the motif stands the U.S. Capitol building against a rising sun, representing the Aurora Foundation—an organization Tom launched in 2008 to help returning service members pursue their education.

“Taken together, the coin tells the story that no matter where you come from, you have a role to play in the success of our nation,” Tom says today. “If your focus is on maintaining the nation and keeping it strong, there will always be a new day for this country.”

As the cofounder, President and CEO of SNVC, an IT services company, Tom passes this story on to each of his employees, initiating them into the narrative of nation building. “I want them to understand that the nation we have today didn’t just happen,” he affirms. “People have been working on it since Jamestown, and they have to keep working on it if they want our freedoms and society to continue. As a part of SNVC, we’re all actively part of that idea. We make sure there’s always a new day to come.”

Tom and his partner founded SNVC on a hot June day in 1998, operating out of a house in Arlington, Virginia. Their first order of business was installing an air conditioning unit in the front room window, and they accidentally sent it falling through the window, landing in the dirt below. They looked at each other and said, “We hope this isn’t representative of what’s to come.”

In his previous work, Tom’s partner had installed data communications circuits in U.S. embassies around the world, where he’d routinely run into top secret U.S. operatives wielding cool, mysterious technology. When asked about the technology, they would always say dismissively, “Oh, don’t worry about this. Some small Northern Virginia company made it.” Tom and his partner envisioned becoming one of those Small North

ern Virginia Companies, hence the name SNVC. Tom and his partner had been known in the military as people who could get things done, and there were a number of parties interested in utilizing SNVC’s services from day one. Working long days followed by evenings drinking iced tea at a hamburger bar in Crystal City, they planned to be a small consulting firm of up to five people who got together for a holiday party once a year, and began to bring on partners in the Northern Virginia area. As they began working on site, however, customers expressed interest in more business. The expanding interest compelled them to hire their first employee, which meant their next big challenge was setting up a benefits system. “If we were going to have people giving up their years to work for our company, we want to make sure that at a very minimum, if they had problems, they were well taken care of,” says Tom. “We wanted to offer the best benefits around.”

SNVC’s early days were permeated by a sense of excitement. Tom found his work was more than valuable to their clients—in fact, SNVC was actually quite good at what they did. As the company grew, he found they needed to spend more time running the business, and SNVC transformed from a traditional consulting firm to a brick-and-mortar presence. As the market presented opportunities, they explored different offerings. Some worked well, while others didn’t, and through their willingness to explore their options, SNVC found the right fit for their clients.

Today, SNVC has a contract with Fort Leonard Wood, Missouri, where around 30,000 soldiers of all ranks flow through the education system to learn what they need to know to be excellent. From Officer Training and the Sergeant Major’s Academy to the Army’s basic training courses, all the instruction now occurs through the network that SNVC runs. “If the network’s down, instruction goes down,” says Tom. “If instruction goes down, soldiers lose time. We just picked up the contract last year, and we’ve already been able to implement important changes to improve network readiness.” SNVC also helps to run the nationwide Army National Guard network.

SNVC’s second mission focus is strategic analysis of IT options for CIOs. After identifying technology options, Tom and his team help clients understand the best avenues for application, as well as how an organization can invest in future technology to increase its efficiency Tom DeWitt

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and ability to accomplish its mission.

In 2004 and 2006, SNVC was honored by Inc. 500 Magazine and the Virginia Chamber of Commerce as one of the fastest growing privately held business in the region, and in the U.S. But as the years passed, Tom came to understand that SNVC’s fate, like many other small businesses in the Washington metropolitan area, was intimately tied to the actions of Congress, and specifically its growing inability to ensure federal budget stability. As partisan rhetoric escalated in Washington, the thoughtful federal budget process was supplanted with the Continuing Resolution—last-minute plans hastily enacted on the eve of government shutdowns to extend the status quo for a number of months, limiting new opportunities.

The government then moved into the “Lowest Price Technically Acceptable” strategy, recompleting work for cheaper so it could continue to fund high-priority items.

Thus, the majority of the federal work was tied up on contract already, and the large companies with prime contracts began to withdraw work from subcontractors to sustain their own revenues. “We found out that we had some really good partners, and some not-so good,” Tom reflects. “But we’ve recovered and have positioned ourselves now so that most of our work is prime contracts. Opportunities are freeing up as well, thanks to the two-year federal budget approved for fiscal years 2015 and 2016. We’ve been able to start rebuilding the company in ways that make sense to us.” SNVC now has a team of around sixty employees and is on track to do revenues of $4 million this year. In 2012, it was honored as #1 in the Midsize Business category in Virginia Business Magazine’s “Best Places to Work in Virginia.”

SNVC’s commitment to service and to national success tracks closely with Tom’s own narrative, which began in Fort Knox, Kentucky, in 1958. “I think my parents represented the majority of who America was at the time,” he recalls. “There was the attitude of service to the nation represented by my father, who served in the Army until I was twelve. And then there was my mother, a stay-at-home mom acting as the glue to keep everything together and functioning.”

The family lived in Germany for three years, where Tom started developing his earliest memories. He can still distinctly remember how, as a five year old, he would struggle to make it to the bus on time in the morning. One day he missed the bus completely, and his father instructed his mother to have him walk the two miles to school. “I was proud as could be to walk all the way across post to go to school,” Tom remembers. “But I resolved not to miss the bus again, and the experience helped develop in me a distinct sense of independence.”

In many ways, Tom’s childhood is a relic of the past—a token of bygone days where children were given the freedom to explore and cultivate their own abilities.

The family moved to Fort Dix, New Jersey, where Tom would play all day with a group of friends amidst the training areas for soldiers going off to Vietnam. “We’d be off on our own from dawn till dusk digging trenches, 46

building bunkers, running through the woods, and learning a whole lot of responsibility and common sense,” he recalls. “We learned the difference between a blank and a live round. We learned that if something had a pin, you do not pull it. At the end of the day, my mom would do a headcount. There was me and my two sisters, and all was good.”

On those rare occasions when Tom’s father was home, Tom remembers going to drive-in movies in pajamas and spending time together as a family. “My parents were very good together,” he recalls. “My father believed strongly in family values and service, and that’s how he lived his life. He showed us that service and commitment to our nation created the life and opportunities we had, which was hugely impactful to me later on. My mother, as well, was unwavering in her commitment to integrity, which she ingrained in us through our upbringing.”

When his father received orders to serve in the Vietnam War, the DeWitt family moved to Winchester, Virginia. Tom was nine years old when they settled into their new home, a plot of land situated on the front lines where union soldiers had launched their assault against the confederates during the Third Battle of Winchester in the Civil War. Tom would venture across the railroad tracks to a big open field, where Star Fort sat at the top of a hill—a historical landmark even today. “As a boy I spent my days searching for arrowheads, mini balls, and treasure,” he recalls. “We knew there was confederate gold buried somewhere up near the fort, and we spent our summers searching. And in searching, we learned so much about independence and problem solving. It was a dream come true, and those lessons made me who I am today, even though I came up short on the gold.”

While serving in Vietnam, Tom’s father returned early, diagnosed with cancer. He completed his twenty years of service shortly after his diagnoses and retired as a First Sergeant in 1970, when he took a job in the private sector working in retail. But the disease progressed quickly, and he passed away when Tom was only thirteen. Grief-stricken, the family reoriented itself, and Tom found himself with a new sense of responsibility as the man of the house. “My mother told me that my father had always wanted more for me, so it was time to get moving,” he recalls. “She really empowered me to start making decisions about my life and to take responsibility in our family. I realized that if I wanted something in life, it was now up to me to make it happen for myself. Facing that challenge fundamentally changed the way I looked at life.”

Tom’s father had made arrangements such that his mother wouldn’t have to work if she didn’t want to, and she decided to remain at home to be there for his sisters.

She was incredibly determined, and when people told her there was no way she could raise her three children alone, she only grew more committed to raise Tom and his sisters the way she believed they should be raised.

“She had the utmost integrity, and her refusal to give up had a big impact on me,” Tom recalls. “Thanks to her

Profiles in Success: Inspiration from Executive Leaders in the Washington D.C. Area — Volume 11

influence; when people tell me I can’t do something, I just drive forward.”

Every dime the DeWitt family saved went to meals and other necessities, and Tom had to find creative ways to make money if he wanted to purchase anything else.

He had done odd jobs for extra allowance over the years, but when his father passed, his mindset completely changed. “I realized I had to be responsible for my own success and that I couldn’t just sit around waiting for things to happen,” he says.

As a Boy Scout, Tom took to selling Christmas cards and other items all over the neighborhood. He finally earned enough to buy a telescope, which he used to examine the face of the moon and further his burgeoning love of science. As he got older, he joined a friend in launching a modest lawn mowing service, employing a push mower to trim the yards of neighbors for $4 a pop.

The money was used to afford bicycles and other novelties.

Tom’s mother never allowed him to play on official organized sports teams because she didn’t want him to break any bones, but he was always out playing football every Sunday with friends and on intramural teams. He joined every club he could, and as a natural organizer, he often fell into leadership roles. “For me, it was always about pulling in other people to get involved, whether it was volunteering for a cause or just for fun,” he remembers. “I was very fortunate in high school to have great friends from all areas and with all interests, and we’d balance our activities between productivity and pure fun.”

In ninth grade, Tom won second place in a science fair, which further motivated him to embrace the subject. He had a brilliant and kind biology teacher in tenth grade who inspired him to lift his grades in the class from B’s and C’s to straight A’s, and the measurable success gave him an appetite for more success. He enjoyed chemistry as well, and he had an exceptional physics teacher during his senior year—a veteran who had served twenty years in the military. “Mr. Phillips absolutely lit up my imagination,” Tom remembers. “Those teachers encouraged me to test boundaries. I was one of the most fortunate high school students ever because I got to work with teachers that encouraged my writing on the creative side, and my skills on the scientific side. I thought I could do anything I wanted with my future because I had a love of science and a love of space. Maybe one day I’d become an astronaut. I saw a clear path in science and mathematics and was eager to pursue it.” As his senior year completed, however, Tom noted various signposts pointing toward military service. Tests designed to measure skill sets and recommend future careers would always match him with the military.

Teachers would get to know him and then ask if he had considered it.

Driven by his love of science and by the confidence instilled by his teachers, Tom set his sights on becoming the first person in his family to go to college. When he was accepted at Longwood College in Virginia, he saw

that possibility come alive before his eyes. Yet the direction of his path was questioned again when his mother told him that his father had always wanted him to go into the military as a commissioned officer. “At that point, I had absolutely no interest in the Army,” Tom says. “All I knew was that it would be incredibly hard work, and dangerous.”

Finally, during his freshman year of college, Tom decided his future lay with the Army. “Never underestimate what a role model can do for you,” he says. “As I reflected back on Mr. Phillips, a retired Lieutenant Colonel who taught me things I never thought I’d be able to understand, military service seemed like a great route to go. He was an absolutely wonderful guy, and I emulated him.”

Longwood had recently become a co-ed institution, and it didn’t yet have an ROTC program, so Tom asked the Dean of Academic Affairs about it. After he collected and submitted a series of student signatures expressing interest, the school agreed to launch its own ROTC the following year, when Tom was a sophomore. “It was great that we were able to do that, because I was willing to transfer to another school if I couldn’t join ROTC locally,” he recalls. “But I was able to work with the administration to create the program, building a path to military service for myself and countless others to come after me.”

Tom was able to afford college thanks to his father’s GI Bill benefits, which were passed on to him as a surviving child. To make ends meet beyond that, he worked jobs as a lab assistant, spending many late nights cleaning equipment and cutting out small newspaper letter “e”s for classes to view through microscopes. His mother had also been a very frugal saver, and had set aside savings bonds for when Tom left for school. “There were things that were taken care of, and there was a part I had to work for,” he says. “Somehow, some way, it all came together.”

Tom learned valuable information in the classroom, but it was often outside of class hours that the most important lessons were learned—lessons about personal relationships, personal boundaries, and the difference between right and wrong. In addition to starting Longwood’s ROTC program, he joined several friends in launching its first fraternity. “I always had a desire to create and bring people together to do things,” he recalls.

“As some of the first men to attend Longwood, we had the opportunity to build and create all kinds of things.

We quickly recognized that the circumstances were right to do things with our lives and with the opportunities at our fingertips there.”

Through it all, ROTC remained one of the most enjoyable experiences of Tom’s life. After making the decision to go into the military, he was free to enjoy what that meant, testing his limits through ROTC and exploring his potential. As a young cadet, Tom spent summers working with the Field Artillery at Fort Polk, and after working side by side with active duty forces in the pouring rain, people started addressing him as sir.

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“That was eye-opening for me,” Tom recalls. “I realized they were looking for leaders who were willing to experience the same things they were experiencing. So if it’s part of your requirement to stand up in the rain as part of your military training, you better be the first one standing up. You better stand up longer than anyone else, and you better make sure everybody knows you’re doing it.”

After three years of training, Tom became the first in his family to graduate from college and was commissioned a Second Lieutenant. And once he received his Second Lieutenant’s bar, he dedicated his full focus on leading a successful command—a responsibility that would become one of the defining experiences of his life.

“As an officer, I was responsible for leading people toward achievement and mission accomplishment,” he says. “From day one, I embraced the doctrine that I was responsible for everything that occurred in the organization. Everyone’s accomplishments and failures were my responsibility. It was up to me to create an environment for my command’s success.”

Tom’s father, a non-commissioned officer (NCO), had often told him that the best officers were the ones who found great NCOs to rely on. Tom’s First Sergeant became one of those people for him, keeping him grounded and helping to guide him in the right direction. “Thanks to the wisdom of NCO mentors who had been around for fifteen or twenty years before my arrival, I came to realize that I really did have the skills to succeed and lead people,” Tom recalls. “In this sense, my first command was about growing up.”

Tom rose through the ranks, taking care to call one of his First Sergeants at every milestone to thank him for his part in Tom’s promotions. He led successful second and third commands, validating the path he had chosen in life. Through sixteen years of service, he thrived on the responsibility, enjoyed the people, appreciated the structure, and took easily to his assignments. Then, when he was a Major performing as a project manager, Congress passed a law that lowered the eligible military retirement threshold from twenty to fifteen years of service. “It was as if a door opened at that specific moment in time and asked me to walk through it,” Tom recounts.

“I wanted to be able to send my two kids to college debtfree, and I knew I wouldn’t be able to do that in the military. With that, I decided to make the jump out into industry.”

Tom’s reputation as an excellent project manager quickly attracted interest from the private sector, and he was offered a job immediately upon retirement to try his hand at delivering services. Over the next two years, he excelled in that position but began to imagine the possibilities that could be unlocked if he started a new company. “A lot of people like to join established organ-

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izations because they offer job security,” he reflects. “But if you believe in yourself, you can create your own job security through launching a business. Building your own company gives you the opportunity to set the vision and pursue things you wouldn’t otherwise get to pursue.

But most of all, I wanted to launch my own business because I had never done it before, and when confronted with two paths, I always take the one I haven’t taken and work toward achieving the most positive outcome.”

Over the years, as SNVC weathered ups and downs in the economy, its most sacred mission became job creation. Tom also launched the Aurora Foundation in 2008, which has provided $240,000 in grant funding to date to support veteran retention at universities across the nation, as well as the SNVC Institute of Leadership Values at Longwood College in 2010, which has helped teach leadership to approximately a thousand students and professionals so far. “The older I get, the more I feel that it’s time to pay it forward,” Tom says. “Creating jobs gives somebody else a shot at the American Dream they’re pursuing. SNVC is designed to be an environment for those opportunities, ‘giving people a hand up instead of a handout’ as President Reagan used to say. I love to create jobs that give people the opportunity to excel and make their own decisions about how they want to live their lives.”

In advising young people entering the working world today, Tom picks out a particularly compelling point of Stephen Covey’s 7 Habits of Highly Effective People—the importance of beginning with the end in mind. Deciding where you want to be in two years, for instance, is less about the destination, and more about starting the journey to avoid stagnation. “Nobody knows what they really want to do in life,” Tom points out. “If you pick something, your path may deviate, as mine did when I jumped off the biology track to enter the military. But it was my love of biology that led me to college, which opened the doors to become a commissioned officer.

Don’t wait for somebody to create your life for you. Be in charge of who you are and get yourself up and moving in a direction.”

Just as importantly, having direction is a critical element of leadership, allowing you to connect with others who have the same ideas and want to work toward the same vision. “Everything I’ve done is thanks to other people,” Tom avows. “Great people help to make it happen. I’ve always believed in who we can become together.” Indeed, in calling up friends to volunteer together, launching a fraternity, commanding a unit, starting a company, or creating programs like Aurora, Tom’s leadership has always been through creating opportunity and connecting people to it. Every opportunity created represents the hope of a new day – whether for one person, or for the nation as a whole.

Profiles in Success: Inspiration from Executive Leaders in the Washington D.C. Area — Volume 11

Lynda Ellis _________________

The Temple Within Lynda Ellis was defined as a fighter when she was only seven weeks old; suffering from a rare condition the doctors didn’t know how to properly diagnose. She held on to life, and by the time a surgery put her back on solid ground, the constitution of her character was certainly changed. She fought through many things in life—abandonment by her mother when she was only seven years old, being unjustly fired once when she was nineteen, and the countless silent battles fought in corporate America on a daily basis. But more than her ability to persevere through fierce determination, her life was changed the day she learned how to persevere through peace.

It was a lovely autumn Saturday in Japan, where Lynda spent nearly a decade of her life.

She and a friend, Al, shared a love of temples, and she’d join him on Saturday mornings to go on photography expeditions in search of the sacred structures.

One morning, in the middle of a wooded thicket, they happened upon a small temple several centuries old.

There was nothing overtly magnificent about it, but Lynda was taken, and while Al ventured on, she stopped and sat down to take in the feeling it inspired.

Then she lay down, sublimely aware of the wetness of the golden leaves beneath the small of her back. “As I lay there realizing how special the temple was, I knew it was one of the most beautiful moments of my life,” she remembers.

“I knew hundreds; maybe thousands of people had come here over time. This was their temple. And now, in a way, it was mine too.”

Time passed, but Lynda’s love of that temple did not.

Fifteen years later, she happened to participate in a biofeedback monitoring session, where she was instructed to relax as much as possible. The technician tracking her biorhythms was shocked, and had never seen anyone bring their body to such a tranquil state so quickly in his twenty years of monitoring. “I told him I had just gone to the temple in my mind,” she says. “He told me I’d never need anything else to bring me peace. I would never need a sedative, and I’d never lose my cool. In the middle of a high-stakes meeting or a stressful interaction, I can go there and feel the leaves on the small of my back again. It’s the most miraculous gift.” Now the owner and CEO of Capitol Concierge, Inc., among the most prominent concierge services firms serving the D.C. metropolitan area and beyond, life is anything but tranquil. But thanks to the inner solitude Lynda carries,

nothing deters her as she carries the company forward to new heights.

Capitol Concierge was launched by Mary Naylor in 1987 in the basement of her mother’s home with a $2,000 loan. When Lynda came onboard as Executive VP in 1998, it had grown to a team of 87 people and was earning revenues of around $3.5 million a year. “Mary was launching another business focused in virtual services called VIPDesk, so she brought me on to run Capitol Concierge,” Lynda recounts. “When I arrived, I realized the company needed to be turned around. So I made myself a promise that I’d get everything righted within three years.”

Whenever she enters a new corporate environment, Lynda makes a point to check in with each person reporting to her and ask them to list the top five things that irritate them about the company. “Ninety percent of our employees had the same top three concerns,” she recalls. “They felt their pay was screwed up, they were frustrated that faxes got lost in the corporate office, and they felt we were unresponsive. Putting those pieces together, I could see they were telling me that they wanted structure.” Of course, Lynda knew full well that imposing structure would make it clear that some individuals were in the wrong jobs, while others were at the wrong company. After her inventory, in her first collective address to the company's employees, she predicted that half of them wouldn’t still be there six months later.

As she eased into her role at Capitol Concierge, Lynda made it clear that she had standards. If employees were one minute late, they were late. “You either are or you aren’t,” she says. “I believe clear expectations are very important when it comes to leadership. They’re what allow people to grow and learn.” The new structure extended to the company’s clients, some of whom were six months late in their payments. These delayed payments contributed to Capitol’s delayed payments to vendors, and Lynda approached each one to set up a payment plan to get the company current. “We were able to turn things around because we have such great customers, employees, and vendors,” she says. “I asked them to tell me about the real stuff—the real problems.

Only then do you know what you really have to do.”

Lynda became President in 2000 and was able to pay out the company’s first distribution to its four owners shortly thereafter, missing her goal by only six months.

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Several years later, Mary decided to sell the company so she could focus exclusively on VIPDesk, but the first several interested buyers didn’t pan out. Finally, in July of 2007, it dawned on Lynda that she was the perfect person to step up and buy it. “Mary had given me an opportunity to get into an industry I had never heard of and couldn’t even spell at the time,” she says. “I had grown to love it, and in many ways, I think I was born an entrepreneur. I was ready.”

Once her decision was made, Lynda hired her own attorney and approached Eagle Bank to arrange her own financing, bringing her own presentational materials to her meeting with the bank’s President and Senior Loan Officer. “They remarked how I was far more organized than most other entrepreneurs they knew,” she recounts. “It wasn’t my first rodeo, but it was my first time working with a business that sold something this intangible. You can hold products, but you can’t hold services or people. Still, I came to learn that I value the intangible more than the tangible. Capitol Concierge is a team of wonderful people, and that’s what’s real.”

When she finished with her presentation, the bank representatives remarked on her past success as an entrepreneur and on her captivating passion, but pointed out that she didn’t actually have a product. “That got my Irish up,” Lynda laughs. “I closed my binder, leaned forward, and said, ‘The people who work at Capitol Concierge go home, feed their families, and live their lives by what they make. If you don’t recognize that, I’m at the wrong bank.’ I was completely determined to get the funding I needed, and before I walked out the door that day, they were in. It was a defining moment for me, and certainly a good business decision for them.” With that, Lynda officially purchased the company on November 30, 2007.

Today, Capitol Concierge is the nation’s largest provider of concierge services for commercial office properties, upscale apartments and condominiums, shopping malls, private corporations, and individuals.

“As long as it’s legal and ethical, we’re the people who do anything you need us to do,” Lynda says. “We’re the people that make your life convenient. Beyond the mint on the pillow, we’re about anticipating what you’re going to need before you need it. It’s that service and experience you remember.”

With its team of around 400 people, Capitol Concierge serves clients all over the D.C. metropolitan area and works with big names like Google, ExxonMobil, and Facebook. As the company begins to expand its virtual service offerings, it recently signed a contract to provide concierge services for Europ Assistance. A strong believer in clear, collaborative leadership that sets expectations and holds people accountable, Lynda constantly seeks innovative ways to meet her labor pool where they are to ensure the company continues to deliver the most effective, efficient, professional service possible. “Through a deeply-rooted passion to serve, we are dedicated to making peoples’ lives better, even though many of them have no idea who we are,” she 50

avows. “And it’s fun. Even on the worst day, it’s still fun.”

Lynda would not be at the helm of such a dynamic, vibrant company today if not for countless lessons learned along the way, and a habit of taking each day as a defining moment full of possibility. They have not been lessons learned lightly—particularly the lessons learned from her mother. Lynda’s mother already had a twelve-year-old son and a baby boy by the time she met Lynda’s father, and he adopted them as his own. He started a meat market business with her brother, who ended up gambling away much of their success. The business went under, and Lynda’s mother left with the two boys around the same time. By the time Lynda was seven her mother was largely out of her life. “At the time, I was convinced she had left me because I wasn’t pretty enough,” Lynda recalls.

One wouldn’t imagine that Lynda’s father, a fiftyyear-old bachelor with no experience raising kids on his own, would be an ideal candidate for the job. But the strict Irishman adored his daughter and did everything possible to fill her world with love. “I believe things happen for a reason,” she says. “My mother was thinking of herself and not my brothers or me. I remember crying a lot when she left, but my father showered me with so much love and kept me so busy that the void somehow didn’t feel so empty. I didn’t even realize it was a bad thing not to have a mother in my life, as I was my father’s life.”

After his own meat market went under, her father took a job as the butcher for Mike’s Market, but he never let go of the entrepreneurial drive and sense of ownership he felt when he was running his own shop.

Though it was an 8-to-5 job, he’d arrive at seven o’clock each morning and stay until seven o’clock in the evenings. He was incredibly customer driven, and Lynda can recall times he would humor even the most unreasonable of requests to ensure that people always felt taken care of, respected, and served. “He took great pride in serving others and doing everything he could to make sure they had a great experience,” she says.

“Though he didn’t own that company, he owned his job. Some of my best memories are of hanging out there—times he’d set me up on the counter and give me a cut of bologna as I absorbed incredible life lessons about customer service and personal integrity.”

Lynda’s father enrolled her in Campfire Girls, Brownies, Girl Scouts, and Rainbow Girls, a group for the daughters of Freemasons. She was always volunteering or selling cookies or candy, so there was no time to get into trouble. She started her own babysitting service when she was eleven, and anytime she wanted something, her father made it clear she was going to have to earn it herself. “If I expressed an interest in a purse or something, he’d remind me that somebody somewhere needed their windows cleaned or their yard mowed,” she laughs. “He taught me to go look for opportunities.

It cultivated my understanding that you make a living by identifying what people need and then figuring out

Profiles in Success: Inspiration from Executive Leaders in the Washington D.C. Area — Volume 11

how to deliver it.”

Lynda kept herself too busy to participate in sports or extracurricular activities in school, and she didn’t really fit in at her high school. When she graduated, she was eager to leave it all behind her and decided to go to beauty-college with a few close friends. She developed a great relationship with Annette, the school’s manager, and when she graduated, she set to work looking for a job. Through a friend, she found her first salon job and provided stellar service for two weeks, at which point she was fired—allegedly for being rude to customers.

Lynda was devastated. “If they had told me I was being let go for giving a bad haircut, I would have been okay with that,” she recalls. “But providing great customer service was always one of those core things about me. I didn’t understand how I could have messed up so badly.” Fortunately, Annette found out that Lynda had only been brought on to cover for somebody while they were out for two weeks of vacation. The termination had absolutely nothing to do with Lynda’s service or performance, and was an important lesson in not allowing others to define who she was. Lynda held on to the message but quickly forgot the lost job that earned $2 and $3 tips when Annette helped her land a position at a much better salon on the strip making $50 and $100 tips.

Despite some measure of success, Lynda decided she was not a beautician at heart and instead took a job as the private secretary for an advertising manager at the Las Vegas Review Journal, Nevada’s largest newspaper.

She was in a relationship at the time, but her life changed one day when she noticed a tall blond man walk past her. He was one of the newly-hired advertising salesmen, and Lynda promptly turned to her friend and declared that she wanted to have a date with him in two weeks.

Two weeks later to the day, Lynda and Bill went out on their first date. She broke things off with the man she was seeing, and they dated for eight months until Bill decided to move to Japan, where he had lived for a year after completing his service there during the Vietnam War. When he left in July, he told Lynda he’d be back in five years, and that they’d be together again if neither of them were attached.

It was too long to go without seeing him, so Lynda set her sights on becoming a stewardess. She went to San Francisco to interview with all the carriers she could find, staying with her mother and spending time with her older brother, Rich, and younger brother, John.

Through a serendipitous meeting with one of Rich’s friends who knew a company looking for stewardesses, Lynda landed one more interview with a charter airline.

She was ultimately offered jobs with Delta, Western, and Standard, and she went with the latter because it flew military contracts to Vietnam via Yakota Air Base in Japan, in the area Bill was living.

It seemed too good to be true, and it was. On the day Lynda finished her six-week flight school training in Seattle, Standard lost its military contract. Still, Lynda

loved her time flying, and in less than a year, she found her way to Japan to see Bill. He invited her to come live there, so at the age of 22, she picked up her life and moved to a new country on the other side of the world.

Over the next nine years, Lynda and Bill grew up, got married, and had their daughter, Misty Dawn. Bill became the country manager for Mutual United of Omaha, and Lynda took a job as the Sales Administrator for Chrysler International, responsible for bringing all the vehicles into the Far East Theater from the U.S. At the time, the company was paying a $2,000-pervehicle brokerage fee just to bring the cars into the country, and Lynda figured out how to lower the fee to around $10. “I spoke enough Japanese that I could figure out the system,” she says. “I became a hero to them.”

Lynda stayed at Chrysler until Mutual United decided to open their first military division office in the U.S.—an office in San Antonio that Bill was chosen to launch. With that, the Ellis family moved home to the U.S., leaving behind a chapter of their lives the gifts of which Lynda is still absorbing today. But Lynda was ready for Misty to learn what it meant to be an American, and she herself had set her sights on getting an advanced degree. Once the family was resettled and Bill’s office was up and running, she enrolled at San Antonio College part-time to work toward her Associates degree.

All was well until Bill parted ways with Mutual United, leaving the financial responsibilities up to Lynda for a while. There she was a 32-year-old college student with a husband and a daughter to raise balancing schoolwork with three part-time jobs and her obligations as a brownie scout leader and room mother. She distinctly remembers pausing in front of the mirror at 3:30 AM one day, with a textbook balanced in one hand as she curled her hair with the other. “As soon as you get your college degree, you will never, ever, ever again do anything that’s not fun,” she told herself adamantly.

Fortunately, Lynda was able to function exceptionally well on little sleep, and her innate abilities caught the attention of the Head of the Management Department, Professor Charles Tuck. He had read an article about a Fortune 50 company, Control Data Corporation, which adhered to the same business philosophy he saw in his hardworking student. The company’s cofounder and CEO, William Norris, was a visionary leader who seemed to see the future before it happened and always took care to build an engaging and entrepreneurial company culture.

Recognizing that Lynda, like Norris, had the stuff of CEO greatness, Tuck knew she needed a four-year degree, so he kicked her out of the Associates program and instructed her to review the curriculums of the universities in the region. She found a degree in Management Science at St. Mary’s University in San Antonio, but the tuition was high. Her instructor walked her through the process of identifying which credit hours the school would accept from other Lynda Ellis

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schools, ensuring she got their commitment in writing.

“Across three institutions, I pieced together a curriculum I could afford, and it’s good I got it in writing, because St. Mary’s changed their curriculum a year after I enrolled there,” she reflects. “Thanks to the advice of Professor Tuck, I didn’t lose a single credit hour. All the professors in the Management Department were so incredibly wonderful to me, and it’s thanks to their personalized, genuine caring that I succeeded.”

When Lynda finished her degree, her Marketing professor asked if she’d be interested in working parttime for Control Data Corporation, the same company Professor Tuck had identified for her several years earlier. She came onboard and was promoted to manager the day she got her diploma, and soon thereafter was sent to Houston to oversee a learning center. She helped save the center’s accreditation and was promoted again, given additional responsibility for the centers in San Antonio and Austin. Within a year, she was leading all the learning centers nationwide. “I absolutely loved that company,” she recalls. “The people genuinely enjoyed each other, and it was a lot of fun. And though there were 65,000 employees when I worked there, I never felt like an employee. I was always empowered to be entrepreneurial and to really own my job. I’ve always felt that if you’re going to work for a company, then you own it, and that’s who you are.”

Lynda developed a strong affinity for Plato, the computer-based education and training software pedaled by the company. Recognizing the strong positive impact it had on the self-esteem and motivation of kids in school, she leapt at the opportunity to serve as an Account Manager when Control Data Corporation launched a joint venture with a company called WICAT to sell the software. In her interview, the company President pointed out that salesmen from neither Plato nor WICAT had succeeded in closing a deal in the Rio Grande Valley in at least eight years. “He asked why it would be any different to send a Caucasian woman down to work the area,” she recounts. “I told him the salesmen had proven that he needed a woman to get the job done.”

Lynda landed the position and resolved she would cut the normal sales cycle window for the product in half, making her first sale within one year. Some nights she would finish a proposal at 3:00 AM, and then Bill would drive her through the morning hours to the Valley, where she’d change in a gas station and deliver the presentation at 9:00 AM. In only five months, she closed a deal for $2 million. She swept the Valley like wildfire, but the two companies decided to part ways several years later. Lynda decided to stick with WICAT, the company whose products she had sold the most, so as not to desert her customers. There, she ultimately moved up the ranks to VP of Marketing.

Lynda was then poached to become the VP of Marketing at Jostens Learning—a move that proved incredibly difficult given the company’s leadership at the time. “Had I known what it was going to be like, I 52

wouldn’t have had the courage to go, but it was a very important learning experience for me,” she reflects. “In the three years I was there, I learned so much of how not to manage, how not to treat people, and how not to lead.” She then made the move to Iowa to take a position with Breakthrough, a young entrepreneurial company developing advanced software cochlear implants for children. But when she was contacted by a headhunter with an opportunity to move to D.C., she was hooked. Shortly thereafter, she accepted the position as VP of Sales and Marketing for Loral Learning Systems.

There, Lynda was charged with selling $425,000 worth of software in a year—something she knew she could do in her sleep. Within six months, she had hired a small team and sold $1 million. She had written into her contract that the firm would set up a commission plan, but after receiving pushback from its leadership, she convened a meeting with two colleagues, Pierce and Gary. Over a Christmas drink in 1994, they decided to purchase Loral Learning Systems from Loral Aerospace, making all thirteen of their employees shareholders and changing the name to PLG. Within the next nine months, their independent marketing group was doing $2.5 million in sales. Eager to grow, they sought angel investors, and through Lynda’s iron will, she and her two partners were able to maintain majority ownership and only sold 40 percent of the company. With the money, they initiated a merger with a competing software company in Jackson, Mississippi, and six months later, they sold the merged company to a Viacom company. “I remember hearing so many times that we weren’t going to get it done— that we couldn’t do it,” she recalls. “Our defining moment was every moment we decided not to give up. It’s thanks to those experiences of determination and perseverance that I truly believe with my soul that if you want to do something, you can. My father always told me that, and after experiencing the world head-on, I know he was right.”

While the fight ended in victory, Lynda was tired and ready for a change of industry by the time it was over. She knew the business inside and out, and it wasn’t fun anymore. But then she got a call from one of her mentors, the CEO of Academic Systems. Their numbers were way behind, and he wanted her to come onboard as VP of Service. She agreed to help, and while she was only asked to do $500,000 in sales that first year, Lynda’s team sold $3 million. The next year, she traveled so much that she spent only 52 nights in her own bed. At that point she really did call it quits. She was ready for something completely new—something fun.

For Lynda, the most fun thing is growing something out of nothing. Capitol Concierge was itself the fruits of such labor, as Mary virtually invented the concept of concierges in commercial office properties. Lynda decided to go in for an hour-long interview with Mary, and the two women clicked—so much so that the meeting extended for an extra eight hours. “I saw in Mary

Profiles in Success: Inspiration from Executive Leaders in the Washington D.C. Area — Volume 11

the opportunity to build something in her company,” Lynda affirms. “I saw in her the strengths that complimented my weaknesses, and she saw in me the strengths that complimented her weaknesses. She was ready to bring in some corporate experience to take the company to the next level, but she wanted someone who would preserve its entrepreneurial spirit. That’s what I set out to do.”

Along the way, Bill has remained a perfect partner, thriving in various jobs while remaining flexible to move as Lynda’s career required as she had moved for him early on. She still remembers the days he would drive her to the airport and fill her in on the breaking news of the sports world, giving her the talking points that would allow her to connect with colleagues and clients alike. “His influence in my life has been invaluable,” she remarks. “He’s always been my rock, my support, and my conscience. We’ve always been a team, thinking of how we work together as a unit to support one another. It’s been wonderful.” Bill now works as a full-time contract manager for Capitol.

At the meat market counter, Lynda’s father always taught her to do the right thing not because you might get recognition for it, but because it was right. It’s a principle she’s embraced throughout her career and sown into the fabric of Capitol Concierge’s culture, earning the company the National Capital Business Ethics Award in 2014. “I’m most proud of the fact that one of our clients nominated us for that,” she says. “It demonstrates that Capitol Concierge is a company that does the right thing because it’s the right thing to do.”

Lynda was also instrumental in launching Capitol

Cares, the philanthropic arm of the company that has now logged over 4,000 hours of pro bono work in addition to countless forms of community service through organizations like the Salvation Army, the Red Cross, and Wounded Warriors. “My father came through Ellis Island when he was sixteen,” she recounts. “He would always tell me how special this country is, and how it’s important to give back to the community. It’s just what we did.”

Outside of work, Lynda is a member of the Red Cross Tiffany Circle and serves as an Ambassador with the Yellow Ribbon Fund, an organization that strives to meet the unmet needs of injured veterans, caregivers, and families through the recovery process. She’s a senior warden of the vestry at her Episcopal Church, and she helps the D.C. Police Association in showing at-risk kids that there are alternatives to gangs and drugs. She also speaks frequently to schools, focusing her message on young women specifically. In advising young people figuring out their lives or entering the working world today, Lynda says simply, “Dream. When somebody tells you that you can’t do something, don’t believe them. You can do anything you want to do, as long as you take responsibility for finding a way to get there.”

In doing so, one must recognize the defining moments of every day. Some are light-filled and sweet; others carry adversity from which we must rise. In many respects, life is a defining moment, and we are the ones who set the tone of that definition. “The temple reminds me that we can aspire to anything we want to aspire to,” Lynda says. “We are our own gating mechanisms. I don’t care what your situation is—you determine your future, and no one else.”

Lynda Ellis

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Profiles in Success: Inspiration from Executive Leaders in the Washington D.C. Area — Volume 11

Susan M. Evans _________________

Strong Like Glass Transformation can be awe-inspiring—a concept that has captivated the attention of Sue Evans and her husband, Paul. They embrace a physical manifestation of the process through their passion for studio glass. “I love that artists take silica, soda, and limestone, and with craft, pressure, and teamwork, they transform it into something that’s unique, fragile, and strong, all at the same time,” Sue says. “Every piece of studio glass made is different, as each transformation is its own process, and it’s not always easy. But the ability to transform is one of the most powerful attributes we have—present in all of us, and ready in case we need it.”

When Sue’s company, Evans Incorporated, had its twentieth anniversary in 2014, she knew the only way to commemorate the significance of the milestone was through glass. “Goodness knows we broke a lot of glass along our own path of transformation as a company,” she laughs. “But more importantly, glass represents our team’s work to give our clients the power to transform.” Sue commissioned an artist team from Wisconsin to make glass pendants and paperweights to honor the moment— each different, yet each symbolizing the power and poignancy of the company’s commitment to betterment and excellence.

Sue’s own experience with transformation marks the impact one person can have on the breaking of glass ceilings. When she was in grade school, she had grand ambitions to be class president.

She ran competitive campaigns for office, but in the end, the top leadership roles always went to boys, while Sue was assigned the secretary or treasurer title. “It was a do-nothing role, and I knew I was cut out for more,” Sue says today. “My mother was always very supportive of my goal to lead and defy the mold of what women traditionally pursued in life, and that support helped give me the confidence to make career choices later in life that led me into fields that weren’t very traditional for women.”

Indeed, when most other female math majors pursued careers as math teachers, Sue pioneered down the route of computer science. She went on to earn her Ph.D. in engineering and her credentials as a Certified Professional Ergonomist, and though she never intended to be an entrepreneur launching a macroergonomics company, that’s exactly what she did. Now the founder, President, and CEO of Evans Incorporated, Sue is hopeful that her impact can help other women

grasp their ability to make a difference. “From our employees, to our clients, to our partners, my purpose is about enabling others to understand that they have the tremendous ability to change and grow,” she says.

Founded in January of 1994, Evans Incorporated is guided by the mission of giving its clients the power to transform, and is itself the product of Sue recognizing that power in herself. She was working for Vector Research, a defense contractor in Arlington, Virginia, when she was approached by Ford Motor Company to continue some work she had done for them when they had sponsored her Ph.D. in industrial engineering and ergonomics at the University of Michigan. Sue saw it as an opportunity to step away from her present situation, which offered limited room for growth, and launch her own business.

While Ford would remain an important client for Sue, she knew diversification was the key to long-term success. Through prior relationships, she was able to maintain contracts in the federal government and defense industries, while also landing work through partnerships and new relationships with international organizations like the International Monetary Fund and the World Bank. When sequestration hit in 2013, the company lost one contract, but they were able to pick up enough work that they ultimately reported double-digit growth. This helped solidify the firm’s identity as a strategic advisor successful in helping clients deal with transformative change.

Excellence in service offering, as well, has been a key driver of the company’s success. “As we’ve grown, we’ve consistently remained focused on the people who are at the root of any kind of organizational transformation,” she says. “When you’re developing a manufacturing line, for instance, you want to assess the potential human risks while you’re in the design phase so you don’t pose physiological or biomechanical risks to workers that force you to go back with costly retrofits after the fact. You’ve got people connecting with organizations and IT systems, and then you’ve got IT developers in the mix as well. Evans Incorporated acts as the translator between the individuals and all parts of the ecosystem.”

When people in the U.S. hear the term “ergonomics,” they generally think of people sitting at desks and interacting with computer screens. Sue and her team deal with another aspect of ergonomics, macroSusan M. Evans

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ergonomics, which includes organizational design and assessments of how people work within an organizational system. “We’ve grown and expanded our services to the point that we have more depth in organizational change, program management, and optimization, though at our core we’re still focused on process improvement and human experience,” Sue affirms. In one instance, her team was able to bring together stakeholders from twenty different locations on a quarterly basis to develop a unified set of requirements for a major infrastructure system, saving the government $10 million. “The human side of things is often considered the ‘soft’ stuff, but it’s not easy. You have to have the right skills to build trust, particularly with unionized workforces that tend to distrust management. You have to convey fairness and neutrality, ensuring people feel they’re being heard.”

Today, Sue relies on a talented and dedicated team to carry out the mission of the company. They often take a team approach to solving problems, impressing clients with the deep bench of skill sets they’re able to deliver at highly competitive rates. “Our clients are often amazed at how much horsepower we get out of applying employees’ skills across projects,” she says.

“We have team members who might be a 100 percent continuous on a project, but not a 100 percent contiguous. We can bring in and remove talent as needed so our clients get a richer set of skills and experiences without necessarily having to pay for a full-time senior person.” Evans Incorporated now has a team of around fifty employees and between 20 and 30 independent contractors—all incredibly motivated people who aspire to grow, develop, and exercise their passion as aligned with the vision of the company.

Evans Incorporated is the creation of strong, inspired, independent thinker—qualities cultivated in Sue since her childhood. She grew up in Milwaukee the oldest of four children, and for the first five years of her life, she was the only child in her family. As such, she had unique opportunities to try new things independently. When she failed, she was expected to get back up, and always, she was expected to deliver. With these standards guiding her development, she also had the opportunity to watch her father take a loan from her mother’s parents to buy a failing heating and air conditioning business when she was young. “He believed he could make a go of it, and he was able to turn it around,” Sue recalls. “He ended up being very successful. He was one of twelve kids growing up on a farm in central Wisconsin, and while each was very successful, he was one of the few that left the region, after serving in the Army in WWII.” Sue’s parents didn’t have two nickels to rub together when they married, but thanks to her father’s successful entrepreneurial venture, they were able to move out of Sue’s grandparents’ Milwaukee bungalow and into a home of their own. As a kid, Sue loved reading and math, and her grandmother taught her how to sew clothes for her dolls on their old Singer sewing machine.

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Sue would grow to become a master seamstress, sewing her own wedding dress and making clothes until her son was born and she could no longer find the time.

Sue was eager to be involved in Girl Scouts through grade school, but she only pursued sports at her mother’s insistence. From swimming, to tennis, to volunteer work, her mother was always encouraging her to get out in the world and try new things. “I didn’t appreciate the impact she had until later, but I see now that it really made a difference,” Sue reflects. “She was always active in the community, the school, and the church, and she later went to work in my father’s business.”

Growing up with these standards and values underpinned Sue’s desire to lead, so she took the initiative to attend an all-girls high school. She settled on Divine Savior, a Catholic all-girls high school. “There, I could be whatever leader I wanted to be,” she reflects. “The school had a respected newspaper, and my journalism teacher had the confidence in me to make me its editor.

It was a role that combined leadership, technical competency, and creative vision, and those experiences allowed me to grow, lead, and set a precedent for change in my life later on.”

From her earliest years, Sue liked math, but at that time, most women who pursued the field were guided toward teaching math. As she approached high school graduation, she attended a college fair and noticed a brochure for computer science at the booth for the University of Dayton. “I had never touched a computer before, but it was a mathematics-related field that didn’t involve teaching,” she recalls. “I thought that sounded great.” Dayton was the only school she applied to, and until her mother dropped her off at the commencement of her freshman year, she hadn’t even set foot on campus. Fortunately, it was a good fit for Sue, and the following January, she met Paul while working in the small computer lab on campus. “We didn’t start dating until my senior year, but my mother met him during my sophomore year when I had to get an emergency appendectomy,” Sue recounts. “My hospitalization was during exams just before the end of the semester, and she and Paul got to know each other as they packed up my dorm room for me while I was stuck at the hospital for ten days.”

Through her college years, Sue considered switching her major to Psychology, in part because of an inspiring Air Force colonel who introduced her to Human Factors, but her father cautioned her not to give up such a promising career track. The collegial atmosphere maintained by the computer science majors helped her persevere, and she began to gravitate toward systems analysis. While others in her class were more interested in the process of building an operating system, she loved the process of understanding problems and translating them into requirements that could then be built into a system solution. Sue became President of the Student chapter of the computer science club her senior year, responsible for bringing in speakers and organizing events.

Profiles in Success: Inspiration from Executive Leaders in the Washington D.C. Area — Volume 11

Sue and Paul married two months after her graduation from college, and she landed her first job working for the University of Dayton Research Institute as a contractor at the Aerospace Medical Research Lab at Wright Patterson Air Force Base in Dayton. In that capacity, she put her programming skills and interest in human factors to work developing computer graphics programs depicting wireframe drawings of a pilot in a cockpit, conveying the consequences of various body sizes on obstructions and clearances. She also wrote and delivered papers for NATO conferences, which caught the eye of a professor at the University of Michigan and Director of their Center for Ergonomics who wanted to do some similar work relating to the design of manufacturing environments. He recruited Sue to apply for her Ph.D., and six years after finishing her undergraduate studies, she moved to Ann Arbor to pursue her next degree.

Paul was working for Hewlett Packard at the time and was transferred to their Michigan office. As Sue was finishing her degree, he enrolled in a Ph.D. program at the University’s business school. Sue took the job with Vector Research, where she worked with Department of Defense clients on business process improvement, and when Paul finished his studies, he took a teaching job at George Mason University’s business school, prompting the move to the D.C. metropolitan area. Sue was able to transfer to Vector Research’s Arlington location, and she remained with the company until striking out on her own in 1993. Their son was in grade school at the time, but Paul was working for Mitre by then, and his stable salary and benefits provided the safety net Sue needed to take the risk.

Paul was always incredibly supportive of her efforts to launch Evans Incorporated, and his counsel ensures risk is mitigated in business choices that are made.

“He’s always making sure that we’ve considered various angles of a given situation from a big picture standpoint,” Sue says. “He’s highly analytical and very stable, which is a great balance to my entrepreneurialism. He makes sure things are considered in the best interest of the company, its growth, and our goals. His passion is around decision analysis, and it’s incredibly helpful that he can bring that thought process into how we make decisions, both professionally and personally.”

Sue’s parents, as well, were supportive of her starting her own business, and when she needed a line of credit on record for an early business proposal, her mother was the first one to step up. Both her parents were very focused through life on the importance of helping others, whether through time, talent, or treasure, and they routinely got their children involved. Today, Sue is on the Board of The Women’s Center, the largest provider of mental health services in Northern Virginia. “I look for opportunities to assist women and families who need help getting through a tough spot and can come out stronger on the other side,” she says. “These people are in the process of transforming and just need a little help.” She also serves on the GovCon Board of Advisors at George Mason’s Business School, and on the Board of Directors of the Small and Emerging Contractor Advisory Forum (SECAF), a member organization that fosters the growth of small businesses in government contracting.

In advising young people entering the working world today, Sue underscores the importance of patience and learning. “When there’s a problem, first stop and listen,” she says. “Be patient and absorb.” She also encourages each person to take leadership into their own hands, and encourages leadership at each level of Evans Incorporated. “Leadership isn’t a right, a position, or a title,” she says. “It’s not reserved for the few, but expected of everybody. People are responsible for managing their own professional development, for setting up teams, for the outcomes of our work.” Thanks to her own leadership and vision, Sue was included in Washington Business Journal’s “Women Who Mean Business” list for 2015, and Evans Incorporated was one of Washingtonian Magazine’s 50 Greatest Places to Work that same year.

Taken together, when it comes to change management and business process improvement, Sue and her team just do it differently. It comes down to the top talent they’ve selected and trained, giving their team members the latitude and tools needed to bring their very best to engagements. It comes down to personal leadership, top-notch expertise, and a fundamental belief in the power of transformation. And it comes down to Sue, who has mastered the science and art of craft, pressure, and teamwork, always able to see the strength in glass and the potential in people.

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Profiles in Success: Inspiration from Executive Leaders in the Washington D.C. Area — Volume 11

David Goodenow _________________

There for the Making In the 1970s, in a neglected corner of North Central Dallas, David Goodenow’s father saw opportunity in a rundown two-story apartment complex near Old City Park. He and his son could live there rent-free, so long as they worked to renovate the building.

With that, ten-year-old David took up residence with his father in a place that was theirs for the making—an experience that would forever define his idea of real estate, of the malleability of space, and of mankind’s agency to design and create success. “If we needed something, we built it,” David says today. “We built a bathroom in our apartment with a window in the shower. I remember looking out that window, which we had constructed ourselves, watching another act of construction as the Reunion Tower complex was being built nearby. I became acutely aware of the process of building something out of nothing, and how those somethings impact the lived experience of humanity. I became interested in places, space-making, and the economics around what makes creation possible.”

Now, David helps companies design and build their own success as a cofounder and Principal of Diversified Advantage Group, Inc. (daGROUP), a private equity and management firm providing executive oversight and strategic growth planning to its partner companies. Through a suite of support services that spans human resources, financial assistance, technology planning, marketing and communication, operational efficiencies, and sales, David and his partners use a real-world, hands-on approach to empower companies with products, services, and leadership they believe in. “We write checks and roll up our sleeves,” says David. “Through cash infusion, mentorship, and advice, we jump into the trenches alongside business leaders. “ Through Piranha Charities, a nonprofit housed within daGROUP’s investment portfolio, David and Gore facilitate Piranha Branding, a movement connecting inventors and entrepreneurs with investors ready to fund solid ideas designed for profit, planet, and people.

With the goal of empowering sustainable businesses, their live Piranha Tank event invites business innovators to pitch either privately or at events which are filmed as a reality TV show. “In thirty life-changing minutes, a person with an idea can come on our show, pitch to the angel investors on the stage, and walk away with $100,000 in funding,” David explains. “It’s a great new platform for bringing people together—people who

have a lust for life, who have game-changing ideas for a sustainable future, who have the energy and resources it takes to translate vision into reality.”

David also sits at the helm of Gelberg AEC, LLC, built environment design firm partnered with a company that was launched in 1941 and also included in daGROUP’s investment portfolio. In this capacity, he focuses on a real estate vertical, connecting the dots between funding, deal making, and the creative process.

“With our partners’ experiences as professional designers, we can easily take a conversation about possibilities and see that through to actually handing someone the keys,” he says.

By David’s life philosophy, a person’s work is a reflection of who they are. Thus, he was careful early on to understand what he was most interested in, and how he might best pursue that unique integrity of walking the walk by living his passion. As a result, he spent over 25 years mastering the business of architecture, working alongside some of the planet’s top designers, architects, and builders to create uniquely customized buildings. “I got to participate in the process of transforming a piece of land into a place for people to live, work, and play,” he says. “Purely through the power of our ideas and bringing financial resources to bare, we cultivated relationships with the community and created jobs in the process. Starting with nothing but hot air and conversation, we created gold. That’s the business of daGROUP today, and when I wake up each morning my feet hit the ground running.”

David knows, however, that the converse can also happen. Something can be reduced to nothing in the blink of an eye, as was the case when his mother was killed by a drunk driver when he was only five years old.

Growing up in a single parent household at the start of his life was a unique challenge in that respect. The profound loss led him to question the fabric of existence in ways many people never do. “At the time, I remember telling myself I wasn’t going to let it influence me or change my life,” David says. “But of course it did. Even now, I can trace actions I take and relationship outcomes I have today back to that early loss. I spent a lot of time through those early years trying to live how other people lived based on what I saw on TV or in the community, only to realize later that trying to be ‘conventional’ is not the path for me.”

Through the turmoil of losing his mother, David’s David Goodenow

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grandmother stepped in and taught him a new way of being. Though she was a Jewish American woman raised in Galveston, Texas, she had a deep affinity for Eastern culture and spirituality, and taught her young grandson how to quiet his mind through meditation. “It was incredibly impactful on me,” he reflects. “As we meditated, we would burn incense together in a small urn, which I still use.”

With the loss of his mother, David was integrated into the unconventional, entrepreneurial lifestyle of his father, an inventor and artist who routinely traveled to Europe to show his work. He was one of the founders of the first black-and-white photography gallery in Texas, and David remembers working on “lick ‘em and stick ‘em” mailing campaigns to help drive attendance to gallery openings. He recalls his father’s involvement in a pottery factory where he made porcelain light fixtures and sold them all across the city. He was also a pioneer of using phosphorous paper to capture a person’s shadow—now a common fixture in children’s museums all across the country.

Among his father’s most revolutionary works was the invention of the neon dimmer, which he pursued after trying to manufacture a gift for a girlfriend and learning that such a thing didn’t exist. At the time, restaurants were burning down from using fluorescent dimmers on neon lights, so he saw a market. He collaborated with a physicist, solved the problem, worked to patent the product, and booked contracts to supply the product all across the country. “I got a good taste of the inventing, entrepreneurial, small business mindset, helping him take projects to market,” David says. “With him, it was one interesting thing after another. I also saw from an early age that the most successful companies were those where one person wasn’t trying to do everything. That’s one reason why my partners and I look to invest in businesses that have a balanced, wellrounded team.”

Growing up in the artistic milieu of Dallas in the mid- to late-1970s, David experienced all walks of life.

He attended public schools where it was dangerous to walk to class each day, as well as private schools where the sky was the limit. “Existing in both environments, I really focused on trying to connect with people no matter where they were in life,” David remembers. “I came to understand that that’s what living is.”

While his childhood was full of unconventional activities and trips to Europe with his father, his high school years were decidedly different. His developmentally disabled brother, who was not expected to live long past birth, stabilized for the first time in eight years.

Georgie moved home with David and his father, and soon thereafter, his father began seriously dating someone. Rules were imposed on David for the first time, and he unhappily learned what a curfew was. He sang in a band and excelled academically, transitioning from a lax public school environment to a top-notch private college preparatory institution.

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was the steady, traditional, business-minded influence of his mother’s side of the family as modeled by his maternal grandfather, Jerry P. Cunningham. Originally from Colorado, he had worked his way up the oil chain to become a partner at Sedco, the company that invented offshore drilling. Christmases were a big deal for the family, and everyone would gather at Jerry’s home in North Dallas. “Because my mother was gone, he made a special point to be there for me, I think, and it meant a lot,” David says. “He was a mentor and role model who worked well into his nineties, and he was always the moral compass of our family. He showed me what it meant to be there for other people, and how to be a stable, positive presence in someone’s life.”

When he graduated from high school, David enrolled at Austin College in Texas, where he took up martial arts at age nineteen. It was a cross-cultural connection akin to the affinities developed for meditation through his grandmother, and as he learned skills, he met the people behind it. For the next fifteen years, he became immersed in the international martial arts community, where martial arts are deeply integrated in everyday work and religious practices. “I ended up traveling the world through that passion, and I learned more about people from these other cultures and what their lives were like,” says David. “And in doing that, I built a compassion I wouldn’t have had otherwise. Martial Arts is play, as I was taught, and you can’t play with others unless you have a rapport. When there is no rapport, you forget to play, and then you can’t excel, and people get hurt. That’s become a guiding philosophy for me.”

David had always been drawn to painting, drawing, and photography, deciding early on that he’d pursue art. While in college, reflecting the influence of both sides of his family and both hemispheres of his brain, he double-majored in art and business. “I didn’t want to be a starving artist,” he says. “I wanted to be fiscally sustainable and creative.” Then, when he graduated, he happened to attend a student show at the Design Center in Dallas, where he was amazed by the craftsmanship and precision of the basswood models on display. It was an art and science David had not explored, and as he felt drawn to pursue graduate education in architecture, he decided to flip a coin. Chance or fate dictated enrollment, so he started in the architecture program at the University of Texas at Arlington. It proved to be a grueling, boot camp-style program designed to weed out those who couldn’t cut it, and of the 25 students in David’s enrolling class, he was among only three to graduate per schedule. When he completed his masters in 1994, David was recruited to work at HKS Architects, which was at that time a local company of around 300 employees.

Through his two-decade tenure at HKS, the company expanded across the country and the world, growing to 1,600 employees. David hunkered down to learn the trade, mastering each area of the business and always on the lookout for opportunity. And unbelievable oppor-

Profiles in Success: Inspiration from Executive Leaders in the Washington D.C. Area — Volume 11

tunities came, often in the strangest of places. As he rose up the ranks to Vice President, he moved to Washington, D.C. in 2002 to launch an office there. It was an opportunity to learn business and management through architecture, and David served on the team responsible for regional staffing of projects.

Among his premier projects in that capacity was the $1.2 billion BRAC 133 Project at the Mark Center in Alexandria, where his design-build team had just over two years to create 1.8 million square feet of public and office space, two parking garages, a visitor’s center, a remote delivery facility, and a transportation center.

Prior to winning the project, David began hosting meetings twice a week of all the contractors, subcontractors, developers, and consultants, pulling together the massive competitive package and then powering on to the second stage of development before knowing for sure they had won. “When we officially landed the project, we were jumping up and down with excitement, and it was immediately pedal to the metal,” he reports. “Within a month, the economy tanked, and because HKS was shelving jobs all over the country, I was able to get the best of the best within the company to perform on our team. It was an incredibly exciting time, where we all really put our personal lives on hold in the pursuit of excellence.” The LEED Gold Certified project was completed six weeks early and $50 million under budget, earning it the 2011 Lean, Clean, and Green Award from the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers.

After leaving HKS in 2010, David took a position as the design-build project manager at a regional construction company working on schools and other projects.

There, he reported on every project that came through their office, giving him the invaluable opportunity of observing firsthand how design firms put together winning contract documents. “The architect creates the contract that exists between the owner and the general contractor,” he explains. “Some of the highest design award winners were actually creating nightmares for their clients because they just didn’t have the drawing and specification quality they needed. That was eyeopening to see firsthand across the industry.”

By that point, David could do architecture in his sleep and manage big teams with ease. “I never rest on my laurels,” he says. “As soon as I master something, I recognize the natural flow of things and look for what’s next.” Recognizing an opportunity to learn more about the world of small government contracting, David took a position with Edifice Studio, a small woman-owned business. Within a month, he was directing the design

studio. Over the next year and a half, he applied the tremendous experience gained during his last two decades of work in the field, bringing on talented individuals with the skill sets needed to truly round out the team.

In August of 2014, David met his business partner in a leadership class, and the two got to talking about possibilities. Gore Bolton was working with Certified Business Enterprises at the time, while David was doing a lot of secure federal work with Edifice. Given their extensive experience and understanding of contracting vehicles and the industry surrounding them, they envisioned Diversified Advantage Group, Inc. as the lock made for the keys of small businesses in need of a finance and talent boost. “The idea was, where are the advantages in the diversity of opportunity?” David explains. “What’s happening in federal, state, and local contracting, and how can we embrace change and view these opportunities as a world of abundance? Now, under this banner, the history of daGROUP is ours and our partners’ to write.”

In advising young people entering the working world today, David stresses the importance of being aware of the world’s problems and how you can fit in solving them. “At the beginning of my career, I had a vision of being this hero architect, doing the right thing for the planet by creating places and solving problems,” he reflects. “Then I learned that the building industry, through its materials and transportation, is among the leading contributors to carbon creation and environmental degradation. In learning this through years of practice, I discovered that I was actually becoming part of the problem. So, I had the awareness to shift in the other direction.” David credits the Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED) green building certification program as the influence that allowed him to switch from being part of the problem to part of the solution, and he’s now completed twelve certified LEED projects.

Indeed, only through awareness of the world’s problems can one be a truly positive and impactful designer of places, businesses, or ideas. And in today’s globalized society, such big-picture thinker/doers are sorely needed. “I do what I do because it’s a way to create subeddies of value so that everyone wins—economically, financially, socially, and sustainably,” he says. “I’m one of 7.3 billion people on this planet, and when I leave, I want to have changed it for the better. I don’t want to take; I want to give. I don’t want to consume; I want to create. The future is there for the making, so let’s make it work for all.”

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Profiles in Success: Inspiration from Executive Leaders in the Washington D.C. Area — Volume 11

Ken Gosnell _________________

By Design Every day, when Ken Gosnell’s father got ready to leave for second shift at the construction company where he worked, he grabbed two essential items: the hardhat with the American flag sticker which protected him for 35 years, and his Bible. For Ken, the hardhat came to symbolize all the sacrifices his father made so he could give his four sons the opportunities and education he didn’t have growing up. It wasn’t glamorous or fancy, but it came to represent his father’s love of country, along with the associated tenets of freedom, respect, and value.

As a child, Ken understood the need for the hardhat, but he wasn’t sure why his father took his Bible too.

One day, he asked. “My father explained that he read it during breaks to improve himself,” Ken recalls today. “It made me realize that no matter where we are in life, we can always work on bettering ourselves. It showed me that the values in the Bible should guide our thinking, decisions, and behaviors, and that we can make an impact wherever we find ourselves. It was a lesson in personal leadership, values, self-improvement, and hard work—one that I haven’t forgotten.”

This paved the way for the development of Ken’s own relationship with Jesus. Through the ups and downs of growing up, his relationship with the Lord guided his thinking and development, and as the years passed, he began to truly take ownership of that relationship. He connected deeply with the idea that “we are God’s handiwork, created in Christ Jesus to do good works, which God prepared in advance for us to do (Ephesians 2:10).” “I came to understand that God has a design for my life, and for all lives,” Ken affirms. “I believe I was designed with a purpose, given the unique gifts and abilities to bring out the best in the leadership, thinking, and identity of others.”

Now the CEO of the Maryland and Washington D.C. Metropolitan Groups of the C12 Group, Ken knows he walks in the fullness of his own life by helping others—specifically leaders—reach their full God-given potential. “I believe I was uniquely designed to make an impact in the lives of leaders by helping them lead at the highest level,” he says. “Whether they’re leading an organization of two or 200 or 2,000, I’m at my best when I’m partnering with leaders to give them honest feedback, accountability, and insights, helping them see things that might not be readily visible otherwise.”

Ken is most in his element when he’s using his busi

ness mindset and personal experiences to identify and explore the struggles, visions, desires, hopes, and dreams of leaders. And with this point of view, he’s able to reach to the core of leadership by helping leaders make good decisions as they work to speak truth into the lives of those who look to them. “At its essence, leadership is about decision making,” Ken says. “I believe our destiny unfolds in the future, but it’s shaped by the decisions we make today. Leaders are defined by the decisions they make, so through the servant leadership practices of asking the right questions and listening to what might not be said out loud at first, my top priority at C12 is helping leaders make the best spiritual, personal, and business decisions they possibly can.”

C12 was founded by Buck Jacobs, who as a 33-year-old had a successful chemical engineering business in Chicago. His personal life, however, was in shambles, marred by two divorces and a series of addictions. All that changed, however, when he crossed paths with an elderly gentleman on a business trip and learned about his faith. Buck became a Christian, embracing the idea that God didn’t just want Buck on the weekends— rather, every aspect of his life should be aligned with God’s will. Buck decided to run his business as if Jesus was the CEO and God was the Chairman of the Board, achieving tremendous success with this model over the next decade or so.

Over that time, Buck received counsel through his leadership coaching groups and roundtables that often wasn’t aligned with his Christian values. He envisioned starting a group of twelve Christians modeled after the twelve Disciples of Christ, who would speak truth and work to bring about the best in his life and business.

With that, the very first C12 group was launched in Tampa, Florida, in 1994, and still meets today.

Word of the Christian executive coaching group traveled, and Buck began franchising the model to regions across the country. Unlike other CEO groups, the program was unique in that it required each regional chairman to sell their business and focus full-time on their C12 group. The model required its leaders to be excellent stewards, 100 percent committed to the CEOs and business owners entrusted to their care. “Because we’re set up this way, our business is solely dependent on providing value to our CEOs and business owners,” says Ken. “You have to be committed to be a chairman here—a big selling point for me.”

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When Ken and his wife arrived in the Washington, D.C. area in 2003, he was working as a consultant, coach, and sales trainer all around the country. To augment his growth, both personally and professionally, he sought a group or roundtable that would allow him to receive counsel from other executives and business owners who shared his values and beliefs. “Proverbs 15:22 tells us that where there are many advisors, there’s much success,” Ken says. “I’ve always believed in the collective voice of many, so finding an executive group was important to me.”

Ken reached out to C12, but they didn’t have any groups in the D.C. area at the time. Eight years later, a representative from the organization planned to pass through the area to interview possible candidates to lead a new chapter there, and they had kept Ken’s name.

After meeting with Ken in person, the representative enjoyed their conversation so much that he knew Ken was the right person to lead a group of Washington area CEOs under the C12 banner. He asked Ken to pray on the idea of leading the effort to start the chapter.

At first, Ken thought there was no way he’d accept, believing that limiting his work to mostly Christians would severely curtail his business opportunities. My wife agreed that it didn’t seem like a smart business opportunity, but they agreed to pray about it for a total of eight months. They both did additional research on the opportunity, and in the end, they realized there was a great need for somebody to fill the void in Washington, helping Christian CEOs build great businesses for great purpose. “There were a lot of secular roundtables that offered excellent service, resources, and value to their members, but we felt there should be an opportunity for Christian CEOs to have that same experience around a table with like-minded Christian men and women,” Ken recounts. “With that, in December of 2011, we launched the group.”

Since that time, the Washington D.C. Metropolitan Group has launched six sub-groups from Baltimore to Rockville, with plans to launch two more in 2016. The growth has allowed them to serve more leaders and observe real transformation in the lives of those individuals, providing real tools to help them build great businesses. From hiring the right people, to building the right culture, to developing a sales process, to hashing out real time problems with the group, C12 roundtables are about sharing insight and holding each other accountable. From small entrepreneurs to publicly traded companies, C12 business owners and executives make it clear that there’s something different about the companies they run.

“Our design is to help men and women hear the words, ‘well done, good and faithful servant,’” says Ken. “It’s not about pomp or circumstance; it’s about making a kingdom impact. Do we make a difference in people’s lives? How many people have been saved because of our companies? When we get to Heaven, we don’t think God’s going to care if our P&L statements are more impressive. He’s going to ask us if we built his kingdom 64

and shined our lights brightly so more people were saved. He’s going to care that we helped others to have a deeper and more meaningful relationship with His son because we showed them the way and talked to them about the Bible verse we read that morning.”

Indeed, C12’s mission extends far beyond the limits of the goals set forth by most roundtables, fully embracing the aim of changing the world by helping business owners and executives that have been called to lead for Jesus. The organization now has around ninety chairmen across the country serving 1,800 member companies in 64 metropolitan areas. And, with D.C. at the epicenter of change, Ken is leading the charge to bring strong Christian leaders together for accountability, encouragement, and support as they work to apply Biblical principles to their business practices and achieve true impact for Christ right here in Washington. In the past four years alone, his work has touched an estimated 150,000 lives, from the people his members employ, to the families that rely on them, to the vendors and customers they work with and the people their messages reach.

Growing God’s kingdom in this way is a testament to the redemptive power Christ has enacted in Ken’s own life through the transformation of his father, Brian Gosnell, who grew up in Missouri as the oldest of six children. Brian’s father was killed by drunk driver when he was only fifteen, so he dropped out of school to go to work to help support his family. He became a mechanic for a few years and then went to work for a plant nursery, marrying Ken’s mother at the age of nineteen. He then went to work in construction, building houses and developing enough acumen to start a business of his own. Unfortunately the 1973 oil crisis sent the company under, and the family lost everything.

The devastating blow exacerbated the alcoholism his father had suffered from since the age of eighteen. The ups and downs, which sent Brian in and out of rehab and marked Ken’s earliest memories, threatened to tear the family apart. But an old man named Ernest Robinson would drive around town to occupy the time, and struck up a friendship with Brian. When they crossed paths during a particular low point for Mr. Gosnell, Ernest offered to come and sit with him and read the Bible. Brian refused, but when Ernest offered again a year later, things had gotten so bad that Brian knew he needed something to change in his life. He accepted, and Ernest began coming over every Tuesday night at 7:00 PM to read and discuss the Bible with the troubled man.

Those evenings marked the defining transformation of Brian Gosnell’s life—a process that had a profound impact on his youngest son. Ken watched as his father triumphed over his demons, developing a great respect for him. Around that time, a family friend suggested he apply to work for a well-established Christian business in the area, which evaluated him on his values and work ethic instead of his education and credentials. He stayed with the company for the next 27 years, working as a

Profiles in Success: Inspiration from Executive Leaders in the Washington D.C. Area — Volume 11

union president who earned the respect and appreciation of the company’s CEO. “When my father retired, the CEO said that if they had a whole workforce of people like him, they could have taken over the world,” Ken recounts. “Life dealt my father some significant blows over the years that were not his fault, but he made the best them, and those efforts made a better future for us kids.”

Ken’s father took the lessons he learned through his own life and taught his own children about self-growth and self-discipline. As the youngest of four brothers, Ken saw that even though his father had never completed his high school education, he was constantly improving himself through the books he read and the experiences he put himself in. “He never stopped learning, and even to this day he continues to grow and develop,” Ken says.

Ken’s father also modeled genuine compassion and love for other people—a sentiment Ken himself had already begun to cultivate thanks to the loving community and neighbors who always looked out for their family. Growing up in rural Missouri had its charms, and Ken remembers fondly the hunting, fishing, and camping trips they would take as a family. His mother, an incredibly strong woman who worked in a garment factory, believed in the best in her husband and four sons, teaching them the importance of being able to cook their own meals, sew their own buttons, and clean up after themselves. Ken also grew up playing all manner of sports and bailing hay with friends on nearby farms for money. “Looking back, I wouldn’t want to grow up anywhere else in the world,” he says. “It wasn’t someplace I wanted to stay because I wanted to see the world, but the memories I have there are very precious.”

Ken was shy and quiet as a kid, but he began to find his voice at summer camp when he was fifteen. It was the summer before his sophomore year of high school, and when the campers divided into separate groups to pursue their interests, Ken was most interested in wherever the girls were going. “My plans were foiled when I was approached by a counselor I really admired,” he remembers. “I think he saw that I had a heart for other people, and he told me he thought I’d do great in the public speaking group instead. Nobody had ever told me they thought I’d do well sharing an idea in that way, and I had a lot of respect for him, so I decided to try it out.”

Like a lot of kids that age, Ken was petrified at the idea of giving a fifteen-minute speech in front of his peers, but he went through with it. Instructed to speak on current topics and ideas, he gave a presentation on impartiality and the idea that everyone has value, sharing some anecdotes from his own life. Afterward, when his fellow campers approached him to say how much his words had meant to them, he began to see himself differently.

“For the first time, I realized that I may not have a lot to offer, but if I came to life and gave everything I could to offer what I had, I could improve the lives of

the people around me,” he reflects. “When I returned to school in the fall, I was different. I had my first entrepreneurial experience selling greeting cards around my neighborhood, meeting people and learning that even when I heard rejection, there was always another door to try. I became a leader and communicator on my sports teams, especially football, and I became student council president during my senior year. I cared about every person in our high school and made a point to talk to everyone about their thoughts, feelings, and ideas for how we could make a difference. Thanks to that experience at camp, my life became about other people, listening and formulating ideas and sharing them to achieve a collective kind of thinking.”

Brian Gosnell helped each of his sons buy their first car, but he was always very clear with them that once they turned eighteen, they were out on their own. Ken inherited his father’s deep desire for knowledge, and he saw college as the place to absorb the wisdom of others on his way to seeing the world. He knew his parents couldn’t help him pay for college, so he spent his high school years earning as much scholarship money as possible. He enrolled at Central Christian College in Missouri with most of his tuition paid for, making up the rest by working all four years and taking out some modest loans. He majored in Communications, served in the in the local church where he had the opportunity to preach a few sermons, made lifelong friends, and went on to become the first in his family to earn an undergraduate degree.

Upon graduating, Ken took a job with a nonprofit in Cape Girardeau, Missouri, for five years, while doing some pastoring on the side. His goal was to help people and make an impact in the lives of leaders, and he figured the best way to achieve his aim was to experience an eclectic array of organizations to gain a better understanding of leadership across a multitude of environments. He tried his hand at starting his own consulting business, and when it didn’t take off, he decided to reach out to the Dale Carnegie organization.

He had read Dale Carnegie’s book, How to Win Friends and Influence People, and decided to cold-call the number he found in the Yellow Pages for the franchise owner in Virginia Beach. He wasn’t looking for a job, but the organization is always looking for passionate people, and they offered him a sales position to start.

After a three-month Dale Carnegie course, he proved himself so capable that he was given a territory to manage.

Ken later became a training consultant for Dale Carnegie, mastering and teaching the timeless principles of the international organization. In addition to public and private trainings for companies through their five hallmark programs, they developed customized trainings upon request. Ken also earned double masters in Divinity and Business Administration and fell in love with Shonda, the woman he’s now shared ten wonderful years of marriage with. The couple decided to move to the D.C. metropolitan area together, where Ken Gosnell

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both had opportunities to advance their careers.

They planned to stay for only a couple years, but the dynamic and captivating region took its hold. Ken took an executive position with Health and Human Services, where he interviewed and worked with government executives. His primary focus was evaluating agencies to help them think and operate more like businesses under a Presidential initiative. “I felt that was a way to serve my country, and I met so many hardworking and good government managers and executives who cared deeply about the organization’s mission, vision, and values,” Ken reflects. “I met people who cared deeply about their work but had been put into a system that didn’t work as efficiently as they would like. It really gave me a different perspective of government work.”

Ken served in that capacity for four years, capping a broad range of experience from the nonprofit sector, to the broad exposure of Carnegie, and everything from small businesses to large corporations. He then went to work for a national nonprofit working on fatherhood issues, driven by the 24 million American children who grow up without a father and their heightened susceptibility to childhood poverty, homelessness, crime, and drug use. In this capacity, Ken ran a government sector aimed at working with state and local governments to help incarcerated fathers stay connected with their families for a more successful reentry, and a corporate sector geared toward advancing paternity leave policies.

Working to strengthen families while traveling across the country on consulting jobs, Ken felt almost fulfilled, but not quite. “I wanted to start my own business again at some point, and I wanted to touch multiple kinds of organizations, businesses, and leaders,” Ken says. “By the time I got involved with C12, there wasn’t a type of business I hadn’t seen the inner workings of, and I wanted to put that knowledge to work for others.”

Now, in advising young people like his oldest daughter as they prepare to enter the working world, Ken underscores the importance of making the best decision possible. “We all make mistakes in life,” Ken acknowl-

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edges. “What matters is not allowing one bad decision to lead to another bad decision. If things are going wrong, stop and think to yourself, what’s the best decision I can make in this moment? When we start making good decisions in our life, we lead ourselves to a good place.”

Ken is also a strong believer in the importance of experiences, and that everyone should have at least eight great experiences in their life. Most of his life highlights have been moments shared with his wife and soul mate, Shonda, thanks in part to the agreement they made a decade ago to achieve joint agreement on all major decisions in their lives. Adhering to the Biblical principle that marriage is a process by which two become one; an action that isn’t taken unless both partners are 100 percent onboard and aligned. “Shonda is a great mother and friend, an incredible woman of God, and one of the best things that has ever happened to me,” says Ken. “We’ve shared an amazing spiritual journey together in sharing the journey of our youngest son, who has apraxia and difficulty learning to speak. We believe in God’s ability to do amazing things, so our prayer for him has never been to just speak, but to grow up to preach to thousands of people in a multitude of languages. We see such a bright future for him and for our whole family.”

This optimism extends past the Gosnells, reaching to all of society through what Ken sees as the renewing power inherent in the marketplace. He sees a future where employees are no longer disengaged from the companies they work for, but are instead brought into the work and value of the gifts and talents they share.

He sees how markets touch all people in profound ways, and how that touch can be changed for the better. “I call every business owner and executive to really think about the significance of their company, and to ask, what if?” he says. “What if every business owner really saw their business as a platform for something bigger and more meaningful? What if every Christian business owner thought about the thousands of lives they could impact for God’s kingdom? Our lives, each precious, are by design. Our businesses should be, too.”

Profiles in Success: Inspiration from Executive Leaders in the Washington D.C. Area — Volume 11

Michael Harden _________________

Good to Great Voltaire warned that the good is the enemy of the great. But Mike Harden, a seasoned executive and leadership coach serving the D.C. metropolitan area, knows that “good” is a stepping stone to reaching one’s full potential—and he knows how to guide clients in taking that leap to get to greatness. It’s a leap he had to learn how to take the hard way, but through the coaching platforms and advisory roles he’s assumed today, he’s determined to streamline and simplify the process for others.

“To be a great CEO, you need four experiences under your belt,” Mike says now. “You have to have been fired once in your career, allowing you to be empathetic when you have to fire others. At some point, you have to struggle to make payroll, teaching you humility and how to manage your cash. You have to get sued by a disgruntled employee or former employee—a badge of honor that shows you’re taking risks and doing your job as a CEO. And finally, you have to go to Pamplona and run with the bulls. Then everything else doesn’t seem so bad.”

His is a life and leadership philosophy that could only be garnered through the personal experience of a man born to test limits. In Pamplona, his leg was run over by a bull trying to gore him. When he was seventeen, he lied about his age so he could start skydiving. “In those days, there were no tandems,” he recalls. “During one jump, I pulled the ripcord, but nothing happened. I was freefalling, and all I can remember is my entire life flashing before my eyes. It really happens— within a matter of seconds, every memory in your brain replays. Thankfully I pulled again with all my might, and the parachute came out at the last minute.”

Brushes with death never discouraged Mike’s adventurous spirit—something he now jokes about with his equally adventurous children when they say that the Harden family has a defective fear gene. He ran out of air once while scuba diving, barely making it the seventy feet back up to the surface. On another occasion he photographed an exploding volcano while hanging out of a helicopter as lava spewed up around him. He’s climbed mountains, explored caves, flown airplanes, and hitchhiked from Ohio to Virginia Beach and back in his youth. “I’ve always believed that testing yourself is a crucial part of getting from good to great,” he says.

“Otherwise, you’ll never know what you’re capable of.

Everyone needs to test themselves from time to time.”

Now the founder and CEO of the Clarity Group, an

organization that provides transformational coaching for exceptional leaders, Mike tests his limits these days not through the accomplishment of daring physical feats, but through the triumph over complex challenges alongside world-class CEOs and executives. “The people I work with are incredible, and they all have completely different sets of circumstances and problems,” he says.

“I have to be at my best, day after day, from one meeting to the next. Each client’s path from good to great is a unique one, and I love the challenge of figuring out how to take them there.”

The concept of leadership coaching first crossed Mike’s radar in 2005, when a friend sent him a Wall Street Journal advertisement for a CEO coaching program called Vistage International. “This sounds like you,” the friend had said, reflecting back on the long talks they had about growing businesses. At the time, Mike was teaching graduate school, writing books, and keeping an eye out for his next great adventure. He knew this was it. “As I learned more about Vistage, I saw that it’s really the coolest thing out there,” he recalls. “Had I known about it when I was a CEO, I could have saved myself a lot of hard knocks and mistakes that cost me hundreds of thousands of dollars.

After making those mistakes and learning from them, I saw Vistage as a great opportunity to employ my experience in the service of others.”

Mike applied and ultimately became a Vistage Chair, eventually assuming the leadership of four Vistage groups in the D.C. metropolitan area. In this capacity, Mike works with almost sixty CEOs, key executives, and management team members, advancing their success by bringing in speakers, conducting one-on-one sessions, and facilitating group meetings. Now around 60 years old, Vistage has almost doubled since Mike came onboard, growing to 20,000 members worldwide in 16 countries.

Alongside this responsibility, and in addition to serving on almost a dozen advisory boards, Mike launched the Clarity Group as a platform to provide coaching to people who needed something outside the Vistage framework. With 42 years of experience and 25 at the CEO/COO level, he’s seen it all, and is uniquely positioned to advise CEOs, COOs, Presidents, and business owners along their path to greatness. “When I’m considering taking on a client, I don’t care how big or small their company is,” Mike says. “What matters to Michael Harden

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me is, are they exceptional? Are they coachable? Do they want to get better at what they do, and are they going to challenge me by being engaged and asking tough questions? Those are the people you need to bring your A game to, and that’s what I’m all about.”

Mike also uses his own experience to help others through Executive Security Escape and Evasion (ESEE), a program he launched to teach executives and high net-worth individuals how to stay safe. He began studying safety and self-defense in high school, and in college he learned rare techniques from several Israeli friends who had survived the Six-Day War of 1967. Later, as an Army Ranger, he learned hand-to-hand combat and became an instructor, but it wasn’t until several decades later that he decided to formalize his training by taking up Ju-Jitsu.

Though experts say people over the age of 35 should not subject themselves to high amplitude throws, Mike held his own against students half his age and received his first black belt when he was 58. At 60, he earned his second-degree black belt, and he even spent time in Thailand studying knife fighting. “My wife called it the ‘Bone of the Month Club’ because I was always breaking something,” he laughs. “But it was important for me to master that. There was a time I was almost kidnapped while on business travel, and several times my hotels caught on fire. Now, through ESEE, I teach people how to protect themselves, their families, and their employees. From preventing home invasions, to antikidnapping, to stopping a car-jacking, to surviving a plane crash, to escaping from a locked room or responding to an active shooter, these are skills people want to learn.”

Mike’s passion for continual self-betterment perhaps stems from watching his father, a man who never finished high school but taught himself new skills on a daily basis. He would come home at midnight after working second shift at the factory and stay up late reading at the kitchen table. “He was incredibly driven and calm and my mother adored him,” Mike remembers. “They almost never fought, which was a beautiful thing.”

Mike was born in a poor coal-mining town in southwestern Pennsylvania. Both his grandfathers were miners, as was his father, until the mining layoffs of the 1950s compelled him to accept a factory job in Cleveland. The family moved to Ohio when Mike was two years old, though he would return to the mining town frequently throughout his childhood to visit family. His sister was born two years after the move, and his mother took a job at a factory as well to try to make ends meet.

“We were poor, though I never knew that as a kid,” Mike reflects. “We lived on hand-me-downs, and my mother’s meals were often what was left over on my plate after I’d finished eating. Every Christmas present was something that had belonged to somebody else, but it made no difference to us as children, blissfully unaware.”

This modest upbringing taught Mike how to be fru68

gal, a character trait that persisted later in life, long after he could easily afford not to be. As a kid, he was always on the lookout for ways to make money, whether it was mowing lawns, delivering newspapers, running errands, or raking leaves. When he was fifteen, he got a job collecting golf balls at a driving range, and through high school and college, he worked third shift at the factory as an air hammer operator.

In his earliest school years, Mike had trouble reading, and the nuns at his Catholic school thought he simply didn’t have the capacity to do it. His mother, however, knew what was in him. Through second and third grade, she would sit down with him after school and force him to read, helping him through the trouble areas. Thanks to her effort and care, he developed a love of reading and the capacity to speed-read early in life.

And thanks to his photographic memory, academics came easy to him from then on out. He developed a strong interest in chemistry, and the teacher who taught him in fifth and sixth grade brought in a special home study organic and inorganic chemistry course as a gift for Mike. “He really helped nurture my love of science and history, supporting the spark in me that has made me a lifelong learner,” Mike recalls. He was a straight-A student through high school, mastering information instantly without the need to study.

His most defining coming-of-age triumph, however, sprung from the constant bullying he experienced as a scrawny kid small for his age. After one particularly intense beating, Mike vowed that he would never let someone lay a hand on him again without suffering consequences. He resolved to become the best he could be physically and mentally, which translated into a lifelong pursuit of success. “It was a defining moment when I made up my mind that I was never going to be second to anyone,” he says. “I wasn’t going to let someone dominate me in any way, shape, or form ever again in my life. It just wasn’t going to happen. I still remember the time I finally stood my ground against a bully and had a real fight right there in the hallway of my high school. They left me alone after that.”

Although Mike was too small to play football in high school, he picked up wrestling, which helped to build his confidence and his physical capabilities. His father was a World War II veteran, and he had grown up wanting to join the military, so he decided to pursue that route after high school. He was nominated for the Naval Academy but was turned away because he was colorblind, so he instead accepted an Army ROTC scholarship. “Once I got that scholarship, I started receiving letters from colleges all over the country wanting me to enroll,” he says. “Harvard was among them, but so was Virginia Tech. Virginia Tech had a Corps of Cadets, and I really wanted to be in a military environment. And this was in the 70’s when being in the military wasn’t a popular career choice.”

Beyond that, Mike had always been drawn to Virginia for reasons he couldn’t explain. Virginia was his mother’s middle name, but otherwise the family had no

Profiles in Success: Inspiration from Executive Leaders in the Washington D.C. Area — Volume 11

known ties to the state. It wasn’t until much later, when Mike took up genealogy, that he realized his mother’s roots in Virginia stretched back generations before her family had relocated to Pennsylvania. “It really felt like the state was in my DNA,” Mike says. “When I was accepted to Virginia Tech, I enrolled without having ever set foot on the campus. I was just drawn there.”

Mike’s college years fell amidst the Vietnam War, and at one point he considered dropping out of school to go fight, but his father was adamantly opposed.

Though neither of Mike’s parents had gone to college themselves, they knew Mike had been given a tremendous opportunity when he won a full scholarship, and they refused to let him throw it away.

So, instead of fighting on the frontlines, Mike studied architecture, urban and regional planning, and physical education, searching for the right major. When he finally stumbled upon his first sociology class, he knew it was the field for him and quickly switched his course of study. His greatest education came, however, when the Army launched a special program to allow a select group of exceptionally strong candidates to attend Ranger School during the summer.

Mike was the only student from Virginia Tech to make the cut, but he was again almost turned away when they discovered he was colorblind. Thankfully, a Sergeant Major had a word with the medic at the last minute, convincing him to let Mike through. “I don’t know why the medic changed his mind that day, but he stamped ‘Qualified for Army Ranger Special Forces’ on my application, and I got in,” says Mike. “Ranger School was one of the most significant things that has ever happened to me, and I returned to school my senior year as an Airborne Ranger.”

Mike was the top military graduate in his class at Virginia Tech and went straight after graduation to Fort Benning for officer basic training. He wanted to be in the infantry, where the fighting was, and his first assignment was the 25th Infantry Division in Hawaii. He then had the opportunity to spend time as part of the First Royal Australian Regiment in Townsville, Australia, as part of an exchange program, and though he would have preferred to be sent to Vietnam, he made the most of it. “If I’m going to do something, it’s going to be 100 percent,” he says. “I’m a very patriotic person, and I wanted to be serving my country on the front lines where I was needed most. But the war was winding down around that time, and they made the decision not to send any more lieutenants to Vietnam.”

Mike likely would have stayed in the military for the entirety of his career, but the age of the modern volunteer army left him disillusioned. At times he felt more like a warden than an officer, so after four years of active duty and time spent in the reserves, he decided to end his military service. He was living in Texas at the time, and with three kids, he knew he needed to make money. He had gotten his MBA on the GI bill and was able to go straight into banking upon entering the civilian workforce in 1978.

Mike launched his career in Atlanta working in operations at C&S Bank, which was later acquired by Bank of America. He later went to work for vendors that sold computer systems to banks, which gave him the opportunity to master sales and travel the world. He continued working his way up through the ranks, taking a job as a sales representative with CitiCorp in 1990.

There, he met his second wife, Jeri, and continued to advance when the business unit was acquired by Fiserv, Inc., a financial services company. In 1992, the company asked Mike to create a government services division operating out of Dallas. “I taught myself how to be a President and CFO, mastering financial ratio analysis even though I had never taken a course on the subject,” he says. “I lived and died by the numbers, and within fourteen months, I built a division of a thousand people doing $60 million per year. I mastered every job at every rung in the ladder, and I experienced every growing pain you can imagine, including getting sued more times than I can count. But that experience taught me how to be successful and gave me the confidence to be the kind of coach that will grab you by the collar and tell you straight if you’re making a mistake. I will do everything I can to stop CEOs from creating train wrecks.”

Fiserv eventually became a Fortune 500 company, and Mike was one of its most successful division presidents.

Despite Mike’s record of success, the division was forced to shut down due to a regulatory violation made by a small subcontractor doing business for Fiserv, so Mike decided to strike out on his own in 1996. At that time, the world was bracing itself for Y2K, so he followed his heart back to Virginia and launched Century Technology Services, a company ensuring government entities and private companies were Y2K-compliant.

The company had a great run, with Jeri handling business operations while Mike and their engineers traveled all over the U.S., Europe, Asia, and South America. By the time 2000 came and went, the business was doing around $12 million, and Mike closed up shop to launch a cybersecurity company specializing in penetration testing and security audits.

Unfortunately, that was around the time the dotcom bubble burst, and the Hardens went from being millionaires to having negative net worth virtually overnight. Mike kept fourteen employees on payroll in an attempt to get the new company off the ground, paying them out of his own pocket while he and Jeri went without salaries. After burning through $350,000 of his own money, Mike finally accepted the fact that he needed to cut his losses and walk away from the venture. “I ended up broke with nothing to show for it,” he recalls.

“But we found jobs again, started working, and made some investments that turned out to be very good. Before long, we recouped all the wealth we had lost. That was a great lesson in how you fall down and then get back up.”

During that period of rebuilding, Mike started working as a writer and as an adjunct professor at the University of Maryland, Strayer University, and George Michael Harden

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Washington University, biding his time until he came across Vistage and launched the Clarity Group. Jeri has stayed by his side through it all, a risk-averse balance that has helped to make it all work. “She’s one of the smartest people I’ve ever met,” he says. “She gives me great advice, and we’re perfectly aligned, politically and ideologically. I’m really lucky to have her.” Together, the Hardens work to support the San Miguel School in D.C., a middle school dedicated to helping underprivileged Latino children develop the skills they need to compete in top high schools. Jeri also works to help animals in need, while Mike has dedicated substantial time in the wake of 9/11 as a volunteer for the Virginia Defense Force. In this capacity, he led four armories in Northern Virginia, rising through the ranks to battalion commander In advising young people entering today’s work world, Mike underscores the importance of reality

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checks and hard work. “My kids will make their own way in the world, just as I did,” he says. “I’ve always believed that you have to work for what you want, and I’ve wanted my kids to learn the value of a dollar through their own hard work. They never got anything handed to them.” He also remembers his time in the military as one of the most important periods of his life, and believes every young person should find some way to serve the greater good for a period of time. “Serving in the military was an important time for me to give back, and it laid a foundation for leadership,” Mike affirms. “It taught me that great leaders never complain or blame others; they find a way to get the job done. They motivate people not through money, but through loyalty and setting the example. And when they face setbacks, they persevere. Indeed, good leaders fall down sometimes. It’s the really great leaders that get back up and come back stronger than they were before.”

Profiles in Success: Inspiration from Executive Leaders in the Washington D.C. Area — Volume 11

Annette Y. Harris _________________

The Element of Surprise Those who were chosen to serve as crossing guards while in fourth grade at Lorton Elementary probably don’t remember the honor of donning that orange belt.

But Annette Harris, who was not selected, still remembers what it felt like to be overlooked.

Annette and her older brother were latchkey kids, learning to be self-sufficient while their mother worked to support them. With limited support and attention from her teachers, Annette’s grades had always been subpar, but she had worked hard to improve them so she met the grade threshold to be selected as a crossing guard. “I never felt very smart in elementary school,” she says today. She didn’t have family or teachers constantly telling her that she could achieve anything she wanted. And then to not be chosen for crossing guard—that was a letdown.

But then, in seventh grade, Annette surprised herself. She had entered Hayfield High School still earning average grades, so when she received an invitation in the seventh grade to show her photosynthesis project in the school science fair, she thought they must have made some mistake.

“I had done all the research on my own, just trying to figure it out,” she says. “I couldn’t believe they asked me, and I got honorable mention at the fair. Then, later that year, I made honor roll for the first time in my life, without even trying. I realized I was smart, and that I could do it. It was a defining moment and a major turning point for me, and I went on to graduate in the top 10 percent of my class.”

We often think we know ourselves better than anyone else could, but sometimes it takes a fresh pair of eyes and an outside perspective to bring out the strongest parts of our character. Annette still counts her lucky stars that she began finding her way to her abilities as a self-driven seventh grader. Now the founder and President of ShowUp!, a company committed to teaching the art and science of personal brand, executive presence and image management across the U.S., Annette lives for those moments where she sees her clients light up with the same surprise and empowerment that lit her up all those years ago. “It’s those moments where I can see on their face that they’ve discovered something new and great about themselves,” she says. “I love being able to help them get there. I love that element of surprise when they recognize their strengths—the ones that lead to people walk a little taller and feel more confident.”

Formally launched in 2013, ShowUp! is rooted in the

notion that excelling in business, and any other leadership position, is all about relevance, respect, reputation, and results. “These are the deciding factors in who gets ahead and who doesn’t,” she explains. “A fancy degree is great, but many people with fancy degrees can’t lead a team or command respect. It takes something else to do that.”

Through trainings, events, workshops, and one-onone assistance, the ShowUp! method works from the inside out, achieving a transformation that Annette describes as simple yet profound. Her intuitive ability to assess a person’s standout qualities is supplemented by discovery tools used to examine strengths, track record, personality, talent, and skills. “The key is, how do others see you, and what do you need to do so people see you the way you want them to?” she asks. “Sometimes, it’s an issue of someone not being able to see themselves. I have very good instincts in terms of who someone is and is not, what their strengths are, and what makes them different. I love when I can then feed that back to them and they realize something new about themselves.

The stories I tell are real and true—they’re the strategic branding of what makes a person different and unique.”

After the client gets to know their true constitution, they are coached through the details of how best to appear, behave, and communicate—the external elements of style and poise.

Employing her training with Stacy London of the TV show What Not to Wear, the Protocol School of Washington, and with William Arruda, known as the “personal brand guru,” Annette cultivates executive presence and helps clients master the outward projection of their inner strengths and self. “Our goal is to achieve alignment between someone’s personal brand and executive presence,” she explains. “It’s that alignment of the inner self and outer package that really opens the doors for success. It’s an ongoing, evolving process, and sometimes it means reinventing yourself so you stay fresh and relevant, but we’re here to help through that process.”

Today, the magic of ShowUp! is the confluence of experiences that have shaped Annette since the very beginning of her life. Her father passed away before she was born, and she cherishes a photograph of the man she never met. Her mother, a federal employee, was incredibly driven with an iron work ethic, which was a big influence on Annette. “Through example, she taught me a lot about being responsible with money and savAnnette Y. Harris

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ing, manners, how to behave, and how to lead your life,” Annette says. “She had a strong sense of style even on a stringent budget, and I saw her walk out the door everyday put together and presenting her best self to the world. And being fiscally responsible allowed her to buy a home as a young, single parent.”

Observing her mother’s self-sufficiency, Annette learned to take care of herself at a young age, and would often put dinner on to cook before her mother got home from work. She didn’t mind that her mother occasionally missed some of her soccer and softball games during the week. Though she did wish her mom could be there for more of the school field trips that took place while she was at work, she was always there for the back-to-school nights and parent/teacher and PTA meetings that she could make it to after work. “I know she did everything she could, and I know I wouldn’t be the person I am today if she didn’t trust me to take care of myself,” says Annette. “Self-awareness, selfmotivation, drive, values, integrity—these are things she taught me which you can’t get from a book or degree.”

Annette’s grandmother reinforced these concepts.

She lived just down the hill from the family, and she helped care for Annette and her brother until they moved to Lorton when Annette was in third grade. “She was a tough, strong woman, and I think I get that from her,” Annette remembers. “She’d pray on her knees every night with her rosary beads, which I now have.

Even after we moved, she took care of us a lot, and I learned so much from her about right and wrong, being well-behaved, and having integrity. She instilled in me the simple fundamentals of life—how to talk, how to act.”

The lessons of her mother and grandmother shaped her into an incredibly responsible young girl, and by the time she was ten, she was the most soughtafter babysitter in the neighborhood. “I was so good with kids that my mother wanted me to become a teacher,” she says. “They really loved me.”

Her peers, however, were a tougher crowd. “In elementary school, there were only a handful of African American students in the whole school, and I often got made fun of by the Caucasian students,” she recalls.

Unlike many of her friends, she couldn’t afford designer jeans or expensive things, and she was sensitive to the fact that most everyone else came from two-parent households. But for what she lacked in material goods, Annette more than made up for in values and integrity, thanks to the influence of her mother and grandmother.

By the time she made it to junior high, the pestering was less pronounced, and its focus was different. “I had a lot of Caucasian friends I knew from elementary school, and many of the African American students gave me a lot of flak for how I spoke and who I hung out with,” she says. Ironically, Annette’s communication skills, and particularly her ability to enunciate and speak properly, are exactly what helped her propel in her career and is now a key component of her company’s service offering.

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Annette’s mother never let her stay home in the summers. Instead, she went to summer camp and then worked summer jobs when she was old enough. “My mom was always very prudent with money, and she opened a checking account for me at a young age,” says Annette. “I understood the power of saving once I saw the money in the account grow, establishing a lifelong habit.” Once she turned sixteen and learned to drive, she would take her grandmother to the grocery store or the movies. “She was just always there,” Annette reflects. “We were very close.”

Because she had less exposure to the concept of planning for a professional future, Annette never thought seriously about what she might be when she grew up, and because she wasn’t surrounded by family who had gone to college, it wasn’t a topic that was front and center in her household during her younger years.

When she was a freshman in high school, her mother got involved with Jack & Jill, an organization that put on activities for African American youth which exposed Annette to peers who were planning for college. She also joined the Distributive Education Clubs of America (DECA), which exposed her to marketing for the first time. “I knew I wanted to do well and be able to afford the things I wanted in life,” she says. “ Annette’s hard work and drive landed her a spot at James Madison University (JMU), a defining moment for her that was made all the more wonderful by the fact that she didn’t have to concern herself with how tuition would be covered; her mother made sure that tuition, books and room and board were paid every semester. It allowed her the time she needed to study and succeed, making the most of the experience. “I never had to worry or think about paying for college, and I’m so grateful for that,” Annette says. “I had friends who often had to work hard to make ends meet while in school.”

JMU also marked a defining moment when she was accepted into a highly selective, prestigious African American sorority, Delta Sigma Theta Sorority, Incorporated. The newfound sense of sisterhood provided a lifelong lifeline of support from like-minded women who were smart and ambitious just like Annette, and for the first time in her life, she enjoyed the kind of friendships that had been absent before. “I could really relate to them, and that was very inspiring,” she says. “I saw these formidable women leaders doing great things, and I knew that’s what I wanted to do too. That was huge for me.”

Annette decided to major in marketing with a minor in fashion merchandising—a choice made through the process of elimination and her experience in DECA. “I wasn’t interested in anything else, and fortunately, I found that I loved marketing,” she says. “Again, I had to work to get my GPA where it needed to be to major in business, and I had to prove myself. I had to work triple time to excel in my business major, but it helped define me by testing my willingness to keep striving.”

When she graduated, she moved home and took a job in D.C. as an administrative assistant at an envi-

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ronmental consulting company. The job market was poor at that time, but she resigned after only a couple months. “All I did was make copies, and it felt so pointless,” she says. “My grandmother also passed away while I was there, which was a serious struggle.”

Fortunately, her stepfather, a very successful HR executive at ManTech International, was able to find her an opportunity at one of the company’s subsidiaries.

She had also worked at ManTech during the summers of her senior year in high school and freshman year of college as a receptionist, where she proved herself a consummate professional, which helped when her stepfather landed her an interview. “Kathy was a VP there at the time,” she recalls. “She brought me in, and they embraced me. They treated me like a young adult starting her career, and I got into proposal management. I had a great time there.”

While at ManTech, Annette made the decision to get her MBA with a concentration in marketing and enrolled at George Mason University. “There weren’t a lot of great opportunities at the time, and a friend of mine had gone through that program,” she says. “He inspired me.” She completed the program in two years, learning about the breakup of the Bell companies and growing fascinated by telecommunications after taking a challenging accounting class focused on the industry. She decided she wanted to work in telecom, so her internship in marketing at Bell Atlantic after her first year was a great launching pad for her career. As she was finishing up her degree, Annette began interviewing and was called in for a proposal manager job at telecom titan MCI. “It wasn’t exactly what I was looking for, but it seemed like a good opportunity to learn about the industry,” she recounts. “Bill wanted me to start the Monday after I graduated, and I decided to try it out.”

There, Annette started off shadowing other proposal managers. One woman in particular, Kathy, stood out to her. “She was ex-military and very on her game,” Annette recalls. “Everyone on the team was much older than me and very good. I watched them and tried to emulate how they managed teams. There would be a conference call with an agenda, then follow up and action items. I became a taskmaster and learned how to manage a schedule and a project, bringing together the resources and brokering the whole process of submitting a proposal.” Within six months, she was leading her own proposal teams and seeing notable wins, which built her confidence and reputation and showed her where her strengths were.

Through that time, Annette was praised constantly for her poise and professionalism. She was a natural leader in meetings, in team settings, and on conference calls, and her presence and projection set her apart. “I was often the only female and African American in the meetings,” she says. “I was a woman, and I was younger.

But because of the way I carried myself, I commanded respect. People bought in to what I had to say, and I saw the power of being able to come across as a leader.”

Annette rose through the ranks quickly at MCI, tak

ing on more responsibility to the point that she was winning multi-million dollar deals. She knew there was something special about the way she innately carried herself—something that didn’t come easily to others— but she often took it for granted. “Kids used to make fun of the way I spoke when I was a kid, but it served me very well in the workplace,” she says. “It helped me get ahead and lead.”

Working long hours, Annette spent four years in proposal management and then became an MCI WorldCom Marketing Manager supporting the launch of the sales organization in the Asia Pacific Region. The company was evolving and realigning every six months, so it wasn’t ideal, but she made the most of it until MCI WorldCom went under. She had just bought a house and a car, and she was sad to see the stages of layoffs as the company ground to a halt. “I really loved my team there,” she laments. “I particularly remember Phuong, the hardest boss I ever worked for. I realize now that I’m a lot like her. Even though she was really tough, once she saw me deliver, she respected me. It was another lesson in the importance of proving yourself.”

Annette took a proposal job at a small business for several years and was then hired by Deloitte as a Proposal Manager for their federal practice. “Again, I had to prove myself and build my reputation,” she recalls.

“You have to do it every time.” In that capacity, she worked directly with partners who brought in business, winning their trust. She often worked long hours and went above and beyond her role, and at one point even coached a proposed delivery team on presence and articulation in preparation for oral presentations. “I learned that, when it comes to results, it doesn’t really matter where you got your degree or how smart you are,” she recalls. “You have to project that presence that will enable a customer to believe in you. You have to be able to take an issue, package it, and deliver it with a marketing spin.”

Annette remembers Deloitte as a very progressive company always ahead of the curve—a company that recognized the high-pressure, high-stress nature of its work and sought to provide employees with the support they needed to succeed. One day, a speaker was brought in to coach the staff through a two-day training session.

The former CNN employee dedicated the first day to teaching them how to deal with difficult people, and the second day to professional presence. “She talked about how people dressed and wore their hair,” Annette says.

“She made us walk around and pointed out telling details, and she talked to us about things as elementary as eye contact. I thought, wow, you can get paid well to teach this? The wheels started turning.”

She also attended a presentation on personal branding, which brought in the marketing piece she excelled at. Connecting the dots, she realized she had a lot of innate knowledge to impart in the field of personal branding and image consulting. In 2007, she launched Harris Image Works, the earlier iteration of ShowUp!, as a side project to test the market.

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Meanwhile, at Deloitte, she excelled. “I’ve learned to ignore the voice inside and listen to what other people say, so when I was getting praised for delivering and winning, I knew that was something I could hang my hat on,” she remembers. “Partners were asking for me back on more projects, and I was helping to win business at a time when the company was relatively new to the federal space. I saw that I had a skill for being a taskmaster and having people follow me, bringing them together and making sure they were doing things well. I was working nonstop.”

It was a good run, but before long, Annette was burned out to the point that she even fell asleep for a second while driving home one day. It terrified her, and she decided to make a lateral move into a marketing role for the next two years. Healthcare was getting big at that time. She was named a National Marketing Manager in Deloitte’s healthcare practice. In that capacity, she was traveling to New York City on a monthly basis for two years. “I was too busy working hard and doing a good job to realize I wasn’t passionate about what I was doing,” she reflects. “I thought that was normal—that it was okay to be stressed and overworked and have a career that didn’t move you at the pace you wanted.”

When the economy tanked, Annette was laid off and referred to a small IT firm in Herndon by Keith, a partner (and mentor) she knew from her time at Deloitte.

She worked there for another two years, continuing her remarkable track record of delivering, but often felt she was giving more than she was valued for. Then, she was introduced to SM&A, a proposal consulting company that alleged to give employees the opportunity to pick and choose their projects. “I thought it would be perfect because I could cut back on the proposal management while working on my side business part-time,” she said.

“But it turned out to be far more demanding. I was sent to Texas and then to Ohio on two separate projects that were incredibly challenging, and again, I wasn’t sleeping.”

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As usual, Annette was incredibly successful, helping to win two huge state healthcare deals. She then went down to Alabama to work on another project, but her whole stint with the company revealed subtle strains of discrimination that did not sit well with her. With that, in 2013, Annette left corporate America to focus on her company full-time, rebranding it as ShowUp! to reflect a new face and grander vision.

Today, Annette employs a direct, driven, collaborative leadership style that seeks to engage and learn from others. “You need to be able to be serious and lead by example to get the job done at the highest standard, but you also need to be able to have fun and have that human element to balance,” she says. “Like our approach to personal branding, you have to be both holistic and strategic. That’s what makes ShowUp! different—we’ve got the entire package of personal branding, image, and executive presence.”

In advising young people entering the working world today, Annette cautions against getting labeled and boxed in until you’re headed where you want to go.

“I wanted to start my career in marketing, but proposal management was where I had the majority of my experience, and once I started in that direction, it was hard to start over,” she says. “I hadn’t planned to stay in proposals for so long, but it was hard to break that mold.

Also, you have to work for what you want, be patient as you put in the time, and prove yourself. It takes time to build knowledge and skill, so watch and learn. Once you do, you’ll soar.”

Beyond that, Annette reminds us that the ShowUp! philosophy has something to offer everyone. “We all get a different pass in life based on our race, our gender, our background,” she remarks. “Are you going to sit back and whine over it? No. I believe in leaving the emotion at home and doing what you have to do to succeed. The playing field is leveling, but we’re not yet there. So get out there. You might just surprise yourself—and society—in the process.”

Profiles in Success: Inspiration from Executive Leaders in the Washington D.C. Area — Volume 11

Alan Horowitz _________________

The Path Right for You The summer after his college graduation, Alan Horowitz decided set out on an adventure that would shape his life for years to come. He took a road trip to California with a friend, stopping to experience America on their way across the country. Sleeping in their van, scheming to reach their goal of scoring a hot shower every day, they had the time of their lives. Al’s most defining moment, however, came after they reached San Diego and were preparing to make the journey back.

“My friend got called back home suddenly, and I was left on my own,” he recalls. “I was like, wow. It was the first time in my life I was really by myself, so I resolved to make the best of it.”

On his solo journey home, Al stepped outside of his comfort zone to meet new people, experience new things, and see a different side of life—one of self-reliance and serendipity.

By the time he made it to the welcome center rest area at the Louisiana/Mississippi state line, he had hit his groove, though he still struggled trying to cook his meals at night in the rest area. Several women who worked at the rest area decided to take him under their wing, and he was immersed in a southern hospitality way of life.

After about five days in New Orleans, Al threw caution to the wind and decided he wouldn’t be returning to the D.C. area that fall to start graduate school at George Washington University. Instead, he decided to get his MBA at Loyola University—a program he had been accepted to but hadn’t planned to attend. The N’awlins culture and warmth of the new friends he was making made it clear this was where he wanted to spend the next couple years of his life. “My time living in New Orleans was incredible, and if my buddy hadn’t gotten called away, I don’t even know that we would have driven down there,” he muses. “Why do things happen the way they do? Don’t be afraid to take the path that feels right for you when you’re met with great opportunities—things we never imagined for ourselves, but things we discover when we’re open.”

Since then, Al has made a point to live life that way: bravely, openly, accepting challenges as opportunities to help shape a better worldview. And after over thirty years of taking the right path for his family and himself, he now employs that experience and wisdom as the CEO of AcisTek Corporation, a rapidly-growing IT professional services firm in the D.C. metropolitan area.

“There’s a time for everything,” he says today. “There’s a time for driving straight from Point A to Point B, and

I can do that very well. But there’s also a time for taking a new course; one that just might change your life.”

AcisTek was founded by Daniel Cheng, a talented software developer from Malaysia who became a naturalized citizen after pursuing an education in the U.S. He had started off as an independent consultant and formed the company with nothing but his remarkable technical acumen, growing it over a decade-long period.

Then, in 2015, he began looking for someone who could design and oversee a strategy execution plan to take the company to new heights. That person was Al. Al knew nothing about AcisTek when he was first connected with Daniel, but the more he learned about the opportunity to lead and mentor in the firm’s dynamic environment, the more interested he became. He decided to accept the challenge, and when he joined the company in October of 2015, Al set to work designing S.M.A.R.T. Goals—objectives that are specific, measurable, attainable, results-based, and time-based. “You’ve got to have them underpinning your execution plan to see how you’re doing,” he says. “We wanted the company to broaden, leaning into its secret sauce of offering client-focused value. I wanted absolute transparency and inclusivity throughout the company, and I wanted to align our personal performance goals with our corporate goals.”

Since assuming the CEO role, Al has succeeded in diversifying the company’s key service offerings into three buckets. The first is tailored agile software solutions designed to meet unique client needs, like the complex software they wrote to help the U.S. Grants Center of Excellence administer and manage $65 billion in awards annually. The second is IT services to optimize business processes and performance, leveraging network, database, cloud, and mobile applications.

“We’re now working with clients to optimize and automate everyday tasks and mission critical activities alike,” Al explains. “We deploy our top-notch IT folks to make things happen better, faster, and at a great value.” Finally, business consulting is a growing service area for AcisTek. Taken together, the company excels at agile software solutions, IT services, and business consulting, all focused on helping clients optimize performance.

Acknowledging the company’s ambition to grow, Al recognizes that the first step to success is keeping and strengthening what they already have. “Taking care of our current customers is a top priority,” he affirms.

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“The fastest place to grow your business is with clients who already know you and like you, so we’re focused on serving them better every day.” Al’s second step to success involves a focus on growth in adjacent markets and services. Who else can benefit from the services AcisTek already offers? What similar yet new services can they offer to clients they already have good relationships with? “If we’ve got three lanes, we’re taking care of those lanes while adding a lane to either side,” he explains.

“That’s the strategy, and it’s working well.”

Serving both government and commercial clients, AcisTek is now a growing team of super talented, high energy, youthful IT professionals that give Al an opportunity to put his experience to the test through mentorship and leadership. “We’ve all fallen into potholes from time to time through life, and if I can help my team be their best and avoid some of those potholes, that’s great,” he says. “Plus, I learn a lot from them too. I learn new things every day here, and that’s exciting. I love what I’m doing with AcisTek, and even though we have ten years of successful past performance, I truly believe that our best days are in front of us.”

This optimistic forecast is made possible by the journey taken and lessons learned over the years—a journey that began when Al was born in 1958, the youngest of four children in a middle class family living in Washington, D.C. His mother had worked part-time while also being a homemaker, and along the way she went back to school part-time and earned a master’s degree. His father, a World War II veteran and hardworking government employee with a PhD in chemistry, was the model of drive and commitment— though he still found time to take his young son to Washington Senators baseball games. “The Senators were horrible, but I loved the experience,” Al recalls. “I even had a baseball signed by all the players until my dog ate it.”

Al learned more about responsibility and the rush of getting rewarded for hard work when he got his first job as a paperboy. He loved the experience so much that he ran his route for five years, through junior high and high school, eventually earning enough money to buy his first car and learning about the importance of customer service in running a small enterprise. “That was one piece I kept with me,” he remembers. “Another was the experience of playing a lot of sports growing up, as competition and teamwork were things I really enjoyed.”

As a kid, Al also played tackle football in the Beltway Football League, named for the new Interstate encircling the city. He still remembers his coach, a softspoken but impactful man named Mr. Guy. “Back then, Montgomery County was predominately white, and I had never met a black adult,” Al recalls. “Our guy, Mr. Guy, was a black man coaching all these white kids, and he had an incredible way of helping us understand how we could do better. Us kids on the team didn’t see him as black or white—all we knew was that he was a great coach. It was the first time I really had a mentor.”

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In high school, Al played on the golf team, which went on to win the Montgomery County championship.

But, realizing a career in football or golf wasn’t in the cards for him, his participation in organized sports dwindled after high school. Still, their impact on his life remained noteworthy. “They served to show me that winning might not be everything, but effort is,” he remarks. “And they’re a testament to self-motivation.”

More than anything else, Al’s childhood was guided by values that encouraged him to stay grounded while striving to be the best he could be. His childhood and neighborhood friends didn’t care much for material possessions, focusing more on playing hard and having fun. “We had beat up bicycles and beat up shoes,” he laughs. “We were never materialistic. We didn’t know what wealth was, so we didn’t think about it.”

The late sixties and early seventies were a time of tremendous upheaval for American culture, and the older Horowitz children got involved in the counterculture movement. Al, however, steered a steady course amidst the tumult, not missing a beat as he went through high school, work, college, and his MBA program. “I never felt the need to have that ‘go out and find yourself’ experience,” he explains. “The closest I came was that cross country road trip that landed me in New Orleans. I’ve been running since eighth grade. It’s just that side of me that’s driven to stay focused, and though all of my siblings are now established and successful, the decision making responsibility in our family still tends to fall in my court.”

As a child, Al had always wanted to become a lawyer, but once he started college at the University of Maryland, his interest in business grew with every marketing class he took. He also used college as a platform to cultivate his people, public speaking, and leadership skills, getting involved in plays and even doing some standup comedy. “I had a lot of fun,” he laughs. “It was something completely different, and not something I had planned on doing. It was a great experience because of the unknown—getting up in front of people and seeing if they were interested or if they’d throw you out!”

Upon finishing his bachelor’s degree, he immediately pursued an MBA and landed at Loyola in New Orleans—the only time he has lived outside of D.C. “It was a great experience culturally—one that I still carry with me,” he says.

One thing his MBA program did not teach him about, though, was sales. “I think sales is one of the most misunderstood disciplines in the world,” he avows. “Whether you’re an accountant, an author, or a used car salesman, it’s one of the most important skills anyone can have—and one of the hardest things to do.

It’s something I continue to try to get better at all the time.” Al got his early sales education through various telemarketing jobs, including photography services, aluminum siding, and magazine subscriptions. “I enjoyed the challenge of sitting there with a list of 600 names you had to just tackle,” he remembers. “It was raw sales, and I loved it!”

Profiles in Success: Inspiration from Executive Leaders in the Washington D.C. Area — Volume 11

Shortly after completing his MBA, Al returned to D.C. in May of 1983 and was hired as a junior research analyst for a Navy contractor. It was several months later that he made one of the best decisions of his life— to go to a bar in Georgetown called Champions with his basketball league buddies. There, he spotted one of the most beautiful women he had ever seen. He knew he had to meet her. Noticing he had a golf ball in his pocket, he marched up and dropped it in her drink, and fortunately, she had a sense of humor.

The two married a few years later, in 1986. “I still can’t believe that that kid from Montgomery County met a beautiful girl from Arkansas, so bright and articulate and with a master’s in public education,” he describes. “What are the odds of that? I did not set out to meet my wife that night. It was the luckiest night of my life. Sandy has such great insight and intuition that have helped so much throughout my life and my business career.”

After working his way up to a research analyst position, Al decided he wanted to get into sales and marketing, so he accepted a position with Future Enterprises, a computer training company. As the marketing manager, he developed their marketing capacity capability and sales for five years, having the time of his life as the company enjoyed rapid growth. One of the firms they did training for was an up-and-coming firm called Microsoft. Al’s contacts there helped create a new position for him there as a DoD Program Manager, running marketing and managing government contracts with systems integrators for their federal office.

“Microsoft primarily only had Word and Excel back then, doing about $40 million of business for the entire government,” Al remembers. “After several years, I approached the guy who ran the federal business, and said we needed to get into consulting and product support for the government.” At that time, Microsoft Consulting Services existed in the commercial world, but not in the government. The company finally said he could try it for six months if he put together a business plan, but if it didn’t work, they’d shut it down.

Al started with nothing more than a few people, but the business took off. Their first purchase order was for $10,000, and they expanded from federal to state and local government all around the country, quickly becoming one of the largest consulting and product support business within Microsoft, and one of the most profitable. Again, Al found himself having the time of his life.

He also learned how to savor life. At the time, he and his wife, Sandy, had three young children—an era of barely-controlled chaos when he was suddenly reminded how precious life is. His oldest son, Zack, had decided to slide down the stairs in a big plastic bucket, and Zack smashed his head against the steel banister.

When Al met his wife and son at the hospital, he was told that Zack’s head injury was so severe that the neurosurgeon needed to drill holes in his skull to relieve the pressure. “In that moment, we realized how fleeting and

precious life is,” Al says. “Any regular day can take a sudden turn into territory where your life can change irreversibly. Thank God the pressure subsided and the story had a happy ending. But you have to remember that things happen. On September 10th, 2001, I was on the same California-bound flight that was hijacked the next day. It’s always haunted me, and I really focus on cherishing every day.”

In 2005, Microsoft wanted to take their Practice around the world, so they named Al Worldwide Public Sector General Manager for Services. He traveled from country to country, helping the local Practices launch and grow and linking people together with best practice sharing. “I had never really understood other cultures or traveled much internationally, so it was a fantastic experience for me,” he says. “But as time passed, I realized my kids were growing up, and I wanted to be home more.” By the time Al transitioned out of that role, the Worldwide Public Sector Services was doing over $700 million in annual revenues.

Also in 2005, Al had an opportunity to reconnect with his roots when Hurricane Katrina hit his beloved New Orleans. Through Microsoft, he helped lead a recovery effort in building katrinasafe.com, an application to help people find one another at various Red Cross centers. “It was so personal for me, being able to work on that project,” he recounts.

After seventeen wonderful years at Microsoft, Al grew tired of the global travel and wanted to spend more time with his kids, who were entering their teenage years by that time. Interested in taking a hiatus from the IT industry, he came across Mainstream GS, a business consulting company focused on increasing performance and achieving sustained success for clients.

“That mission really resonated with me, since I was feeling that my work had become more about the IT itself than the clients,” he recalls. “I wanted to get back to a client-focused approach, and they wanted someone to come put in place a strategic business plan for them.”

Thus, in 2008, Al joined Mainstream as Senior VP of Public Sector Programs, where he honed many of the skills that would prove invaluable at Acistek. “We began to evolve from a singularly-focused lean consulting company to a more full-service management consultant company,” he recounts. Within two years, he was promoted to President. “At Microsoft, people would ask what the best prerequisite was to work there,” he recalls.

“I would tell them that the best thing you can be is wellrested, because you’re running a marathon 24 hours a day, every day that you’re there. I was conditioned for hard work coming out of that experience, and it served me well.”

Mapping out a diversification strategy, Al employed his execution skills to lead an important transformation at Mainstream, succeeding in important wins despite the entrenched resistance to change one would expect to find at an established company. The company did great work for clients like the Department of Defense, assisting with strategic execution and process improveAlan Horowitz

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ment plans on the ground in countries like Afghanistan and Kuwait. “Because we served them so well, I developed great relationships with 3- and 4-star generals,” Al recounts. “Relationships trump everything in business, so serving others well serves you well.”

Through his eight years at Mainstream, Al refined his knowledge around business consulting and the importance of client performance. “I learned to measure success by how well we solved business problems and increased client performance,” he says. “Focusing on sustained high performance, we addressed the technical tools and cultural change management. We found that doing a transformation isn’t about just learning a new technique; it’s about changing the way we look at things and the way we work. That’s the approach I bring to AcisTek today. I also focus on the importance of listening to leadership. It’s one of the most underrated things in business and in life. People want to be heard, so it’s important to listen and then execute on what you hear.”

In advising young people entering the working world today, he encourages them to focus on success at every step. “I think there’s this burning desire to get the best job or do the best thing right away, but it’s not about where you start; it’s where you end up,” he points out. “If you come in as a junior research analyst like I did, be the best junior research analyst you can be. Build a great track record during the time you’re there and even if it’s not your dream job, that’s okay. You’re running a really long race, so pace yourself to ensure future success.”

Al also underscores the pivotal importance of planning and preparation so that one can “be bright, be brief, and be gone,” leaving a lasting positive impact. He emphasizes the importance of believing in yourself, picking yourself up and trying again in the face of failure or rejection. “Honestly, you’ll learn so much more from things that don’t go well than from things that do,” he says. “Savor those learning experiences, even

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when they’re hard.”

In important ways, Al’s gaze has been steady, and his footsteps have been straight. “I’ve always had something inside of me—a work ethic I think I got from my father—and it’s driven me to be focused and hardworking,” he says. “But my success is due in such large part to my wife, Sandy. Meeting her was the greatest thing that ever happened in my life. I don’t know what I did to deserve this, but I thank God for it. I’m so grateful for our thirty years of marriage and our wonderful family.”

Today, Al serves on the board of Kids Play USA, an organization founded by Darryl Hill, the first black football player to participate in the Atlantic Coast Conference. In this capacity, he helps provide equipment and resources to inner-city youth in D.C. and Baltimore so they can be more athletically competitive. He’s also involved in St. Andrews Episcopal School, where two of his children received their education and where Sandy spearheaded an important transformation as President of the Board of Trustees.

AcisTek is his next great challenge. The company has been named Contractor of the Year and also received an Assistant Secretary’s Honor Award as Outstanding Contractor from the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services’ Administration for Children and Families, a testament to its ability to serve and deliver. And with Al’s commitment to openness and decisive action, more is sure to come. “Strategy without execution is just conversation,” he says, echoing a quote that has stuck with him from Larry Bossidy, former CEO of Honeywell. “It’s one thing to paint a great vision, but it’s not enough. I think leadership is ultimately about execution of strategy and all the pieces you have to lay down to create that strong foundation. After over three decades in business, I feel that I’ve been working toward this my whole life, and I can’t wait to see where we can take AcisTek.”

Profiles in Success: Inspiration from Executive Leaders in the Washington D.C. Area — Volume 11

Greg S. Jones _________________

Beyond the Comfort Zone Growing up in the blue collar steel town of New Castle, Pennsylvania, Greg Jones didn’t look up to his teachers or athletic coaches, who often did not make the best role models. But his brother, three years older and very successful in high school, was always someone he admired. “He and his friends always let me hang out with them, and they set a high bar in terms of athletics and accomplishment,” Greg remembers today. “I wanted to achieve as much or more, and they were wonderful influences.”

When his brother went off to Westminster College, Greg would visit him often, becoming close friends with several of the football players there. Greg himself was a remarkable player and had been courted for recruitment from the very outset of his sophomore year. He knew he could easily follow in his brother’s footsteps and be very happy at Westminster. But Greg had always been an open-minded risktaker, and had gotten enough of life as a big fish in a small pond. He made the life-changing decision to step outside of his comfort zone and aim for a top notch Division I university, ultimately settling on Penn State. “I knew that if I could make it there, I could make it anywhere,” he explains.

Before the start of his freshman year, Greg was nervous to meet the figurehead Joe Paterno, but by the end of his four years there, he was the team captain. “We went to four bowl games while I was there, and were ranked in the top ten for three of my four years,” he recalls. “According to Sports Illustrated, four of the team’s seven best years occurred during my tenure. I remember the anticipation and excitement of playing in the Sugar Bowl for the national championship. I loved the level of competition and exposure. I really thrived there, and it made me want to strive for more. I realized that success is always striving for the next thing, and that you can’t spend much time looking in the rear view.”

Today, Greg utilizes that same philosophy as Director of The Unicorn Group, a Northern Virginia-based business development strategy and marketing firm that amplifies the prospects of its clients through access, experience, and trust. The firm was founded in 2002 by John Aggrey, a visionary who saw a need for business strategy and executive management consulting. He launched the firm as an executive relationship marketing company, serving businesses ranging from startup size to Fortune 1000 companies.

Over the years, The Unicorn Group has evolved further in its ability to escort clients along the road to success, whether it’s getting that meeting with a top government contractor or helping secure a deal for a fortune 1000 company. “We don’t do the nitty gritty of writing the proposals or selling directly for a company” says Greg. “We oversee the strategy, connections, and steps taken toward that win until it’s accomplished.

That’s come to involve business strategy, business development, mergers and acquisitions strategy, and raising capital.”

In this way, The Unicorn Group is the perfect solution for a company that’s just landed $4 million in private equity and needs a strategy to deliver on its promises. It’s also a godsend for companies that have just lost a key executive and need someone to come in to help execute on strategy until a replacement is found, or for companies that simply aren’t hitting their numbers and need some assistance. It’s perfect for the engineer who designed a gamechanging product but needs expertise in putting the pieces in place for a company that can truly soar. “If you want to get into government contracting, we have a team overseeing the bids who can match you to the right opportunity for you,” Greg explains. “We’re like the coach and general manager, bringing in the talent and the strategy while our client’s team does the implementation.”

Growing strictly through word of mouth, The Unicorn Group has helped over ninety organizations and counting. They only take on clients that are the right fit for them, and Greg relishes the freedom and empowerment that comes from spending his days wisely investing in efforts and projects that are perfectly suited to his skills and passion. “I’m driven by the effectiveness I can achieve when my background, exposure, and experience allows a group, individual, or company to win, whatever their particular game may be,” he says.

Time in the business world has shown Greg to be a hard-charging, dynamic leader who likes to be out front but has learned the value of thoughtful, patient, thorough communication and listening. It’s a character profile that has taken time to develop since the days of his hometown roots, where communication was not markedly valued. His hometown of New Castle thrived through the 1960s and 70s, and his father, a Korean War veteran who never went to college, was a tough Greg S. Jones

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union guy who made a living climbing telephone poles for Bell Telephone Company. “Playing catch with my dad was one of the biggest thrills of my life,” Greg laughs. “He would drive the Bell truck home for lunch.

We’d grab our gloves and go out back, and I absolutely loved it.”

The Jones family lived in a little ranch house his father built with his uncle, and Greg shared a bedroom with his brother. They were always outside playing, and when Greg was eight, he started playing football, the sport that would have a profound influence on his life.

He then picked up basketball and baseball, and sports practice obligations became a great excuse for skipping chores like mowing the yard or bailing hay. “I was playing on teams year-round,” he recalls. “I loved getting to interact with so many different teammates.”

Greg did well in school as a child, showing particular affinity for history and art. His home life changed markedly, however, when his mother moved out with his baby brother, leaving his father to raise the two older boys on his own. Greg was in third grade at the time, and he would watch his father go through several dysfunctional relationships through his formative years.

Divorce was rare at that time and in their social circles, and Greg bottled up much of the negative emotion that was felt but rarely discussed in his family. “Where I grew up, you didn’t show vulnerability or talk about your challenges,” he says. “You didn’t ask for help.”

Fortunately, his grandmother lived just next door, and the boys often sought solace at her house. She was a tough German disciplinarian, but she was also a great listener who would cook dinner for the boys and talk with them about whatever was going on. “I still have a figurine that belonged to her, and whenever I see it, it reminds me of everything she taught me and how she was there for me through the issues I was having at the time,” he says. “Her house was a safe haven, and she was an angel. Those moments with her were very defining for me.”

Greg’s relationship with his father was not always the best as he got older, but looking back, he recognizes the reasons for it. “His father left when he was a kid, so he grew up with no dad around,” Greg remembers. “He was a hardworking guy who just didn’t show emotion or weakness ever. It wasn’t his fault, it was just all he knew. He did all he could to take care of me, and in retrospect, that means a lot to me.”

Though Greg never wanted for anything, he was innately inclined to save any money he earned, even from his very earliest days doing odd jobs to earn a few dollars here and there. He worked in the summers and put at least half his pay into savings. “I never wanted to be broke or not have cash in my pocket,” he explains. “We always had food to eat so I don’t know where that came from, but saving 50 percent of my earnings have always been my mantra.”

Because Greg was so close with his older brother, he was always hanging out with boys three years older than him, and always worked hard to keep up with them, 80

intellectually and athletically. In that respect, they were hugely beneficial influences on his coming of age. “I was always pushing myself to stay in the mix,” he recalls. “I was also a little more streetwise than a lot of kids my own age.”

This high bar certainly contributed to his remarkable abilities on the football field, which captivated the attention of college recruiters across the nation when Greg was only a tenth grader. When he received his first recruitment letter from the University of Tennessee, he remembers being incredulous that they were interested in him, and so early in his high school career. Recruiter interest was a constant thrum through his high school career, and Greg ended up having to make the decision of which school to attend on his own. “I’d ask for advice from others, but they would just say that it was my decision,” says Greg. “It was frustrating not having anyone to help give me direction, and it is one reason I like to mentor and coach people today.”

Greg had his pick of the cream of the crop in Division I football schools, and he still recalls the day Jackie Sherrill came to his home to make the case for the University of Pittsburgh. “I remember Jackie sitting there in this leather jacket that went down to his ankles,” Greg says. “He looked mean as could be, and I decided right then and there that I was going to Penn State. There was just something about the culture that Joe Paterno instilled there—everyone was clean cut, tight, polite. I wanted to be like that.”

Greg spent four wonderful years at Penn State striving for excellence on the field and doing his best to balance his academics with his rigorous football obligations. “I was able to get good grades through high school, but college was a different animal altogether,” he says. “I resolved to finish in four years, but I definitely had to prioritize athletics a bit more than academics during that time.” Greg also found time to court Cathy, the lovely young woman on the swim team who would become his life partner several years down the road. He was the big fish escaped from the small pond of New Castle, testing his abilities in bigger waters.

Over time, the foreign and strange became comfortable and familiar, and by the time Greg graduated from Penn State, he had made the most of his time at the university. But when he wasn’t drafted, he found himself moving quickly toward the edge of a comfort zone he had relied on all his life. Football had always been there for him, a pillar of his character and a guidepost for his future. Once he decided his football career was officially over after testing the field as a free agent, he was confronted by the stark, unsettling question, now what? “I was so used to the structure that football brought to my life, and to being treated a certain way,” he recalls. “I was entering the ‘real world’ for the first time, and I didn’t know what else to do, so I spent time at home, back in New Castle.”

The year was 1982, and the steel and manufacturing industry in New Castle was drying up. Armed with his business and marketing degree, Greg looked for job

Profiles in Success: Inspiration from Executive Leaders in the Washington D.C. Area — Volume 11

opportunities, but the possibilities were scant. Then his father laid down the law. “He told me I wasn’t allowed to stay there,” Greg remembers. “I was angry at the time thinking he didn’t want me around, but looking back, I know it was his way of telling me he loved me. He wanted a better life for me than what I’d be able to find in New Castle.”

With that, Greg moved to Philadelphia in search of a career. “When you don’t know exactly what you want to do, it takes time to figure it out,” he recalls. “I should have gone back to the Penn State football office to help open some doors for me to find a job, as many of my friends did. But I had grown up believing that you don’t ask for help—that you have to figure it out on your own.

Things would have been so much easier, though, if I had just asked. Now I tell my kids all the time to reach out, talk to people, and ask for help.”

Coming from the privileged world of a college football star, Greg had to learn some of the most basic aspects of everyday living, and he still recalls applying for his first apartment and being offended that they asked to run a credit check on him. “I was on my own for the first time,” says Greg. “I made plenty of mistakes along the way, but I know it was the best thing in the world that could have happened to me. I never wanted to stay in my comfort zone, and I’m grateful my father gave me that kick start after college to make sure I didn’t return to it.”

Before long, Greg found a job as a counselor at Glen Mills, a juvenile detention school with a focus in athletics. He was then connected with a Penn State alumnus, Harrison Hartman, who ran D.C. development for the hospitality company Loew’s Corporation. Greg delivered his pitch to Hartman and then followed up with the HR department each week, ultimately gaining admittance to the company’s management training course. He spent six weeks in each department in D.C. and then replicated the process in the New York location, learning just enough about the hotel business to understand that it would take him years of seven-day workweeks to make it to a general manager spot.

With that, he left Loew’s and joined a Fortune 500 telecommunications hardware company called Harris Corporation. “It was a great company with great training, and they gave me my first sales gig,” Greg recounts.

“Growing up, I never wanted to be a salesperson because I had that image in my head of a car salesman. But I started making great money, and because it was all commission, it was like I was running my own business.

If I wasn’t selling anything, I wasn’t making anything, but if I was hustling, I was seeing those direct rewards. I really thrived there, and I knew I wanted to run my own business one day, so it was a great experience.”

Greg rose through the ranks at Harris, moving down to Richmond to take over a sales management team. He then moved to Wisconsin to oversee an entire region, and was later transferred to Chicago, which was a much better fit for the young family. In time, however, Greg felt the entrepreneurial itch and wanted to try some-

thing new. He decided to take a position at Litel, an Ohio-based company undergoing a tremendous overhaul as it transformed into LCI International. “It was one of the greatest rides during the greatest period of telecom,” Greg reflects. “They brought in an ex -MCI executive, Brian Thompson, who had tremendous vision and execution strategy. He was one of the only CEOs I ever met who could predict what would happen the following quarter with remarkable accuracy. I really enjoyed working there.”

When the company went through its public offering, Greg saw that the people at the top were the ones to benefit most from an IPO, and he was ready to be one of those people. He and Cathy moved back to the D.C. area, where he took a job as the twenty-fifth employee at Primus Telecommunications. There, he was tasked with building a national sales organization from scratch, opening major hubs in seven cities across the country to interface with clients in Europe and Asia. He helped take that company through an IPO as well, going on to launch his own company in 1999.

Greg and his partners sold that venture, Net Results, in 2002, freeing him up to try his hand at investing, franchising, and real estate. He took over the business sales of a struggling firm called Cavalier Telecom, redesigning the division and helped grow the company from $150 million to over $300 million in three years. Taken together, his track record of success earned him a reputation as an entrepreneurial aficionado in franchising, small business growth, and turnaround success. “I love coming in to a company for a period of time to get things back on track and moving in the right direction,” he says. “Then I like to move on to the next company.

I’m not the guy to sit around and manage operations once the business is on the right path.”

Greg also co-founded Bookkeeping Express, in 2007, and brought in an Accenture partner to serve as CEO while he sat as Chairman for several years. Yearning to stretch outside his comfort zone again, he launched Joshco Partners as a management consulting firm in the franchising space. The business took off and did remarkably well, and when Greg would run into commercial accounts that needed assistance his firm wasn’t tailored to provide, he would refer them to The Unicorn Group. At the end of 2015, Greg and John Aggrey sat down to discuss future possibilities, and they decided it made sense to work together under the Unicorn umbrella.. With that, Greg came onboard as Director and brought along his corporate and franchising expertise to house under The Unicorn Group.

Through it all, Greg has enjoyed the wonderful support of Cathy, the yin to his yang. “I made an incredibly wise choice when I got married,” he avows. “She’s more conservative than I am, so I lean on her a lot for reflection. But she always encourages me to go after the things that will make me happy, even if it involves risk.

Thank goodness for her, because she never told me to stop doing crazy things and just get a solid job. She’s always encouraged me to do what felt right, and that Greg S. Jones

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means a lot.” Together, Greg and Cathy volunteer time and money to So Others Might Eat, which serves the homeless, and to Boulder Crest Retreat for Military and Veteran Wellness, a wellness center for active duty, reserve and National Guard personnel, veterans, and their family members.

In advising young people entering the working world today, Greg underscores the importance of getting a great education. “Even if you don’t like school, drive as far as you can go with it,” he says. “Also, remember to keep an open mind. You don’t have to accept or like someone’s opinion, but at least stay open to what people have to say, because you never know

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when you might come across something life-changing.”

Beyond that, Greg urges us to embrace the unknown, even if it means you might fail. There’s a lot of pressure in the world today to get things figured out quickly, but there’s tremendous value in experimentation, risks, and venturing off the beaten path. It’s about stepping outside your comfort zone at each stage, never allowing yourself to rest on your laurels. “I’ve always wanted to try for more,” he says, reflecting on both his football career and his journey in business. “I thrive off of striving. When I left football, that question of What’s next? was really terrifying. But now, it’s what drives me.”

Profiles in Success: Inspiration from Executive Leaders in the Washington D.C. Area — Volume 11

Dr. Sylisa Lambert-Woodard _________________

The Gift in the Giving Every Sunday after church, young Sylisa Lambert returned home to gather around the dinner table with her family. But every Sunday, that family looked a little different. There might be extra aunties, uncles, or new cousins, connected to Sylisa not through blood but through the pure compassion and love her parents always gave to those in need. “A lot of my upbringing was created around this idea of being part of a community,” she reflects today. “My parents were very religious and active in the church, and they always opened their hearts and their home to people who were down on their luck. If someone asked assistance, my parents never asked why. They only said, how can I be helpful?”

The people who sought solace in the Lambert home might have lost their own home in a fire. Maybe they were fleeing domestic violence or trying to overcome an addiction. Rather than softening Sylisa’s heart to the struggling, however, the exposure prompted her to construct a wall against it. “I loved growing up in a small community where everyone knew one another,” she says. “But my family in particular was in a constant state of giving, and I never saw anyone giving back. It didn’t feel fair. When I turned eighteen and went off to college, my goal was to get as far away from service as I possibly could.”

But even service was more palatable than math, and in an attempt to avoid taking a Calculus class, Sylisa settled for several psychology and social work courses. One required that she do an internship, and she was placed in a psychiatric hospital.

“Despite my upbringing, I thought addiction and mental illness was a character flaw,” she recalls. “Even though I had had a lifetime of exposure, I didn’t believe it was real.”

All that changed, however, when Sylisa met a young woman, only a couple years older than herself, suffering from dissociative identity disorder. They sat outside together one day, and as the woman stared Sylisa in the eye, she extinguished a lit cigarette on her own arm without even flinching. “That was the moment I began to really understand the lives of those with serious mental illness,” Sylisa affirms. “She had suffered an incredibly traumatic event earlier in her life, and in that moment, I began to think differently about what it must be like for her, trying to recover from something so terrible while also facing stigma and moral judgment from others. My heart filled with a tremendous compassion I had never been able to tap into, and the servant calling

that had been cultivated in me all through my childhood began to emerge.”

Now the President and CEO of Pathway Homes, a nonprofit non-time-limited housing and supportive services organization for adults with serious mental illness and co-occurring disabilities, as well as a coowner of Alliance Therapy Center LLC, Sylisa is a leader in mental health service innovation through individual empowerment. Her approach embraces a spirit of hope and self-determination, committed to serving those most in need as her parents have always done. “I’m so grateful I had that moment of grace and realization that transformed me into a servant leader,” she remarks.

“Now I know that my life’s mission has always been to give, to love, to impact, and to leave the world better than it was, because the gift is in the giving.”

Pathway Homes was first incorporated in 1980 in the basement of a church as Pathways to Independence. At that time, mental health services were scant in Fairfax County, and the community wanted local access to quality and affordable mental health services, residential facilities, psychiatric hospitals, and housing designed to promote reintegration back into society after hospitalization. The organization won a grant from the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) to fund its first four homes, and today owns over four hundred properties serving six hundred individuals.

With a team of 140 employees, Pathways serves its individuals through three main pillars of assistance. The first involves mental health direct services, psychiatric and counseling services, and healthcare. Second, it deals in real estate to acquire and provide affordable housing.

And third, it works to advocate and educate the public, dispelling the ignorance and stigma that bars so many individuals with mentally illness from reaching their potential. “We talk about incredible people like Beethoven, Van Gogh, Robin Williams, and Martin Luther King Jr, who all suffered from mental illness but had incredible impact on the world,” Sylisa says. “We also hire counselors, receptionists, administrative staff, and advocates who have experienced mental illness themselves. They share their lived experiences and personal stories, which empowers the whole community. We’re seeing recovery in ways many people would think aren’t possible” Pathways now runs state-of-the-art assisted living Dr. Sylisa Lambert-Woodard

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facilities for people with psychiatric disabilities and severe medical conditions. It also operates group homes, townhomes, scatter sites, and individual apartment programs across the Northern Virginia area, and recently began offering services in Central Florida as well.

“Pathways is unique because we’re a ‘housing first’ organization,” Sylisa explains. “We believe that housing is a right, not a privilege, so we offer people a home first and foremost. We’re also a harm reduction model, which means that if someone in our program relapses, we won’t kick them out. We work with them to help them understand the natural, normal consequences of substance abuse, educating them on how it impacts their lives. We also help them socialize into the greater community so they feel part of something. This creates a sense of improved self-confidence and self-esteem and a desire to give back.”

Sylisa’s approach is rooted in the deeply-held conviction that people with mental illness can, and do, recover. By investing in the person to understand their needs, the Pathways team focuses on listening to the individual’s authentic voice, designing best practice programming that has been replicated both nationally and internationally. “We believe that care must be a partnership between individual and provider,” she insists. “It’s why, at both Pathway Homes and Alliance Therapy, the authentic voice of the individual must remain central at all times. That person holds within them the course that is best tailored to their ongoing success, and thanks to this approach, 100 percent of our individuals served seek to engage in bettering themselves.”

Sylisa’s own authentic voice draws its cadence, gentle but resolute, from Culpeper, a beautiful Southern town at the foot of the Blue Ridge Mountains in Virginia. Her grandfather had been born a slave, and Culpeper was the last county in the Commonwealth to desegregate, only three short years before Sylisa started first grade there. Still, she felt as though racism never really impacted her. “I’ve always felt fully assimilated and equal with respect to both race and gender,” she affirms.

For those that came before her, however, the progress of the era was a thing of remarkable beauty symbolized by the little girl’s success. On the day she was given a crown and award for getting the best grades in her class, her parents spent $55 on a small white dress, white leggings, and little white shoes for her. Her mother meticulously curled and pressed her hair, the family gathered in the park to see her crowned. “At the time, all I knew was that I was supposed to smile and not act silly,” she laughs today. “But I was the first African American child at the school to receive that honor, and it meant so much to my family. They still keep a picture of me from that day, and it reminds me of what a gift my parents gave me by raising me to not see color.

Though I was often the only African American child in my class, I always felt like I belonged, and I know it’s because my parents raised me with such a strong core.”

As a girl, Sylisa was always tagging along wherever her father went. He worked blue collar jobs for North84

ern Virginia Electric Company and Westinghouse as an electrical technician, while Sylisa’s mother was a school teacher before leaving work to invest full-time in the family. “She’s always been the matriarch of the family, deeply engaged in raising the children and taking care of us all,” Sylisa says. “She grew up the youngest girl of a family of twelve, and she sacrificed time and again for the benefit of her brothers and sisters. She’s the most unselfish person I’ve ever met, committed to fortifying generations within our family. She passed on to me a sense of family and connectedness, and today, there’s absolutely nothing I love more than being a mother to my two perfectly imperfect children.”

While her mother was always relatively quiet, her father remains a sparkling conversationalist and thriving entrepreneur, always up to something. “Together, we always dibbled and dabbled in things, fascinated by the thrill of creating,” Sylisa remembers. “I’d go to Amway conventions with him, and I remember helping him clean up law offices as part of a cleaning business he started. There’s something very humbling about ensuring you understand the value of work, and I do the same thing with my children today.”

Both father and mother raised Sylisa and her older sister with a strong work ethic, and though neither parent had graduated from college themselves, they always emphasized the importance of education. From the time she was very young, Sylisa knew she would be attending college later in life, and she went on to become the first college graduate in her family. She loved sports, shooting with her father, and babysitting when she was very young, going on to work odd jobs at Granny Franny’s fish place, McDonald’s, and Country Cookin’. In high school, she played basketball, ran track, and participated in Marine Corps ROTC. She also served as State President for the Future Business Leaders of America (FBLA), and won a Parliamentary Procedure contest that landed her a trip to San Francisco and her first time flying on a plane.

Loyal, competitive, character-driven, and mischievous, Sylisa relished the military, business, athletic, academic, and social experiences of her youth, and was voted “Best All Around” as her senior superlative. She graduated in the top 10 percent of her class and was recruited on a basketball scholarship to East Tennessee State University, piecing together the rest of her tuition and board with an Army ROTC scholarship and a small sum from FBLA. Her plans shifted, however, when the marine she loved returned from service abroad. A few years older than her, he was the brother of her close friend—a man Sylisa had seen in photos and chosen as the one she wanted to be with long before they met.

When Eric was stationed at Quantico, Sylisa decided to enroll at George Mason, where she joined Army ROTC and planned to major in business.

After her transformative pivot back to social work, Sylisa graduated early with a degree in psychology and social work. One week later, she married Eric, who had returned from service in Okinawa and promised her

Profiles in Success: Inspiration from Executive Leaders in the Washington D.C. Area — Volume 11

parents he would wait until she had finished her undergraduate degree before tying the knot. She landed a job as a public interest communications manager and fundraiser, advocating for the World Wildlife Federation, the Jacques Cousteau Society, and the New York Opera, but knew her heart and future truly lay in therapy— even though her first job as a therapist would mean a $6,000 pay cut. Fortunately, she landed a full scholarship to Catholic University, where she completed her masters in social work. She worked with a wide range of patient populations, drawing on her formative years to connect with those she sought to help. “Whether in a hospital, a group home, a prison, on the street, in the inner city, or in rural areas, I felt comfortable because no population was foreign to me, thanks to my upbringing,” she affirms. “I started to develop a sense of who I was in that community, and I was inspired by the ability to have an impact and create change.”

After completing her masters, Sylisa gave birth to her son. Soon after, she had a groundbreaking experience that would come to be a defining pillar of her professional philosophy. At five months pregnant with her second child, she was told she had lost the baby. It was supposed to be a routine sonogram, and though Eric usually accompanied her, he hadn’t been able to make it that day. When the doctor broke the news to her, however, she told him with life-defining conviction that the baby wasn’t dead. “As a psychotherapist, I knew that denial was the first stage of grief, and I knew what the doctor was thinking of me in that moment,” she recalls. “But I also knew that I was right. They tried to reason with me and then send me in for the removal procedure, but I wouldn’t let them. I just told them I was blessed with a child, and that I was going to have her, and that she was going to be okay.”

Sylisa insisted on additional tests at a more advanced facility, and as she drove herself there, she called her family to fill them in and assure them there was no problem. And as it turns out, she was right. “I was carrying the baby low in my back, so the x-ray and kinetic imaging at the first facility couldn’t pick up her movements or heartbeat,” Sylisa explains. “If I hadn’t challenged, and questioned, and stayed true to my internal strength and conviction, I would not have my daughter today. Most of us have been conditioned to accept the prescriptive nature of an authoritative person, particularly a doctor we trust. But because I didn’t, I now have my beautiful daughter we affectionately call “mini me,” who’s so spirited and so full of life. It’s what taught me to challenge respectfully, question the norm, and embrace the paradigm shifts that remind us there isn’t just one way to live your life. It was a profound miracle and tremendous blessing, teaching me that nothing is acceptable until it’s embraced by the individual it impacts.”

Sylisa went on to complete her doctorate—a vastly different kind of challenge now that she had two small children. It would not have been possible without the devotion and help of her family, particularly her mother

and Eric. “He’s the most character-driven man I’ve ever known,” she says today. “I often think about the sacrifices he’s made over the years to do what was best for the family, getting me through school or providing for us. He’s so talented and such a beautiful person, and I’m so blessed. He’s put our family first always, and it’s made the most incredible difference in all of our lives.”

Around that time, Sylisa and Eric began dabbling in real estate, flipping homes to help cover the costs of children, education, and a home. Eric took a job at a maximum security prison after leaving the military and then settled at the Fairfax County Sheriff’s Department, where he worked for 25 years. After retiring, he now works as the COO of Alliance Therapy Center, LLC and serves as an adjunct professor. Meanwhile, Sylisa took a job as the manager of Fairfax County’s residential and treatment programs. “Because my father always had multiple jobs and side hustles to be able to provide, I always felt the need to get the next degree or license,” she says. “For me, I felt that I had never done enough, which is why I’m a lifelong learner. I never have a sense of being complete or finished.”

Sylisa enjoyed her twelve years in county government, experiencing the whole spectrum of services, but she often felt that the bureaucracy barred her from being truly solution-focused in getting services to individuals in the most effective way possible. “With Eric’s counsel, I decided I wanted to transition out of government because I felt there were often unnecessary barriers to providing needed services to individuals in the community,” she recounts. “I felt I could impact change better if I were on my own.” Together, they decided to launch Alliance Therapy, a private practice specializing in addiction services and offering a full continuum of outpatient services. Alliance has developed a specialty around PTSD and the veteran population, and has since flourished into one of the most respected private practices in the area.

Sylisa had worked with Pathways in her previous capacity, and around that same time, her leadership style and approach caught the eye of then-President and CEO, Joel McMair. Sylisa, as well, loved the organization because it resonated so deeply with her life philosophy, and because it presented an opportunity to impact change more expediently on a larger scale with infrastructure that was already in place. She joined Pathways in 2000 as Senior VP and COO, and Joel became a wonderful mentor as she stepped up into the President and CEO roles. “The process allowed me to fully understand the financial and internal operational aspects of running the organization, while my background in psychotherapy has been really helpful in allowing me to exercise oversight,” she explains. “I’ve found that having a clinical background as a CEO is relatively rare, but powerful.”

Thanks in part to her unique skill set and training, Sylisa is uniquely equipped to remain exceptionally cognizant of and attentive to her environment—one of the most important assets she brings to her leadership Dr. Sylisa Lambert-Woodard

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roles. It’s a skill that allows her to move the mission forward in a strategic and intentional way, attuned to the experiences of other members of the team for better alignment. “When I’m connecting with other people, I can feel it,” she says. “I get a good sense of what’s resonating with them and what isn’t. It’s that human piece of leadership where you begin with leading from behind. As you move forward, you find that you have followship, and then fellowship. In this way, Pathways is a collective forum where we’ve allied ourselves with passion to develop an incredible agency of the smartest, most empowered people around, all guided by the desire to do what’s best for the agency.”

So, too, has Sylisa been guided each day by her unwavering faith, as she was on the morning that she declared to her leadership team that Pathways should anticipate abundance in the coming year. “They kind of just looked at me,” she remembers. “But I insisted that it was promised to us. We had six hundred individuals on our waitlist, and I told my team that we had to anticipate that we would be able to provide, because we were going to receive the funding to do it. Shortly thereafter, we presented a proposal to DHCD and landed $2.7 million to develop housing for individuals with serious mental illness, co-occurring illnesses, and chronic illnesses. I’m reminded of that success every time I look at the cross, which signifies my responsibility to help realize all that individuals have yet to receive. For me, the cross depicts hope, unconditional love, servitude, leadership, and my anticipation of spiritual abundance. It’s this feeling I’ve had all my life that I’m in God’s favor, and that I’m meant to empower and create hope for others to help them realize their greatest potential.”

As a leader, Sylisa invests in the talent in the people around her, identifying the strengths of her team members and working to transform them into passion. Her style is profoundly motivational and refreshingly transparent, always conveyed authentically and rooted in sincerity. Her emotional intelligence is paired with a strategic, analytical leaning that allows her to measure and market her mission in a way that engenders investment from the community. In 2014, Sylisa was recognized as a top nonprofit CEO by the Center for Nonprofit Advancement in Maryland, D.C., and Virginia, and Pathways was recognized nationally in 2015 as one of the best nonprofits to work for. Now, as Pathways seeks to replicate its model and empower other organizations with its proven intellectual property, Sylisa looks for opportunities to diversify and grow its private funding streams. “Our success so far has been incredibly humbling, and it inspires me to do more,” she says. “We can’t stop until we’ve eliminated our entire waitlist.” Along the journey to accomplishing this

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goal, she completed Harvard University Business School’s Strategic Perspectives in Non-Profit Management course in 2016—a transformative experience that gave her the tools to scale up, reinfuse passion, and embrace the work of non-profits as social enterprising businesses.

This commitment to change doesn’t end with Sylisa’s immediate professional obligations. She serves as Vice Chair of the Virginia Association of CommunityBased Providers and co-Chair of the Fairfax Fair Housing Committee, and advocates at the state level for community mental health solutions that work. “Our approach allows people to live longer and decreases the cost of taxpayer dollars,” she says. “It’s a far better return on investment than an emergency room, jail cell, or shelter. Permanent supportive housing is what works in recovery, and we’re working to convey that story.”

In advising young people entering the working world today, Sylisa highlights the importance of finding your passion and working for it as hard as possible, while still maintaining balance and remembering what’s really important in life. “I didn’t know exactly where my path would lead me through life, but looking back, I see that I naturally headed in the right direction,” she says.

“And nothing has changed me more positively than being a parent to my children, now both college graduates and pursuing careers in service and the military.

Watching them grow up has been a miracle, and has enhanced my ability to understand myself better. It’s a wonderful joy to completely invest in them and in Eric, and I have loved every minute of our lives together.”

She also looks to the example of her father, an incredible man and devout Christian who always touts the mantra, “God’s got this.” At 83 years young, he was diagnosed with stage four lung cancer and given six months to live, but a year later, he continues to defy expectations and follow his own path. “He’s gone through six rounds of chemotherapy but has exhibited no symptoms,” she says incredulously. “He epitomizes mindfulness, and living in the day, and trusting the Lord. I find myself here now with this profound gift because it refocused me on what really matters in life.

He’s a perfect dad and the most incredible person, and I’m so thankful that I’ve been given this time with him to really reflect and feel grateful.”

Still the tireless entrepreneur with a twinkle in his eye, Sylisa’s father is now working on building a church, having recently identified the location and commenced fundraising. “He has such a beautiful life, and he’s teaching me so much about living, as he always has,” Sylisa says. “Through him, my mother, my husband and beautiful children, my team, the people we serve, and the community we’re part of, I am reminded every day that life is a gift, and that the gift is in the giving.”

Profiles in Success: Inspiration from Executive Leaders in the Washington D.C. Area — Volume 11

Larry Letow _________________

A Team Sport Looking back, Larry thinks of his life not as a series of defining moments, but as a series of defining relationships with mentors that helped him advance his goals down the field toward success. He approaches business with the same energy, dedication, skill, and camaraderie he channeled toward the team sports he played growing up. And now, as the President and CEO of Convergence Technology Consulting, he has the opportunity to play that team sport every day. “Through my various pursuits in life, I could have gone it alone, but growing something with somebody else is much more exciting to me,” he says today. “When you’re standing at that podium at the end of the day, it’s so much better to have other people up there with you. It’s about the team.”

Convergence was founded in 2002 as one of several companies that rose from the ashes of FutureLink, an application service provider that imploded during the dot-com crash. By 2004, the company was doing well but looking for someone to help take it to the next level. The founders had stayed close to Larry, who had been a colleague at FutureLink. “I had gone with another FutureLink spinoff which we sold, so I was in the market for a new opportunity,” Larry recounts.

“The Convergence founders were highly technically savvy, and I was able to come on as the COO and bring the operational business expertise to really lay out the infrastructure and help us become strategic about our growth.”

In the beginning, Convergence made a name for itself as a technology consulting firm specializing in Microsoft services and an array of ancillary products, and when Larry joined as the company’s fifth employee in 2004, it was doing around $1.5 million in revenue.

Several years into his tenure, he stepped into the role as President, and later took on the CEO title. Today, Convergence has around sixty employees and draws around $34 million in revenue annually. “For a small company, we’ve seen it all,” Larry says. “From changes in ownership, to product development, to acquisitions of other companies, we’ve sought to remain relevant and stable in a constantly evolving world, ensuring our employees have stable jobs and our clients have top-notch service.”

Though Convergence has never had a losing year, beating its revenue and profit goals on an annual basis, it did not emerge unscathed from the Great Recession and the subsequent sequestration cuts instituted by Congress. “One of the best lessons I learned through

that time was to expect the worst but hope for the best,” Larry says. “We were all kind of blindsided by optimism at the time, with no idea that it would be so bad. We made it through by staying true to our basic principles and capabilities, sticking with what we were great at.

You can survive as a ‘jack of all trades, master of none’ when the economy is strong, but when things start to spiral, you have to focus on what you’ve mastered. We got through by switching back to our roots and continuing our growth stage. And to this day, we’re very cognizant of the fact that we have to be able to adapt when the economy changes and we have to help our clients any way we can when times are tough.”

Today, operating under the motto of “secure application delivery,” the company’s mission has expanded to focus on the secure delivery of an application from a server to an endpoint, regardless of the nature or location of that endpoint. “We help our clients build, sell, and protect the software,” Larry explains.

“Serving government agencies and commercial organizations all around the nation, we’re working with new technology every day, always pushing the limits of what we thought was possible. That’s an incredibly exciting environment to work in.”

Undoubtedly, Convergence’s success is due in large part to the innovation and integrity of its products. Recognizing that nefarious intentions can be cultivated within an organization as well, one of the company’s signature products is Intelligence ID, an insider threat protection program that prevents employees from stealing an organization’s intellectual property. The product is now sold worldwide.

But in true team spirit, Larry knows that his players are the key to success. “We have a great company because we’re made up of great people,” Larry affirms.

“Everyone has a choice in life, and I feel blessed that our employees have chosen to be a part of the Convergence team. It’s important to me that they feel valued, secure, and respected.” Thanks to this philosophy, Convergence has been named one of the best places to work in the Baltimore region for three of the past four years. The company has been named Partner of the Year for the last four years by Citrix, one of its top vendors, and Larry has received several Person of the Year awards for the Baltimore region.

Alongside Convergence, Larry helped to cofound a platform called Cyber Maryland, CyberUSA and the Larry Letow

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National Cyber Security Hall of Fame, which recognizes past cyber superstars—many of whom were part of the National Security Agency transition from cryptology to cyber. These platforms were all part of a plan to keep Maryland the leader and epicenter of cyber security innovation. Part of a broader cyber conference attended by thousands in October to mark Cyber Security Awareness Month, the annual event hosts around 350 cyber executives and places five people into the Hall of Fame. “The project is a pretty incredible example of using teamwork to take a great idea and make it a reality,” Larry says. “We came up with the concept over breakfast one day, and eight months later, it had been implemented.” The initiative has been keynoted and supported by global cyber security leaders like General Keith Alexander, Admiral Michael Rogers, Congressman Dutch Ruppersberger, and Senator Barbara Mikulski.

Known as a caring, respectful leader compelled by an innate entrepreneurial spirit Larry’s success stems from his roots. He was born in New York City to his father, an engineer, and his mother, a teacher and genius who returned to school later and pursued a long career as a paralegal for the government. He was three years old when the family moved to Silver Spring, Maryland, so his father could take a job with a defense contractor. “My grandfather was a very successful entrepreneur and had the patent on car antennas,” Larry says. “Through the 1960s and 70s, most of the antennas purchased were from his company, and he taught me a lot from an entrepreneurial standpoint. My father was similar, fostering an entrepreneurial spirit in the government by bringing in new technologies.”

Growing up, sports were everything to Larry. With no electronic devices to consume his time and attention, he spent the days playing outside. He played on football, baseball, and basketball teams, and recalls thoughtful, dedicated coaches who provided good leadership models. “I really looked up to them and knew I wanted to be a leader too,” he reflects. “I became a catcher in baseball because I wanted to be the one to catch that ball every time, calling out the type of pitches and directing people when there were outs.”

Every year, Larry worked to advance his skills and build upon his natural athletic talent. In high school, he concentrated much of his focus on tennis, where he excelled as a doubles player. “In doubles tennis, you can still be a cheerleader for your teammate and raise up another person’s ability to be great, which is what’s always driven me,” he says. “Even now, when I go out to play golf, I enjoy it so much more when I’m with someone else. I’m really driven by the social, relational, supportive aspect of teamwork.”

Larry’s parents grew up during the Great Depression and were very frugal with their money, instilling in Larry a sense of fiscal responsibility that has always served him well. As early as age twelve, Larry would go in to help on the assembly line at his grandfather’s business, putting together antennas. “It was great for me to see 88

him as a leader at work,” Larry recalls. “He treated everyone with the utmost respect, and in return, everybody loved him. It taught me the important lesson that leaders don’t have to be intimidating or threatening. They can be loved and still be just as effective, if not more effective. I was my grandfather’s first grandson, and from day one, we had an exceptionally close kinship. He was a great mentor and role model.”

In junior high school, Larry started a modest lawn cutting service, cutting between five and ten lawns a week until he was sixteen. His first truly entrepreneurial venture, however, came one day at school when a friend wanted to buy a piece of Big Buddies gum from him for fifty cents. “I knew I could buy them from the store for a nickel, so I had my dad drive me to pick up a few boxes,” Larry recounts. “I sold the whole supply for fifty cents apiece, and for a while I was selling out two to four cases of gum every couple of days. The school principal finally shut me down, telling me I was making more money than he was and disrupting class because the kids were focused on trying to buy gum. I didn’t realize then, but the lesson was that even if you have the greatest product in the world, you can lose an opportunity if you don’t have your territory locked up. The whole experience had a big impact on me as a sales person.”

Larry then landed a job at IHOP, which his parents convinced him to quit after only five days of work because he came home smelling so strongly of batter.

Instead, he took a job at a pharmacy, running the registers and assisting the manager with whatever needed to be done. He dreamed of being a professional tennis player one day, and grew up with the expectation that he would go to college without question. He attended the University of Maryland, where he majored in criminal justice with a minor in sociology and thought he might want to pursue a career in law.

Upon graduating, Larry landed a job with WR Grace where, under the exceptional mentorship of Mickey Adelman, he became the first person to complete the management training program. “I had applied to work for Herman Sporting Goods as an area manager, but the guy who interviewed me seemed distracted and hurried through the interview process,” Larry recalls. “I decided to write a letter about it to the highest-ranking person I could, which was Mickey. A week later, he called me in, interviewed me, and ended up enlisting me as the first person in his training program. I understood that the letter I wrote had power, and to this day, whether I write a letter or email or tweet, I keep in mind how effective it can be to activate people for good causes and to solve problems. There’s a way to bring something to someone’s attention that really spurs action.”

With Mickey’s guidance, Larry became assistant manager of Herman World of Sports, quickly rising through the ranks to manager before he realized he hated working in retail. “I loved the people, but the quality of life was sorely lacking,” he recalls. With that, he took a job for a defense contractor called United Information

Profiles in Success: Inspiration from Executive Leaders in the Washington D.C. Area — Volume 11

Systems (UIS), where he worked as an assistant for the CEO, Bill Johnston. Then, after becoming a facility security officer and learning how to successfully manage projects, he decided to strike out on his own and launch a company called United Computer Systems (UCS).

“Bill contracted me on to manage all their systems,” Larry says. “That was a gift. Then he bought me out and brought me back into the fold of UIS, where I became VP and part-owner.”

After five years on his own and another five years back at UCS, Larry decided he wanted to move beyond federal government work to do business with the commercial world. “All through my career up to that point, I knew I wanted something more,” he reflects. “I wanted more control over my destiny.” He spent the next year doing consulting work and then took a job with a small technology infrastructure company building server rooms. After several years working in that capacity, the company was bought by FutureLink. “The dot-com rise and crash that followed was a master education in itself,” Larry reflects. “Through a strategy of growth through acquisition, we became a global company worth over $100 million. We were building the Application Service Provider Model—what’s now known as cloud computing. We were way ahead of the technology and the trends, but people weren’t ready for it. We became paper millionaires and then watched it flow away.”

When FutureLink went under, Larry partnered with several colleagues to spin out Infinity Consulting Group, where he ran the southeast region. The company grew, and so did Larry, who soon hungered for a new kind of entrepreneurial challenge. Parting ways with his senior partner was challenging, and a life-defining moment in itself that took years to fully heal. But the experience, as all experiences do, contained important lessons, and Larry was open to learning them. “Along the ladder of life, I’ve been able to find mentors to help along the way,” he says. “Those relationships have been priceless defining moments for me, and I’m very grateful for them. They still teach me, and I know that as long as I’m open to learning, I will continue to succeed.”

Equally as impactful has been Larry’s family. His mother was always a “behind-the-scenes general,” making things happen behind closed doors. His father imparted to him a drive to succeed, and he remembers

how much it meant to him to earn his father and grandfather’s admiration from a business standpoint. “When I think about it, they’re my two biggest role models by far,” he affirms. “Earning their admiration gave me some affirmation that I was on the right path and doing the right things in life.”

The support of his wife, Wendy, also means everything. The two have been together for eighteen years.

“Wendy’s all the good things you could imagine, wrapped up into one person,” Larry says. “Not only does she have a great heart, but she takes action. When her friend died of cancer, she decided to launch an organization called The Little Things for Cancer, focused on providing assistance to caregivers and patients that otherwise get overlooked. She ran it for six years, raising millions of dollars and helping thousands of people with the little things like paying for taxies, covering household bills, and providing foot massages for patients during chemo. Wendy is the angel in the family—the calming influence who’s always trying to get me to do the right thing. Without her, I’m not sure I’d be where I am today.” Wendy and Larry raised three children together, and in 2014, they were given the incredible gift of a grandchild. “She’s one of the most important things in my world,” Larry avows.

In addition to their work in cancer philanthropy, Larry invests his time and resources heavily in education. He serves on the University System of Maryland’s Foundation Board and on the Board of Visitors for Towson University, and is also deeply involved with Howard University. “Brit Kirwan, the former Chancellor of the University System of Maryland, was a great mentor to me,” Larry says. “He taught me that, if we can find a way to give every kid a great education and get them to college, we will solve all ill wills. I believe it, and we must continue to strive to figure out how to do it.”

In advising young people entering the working world today, Larry highlights the importance of staying focused, cultivating mastery, and connecting with mentors. “Also, it’s important to have a plan,” he says.

“Always think two jobs ahead so you always know where you’re going. And if you want to have a certain job, go find a person who holds that job and ask them to mentor you. In the sport of life, go out and find the people you want to have on your team, and then give it your all.”

Larry Letow

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Brian W. Martin _________________

The Past as Present At times, it’s hard to tell if it’s the quality of the aging videotape causing audio distortion, or if it really was a blowing gale that long ago 4th of July on Long Island Sound. Brian Martin wasn’t there that day, but he watches his parents, grandmother, uncle, aunt, and cousins celebrate the holiday with some sunfish sailboat races that provide amble evidence of the wind’s force. The commentary of the videographer, the sun glinting off the water, the joy on his father’s face, all feel so real, even though many of the people in the frames have since passed away.

As a historian, Brian understands better than most the power and importance of preserving and remembering the past. It’s the essential human practice that allows him to supersede the most recent memories he has of his parents, who both passed away from cancer, and instead remember them as they were—energetic, vivid, full of color and life. His relationship with the past is not simply defined by a sense of personal nostalgia, but more so by a drive to understand and use the past in the present. And now, as the President of History Associates, Brian channels this lifelong passion through his leadership of a consulting firm specializing in helping organizations and individuals discover, preserve, and present their past. “At the heart of being a historian is a sense of discovery,” he says. “I love that I learn new things every day and have the opportunity to contribute to the collective body of knowledge we have about the past.”

History Associates first took root in 1979, when the federal government was considering a reorganization that would have pulled its reconnaissance and radiological sensing capabilities from the jurisdiction of the Department of Energy (DOE) and instead house them under the Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC). But DOE had developed these capabilities through the atomic tests of the 1950s and 60s, and was well versed in providing that surveillance, as they had done during the Three Mile Island incident. DOE tasked Dick Hewlett, the department’s Chief Historian, with telling the story of its response to the incident, in part to inform the policy debate going forward.

Already busy with other assignments, Dick hired two historians, Phillip Cantelon and Robert Williams, to capture the story. They in turn enlisted Rodney Carlisle, a visiting scholar at DOE’s history office, to help type the manuscript on an early word processor. As all four historians engaged in the project, they began to realize that history isn’t just valuable in the marketplace of ideas. In-

deed, they saw how people outside the academy used and valued history forming the basis for a profitable business model. With that, they formally launched History Associates in 1981. The fledgling company began doing work for the Bank of New York’s bicentennial celebration, and later took on the archives for Texas Instruments. Then, as concern and litigation grew over possible health effects associated with nuclear weapons testing, President Jimmy Carter directed the government to release as much information as possible about the testing program. DOE contracted with History Associates to find these records in repositories across the country and support the declassification process.

Meanwhile, Brian was working on his master’s thesis on affirmative action policy at Carnegie Mellon in 1984, when he received a call from his advisor. History Associates was looking for someone to go to Tulsa, Oklahoma, to write a labor history for a federal agency. Brian had intended to complete a full PhD program, but he decided the opportunity was worth putting all that on hold. “I had been sitting at home for two months, struggling to get my thesis finished,” he recounts. “I drove down to interview at DOE, and they asked me when I would be done with my paper. I answered by asking them when they needed me in Oklahoma. They said two weeks. I said, I’ll be done in two weeks. They offered me the job, so I finished my paper the night before I left, drove to Pittsburgh to drop it off, and then headed to Oklahoma to start my life.”

As the firm’s ninth employee, Brian spent the next four years in Tulsa working as the historian, librarian, and records manager for the agency. He then relocated to Rockville, Maryland, to work with the staff of researchers collecting and declassifying the nuclear testing documentation. As he took on project after project, Brian caught the attention of Dick Hewlett, the company’s chairman.

Dick encouraged him to finish the PhD he had set on the backburner in 1984, so Brian refocused his sights on that goal.

“At one point, I was just stuck,” he remembers. “I had two kids and was working crazy hours at History Associates, so it was impossible to find the time and mental space to really focus. Dick saw the problem and arranged for me to take a six-month sabbatical, in which I’d work six days a week in his basement office. He reviewed my writing and gave great advice through the process. In the end, I was able to finish my dissertation and get the PhD in 1997, which was essential to one day becoming presiBrian W. Martin

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dent of the company. But for him, where would I be now?”

Another crucial step in Brian’s path to success came in the early 2000s, when Phil Cantelon put out a memo asking all employees to describe where they saw themselves in the future of the company. “For some crazy reason, I had the audacious thought that someday I wanted to be the firm’s president, so I said so,” Brian recalls. “I had no idea what that really meant at the time, but I knew someone would have to take over the company’s leadership at some point, and I felt compelled to step up.” In 2004, the founding partners set a goal of transferring the management and ownership of the company to a new generation of leaders, appointing Brian to head a committee to define what the transition would look like. The plan was presented and accepted, and Brian stepped into the role of Executive VP for two years. Then, in 2007, he was named President and COO, with Phil remaining in the CEO position.

Today, History Associates has around fifty employees, some at client sites across the nation, all working to achieve the company’s mission of discovering, preserving, and presenting the past. First, it seeks to help clients discover the past by answering historical questions through research. This often means helping attorneys establish the facts at issue in a case. “These are cases where you have very few or no living fact witnesses, so we have to rely on documentary evidence that tells the story,” Brian explains.

“Our historians find that evidence and then make sense of it.” The company generally works on high-dollar, highvalue issues spanning environmental, product liability, and intellectual property cases. “The law and history cover the full range of human experience, so it can really be anything,” Brian says. “Whether you’re a country lawyer or a big time litigator, everyone has a need for this service at some point.”

When it comes to preserving the past, History Associates helps clients identify, preserve, and make available historically significant material. In this capacity, they often serve cultural institutions that need help managing their collections or require additional staff support for a special project. Presenting the past involves using authentic historical information and materials to tell engaging and informative stories. “The identity of an organization is wrapped up in its historical material,” Brian points out. “If they don’t have the evidence and the artifacts, it’s harder for the organization to tell its story and reinforce its identity to the audience it’s trying to reach, whether that’s shareholders, customers, employees, or the general public.” History Associates tells stories across a variety of media, from print history books to smartphone apps, and has worked on projects as vast and varied as processing archival collections for the America’s national parks, to creating a smart phone tour of the Gettysburg College campus and surrounding area to help connect the college with the battlefield and the historical context of the town.

Brian’s own history began in Bethesda, Maryland, where his mother worked as a medical technologist at the National Institutes of Health and his father was a special 92

agent for the Hartford Insurance Group, servicing the entire Eastern shore. In 1964, when Brian was three years old, the family moved from Rockville to Farmington, Connecticut. “We lived there just long enough for me to become a Boston Red Sox fan,” Brian laughs. “When I was eleven, we moved to the town of Trumbull, near Long Island Sound and close to where my father had grown up.

Like my father, I became a New Englander at heart.”

In the summers, Brian and his brothers, Charlie and Andy, enjoyed visiting their uncle’s farm in northeastern Ohio, where their mother’s family was from. They also loved to spend time at their other uncle’s cottage on Long Island Sound and in cottages in Maine. “My father grew up sailing a boat he built with his father, and he passed his love of the water and the sport on to our whole family,” Brian says. “We couldn’t take it out alone until we could flip it and right it ourselves, so it was a big deal when I mastered that skill and passed that milestone. Learning to sail and being out on the water was wonderful. It became a time of contemplation for me, as well as a time of focus as I worked to get the boat operating and performing at its peak. You can’t control the weather and the waves, so you have to adapt. It was a tremendous metaphor for life, and at the heart of it was the relationship between my father and me as he taught me how to live and then set me free on the water. That’s something I’m learning to do with my own son now.”

Brian laughs today when he says that he learned everything he needed to know about business from the paper route he worked as a kid. He managed daily, Sunday, and weekly deliveries, totaling over 200 deliveries per week, and learned that customer satisfaction always comes first.

“Some people wanted their papers placed in the screen door, while others liked them in their milk boxes,” he remembers. “Little things like that really matter.” He learned to employ his brothers on days he was stuck at track practice, and he came to understand that if he failed to collect from his customers, the deficit owed to the manager each month would come out of his own pocket. The experience in management reinforced the strong work ethic he learned from his father, a man who was always getting something done. “When I washed his car in the summers, he would point out the spots I missed, and I’d have to do it again until I got it right,” Brian says. “The lesson was, get it right the first time, and know that details matter.

These are things I try to teach my own kids.”

Taken together, Brian remembers the experiences of his childhood as idyllic. His mother embodied the drive of their family, making the plans that led to fun adventures and character-defining experiences. Brian also played hockey like his father and grandfather, a man he never met but admired in photos of when he played on Harvard’s team in the 1920s. In track, he stayed away from the short sprints where his brother dominated, and instead gravitated to the longer races that showcased his persevering nature.

Brian came to love history thanks in part to family trips to national parks. His interest was reinforced by his high school history teacher, Gordon Williams, who taught

Profiles in Success: Inspiration from Executive Leaders in the Washington D.C. Area — Volume 11

directly from primary sources. Brian relished learning about the past from the words of those who had lived it, which helped bring the past to life for him. He also developed a deep appreciation for Mr. Williams’s skill at teaching. “He could reach students like me, who were totally motivated, while also engaging the students who didn’t want to be there,” Brian recalls. “To me, that’s a real gift which speaks to what teaching should be.”

In his senior year of high school, Brian visited his older brother at James Madison University, where he attended a Bible study. The Martins had grown up in the church, but Brian saw that his brother had come to his own personal belief for the first time, amidst a group of people who shared genuine caring and appreciation for one another.

“I thought that was pretty neat,” Brian comments. “It started to make sense to me that Christianity wasn’t just a thing you do on Sunday mornings. Rather, it’s a relationship with God and with your brothers and sisters.”

Nearing graduation, Brian decided to enroll in Gettysburg College because he wanted to continue his study of history in a historical setting. There, he joined a Christian fellowship group and buckled down on his education, which yielded strong grades. His academic experience there was defined by professors like Gabor Boritt, the school’s Lincoln Scholar who had left his home country of Hungary as a teenager in 1956. Boritt went on to become one of the top Lincoln Scholars in the country, and taught a riveting Civil War course at Gettysburg through the Socratic Method. In the spring of Brian’s junior year, Boritt suggested he go to graduate school. “I was the top history student in my class at that point, but the thought had never crossed my mind,” Brian says. “I thought I would work in insurance like my father and grandfather.”

During college, Brian really developed intellectually, but he didn’t want to spend his career thinking about doing. Like his father, he wanted to do. He came across a notice on a bulletin board for an applied history graduate school program at Carnegie Mellon, utilizing history as a policy tool. “It was right up my alley, and I was accepted straight out of undergrad,” Brian says. “I’m grateful Dr. Boritt saw a gift in me and encouraged me to use it.”

At that time, Carnegie Mellon was the premier postindustrial university. Brian had exceptional teachers and a great experience, but he yearned to get to the “doing” part of his career. A year into the program, surrounded by students who had been working on their dissertations for the past seven years while living off ramen noodles, Brian began having doubts. He hit a low point as he struggled to finish his thesis, and looks back with gratitude for his parents’ willingness to support him without question or judgment through the challenge. “Then all this opportunity fell into my lap, thanks to one of my advisors at Carnegie Mellon, Joel Tarr, and Phil Cantelon at History Associates” says Brian. “While working for History Associates in Tulsa, I was sitting in on our client’s labor

negotiations and arbitration cases and advising the management team based on the history I knew. I wasn’t just thinking about doing—I was actually doing. It was just what I needed, and I know I would not be where I am without all the people in my life who have helped in such serendipitous ways.”

Through this journey, the most important person of all has been Ginger, the woman Brian married in 1991 after meeting through a group of mutual friends. They had their son Sam in 1993 and their daughter Jessie in 1996. “Meeting and marrying Ginger was the best thing that ever happened to me,” he says. “She’s an incredible partner and supporter. Many times through life, her strength, confidence, and ability to remain calm under stress has made all the difference, allowing me to take risks I probably wouldn’t have taken otherwise. I love being with her and experiencing life with her. Everything we’ve been through together as a family has really meant a lot to me.”

For Brian, leadership involves “bringing people together to think critically, wrestle with problems and make things happen.” A servant leader, he focuses on his role as a steward of History Associates and the lives it touches.

He fosters a culture that encourages employees to take initiative—a spirit that landed the company on the Inc. 5000 list three years in a row from 2011 to 2013. “The consistent success History Associates’ has enjoyed over 35 years is certainly not attributable to any one person, but rather is the product of everyone working well together,” he affirms. He also leads with an empathy that stems in part from the loss of his parents. “The process of their passing had a tremendous impact on my life and taught me a lot of empathy,” he says. “People face loss and hardship every day, and I’ve come to recognize that we all experience these things differently. It also taught me a new appreciation for life and what’s important.”

In advising young people entering the working world today, Brian underscores the importance of being able to communicate effectively. “Writing, speaking, classic liberal arts skills—they don’t go out of style,” he says. “If you want to drive the conversation, present the idea. Think it through and then put it on the table for everyone to react to. In a way, leadership is putting the idea on the table and explaining how to make it happen.”

Beyond that, Brian encourages the pursuit of something you love. “You’ll spend a lot of time working, so find something you enjoy and believe in and can pour your energy and time into,” he says. “I’ve been so fortunate to find a company where I get to engage every day with great clients and colleagues in a competitive business environment oriented around a field I love. My path in life wasn’t always clear, but it led me exactly where I needed to go, to a profession where I can make the past useful for clients from all walks of life and all corners of the country. If we learn to look closely, the past is present for all of us, and can be used to better the future.”

Brian W. Martin

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Juvy McCarthy _________________

The Most Good When Juvy McCarthy’s father finished his training as a surgeon, he could have worked in the United States to practice medicine, living a life of luxury with his family.

But he had become a doctor to help people, and he knew he could do the most good by serving the island in the Philippines where he grew up. There, against the beautifully lush backdrop of mountains leading down to the glittering water of the bay, he had been a child forced to watch his brother die from a disease that could have been easily cured with the help of a physician. Reeling from the senseless loss, he vowed to study medicine and return one day to help the impoverished community. True to his word, he came back after medical school, set up a clinic, and then built a hospital on the island, where it would do the most good.

Juvy grew up watching her father’s patients pay him in chickens and fruit. She saw him treat each patient alike, whether it was a wealthy politician or a poor villager. His vocation wasn’t about making money for himself— rather, it was about providing valuable and meaningful service to the community. It wasn’t until she left and returned to the Philippines many years later that she fully understood how unique her father’s sacrifice was, and it wasn’t until she joined Akima, LLC, that she realized how powerful it can be to give back in such profound ways.

Now, as the President of Akima’s Technology Solutions & Products Group, she manages over $500 million in revenue for the benefit of 13,000 Alaska natives living below the poverty line.

“They’re the most grateful, humble, gracious people I’ve ever met,” Juvy says today. “Our success means dividend payments, scholarship, infrastructure, cultural preservation and better lives for those who need them. They are why I’m here, and my mission is to do the most good I can for them.”

Akima is a $1.2 billion holding company supporting a diverse portfolio of leading IT, data communications, systems engineering, software development, cyber security, space operations, aviation, construction, facility management, fabrication, and logistics companies. Its $2.4 billion parent company, NANA Development Corporation, was formed in the wake of the Alaska Native Claims Settlement Act to serve as an economic development support mechanism to improve outcomes for Alaska natives.

NANA’s 13,000 shareholders are Inupiat, an Inuit group with a population of 7,500 people living in eleven traditional communities or villages across northwestern

Alaska.

Juvy’s group is one of five under the Akima banner, and she oversees eight companies, serving as Acting President in some cases. Five are cleared top secret technology companies, while another is ranked fifth on Washington Technology Magazine’s 2013 list of top one hundred 8(a) companies. One of her companies performed and managed the largest Active Directory and Exchange migration for 850,000 Air Force users into a single “forest,” marking the largest migration of its kind globally. “Our whole mission is to build a profitable and sustainable business for our shareholders,” Juvy affirms.

Juvy joined the NANA family of companies in 2004 as a VP for TKC Integration Services (TKCIS), which later became Affigent. She helped generate 70 percent of TKCIS‘s revenue in its first two and a half years of operation. In 2007, she left to help a woman business owner grow her 8(a) business from six to 36 clients, quadrupling the company’s revenue in nine months. At that point, NANA’s holding company, Akima, asked her to return as President of TKC Global, one of its companies under the Technology Solutions & Products Group.

“I was drawn back to Akima to work on behalf of the many, rather than one at a time,” she reflects. “On the longest of days, you remember that you’re doing it for the 13,000 shareholders that really need you.

You’re not working for corporate America—you’re doing it for the Inupiat.”

At the helm of TKC Global, Juvy examined the company’s financials and knew this would be no walk in the park. With no past performance in the federal space, she would need to build from scratch to achieve market penetration. “In hiring executives, I look for people that have revenue generation skills,” she says. “I look at business like cars. It can have leather seats and a high-powered engine, but what’s going to take you from Point A to Point B is gas. Gas is the key component allowing the car to achieve its purpose and function, and its sales that pumps gas into the car. That’s why the leaders I hire have to have business development experience, and also why I focus on building sales-friendly organizations focused on revenue generation. Everything else can be managed.”

Within two years, TKC Global had grown so quickly that Juvy was given another company to grow, Qivliq Federal Group. Again, she turned the company around and made it profitable, and in 2013, she was named President of the group. “In this role, I lead my team to success by having a heart and working hard to make sure our emJuvy McCarthy

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ployees are happy,” she says. “People are never just numbers or titles to me. I care about their families, spouses, children, and grandchildren. Our team is essentially a network of people I care about.”

Deep relationships and a sense of community were the lifeblood of Juvy’s upbringing, where her father worked to provide for the people around him in any way he could.

She grew up the third of six children in a developing country where poverty was rampant and a middle class was virtually nonexistent. “There, you either worked for somebody, or others worked for you,” she recalls. “Young people graduating from high school didn’t feel a thirst to go to college because they saw they could just live off their family’s inheritance. They didn’t have a lot of drive and felt very entitled. But my parents were different. They said there was one thing they could give me that nobody could take away, and that was education. Education was important to them above all else.”

Though Juvy excelled in school and loved following her father around as a little girl, she swore she’d never become a doctor the day she accidentally stumbled into the operating room while he was performing a procedure on one of her classmates. He worked as a general practitioner and surgeon on the islands, while her mother, a friendly and social woman, helped as a registered nurse.

Their practice was known far and wide, and neighboring cities and towns loved her father for the care he provided.

The concept of a vocation that improved the well-being of whole communities had innate resonance for Juvy, but she was the first of her siblings to reject the medical route.

She felt firmly that her future lay elsewhere.

When Juvy graduated as class valedictorian and received her school’s leadership medal, she went on to the University of the Philippines, the country’s premier institution of higher education. During her freshman year, her father, always protective, arranged for her to live in a dormitory convent oriented around the philosophy of giving back that had been important throughout her childhood. To earn funds for charity, the residents were required to take turns operating a snack cart in the dormitory for students to purchase late-night sustenance. While the mission was noble, Juvy disliked the obligation and the fact that it cut into her studying time, so she began strategizing the quickest way to sell all her inventory in the shortest amount of time possible. “My entrepreneurial side shown through as I began thinking about profit and loss and how to maximize sales and revenue,” she recalls.

“I decided to stray from the typical inventory of cookies and tea, instead opting for high-margin, high-demand products like cigarettes and beer. I sold out in 15 minutes and had the highest profit margin in the history of the store!”

While Juvy was soon discovered and reprimanded by the nuns, she was inspired by her interest in business and by making entrepreneurial choices to generate the best possible outcome for the cause. She was still unsure of what her future held, however, and decided to major in political science with the plan to become a lawyer. She later changed her tune, however, as she observed the ram96

pant corruption in the legal system in the Philippines. The reality hit particularly close to home when a judge began extorting her father, bringing him to the brink of bankruptcy. The Philippines’ National Bureau of Investigation (NBI) arrested the judge after her father helped set up a sting operation, but the damage was done, and Juvy decided that law wasn’t for her.

Though the end goal was still uncertain, Juvy powered through her coursework and finished her graduation requirements within three years, leaving the last year for more leisurely classes and pursuits. With free time on her hands, she decided to accompany her friend one day to the American library in town to wait while she filled out applications to U.S. graduate schools. Juvy grew so bored waiting that she filled out several applications herself, even though she had already registered for the Asian Institute of Management’s MBA program. She was surprised when she was accepted immediately to four different American universities.

Juvy had never planned to pursue education in America. But when she was robbed in a cab one evening on the way to a party, the shock of the trauma opened her eyes to new possibility and new adventure. “I began to feel that maybe the Philippines wasn’t the right place for me,” she recalls. “I thought about what it would be like to study abroad and see the world. I had always had a free spirit and a yearning to explore.”

Given her political science major, Juvy set her sights on Howard University for its location in Washington, D.C., the center of political activity in the U.S. Her task then fell to convincing her parents to let her go. It was exceedingly difficult for her father to even consider allowing her to go, but others in her family were convinced she’d return home in a couple months’ time. She had lived a sheltered life growing up, and her father finally agreed to allow it, believing it would teach her a lesson.

Juvy’s determined, indelible spirit, however, was more resolute than anyone in her family imagined. She was surprised to arrive on Howard’s campus to discover that it’s a historically-Black college. “I had grown in a context that definitely had some prejudice, so I was grateful to have the opportunity to meet so many great people at Howard and erase those preconceived notions,” she says.

“It was an invaluable experience for me, realizing that America has a multicultural population and that the world is better when we all coexist.”

Despite meeting many close friends, the transition to independent living in a new country wasn’t easy. Gradually, from learning how to do laundry to figuring out how to cook a hotdog, she began to get the hang of it. As she worked through her first year, she anticipated that her father would cut her off financially when he realized she wasn’t going to quit and come home, so she applied for a graduate assistantship teaching undergraduate courses for a professor. She landed the position, which covered her tuition costs and paid a stipend of $500 a month. It was enough for Juvy to rent a small room and make a living.

“There were times I wanted to pick up the phone and tell my dad to get me a one-way ticket home,” she re-

Profiles in Success: Inspiration from Executive Leaders in the Washington D.C. Area — Volume 11

members. “. I was trying to get by, paycheck to paycheck, hardly able to afford McDonalds. But the difference between my siblings and I, the thing I found that was so meaningful, was freedom. I made my own decisions, and I lived with the outcome, good or bad. It was the process of becoming truly self-sufficient and truly free to make my own decisions—to me, that’s the most valuable thing I could ever pursue. As hard as it was, I made all the decisions on my own, and as poor as I was, I was very happy. I didn’t look back.”

In fighting for survival and self-reliance while working toward her masters in International Relations, Juvy unlocked her own passion. “If you grow up with everything provided for you, it’s hard to find yourself,” she reflects.

“It’s hard to know what you need or want. But through that time, I began understanding my own direction. What did I want? What was my passion? It was a crucial time in my life where those important realizations were beginning to take place.”

Though she was offered a position at the Brookings Institute as an assistant to the fellow overseeing Nicaraguan affairs, she decided the travel obligations were too much. Instead, upon graduating, she took a part-time job as a receptionist at a car dealership, where she was promoted to a marketing position after only a month. She quickly became Director of Marketing, and though she ultimately decided to pursue a different path, her first exposure to the world of sales revealed a true affinity for the work, and a deep connection with the customers she served.

From there, Juvy transitioned to an administrative position at a commercial real estate firm, and then accepted an entry level sales job at a small business in Fairfax called Commonwealth Copiers. Excelling in sales yet again, she was quickly promoted to a director position. “I loved interacting with people in that capacity, so I decided to explore it more,” she reports. “I learned about a model for operating business centers in hotels, so at 27 years old, I approached the Hyatt Hotel in Crystal City and offered a proposal to the general manager, Ronald Bauman. My vision was to serve all the business needs of the hotel guests, marketing the services for the business center along with the services of their conference rooms. I explained how this would give them an edge over other hotels in booking conferences, and Ronald agreed.”

As part of their contract, Juvy was permitted to set up an office in the hotel rent-free. She called the Director of Engineering and requested a high-traffic area for the office so conference participants would easily notice her. Her husband helped her formally incorporate her company, and she approached the owner of Commonwealth Copiers to discuss the transition. Mike Sarelson, an entrepreneur in his own right, was sad to see her go, but incredibly supportive of her dream to push the envelope by starting her own business. Still a mentor to her to this day, he graciously gave her a copier with the understand-

ing that she would cover maintenance and copies. Juvy bought a fax machine from Mike, and Washington Business Center LLC began operation.

Juvy recouped her investment within six months and enjoyed a very profitable business thereafter. Her husband, Kevin McCarthy, continued to support and help her advance the company. “I wouldn’t have been able to do it without him,” she affirms. They bought a home, and Juvy found herself working incessantly, hiring on employees to help with the ebb and flow of the seasonal hotel conference cycle. She worked nonstop for seven years, but when she got pregnant with her daughter Kaycie, she finally decided to reevaluate her lifestyle. “At first I thought I was superwoman and I’d be able to do everything,” she says.

“But I learned I had a high-risk pregnancy, and my priority was my child, so I sold the business to Hyatt.”

After Juvy and her husband, Kevin, welcomed their healthy daughter into the world, she decided to return to work and was quickly snatched up by The Brattan Group, where her remarkable revenue generating skills elevated her to Director of Sales after a couple months. A year later, she joined Internosis, later acquired by EMC. She was later offered a job by Microsoft, but then 9/11 hit. It was her daughter’s first day of preschool in Herndon, Virginia, and Juvy was unable to reach her by phone. As luck would have it, shortly thereafter, she was offered a job by DLT Solutions, located four blocks from her daughter’s school.

“My daughter was my priority, so even though Microsoft was a good offer, it was a no-brainer for me,” she says.

There, Juvy helped jumpstart a services business and entered the world of federal procurement. Then, after a brief stint at Telos as Director of Sales, she was hired by her former boss from DLT to join the Akima effort, turning down other offers from Microsoft and Oracle. “When I first heard about this Alaska Native Corporation, I was very skeptical that there was actually an impact,” she says.

“Then I did my research and began to find out who these people were, and what possibilities existed. The more I learned the more right it felt. I looked at the people who worked for the corporation and saw my father, who was willing to make sacrifices to give back. I knew it was the right place for me.”

In advising young people entering the working world today, Juvy feels there’s too much pressure for kids to figure out what they want to be when they grow up. “If you don’t know, don’t worry about it too much,” she insists.

“You’ll know it when you see it. And when you see it, make sure you follow it. I followed it across the world, traveling 10,000 miles to pursue my dream. Focus not on your setbacks, but on positivity and performance. Discrimination exists in the world, but the best thing you can do is focus on overcoming it. And the best thing you can do is to focus your effort and attention where it will do the most good. That’s why I’m working at Akima now, and it’s why I’ll return to our town in the Philippines one day to help that island closest to my heart.”

Juvy McCarthy

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Profiles in Success: Inspiration from Executive Leaders in the Washington D.C. Area — Volume 11

Michael Mosel _________________

The Driver As a seasoned veteran of both golf and business, Michael Mosel knows firsthand that both can be fraught with frustration. His solution—literally for the former and figuratively for the latter—is the driver club. Even today, decades after he picked out his first woods, he still recalls the look and feel of his Powerbilt Citation persimmon driver dating back to 1986. “When you tee off with a driver, it’s the one shot in golf where you’re truly in control,” he explains. “You have a level lie, you control the height of the ball on the tee, and most importantly, you are in control of how you envision the golf ball flying. When I used to teach golf, I’d help people overcome their anxieties with the driver, giving them insight into how simple it can be to use it to give yourself the best opportunity to hit a good shot.”

For Mike, the driver is a relic of growing up and developing a strong relationship with his father through time spent on the golf course as youth faded into adulthood and the classic woods of the past were replaced with the metal golf clubs of today. And now, as Cofounder and Principal of Velarity, the driver symbolizes the achievement of the two forces from which his company gets its name— velocity and clarity. “In business, I think of a driver when I visualize how I want certain scenarios to play out and achieve specific outcomes,” he says. “It lends a measure of control and fortitude amidst the unpredictable forces at play, leading to optimized outcomes.”

Mike and his partner, Larry LeDoyen, felt that small and mid-sized enterprises often struggle with clarity as to what their problems are and which they should prioritize. They were also acutely aware of the value of each day in the life of a small business, so they wanted to bring velocity to identifying and solving these challenges. Velarity was incorporated on February 1, 2014, and landed its first customer within the month.

Now, Velarity specializes in assessing a business with an eye for the core elements of leadership, organizational structure, financial health, ownership issues, sales and marketing, and business development strategy. Mike and his team start by spending three to five days inside the client business, interviewing senior leaders and getting a feel for the internal dynamics. Through a lens of experience and objectivity, this intelligence is synthesized into an operations proposal, providing a platform for implementation in which Velarity works side-byside with key employees to achieve results. Once its spe-

cific goals for a client are accomplished, Velarity stands ready to serve in an official advisory capacity, providing an important thread of support within the fabric of the business.

Mike and his team know how to solve business challenges because they’ve seen most of them before.

Whether it’s negotiating lines of credit, cultivating relationships with customers or vendors, making critical decisions about strategic or financial initiatives, or tackling leadership challenges, they generally see results within several months. “When we engage a customer, it’s critical that we don’t add to their expense line or detract from their bottom line,” Mike affirms. “We have the ability to make a positive financial impact that more than pays for itself.”

As the Velarity approach has the biggest impact on smaller enterprises in the shortest timeframe, the company is currently focusing its efforts on clients with revenues of up to $20 million that are generally between three and seven years old. “We can really add value when a leader has carried a business as far as they can but have hit a wall,” Mike says.

“You can’t run a $5 million company the same way you run a $1 to $2 million dollar company, and sometimes it’s hard to visualize that difference and make that leap. We give leaders clarity about the future if they’re really looking to break down that wall and grow their business.”

When Mike considers the fundamentals that make Velarity successful, he sees the legacy of his father. In the retail world of the Northeast and Mid-Atlantic, before Wal-Mart and Target trampled the competition, Mike’s dad was a top-notch fixer for regional players Jamesway and Ames, rescuing struggling stores and opening others. This meant frequent moves for Mike’s family, with new schools and new friends, but it also exposed Mike to his father’s work—and remarkable talent—in the business world. His greatest skill, one that still echoes today through the management style Mike himself has crafted, was simplification.

“My father had a way of simplifying what makes a business successful,” Mike says. “He would distill a business model down to its fundamentals to see if they made sense. It’s pretty easy to watch the dollars in and dollars out, in terms of basic mechanics. At Velarity today, I do the same thing. It’s easy to get bogged down in the minutia. But my talent, like his, has always been seeing the bigger picture, and analyzing how the pieces Michael Mosel

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fit together, both immediately and down the road.

Sometimes that can be as simple as comparing our revenues to our costs, and sometimes it’s much more than that.”

Growing up and seeing his father open new stores and turn around failing businesses, one after another, gave young Mike a macro-perspective on business.

Witnessing a series of cross-sections that revealed individual stores at varying points in their lifecycles, including both successes and failures, contributed to Mike’s ability to see the big picture. These experiences together constituted an awakening—one of many—that would stick with him for life: the realization that the business world was his dream.

“When I was 11 or 12 years old,” Mike remembers, “I would go and work in my dad’s store. He would put me in the toy department or the sporting goods department and tell me to fix things up and get them in order. At that time I thought I wanted to be in retail business like him, and that idea later evolved into a larger dream of the business world.”

Eleven years old is an early age to develop a yearning for a future career in business, but by that age, Mike had developed wisdom beyond his years. When he was in first grade, his younger brother, Matthew, was diagnosed with a rare and terminal illness that completely redefined the family’s dynamics. Through the next several years, Mike grew accustomed to hospitals and complex medical terminology, and even stepping into the role of an additional support figure for his mother.

It wasn’t until decades later that he came to understand that his father was grieving, as well, in his own way.

Mike was nine years old when Matthew passed away. “I had grown up and learned a lot of street smarts early on,” he remembers. “I learned a lot about the curve balls life can throw at you, and about the dynamics within families. Because of my dad’s work schedule, I had to be there for my mom. And when she had another child, he was my brother, but I still felt a somewhat fatherly responsibility toward him.”

While moving around so much and seeing his father’s work instilled in Mike an appreciation for business fundamentals, rising to the unique challenges he faced after his brother’s death helped develop his other key ability: perceiving the complex dynamics of relationships among people and truly connecting with them. “Leadership demands empathy, and it requires an ability to really connect to people,” he remarks. “It’s natural for me to understand these relationships, and that makes me a better leader.”

The furnace of these trying times forged in Mike a great resourcefulness as well, which was strongly influenced by his mother’s industrial resilience. “She was a stay-at-home mom when I was younger, and she really taught me to make things work,” he remembers. “She taught me to be able to ask for help when help was truly needed, and to not be shy about it. She, too, taught me to see the whole playing field.”

The earliest awakening for Mike, however, would 100

not be larger than life, like a dream to succeed in business, or as morally serious as truly connecting to another human being. It would come in the form of something far more mundane, and yet it would help drive the plot of Mike’s life nearly all the way to his entrepreneurial leap. It would be a game called golf. “I grew up playing golf with my father, starting at six years old,” he explains. “It was a singular way to connect with my father. Growing up, I appreciated that he would bring me along to play, even though I was so young.

This was my first real taste of adults and of the value in connecting with people in business.”

Coupled with Mike’s first dream of business, in fact, was golf. From the beginning, he was a talented golfer, but while he played on his high school team and thought he could have competed at a higher level with the proper commitment and resources, the real draw for him was the business side. Later in college, when Mike encountered academic difficulty his junior year at George Mason University and had to take a semester off, the business of golf was there for him. “When I had the pleasure of a dean’s vacation in 1993, the spring of my junior year,” Mike explains, “I was either fortunate, or unfortunate, to work at the golf operations of Lansdowne, in Leesburg, Virginia.”

Mike worked at Lansdowne that spring, and then through the rest of his college career after returning to George Mason, where he earned his bachelor’s degree in Management. His first job out of college was golf pro.

Golf was there for Mike, and he was passionate about the art and science of the game. It was a thread that had run through his whole life up to that point. It was a window into his father’s business relationships, and beyond that, a window into business itself. But Mike soon realized that he still had an important lesson to learn from golf: that, ultimately, it wasn’t going to be the thing that defined what he wanted to do in life. Rather, he himself would be that thing.

“I had invested so much of myself into training to be a club professional, including being proud of the fact that I had worked my way up to $9.50 an hour from my initial $7.50 hourly wage. I felt like I was getting somewhere,” Mike explains. “But then I took a careful look at my expected earning potential, and I eventually awakened to the fact that this path was never going to align with what I wanted to do in life.”

With that, Mike was done with pursuing his life as golf pro. But in looking for his next step, he saw that golf had one more gift to give him. A guest of a member at one of the golf clubs Mike had worked at was the VP of sales at an internet startup. It was the late 1990s by then, and dot-coms were exploding, full steam ahead. “I knew I had the right skills for it,” Mike says. “I could talk to people, connect with them, and sell. I interviewed, and I was in.” In his first year, Mike made his first $100,000. “This was amazing to me,” he affirms.

But it wasn’t enough. After transitioning through a few more positions in the industry, Mike was ready to move on to something not only bigger, but greater. “It

Profiles in Success: Inspiration from Executive Leaders in the Washington D.C. Area — Volume 11

was 2002,” he recalls. “I wasn’t married yet. In fact, I had just started dating Brett, the woman who would become my wife. And it was at that point that I thought I gotta take a chance. What fruit will this tree bear?”

From his time in the dot-com world, experiencing both the boom and bust, Mike was equipped with more than a little wisdom regarding the promise of the Internet. There was great potential, but also great risk. Still, he could see that wireless and mobile technology would be a major driver in the coming years, and would quite possibly shape the decades ahead. Mike saw his opportunity there, and he had his greatest asset at the ready: fundamentals.

“I had seen it at the internet startup companies where I was selling,” Mike recalls. “It all came back to the fundamental question: how does this company make money? I had seen a single startup practically light $30 million in venture capital on fire in just sixteen months. I look back and think, wow, all that cash spent on dot-com related companies that really had no business plan at all. How were they going to make that money count? The fundamentals of business went awry.”

With the fundamentals of success at the forefront of his mind, Mike and his two equal-share partners founded Optima Network Services in 2004. “If you’re young and you have any thoughts of starting a business, then don’t wait,” he says, reflecting back on that experience.

“If you’re going to start a business, go at it 100 percent.

In my opinion, there’s no such thing as owning your own business on the side. When I hear people say, “Oh, I do real estate on the side,’ that says to me that they still need to take that final leap that’s really going to make or break it.”

Thankfully, Mike’s leap made it. He and his partners built a company that would capitalize on the information technology boom, but without dealing in information, per se. Rather, Optima’s focus was providing products and services to build wireless infrastructure for cell carriers, wireless network operators, and state and local governments. It was an industry where Mike’s mastery of the fundamentals was destined to shine.

After seven years of growth and success, the company was acquired in 2011 by MasTec, an infrastructure construction conglomerate. Mike stayed on for two years, honing his business acumen and learning key leadership lessons in the context of a large publiclytraded company. He observed the value of financial systems within larger organizations and how they can impact efficiencies within a business. He saw the tremendous value of making tough decisions instead of not making decisions at all, and of delivering on one’s word. “It was a tremendous experience,” he remembers, “but I was interested in exploring ways to work with business owners, connecting with their struggles and frustrations and finding ways to give back a piece of my knowledge and experience as a business owner myself.

That’s the kind of positive impact I love to have on the

lives of people around me.”

Through that time, Brett’s support became integral to his success. “When we had our first daughter, Avery, we decided to move back to Northern Virginia so our friends and family could be in her life,” Mike reflects.

“Through my work at Optima and then MasTec, I had to travel a lot, and Brett did an incredible job taking care of Avery and our second daughter, Reese, while I was working crazy hours and managing those pressures.”

After leaving MasTec in September of 2013, Mike connected with Larry, a friend he had met through Vistage International back in 2007. Both were interested in refocusing their expertise to small and mid-sized companies, they met in Mike’s basement in early December and came up with the concept and name for Velarity.

As a leader, Mike underscores the importance of direction and clarity of purpose. “Through Velarity, we help business owners and executives address those fundamental questions and assess their ability to lead people toward the desired outcome,” he points out.

“Confidence is one of the most important traits in a leader, and we help them develop the certainty to make a choice and move forward in a certain direction. That confidence will allow you to push past the edge of safety to enter those situations where you can try your hardest and possibly fail. That’s an extremely important place to be sometimes—a lesson I’ve learned that has changed not only the way I lead in business, but the way I connect with my wife and the way I’m a father to my kids.”

In advising young people entering the business world today, Mike underscores the importance of service jobs. “Go wait tables or bartend,” he says “Understanding the value of service is the key in the business world, as is real world experience. I see a lot of people turn to education as a safety blanket, when what they really need is to get out on the court of life and play. Make mistakes, learn lessons, and try as many different things as possible.”

Mike also stresses the importance of a professional pursuit that balances passion with pragmatism. “I think, fundamentally, that it’s very possible to make money by following your passion if you’re clear about how to monetize it,” he says. Velarity itself is a product of this philosophy, mirroring volunteer work Mike does through the Loudon County Small Business Development Center. Since 2011, he’s offered his skillset and insights to small businesses facing problems he’s uniquely qualified to analyze for the simple joy of being in the conversation of business. “I think it’s incredibly difficult to predict how business ownership or entrepreneurship will affect your personal life if you haven’t experienced it,” he remarks. “People who have a stable paycheck often haven’t asked themselves the right questions in thinking about leaving to start a business, so I connect them to that alternate perspective.”

Perhaps the most inspiring theme that permeates Mike’s success is the fact that the awakenings upon Michael Mosel

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which it’s built are self-perpetuating. One inevitably paves the way for another, creating a lifetime of transformation that keeps him continually evolving into a better leader, a better business figure, a better family man, and a better person. “I have a sticker on my computer monitor with the words, what are you going to create?” he says. “So many people these days are asking,

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what are people going to give me, or what am I entitled to? Instead, they should be concentrating on what kind of real value they can bring to the world, and they should be fearless about chasing that. It’s about standing on that green, holding the driver firmly in your grasp, visualizing the outcome, and taking the swing, wherever it leads you.”.

Profiles in Success: Inspiration from Executive Leaders in the Washington D.C. Area — Volume 11

Brad Nierenberg _________________

A Reason to Throw a Party On cold, rainy Tuesday evenings in January, many D.C. residents feel like staying in. But those who knew Brad Nierenberg in the late 1980s knew there was always a reason to throw a party, and that there was a good chance that party was happening at Champions. The Georgetown hotspot owned by Michael O’Harro, the founding figure of the sports bar world, and Brad was challenged by his no-nonsense commitment to success through bringing people together. “He taught me that everyone has a reason to throw a party—you just have to figure out why,” Brad remembers today. “He taught me there are no bad nights, just bad promotions. And most importantly, he taught me that there’s something special about everyone, and if I engage them, I’ll find it.”

Working at Champions through his early twenties, Brad mastered the art of designing optimal consumer experiences. He learned how to predict consumer preference and behavior based on his promotions. Remembering his father’s outgoing, dynamic disposition and the way he would engage guests at fundraisers at their home, Brad developed his own method for orchestrating engagement.

Through setting the specials and features of the bar each night, he learned what marketing and branding techniques worked best and ultimately sold more product.

But most importantly, the experience affirmed the importance of celebration— not just as a pastime, or as a recognition of important achievement, but as a crucial part of the community building process Brad had been drawn to all his life. When he was young, he would often wake up to the sound of pots and pans clanking in the kitchen directly underneath his bedroom. Sleepiness would give way to excitement as he slipped downstairs to find his grandfather, who would come over early to make breakfast and surprise the family. “I took great delight in the surprise of what he decided to bring each day, and in joining him to make breakfast for everyone else,” Brad remembers. “As a family, we tried to exceed each other’s expectations all the time and find reason to celebrate on a daily basis.”

Brad took the creative process a step further when he began working for a baker when he was only fifteen. He would arrive at 4:00 AM each Saturday, and he’d leave at the end of the day with a new cake or pie he had concocted—sometimes throwing on an extra layer to wow people.

Now the founder and CEO of RedPeg Marketing, Inc., one of the largest independent experiential marketing firms in the country, Brad’s business is all about wowing.

“I love making something out of nothing and creating great experiences for people,” he says. “Through a collaborative process of creation, I love to exceed the expectations of clients, employees, and consumers alike.”

Launched in 1995, RedPeg excels at creating branding experiences that appeal to their clients’ target customers.

After identifying the best about a brand and the most likely source of business, they figure out how to bring the brand to life in a nontraditional way, which might include sampling, touching, tasting, or some other form of personal experience. Their intercept program, for example, positions a product along the path of target consumers, like the placement of a Chevy Cruze vehicle in front of a Starbucks. RedPeg’s Chevrolet team offers to buy coffee for people who spend five minutes sitting in the car before going into the Starbucks, and most visitors are then willing to give their information for future communication. Through direct personal experience, people realize that the vehicles are much better than they thought, which creates consideration of the product.

Through these types of programs, RedPeg is able to build modeling for its clients to reveal how many people they interact with and how many of those people actually end up buying the product. These predictive analytics allow clients to determine a relatively precise return on investment, allowing them to make the best decisions to reach their goals. “I love that experiential marketing has evolved to analyze the smart behind the creative,” Brad explains. “As a marketer, I’m very driven by the creation of business solutions for our clients. Beyond simply reaching people, as you do with a TV ad, we’re about interacting with people, and brands are finally getting to the place where they realize that one-on-one interaction is the key. As traditional media becomes more white noise, RedPeg specializes in the experiences that drive social conversation, trial, and consideration.”

Today, RedPeg is a team of 60 employees doing around $26 million in business annually. They operate a production facility and a fleet of vehicles that can open up into interactive experiences for demonstrations. They also have an in-house staffing agency, a creative department that designs their websites and materials, and a venues and sponsorship department that handles all the contracting for client events. Finally, they have a team responsible for ensuring that all creative ideas are in line with brand strategy. With these various pieces working in tandem, Brad Nierenberg

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Brad has his eye to the future in building out experiential marketing programs for online brands like gaming companies that need to engage consumers offline too.

RedPeg is named for the red pegs that signify a strategic, targeted hit in the game Battleship. It’s about getting the right message out in the right place and at the right time, as opposed to the more blanket approach symbolized by the traditional media white pegs in the game.

“What makes great experiences? Everything must be in line to achieve the business purpose, and everything has to be creative and engaging. We also create environments that people can walk into for a brand experience, with a client service team to manage all the pieces and parts.

We’re specialists in creating brand personas and scripting the right people to ensure the vision comes alive.”

The company’s excellence stems from Brad’s passion for the creative process and innate ability to engage people on both a rational and emotional level—a skill set that developed little by little through his childhood and beyond. Born in New York City, Brad grew up in a small town in Westchester with two sisters, one older and one younger. They often got together with their eight cousins, all girls, and as the only young man in the family, Brad was showered with attention and developed a close, special bond with his grandfather—especially on those early mornings making breakfast together. These relationships proved especially important through his parents’ divorce when he was in seventh grade.

Brad lived with his mother, a homemaker turned secretary, until he was in seventh grade. Through that time, he cultivated his athletic abilities and got a paper route.

His lifestyle changed markedly, however, when he moved in with his father, a specialist in organizational development, pensions, and retirement planning. “As a seventh grader, I was home often alone, left to fend for myself. I learned early on how to take care of myself, but my grades suffered and I began to think of myself as a bad student.”

Young Brad sought solace in his work as a baker’s assistant, which provided the cornerstone of his understanding of business. “I always wanted to stand on my own two feet—I never wanted to ask for money,” he recalls. While he was dedicated to work, however, Brad did the bare minimum to get by in school. His teachers recommended boarding school in the summer to help him get caught up, so Brad’s father took him to look at schools. Brad agreed to enroll at a prep school in Massachusetts, and he enjoyed being away from his stepmother so much that he decided to complete his last two years of high school there.

At the time, Brad was just coming into his own at his high school, and prep school turned out to be no walk in the park. He went from being well-known in town to not quite fitting in. He went from captain of his high school JV football team to playing third string at the prep school due to the caliber of the athletes. Still, it was better than being at home. “I learned a lot about myself through those years and became even more independent.”

Brad still hadn’t found his path when he enrolled at Ithaca College and opted to pursue a course of study in 104

Economics—a difficult series of classes that didn’t click for him. Fortunately, during his sophomore year, Brad crossed paths with Marty Brownstein, a political science professor who urged him to take just one class with him.

Brad, on the verge of failing out of school, agreed—a pivotal moment that afforded him a brand new lens for understanding the world. “In that class, I learned that everyone has a different point of view, and that that’s okay—it’s what makes this country great,” he says. “I switched my major to Political Science, and everything turned around. I loved the debate, the ideas, the conversation. My passion for the subject helped my performance and focus in all my classes, and my grades picked up. I participated in Model UN and got a job at a bar downtown, turning it into a Sunday night hot spot. Life was improving dramatically.”

Brad had always dreamed of the chance to be a college athlete, but Division III football was an echelon above his prep school experiences, and he broke his collarbone twice early on. When he realized college football wasn’t in the cards for him, his self-concept changed and he accepted a new path forward. He decided to join the Rugby Club, a group of 30 players that had no idea their paltry team was about to be infused with unparalleled energy.

Brad quickly recruited others, building the club to 80 players organized into teams that took great road trips to play other teams. “I made the team feel that they were part of something special,” he recounts. “I relished that process of creating those bonds—something that was more than just a sport. We became a powerful group of individuals, and I made some of my best friends in my life in the process. It was about creating community.”

In early spring of his graduation year, Brad took a pivotal rugby road trip to Washington, D.C., to play Georgetown University. It seemed like it was 50 degrees warmer than Ithaca, and he and his friends took Sunday to tour around the monuments. “We read the walls of the Jefferson Memorial and saw the Constitution,” he recounts. “It was so incredibly inspiring, and I felt I had found my calling. It all hit me right there. I had to move to D.C.” As planned, Brad made the move to Washington and got a job with Michael Dukakis’s campaign for President, speaking at college campuses and asking students to contribute their time by making phone calls and knocking on doors. He excelled at inspiring college students to get engaged in the political process, mobilizing the D.C. metropolitan area so well that he was tapped to get volunteers up to the Philadelphia region. “I went to every college campus and asked the students to meet me at the Democratic National Committee at 6:00 AM on Saturday because I was going to figure out a way to get them up to Philly,” he recounts. “I was expecting 50 people to come, so when 600 people showed up, I had to make additional arrangements on the fly.”

Brad asked the bus company to donate a few more vehicles, and urged people to carpool, printing out directions and handing over $20 bills for gas money. “It became this massive movement, and I called Philadelphia

Profiles in Success: Inspiration from Executive Leaders in the Washington D.C. Area — Volume 11

to say, ‘We’re coming!’” he remembers. “There was such a rush of excitement and energy to move it forward. When I got to Philly, I rushed around getting more donated goods and had pizza, subs, and beer kegs ready for the volunteers at the end of the day. I remembered how inspired I was walking around the monuments of D.C., so I took them to the Liberty Bell and spoke about how we were making a difference, and how that’s what this country is all about.”

It was a monumental feat that Brad replicated four weekends in a row, busing 500 or 600 kids up to Philadelphia to help mobilize the region. He was then sent to Los Angeles to do the same thing for the next three months. “I had no formal presentation, speaking, or writing training, so it was a big confidence-building experience for me, to realize I could move and motivate people,” Brad reflects.

“I thought I might return home to Westchester one day and run for Congress.”

Afterward, Brad tried his hand as a Junior Legislative Assistant and was hired to push a pension and actuarial reform agenda—not the most riveting issue for a 23-yearold kid. He had come to D.C. to make a difference but saw no opportunity to push change in that position, so he decided to quit and instead took a job as a promotional manager for Champions, where he was heavily influenced

by Mike O’Harro’s marketing philosophy. “Mike would tell me it was my job to find out something special or unique about each person that walked into our bar,” says Brad. “Did they have an upcoming birthday, anniversary, alumni club meeting, or something else? Every person you meet has a reason to throw a party, so my goal was to book that party at Champions.”

Working to achieve Mike’s goal of booking three parties for each day of the week, Brad built up an iron-clad foundation in marketing basics. He began working with liquor and beer companies, honing his knowledge of branding and marketing. He developed a good relationship with the Bud Light sales team and became one of their top accounts in the city, so valuable that they sent him to the Super Bowl in 1991.

Brad was then offered a job by Miller Lite to manage fifty accounts across the D.C. area. He received an expense account, ten promotional models, and tickets to give away in his pursuit to convert Bud Light drinkers into Miller Lite drinkers. He worked out of the local beer wholesaler, Premium Distributors, which granted insight into the operations of a small independent business. “I learned the three-tiered system in that industry, which is really important to understand,” he recalls. “I also learned the mechanics of a brand personality. I was Miller Lite Brad, unleashed to build my brand in the city as I built the Miller Lite brand. I had my crew of friends, and they would call their friends, and we brought this network of energy to any bar we decided to visit. It was a great time.”

During his 18-month stint at Premium/Miller, Brad was promoted to On Premise Manager of the wholesaler and brought new account managers onboard to manage 750 accounts across the city. Then, when an agency called GMR Marketing decided to launch an East Coast office, Brad’s reputation as a go-getter at Miller landed him the

role of Marketing Director with GMR. In that role, he helped Miller role out a massive new product initiative, hiring a team of 25 people across the country and equipping them with a specially-designed toolkit to make the initiative a success. “It was a great experience for me to identify those people and bring them onboard, and many are still my best friends today,” he says. “Five of them became General Managers of Miller Brewing Company. I’m very proud to have played a part in bringing on so many rock stars.”

While Brad enjoyed the dynamic challenges of working at GMR, its culture didn’t align with his fundamental belief that success should be celebrated to build community. The man who had spent his life building great experiences was ready to test his hand at building the ultimate great experience—a company. He wanted to build the kind of company he wanted to work for, where he always felt like they were growing. So in 1995, Brad set off with a colleague from Miller to launch Momentum Marketing, the agency that would evolve into RedPeg. Aiming to create a manpower agency specializing in the launch of the creative brand solutions, Brad started the company with a $60 thousand investment from a t-shirt company he had done work with in the past. After doing $600 thousand worth of business in their first year, they bought out their investors and were off to the races, bringing in $850 thousand in their second year. But when Brad got a call from Miller the following year, that upward trajectory took a sudden turn. “They decided to consolidate their agencies and could no longer work with us,” Brad recounts. “At that time, they were 98 percent of our business, so I had to figure out how to diversify incredibly quickly. What did I know and how could I utilize it with other businesses? Failure was not an option, and I decided to focus on Fortune 500 brands—companies could do business with us and spend a million dollars or more over time.”

It was a defining moment for Brad, leading him to resolve to never again allow one client to make up more than 30 percent of his business. He also decided to move the business outside of D.C. to a building in Old Town Alexandria, which the company purchased in 2002. “In the beginning, I thought we needed a D.C. address because that meant something,” he remarks. “But with time I realized that it didn’t matter. Most of our staff live in Northern Virginia anyway, so it’s more convenient for everyone.”

Another big transformation came in 2003, when Brad and his partner decided to part ways. Brad continued to hustle, growing the business from $10 million to $19 million. With an additional $7 million expected, Brad hired an additional 30 employees and rented a floor in a building across the street, only to see a sudden drop in revenues that more than eliminated the projected increase. “It was the worst year ever,” Brad recalls. “We went into huge debt, and I was on the brink. In the end, it cost me twice as much as I thought it would to get back to solid ground, and took twice as long. But I have this block sitting on my desk that my Dad gave me, which reads, ‘When you get to Brad Nierenberg

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the end of your rope, tie a knot and hang on.’ Everybody goes through tough times, but it is how you respond that defines you.”

Never did Brad see this idea tested more severely than when he received a phone call from his best friend in 2004. His 2-year-old daughter, Brad’s goddaughter, had been diagnosed with a very rare form of spinal cord cancer that she will be fighting for the rest of her life. Brad decided to put together an experiential fundraising event to show support for the family—a poker tournament with a wine tasting and after party. Brad continues to throw the event every year. Chance for Life now attracts almost a thousand participants and has raised almost $2 million for children’s cancer research. “I’m just in absolute awe of my friend, who is so committed that there’s nothing he won’t do to overcome,” Brad says. “And his daughter, Kennedy, is this beautiful young lady who has the most positive outlook on life. They just blow me away. Kennedy has overcome odds and shown the resolve and maturity of a person much older than she is.”

Now, as a leader, Brad sees himself as responsible for creating optimism and motivation in the office, and for showing his team that anything is possible. “It’s my job to motivate our employees to buy into our why and be passionate about our brand and purpose,” he affirms. “Part of our business is about being creative and coming up with things that have never been done before, and to achieve that kind of thinking, you need to give people a safe environment where there’s a lot of trust and recognition. I’m a big believer in that. It’s also my job to listen. Oftentimes, the best ideas come from the ground floor. If you give people a chance to talk and share their thinking, it’s good for them and also good for the company as a whole. You have to gather the insight from the ground floor and engage everyone in being part of the solution process that makes for a stronger organization.”

Brad also makes a point to go above and beyond for his employees, just as he expects them to go above and beyond for their clients. He sets goals for the company, and when those goals are met, the whole team closes down the office for a four-day Caribbean vacation, all expenses paid. One year, the company met its goal in June, so Brad decided to prank his team by calling a meeting to go over expense reports, process, and procedure. He told everyone to arrive by 7:00 AM, and to plan on being in the office until 8:00 PM. Early that morning, he put the Power point agenda upon the TV screen, but as the second slide came up, the Hawaii 5-0 theme started playing.

Instead of a day of grueling work, Brad had planned a day at Ocean City, complete with jet skis and barbeque. On another occasion when the goal was reached, he walked in with a James Bond-type briefcase that had stacks of $1000, with each employee’s name to make the experience more exciting and more real.

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“I always want to surprise my staff—to create experiences that are real and tangible and special for them,” he says.

“We’re an experiential agency, so why not create those experiences internally as well? And why not create them for the community? I encourage my staff to think outside the box and come up with great ideas for us to act on, and someone came up with the idea of letting Alexandria know we care about it through random acts of kindness.

We broke into teams, and each team got $500 to do something good in the community and capture it digitally. One team bought buckets of flowers to hand out at a stoplight; another went to a homeless shelter and bought everyone lunch. In all aspects of our work, we want to go above and beyond for people.” Thanks in part to this philosophy Brad was honored with a Fortune Small Business Best Boss Award in 2005.

Despite these many successes, Brad’s journey would have remained woefully incomplete if he hadn’t met Callie, the woman he married in 2010. After receiving a phone call from a friend, he had shown up at a black tie event in plaid shorts and flip flops, just to meet her. It took four months to get a date with her, and several more for him to figure out how to show her he was serious. “It is harder to trust when your parents’ marriage ends in divorce,” he says. “She showed me what commitment was.

There was a calmness and patience about her that just took all the air out of my fear and gave me such confidence in what’s important in life. My life and my business can be all over the place with a million things going on, but she brings me peace. She makes me a better person.”

Callie and Brad welcomed their fourth child into the world in early 2016.

In advising young people entering the working world today, Brad underscores the importance of experiencing different paths early on. “When you’re young, it’s not a race up the ladder yet,” he says. “It’s about finding what ladder you want to climb. I started off pursuing economics, and then switched to politics, and then settled on marketing and business. I didn’t take one marketing class in college. The key is sampling different things to find what you really enjoy and then leveraging your personal relationships to help create opportunity.”

Beyond that, true success comes from celebrating life’s precious moments, big and small. When Brad goes to work each day to create innovative experiences for his clients, he often wears collar stays with important words or dates engraved on them—gifts that Callie has begun giving him to honor their most important memories.

Children’s names. Wedding date. A sailing trip they took together or a beautiful sunrise they saw. “I carry them around with me every day,” says Brad. “When remember how lucky you are and how far you’ve come, you see that there really is always a reason to throw a party.”

Profiles in Success: Inspiration from Executive Leaders in the Washington D.C. Area — Volume 11

Mark O’Donnell _________________

Figuring It Out When Mark O’Donnell and his brother, Tom, decided to launch their first business in 2007, they had one simple goal in mind: they wanted to rule the world.

Emboldened by their youthful ignorance of traditionally-accepted limitations and by a storied lineage of world-famous jugglers, Guinness Book of World Records holders, and Irish Australian aboriginal roots, they were going after it. “Our wives called us Pinky and the Brain,” Mark laughs now. “Our company, Validation Inc., was growing, but not at the breakneck speeds we wanted. Revenue of $2.5 million after two years just didn’t seem good enough. So we decided to really amp up our outreach, sending out postcards and emails relentlessly.”

One postcard ended up on the desk of Michael Khavinson, who at the time was running a healthcare life sciences company with Kevin Martin. Their firm, CimQuest Vantage, operated in a similar yet complementary space as Validation Inc., so the four business leaders decided to sit down for lunch one day. Upon hearing about the young brothers’ goal of world domination, Michael suggested that the surest way to get there was to develop an exit strategy and build a company worth selling. That sounded like a good enough idea to the O’Donnells, so the two companies decided to merge. With that, Azzur Group was formed in the summer of 2010.

Looking back, Mark recognizes that dogged pursuit of power and success as a sprint to fill a void. “When you don’t know your unique ability and your God-given talent, nothing is ever enough,” he reflects. “At that time, we didn’t know why we were on this earth. We didn’t know what our ‘why’ was, so ruling the world was what mattered to us. We wanted to compete and win.

We were hurtling at full speed to find out what was next.”

When the four partners sat down in the summer of 2010 to define Azzur Group, they resolved to build an organization around who they were as people and how their dynamic naturally flowed. It usually starts with Mark and Michael dreaming up a crazy vision. Tom then tests the idea to see how it might be translated into reality, and Kevin takes the lead in sales. “The idea was to design a business that simplifies processes for our clients, allowing them to have one point of contact that facilitates the entire project,” Mark explains.

First conceived as a compliance and consulting firm, Azzur Group has since evolved into a private equity

firm of world-class life-science companies. With its name derived from the ancient Hebrew root meaning “the helper,” it provides the capital, resources, and support small businesses and entrepreneurs need to achieve excellence in the pharmaceutical, biotechnology, and medical device industries. In 2012, they resolved to start utilizing mergers and acquisitions to supplement their growth and reach their critical mass. They launched a suite of businesses for the firm, and as they brought on ownership partners expected to uphold the business’s brand, Mark and his team implemented the Entrepreneurial Operating System (EOS) to provide a platform for cohesion.

“We had discovered the system while meeting with the President’s Small Business Advisor at the White House, where we crossed paths with a guy named Jonathan Smith, an EOS implementer,” Mark remembers. “I read all I could on the system and then enrolled in EOS boot camp, where I was thrown into a room with eighty people all as passionate as I was about building businesses. It was like heaven. The experience was perfectly in line with my unique ability and what my passion is in life. ” To test the system out, Azzur Group made a majority investment in a marketing firm. They already had five client companies at that time, each operating on its own schedule of entrepreneurial development and chaos, so Mark set to work methodically implementing EOS across the individual organizations.

The firm also brought on Jonathan Smith to act as the facilitator that would bring Azzur Group as a whole through the process. “It was an amazing experience being the implemented and implementer simultaneously,” Mark says. “We’ve been growing ever since, and now we implement EOS not only for entrepreneurial organizations, but also for large Fortune 500 healthcare and life-sciences companies.”

Since its formation, Azzur Group has grown 630 percent, landing it a spot on the Inc. 5000 list four years in a row and bringing in $30 million in revenue for 2015. Mark’s primary company focus within the group, Azzur Strategy Execution (ASE), now has 22 clients and is on pace to hit $600,000 in revenue. “Whether I’m working with the leadership of a small business or a division within a large Fortune 500 company, I focus on the difference I’m making for each individual person,” he says, of his work at ASE. “Am I making their lives better and helping them free themselves from what’s Mark O’Donnell

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holding them back? Are they leaving behind their past so they can see a clearer vision for their future? Are we crystallizing that future and showing them their role in executing that vision? We do the work to identify their unique ability and God-given talent—self-awareness that’s absolutely critical to job satisfaction. Once you find those things, you never work a day in your life.”

After working to clarify the vision of a company’s leadership and getting everyone in the organization on the same page, ASE shifts its focus to execution. Taken together, Mark’s work through this process facilitates success by providing leadership with new thinking and learning tools that transform the way they view the world. “There’s nothing I love more than sitting around a room of leaders and having them go through a series of ‘aha’ moments as they suddenly see the light at the end of the tunnel,” Mark says. “It lights me up to do this kind of work.”

Today, Azzur Group is a powerhouse with Consulting, IT, Labs, Engineering, Technical Services, Strategic Execution, and Workforce verticals. Yet at its core, its success is derived from its fundamental commitment to discovering and delivering. Instead of offering fixed services that risk being square pegs trying to fit into the round holes of their clients’ needs, the company asked what the clients want. And every time a need is identified, the Azzur Group response is, “We can figure that out.”

It’s an audacity derived from the rugged individualism that has been a cornerstone of Mark’s character ever since he and Tom were young boys, riding their bikes miles and miles from home to explore unknown terrain. Their father had been in the Air Force, while their mother was a nurse. Mark was born in 1978 at Eglin Air Force Base in Florida, where his parents lived for a year before moving to Lehigh Valley, Pennsylvania, to be near family. They stayed put for almost six years, and his father took on a series of odd jobs to try to make ends meet. “My father was extremely motivated, but I remember that times were tough,” says Mark.

“We had home foreclosures and cars repossessed.

Thankfully, my dad found he had a knack for engineering disciplines. He started doing time studies at a lamp factory and discovered he could find valuable efficiencies in engineering workflows.”

Mark’s father landed a job as an engineer for Raytheon, which promised more financial stability in the long run but also more moving around. He was constantly relocated from project to project, so that by the time Mark was 23 years old, he had lived in over forty different places. Every nine months, like clockwork, the family would pick up and move to the next place, so they never really developed attachments to physical objects. “I think it helped us overall because we didn’t have all the mind clutter that can accumulate when you hold on to things,” Mark says. “We had more freedom to focus on the now, and on the future.”

When Mark was in fifth grade, the family moved from Pennsylvania to South Carolina, where his father 108

began working his way up the Raytheon ladder in earnest. He eventually became an industrial engineer charged with building a Caloric manufacturing facility.

At the time, his mother was working as a nurse, and the kids were hopping from public school to public school based on their father’s work location. “We’d spend three months at one school, then five months at another,” Mark recounts. “I didn’t finish a full year of school from fourth to seventh grade.”

When Mark reached high school, he, Tom, and their younger sister were homeschooled, which left a lot of time for the brothers to go off exploring on their own.

They would hop on their bikes in the mornings and ride 30 or 40 miles away, figuring out any issues that came up and adventuring with a self-sufficiency rare for their age. “Even back in those days, it was my brother and me, taking on the world and just figuring it out,” Mark recalls. “We weren’t boxed in by the cultural norms you get exposed to through traditional school, so we thought it was completely normal to fend for yourself and figure things out through winging it. When I had to take a semester of calculus, which my mother knew nothing about, we bought a calculus book with money we earned through delivering newspapers and woodworking. We taught ourselves how to do the complicated math, and when we submitted the work to the evaluator at the end of the year, we found that we had done great.”

Through high school, Mark’s father was slated to work on the Savannah River nuclear facility in Georgia until the project was canceled, at which point he switched over to the healthcare life-sciences, where there was a high demand for engineers who could understand documentation. In that capacity, he worked on projects in Indiana, New Jersey, Philadelphia, and then Ireland. Mark was 18 at the time and had just finished his high school equivalent, but he was discouraged from going to college, as his parents thought it wasn’t needed.

He opted to go to Ireland with his family, where they lived for a year. His father then returned to Pennsylvania to settle down at last, taking a job with Merck, a pharmaceutical company.

Later, as a 23-year old business student at Albright College, Mark went out to a concert one evening with his brother. The keyboardist and drummer in the band was a lovely young lady named Rachel, who was studying at Shippensburg University nearby. Shortly after graduating, the two got married, and Mark took a job with Johnson & Johnson. At that time, his goal was to excel at the company to the point that they would send him to law school. The fast-paced, chaotic culture of their biotech company, Centocor, was a perfect fit for him, and he loved every minute of his 60-hour workweeks. Then, as Johnson & Johnson began to wind down the subsidiary’s projects, Mark transitioned over to GlaxoSmithKline, a startup facility where he again assumed the role of star performer and managed around a dozen contractors.

Then, Mark got a call from Tom, asking if he wanted

Profiles in Success: Inspiration from Executive Leaders in the Washington D.C. Area — Volume 11

to start their own business. It would be just like those days riding their bikes as kids—they would figure it out.

With that, Validation Inc. was born. “We didn’t know the financial environment we were heading into at that time,” Mark says. “All we knew was that we could do the work better than anyone else. We were the perfect blend of ego and ignorance, knowing just enough that we could be successful but not so much that we recognized the risks enough to back away.”

Rachel was incredibly supportive of the leap, always willing to give Mark the freedom to pursue his ambitions and figure out how to make it work. Even when Johnson & Johnson tried to coax him back by offering him a considerable promotion and the chance to launch a new facility in Ireland, she understood the need to start a business of his own. “Rachel and I decided to design our life around how we wanted it to be, rather than letting it be dictated by what others wanted from us,” he says. “Starting Validation Inc wasn’t easy, and I didn’t get a paycheck for the first six months we were in business, but Rachel was always understanding and willing to take care of everything at home with our three kids, creating the space for me to do the things I needed to do with the business. In startup mode, things at work were chaos, so that made a huge difference. Also, I’m full speed ahead, whereas she reminds me to slow down and consider how my choices are affecting the team as a whole. Her presence in my life has been so incredibly helpful in all I’ve worked to accomplish.”

Today, Azzur Group has a tone of underdog victory to its success—the product of two young kids who jumped into the fray of entrepreneurship because they didn’t know any better. And, thanks to Tom’s ability to see the potential in all people, the firm is known for taking on employees that might be overlooked by other firms based on how they look on paper. “Watching our team members honored at the Inc. 5000 awards, we love that we’ve been able to give them the platform to do things they didn’t think were possible,” says Mark.

“Bringing people in like this has been a great thing for me, as I used to be the rugged individualist way out front who was always the tip of the spear. My leadership style has evolved to be much more team-focused, and that’s really paying off.” Azzur Group is also committed to supporting the work of Chad Juros, the cancer survivor and budding magician who launched a foundation to bring magic shows to hospitals, Spread the Magic.

In advising young people entering the working world today, Mark quotes Aristotle in stressing the importance of knowing thyself. “The sooner you can identify your unique ability and God-given talent, the sooner you can focus on that and not be distracted,” he says. “Beyond that, don’t let people tell you that something can’t be done. In knowing your own abilities and your own will, you know better than anyone what you can bring to the table. You have much more power over defining what’s possible than many people are able to see, so believe in your vision. Set to work figuring it out, and you’ll be well on your way.”

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Profiles in Success: Inspiration from Executive Leaders in the Washington D.C. Area — Volume 11

Craig A. Parisot _________________

Not Just One Path Craig Parisot had wanted to fly his whole life. When he was finally given the chance, he was the cadet commander of the Air Force ROTC unit and a senior at the University of South Carolina. It was a Friday afternoon, and he had until Monday to give his answer. “Becoming a pilot meant I’d have to make, at that time, a 15-year commitment,” he recalls today. “It was all I had wanted to do since I was a kid, but something didn’t feel right about it.”

At home that weekend, he had a heart-to-heart with his mother. She asked about his goals and the life he could see himself leading. He envisioned freedom for himself and his family to pursue service, learning, and experience, allowing them to make decisions based on true value instead of financial constraints. He spoke of making the most out of the one life he had been given, harnessing his time and talent to have a positive impact on the lives of others. And he considered posterity—his hope that one day, his story could be used to motivate and inspire future generations.

Hearing all this, his mother said something so simple, yet so important. “Craig, all you have to do is imagine the life you want to have but accept that there are lots of different ways to get there,” she explained. “There’s not just one path. Always know where you want to go, but be open to the various paths that can lead you there.”

Craig prayed and allowed those words to lead him down a different path—one that compelled him to decline the pilot categorization a few days later. Now the CEO of Advanced Technology Applications (ATA), President and CEO of AvalonBridge, and an active community leader, he pinpoints that decision as critical in landing him where he is today, driven all along by the will to orient his life around the tenets of freedom, impact, and legacy. “Early in my career, I was less concerned about what I’d be doing, in terms of industry or function, as long as it had those qualities,” he affirms.

Today, ATA uses talent and technology to solve complex issues surrounding the management and consumption of large volumes of data. “This new information paradigm is having an extreme impact on the human experience, and society is just in the beginning stages of grasping the true nature of what is happening,” Craig believes. ATA was founded in 2008, and Craig now joins his two new partners to create version ‘2.0’ accelerating growth and providing an even greater capacity to have a positive impact on this looming global problem.

At the same time, he leads AvalonBridge, a company launched in 2015 to bring the best out of people and companies, aiming to lay blueprints for constructing and sustaining high-performing organizations and building futures of choice. “To achieve this, we use proven practices, exercise extreme confidentiality, and bring people and technology to facilitate execution where and when it makes sense to do so,” Craig says.

Based upon this premise, AvalonBridge excels in the art and science of the intangible economy. While around 30 percent of the real value of a company can be attributed to its business fundamentals, considerable weight must be allowed to the company’s intangibles. Does the company exude a sense of innovation and market leadership? Does it care for its people? What is the business’s overarching vision and value system? Are the people, plans, and policies aligned with what matters? “We help companies harness these ideas, shape them, and really run with them, so that at the end of the day, their stories are complete,” says Craig. “It’s this substance and purpose that sets them apart from other companies in a given space.”

Craig experienced this firsthand from an outsider’s perspective as the COO at Invertix Corporation when, in 2010, he and his partners hired an outside consulting firm to collaboratively enhance both the real and the intangible value of the company. The work ultimately made Invertix a higher-value acquisition target when it was sold to a private equity syndicate, which ultimately led to the founding of Altamira Technologies Corporation. At that time, Craig also took on the role of chief strategist, leading the company to huge wins with new customers. Though Craig was focused on a successful merger and rebranding effort, remaining with the new company over the next year and a half, he was hungry for a new mental challenge. He took six months off to dive into his nonprofit work and reconnect with the community—this time, not as an executive, but as himself. “In thinking about what I might do next, and what was important to me, I felt drawn to the human side of things,” he recalls. “I was looking for alignment of business and community service where I could pursue interests, and where my success would be tied to the success of many.”

Guided by this goal, Craig founded AvalonBridge, took the helm of ATA, and began angel investing, developing technology solutions and serving in an advisory role to other local businesses. And in these opportunities, Craig saw more than just a chance to pursue meaningful Craig A. Parisot

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work—he saw a way to shepherd companies and leaders through the waning days of the industrial age and into an era where the models and lessons of the past no longer apply. “How the management and technology consulting industry is changing is among the most central conversations of the day,” he says. “As our country adapts to a new globalized, knowledge-driven economy, we’re undergoing a massive redefinition and relearning of what’s important, what’s valuable, and how to realize futures of your own design. In this context, being a great consultant and corporate leader is about figuring out how to give your clients a competitive edge and adapt more quickly.”

Both ATA and AvalonBridge ground their offerings in actions and results through deployment of proven methodologies helping partners address bespoke challenges and design a future of choice with the resources to quickly operationalize strategies. “We start with a dialogue about the future, creating roadmaps and building blocks that mark each step toward success and culminate in a business that is aligned to the global shifts and therefore best-equipped to meet the accompanying challenges,” says Craig. “Our ideal customers are those with vision—those who aren’t afraid of the future, or of declaring and pursuing a bold future for themselves,” Craig says. “I love businesses with big dreams. If a business leader is willing to swing for the fences, we can help lay out and meet the step-by-step goals to hit the ball out of the park.”

Craig has always been goal-oriented, even from the time he was young. He was born in Phoenix, Arizona, while his father was stationed at Luke Air Force Base as a maintenance officer. A few years later, the family moved to Colorado for a brief stint and then ultimately to South Carolina, where his father was stationed at Shaw Air Force Base. Shortly after the family got settled in Sumter, divorce fractured the young family, leaving Craig and his mother and his sister in a precarious state.

When Craig’s mother reentered the workforce, she found that her two-year Associates degree in nursing wasn’t enough to earn her a living and provide for her two children, so she went back to school to become a registered nurse. “She had class all day and then worked the night shift,” Craig recounts. “Now, as a father, I understand how incredibly difficult that must have been, and I’m so grateful.”

Craig, only four years old when all this began, dealt with the loss of his father in his own way, and the initial feelings of abandonment and sadness evolved with the passing of time. Though it would be several decades before he would truly come to grasp and embrace the meaning and healing of power of forgiveness, he came to see the silver lining to the situation early on. With little parental supervision, Craig had ample time to explore the world around him and develop his own ideas. He flourished in an environment where he was free to structure his own time, and he sought mentors and adult male figures that represented a wide range of strengths and perspectives. “I know I lost something by not having a father present, but I believe things worked out for the 112

best,” he explains. “Having freedom underpinned by my mother’s love and support was tremendously positive, allowing me to be open to the influences of many wonderful figures that became an important part of my life.”

That person turned out to be a responsible, engaged, and highly capable young man, who naturally rose to leadership positions in every environment he entered. He developed strong friendships with classmates, many of whom also came from humble beginnings and broken homes, and together, they found that it was possible to put the pieces together again to create rich experiences and strong character. “Spending time with other families paved the way for what my mother would teach me down the road—that there’s not just one way to do things,” he remarks. “Life has a lot of twists and turns, and sometimes things don’t work out the way you thought they would, but nontraditional models can be highly successful as well. In Scout Leaders, in my friends’ fathers, in the priest at our church, in the biographies of people I admired, I identified qualities I loved and then worked to internalize them.”

Through this exposure to a wide range of lifestyles, Craig began to see how financial concerns could limit opportunity. As he watched his mother work so hard to make ends meet, he resolved to strive for a future where money didn’t have to be a limiting factor in his decisionmaking process. “I was the typical lemonade stand kid,” he remembers. “On a hot summer day, I’d put up the table in the front yard and hang a sign to sell each glass for 10 cents. When business would trail off, I’d evaluate my inventory and lower the price to five cents.”

Beyond entrepreneurship, he knew education would be key in realizing his goals, and was always markedly focused and engaged in the classroom. Identified as one of the higher performers in his class, he was placed in the Talented and Gifted Program and an afterschool program called Olympics of the Mind. “I think my real learning took place in athletics and in these afterschool creative endeavors, where we were charged with engineering structures out of balsa wood, or performing musical interpretation, or coming up with manufacturing and production solutions,” he explains.

Through that time, Craig earned spending money via chores. When he was 15, he got his first real job at his stepfather’s jewelry store, and later at Wendy’s and TCBY Yogurt. During his senior year of high school, though he had risen to the rank of cadet commander in junior ROTC, he still found time to pursue various yard work jobs, saving up $650 through the year that he used for spending money during his first trip abroad to Spain the summer after he graduated. “Nothing was ever just handed to me,” he says. “I worked for everything I had. I resented it at the time, but now I see how this shaped my character and work ethic.”

Craig went to college on an Air Force ROTC scholarship and began studying environmental engineering, later deciding to study computer science through the College of Business. He liked technology but strongly identified with the business curriculum. At the University of South

Profiles in Success: Inspiration from Executive Leaders in the Washington D.C. Area — Volume 11

Carolina, he was able to rekindle an old lifelong friendship, land an appointment by the Speaker of the State House of Representatives to serve as a page, secure a summer internship for the House Ways and Means Committee, and get a job as a runner for a local law firm.

To boot, Craig decided to switch his major to English, where his heart truly lay. “Robert Frost used writing as a way to make sense of the world,” he explains. “That resonated with me, and I realized that studying English helped me think critically and organize my thoughts so I could be more compelling with my speech and written words. Studying classics like Shakespeare and Joyce, while exploring poetry and creative writing, really helped develop my worldview and capacity for expression, which foundationally made all the difference in the world for everything that happened next.”

In his senior year, Craig became the cadet wing commander of his Air Force ROTC unit. Indeed, leadership was not a destination he someday hoped to arrive at, but instead a process that he employed routinely throughout his coming of age as each experience served as a stepping-stone for the next one. “I would always try to position myself to engage in decision-making, guidance, and strategy,” he affirms. “Intuitively, I had the sense that that was how I could have the most impact—by considering alternatives, making decisions about resource deployment, choosing the course, and leading others.”

That spring marked a moment of achievement for Craig and his family—Craig’s sister earned her master’s degree, while Craig and his mother both attained their bachelors. The alignment of family accomplishments was chronicled by the local paper, and again through a resolution passed by the South Carolina Senate. “My two lifelong goals at that point were to get a college degree and become an officer in the Air Force, serving like my father had and like my grandfather and great-grandfather had before him,” he recounts. “I realized both within 24 hours of each other, and I’ll never forget walking on campus in uniform and shiny Lt bars, saying to myself, now what?”

Craig had been the photo editor of his high school’s national award-winning literature journal, and with his English literature degree in hand had hoped to become a combat camera and public relations officer in the Air Force, but he was instead assigned a role as a contracting officer at Hanscom Air Force Base just outside of Boston.

In that capacity, he worked in the research and development contracting division, utilizing his unique background in engineering, computer science, business, and English to work on the Air Force’s high tech business transactions with leading labs and universities. He mastered the tasks of the job quickly and was able to complete them within a matter of hours each day, leaving the rest of the day to pursue extracurricular activities on base. “I couldn’t just sit around twiddling my thumbs, and I couldn’t just head out for the day,” he explains. “I wanted to do something meaningful to earn my keep, so I got involved with a number of things around base that had impact, quickly raising my profile.”

In going the extra mile, Craig got exposure to the civilian executives, commanders, and general officers. In no time, he was plucked from his first assignment ten months early and put on a new program targeting major information technology services reform. As a second lieutenant, Craig suddenly found himself responsible for designing a billion-dollar transformation initiative, quickly becoming the resident expert on the General Services Administration (GSA) Federal Supply Schedule 70.

His work took him to the Pentagon, where he met with senior leaders in the Department of Defense and GSA to write acquisition policy.

Through that time, Craig pushed the envelope with the support of the executives, colonels, and top generals around him, which helped to define his role as a leader of leaders. He became the face of the IT reform trend, traveling the nation to speak with GSA officials and Air Force bases about where the movement and industry were headed. “We were the first out of the gate,” he remembers. “It was transformational for the space, but also for me. I was just naive enough to believe I could do it and had high-level support behind me saying, ‘Go, be bold, transform.’ And we did.”

The day Craig pinned on first lieutenant, the new Director of Contracting asked him to be his Executive Officer. Craig agreed, on the condition that he could bring his program with him. “That’s when I realized what hard work really was,” he laughs. “Each job was more than full-time. It taught me true commitment. The long days, early mornings, and high-stakes atmosphere changed my internal chemistry and my capacity for work.” Craig became the Director’s right-hand man, an advisor to a three-star general, and was named President of the Company of Grade Officers Council. He became, and remains, the youngest recipient of the O’Neil Award given for Acquisition and Military Excellence, and he was given the honor of choosing his next assignment. By that time, Craig was ready for a change of scene, so he asked to go as far away as possible while staying in the Continental U.S. He was Los Angeles-bound.

His California assignment marked the end of his fiveand-a-half years of active duty service in the Air Force.

While there, and working full-time, he earned an MBA from the California State Polytechnic University— Pomona, worked as the Air Force in-plant representative at a Boeing facility, led a division, earned a promotion to Captain, and tried sushi for the first time. After seizing every opportunity to make his unit better and expand his faculties, skills, and palette, he came to the realization that he was again in need of a change. “I was full of energy with a strong desire to again test my potential,” he says. “I knew I needed to try my hand in the private sector in a smaller firm where I could have organizational impact and connection to the leadership.”

With that, Craig put in his paperwork to leave the Air Force in January of 2001 and received a separation date of October 1. When 9/11 struck, he was on terminal leave. A military stop loss was instituted for October 2nd, and though he offered to return to service, the agreement Craig A. Parisot

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was honored, rendering him among the last service members to separate before the stop loss went into effect.

“Timing played such a big role,” he remarks. “My life would have been incredibly different had I not separated when I did. There’s no telling where I would have gone and what I would have done. I served giving it my all.”

Craig spent another three and a half years in the reserves available for recall at a moment’s notice.

With 9/11, the National Security Agency’s (NSA) budget ballooned, and the agency lacked the acquisition, programmatic, and system engineering infrastructure to meet the massive influx in responsibility. Seeing new and unconfined opportunities to serve his country, Craig joined Bridge Technology Corporation, a startup geared at helping NSA rise to the new challenge. Applying his previous experience to bring speed and agility to the agency, he quickly distinguished himself as a disruptive force in the acquisition space, and he tried to bend his experience toward working directly with the President and CEO of the company. “I became the operations lead, working to run and grow the business,” he says. “It was my post-grad education in entrepreneurism. I was doing contracting, human resources, strategy, and business development, and when we began talking about a company exit, I was one of the few people really working the back end of that deal. It was everything I had hoped my transition out of the military would be, and I’m grateful that I chose my path by being true and honest with myself from the beginning, following my passions and taking risks.”

Through this honest pursuit of happiness and truth, Craig crossed paths with a young woman named Kristin, who he hired to join the Bridge team. Later, after she had left the company, their paths crossed again at a Bridge alumni function, and they recognized something in one another. The following year, they were engaged, and a year later were married. “She’s incredibly supportive and grounding,” he says. “She’s very passionate about horseback riding, and we’ve loved being partners in helping one another fulfill our dreams.”

Craig found himself one step further advanced down the road to his goals when Bridge was acquired by SI International in 2004, allowing him the opportunity to stay on and learn everything he could about building and selling companies. In that capacity, he was connected with the Association of Corporation Growth, where he dove in and got involved on the Programs Committee.

After several years of ascension and mental expansion, Craig happened to find himself in deep conversation with Art Hurtado, someone he’d met early during the sale of Bridge. Art had a business that was struggling following the telecommunications bust. Craig agreed to partner

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with Art and Bryan Judd and took over the startup as COO on July 10, 2006. He had carte blanche to implement his ideas and went on to build a diversified company that grew from under $1 million that first year to $64 million in revenues over a six-year period. Over the next year, Invertix was bought by a private equity syndicate and merged with Near Infinity Corporation. As a result, six months after the deal closed, Craig was one of the founding executives to create Altamira Technologies in 2013.

Craig was walking on the beach in San Diego with Kristin and her mother when he got the phone call that lifted a lifelong weight off his shoulders. The deal to sell Invertix was officially done, which meant that finally, after decades of diligent work and careful planning, he had reached an important milestone in achieving the level of financial security he had set his sights on when he was a boy. And now, in advising young people entering the working world today, Craig stresses the importance of patience and belief. “I’m an impatient guy by nature, so it’s a constant struggle for me,” he remarks. “Everything’s moving so fast in the hyper-connected world we live in, so it takes wisdom to know when to slow yourself down and focus on creating depth of experience. But mastery is important, and it’s crucial that people reflect to truly understand the nature and substance of their work.

Reflection allows you to create a value system to guide your actions, rather than leaving things up to blind pursuit. Live and learn in a substantive, intentional way. And in doing so, don’t be afraid to believe in yourself and take risks if you’re willing to put in the work to create a little luck.”

Now, through ATA and AvalonBridge, Craig’s work is about helping companies lean in to the curve of the future by reaching for the stars with intelligent confidence. It’s about growth, creating possibility, and breaking through, as he has done so many times in his own life. Like the moment he completed the Boston Marathon in a remarkable manifestation of mind over matter.

Like the moment his son was born. And like the moment he decided to run for Delegate in Virginia’s 34th District, with plans to bring a rudder to the institutions that can help society navigate our morphing economy and security environment. It’s about working on big problems on a big scale and with big impact, finding ways to transform today’s challenges into tomorrow’s edge and changing lives for the better. “I’ve always felt that, whether an experience is positive or negative, you can always reflect on it and take away a lesson,” Craig says. “I look at life as a series of lessons that form building blocks toward creating the kind of person you want to be. There’s not just one road, so I’m open.”

Profiles in Success: Inspiration from Executive Leaders in the Washington D.C. Area — Volume 11

Renee D. Parker _________________

Doing What’s Needed When Renee Parker graduated from high school, she was ready to do whatever it took to get out of Culpeper, Virginia. Through her formative years, she had always been one to stay up late into the night, putting in long grueling hours to finish her homework. After observing her parents’ work ethic growing up in a lower middle class neighborhood, she knew she had the willpower to succeed, even as her classmates dropped out of the advanced coursework when the going got tough. “I dreamed of growing up and moving away from Culpeper,” she says. “I didn’t know where I wanted to go because I hadn’t experienced life too far outside of Culpeper, but I knew I wanted to leave.”

The small town had been a good place to grow up— a close-knit community and a modest yet supportive home environment that emphasized hard work, good citizenship, and the importance of church. But Renee was ready to see the world beyond, so she joined her cousin in signing up for the Air Force as their ticket out of town.

Several months later, they hadn’t heard anything about their enlistment, but their aunt was living in the Washington, D.C. metropolitan area. Renee and her cousin decided to move up to the nation’s capital and get their own place, embarking on an adventure far beyond the city limits that had defined their youth. “I was terrified when we got a call from the military after we settled down,” Renee remembers. “However, we were able to get out of it. Later I signed up for flight attendant training, and they wanted me to come down to Tallahassee, Florida, for the course. Fortunately, the paperwork hadn’t been binding, so we were able to keep the new lives we had made for ourselves.”

Now the founder and CEO of QuTech, an IT firm providing services to the federal government, Renee has spent the last three decades building that life into a force to be reckoned with in the Washington D.C. area. Yet one of the most rewarding aspects of her success has been the opportunity to reconnect with the home she left behind all those years ago in incredibly meaningful ways, whether she’s donating computers and training classes to the church she attended as a child, or buying land to build a senior facility in the community. “I want to give back in these ways because it’s needed,” she says simply. “I do what I do at QuTech because it enables me to go beyond myself, and do for others.”

Specializing in system integration services, cyber

security, helpdesk and user support, and cloud and webbased services, QuTech has developed a large portfolio of business and services in the 26 years since its inception. It began as a commercial firm, but over the years has picked up government contracts with agencies including the National Park Service, the Army Corps of Engineers, the Department of Health and Human Services, and the Smithsonian, which now comprise the majority of its work. With a team of 165 employees, QuTech is headquartered in Largo, Maryland, and has another office in Falls Church, Virginia. Revenues were in the neighborhood of $25 million in 2014, and the company recently secured an office in Abu Dhabi, signaling a promising future in international services.

QuTech is dedicated to doing quality work and providing responsive service with integrity and honesty. “We go all out and do whatever it takes to do our job with excellence,” she says. “In a way, my company has come to define me. It’s the avenue through which I do good for my family and my community. I live and breathe this company. It means so much to me.”

For Renee, one of the greatest measures of her business’s success is the warmth in her mother’s voice when she says she’s proud of her. Indeed, it’s a level of achievement Renee grew up believing she could attain, though she didn’t know exactly what it would look like, as she had never seen it firsthand. Her father was a crane operator for a granite quarry, while her mother began as a housekeeper and then got a job in the deli at Safeway. Her mother had a ninth grade education level, while her father only made it through sixth grade. “They were always working,” she recalls. “Mom would work at night, leaving Dad and me to cook for the family. They were committed to having all four of us finish high school, and they said they’d make sure I got to college if I wanted to go, though they couldn’t afford to make the same guarantee to my brothers.”

Quiet like her father, and giving like her mother, Renee always loved being around friends and family.

She grew up the second oldest of four children, but the only daughter. Her parents made clear that they could only afford to help one child get to college, but that the money they used to help would need to be repaid. They offered this privilege, honor, and responsibility to Renee, who immediately grasped the importance and was always steadfast in making the most of her educaRenee D. Parker

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tion. In between studying, she found time to get a job at a fast food burger restaurant in high school, using the money to help her parents and brothers.

When Renee graduated and settled down in the Washington D.C. area, she enrolled in night classes at Northern Virginia Community College and got a day job as a secretary at Systems Development Corporation.

In that position, she began to notice the bright opportunities all around her that could be unlocked if she developed her tech skills. With that, she spent a year taking classes at the Computer Learning Center and earned a certificate in programming, landing her a promotion to the firm’s programming department. Setting her sights on more education for more opportunity, she decided she would obtain a bachelor’s degree, and in 1980 began to take classes as time would allow. Ten years later, she completed her undergraduate studies and earned her degree in Applied Behavior Sciences from National Louis University’s campus in Mclean, Virginia. No longer would she work alongside colleagues, performing the same tasks with the same proficiency but earning less because she didn’t have her college degree.

Through that time, Renee accepted a position at Computech, where she became the manager of several projects under an immigration naturalization contract.

She preferred technical work over management, however, and decided to leave. “I didn’t want to be responsible for anyone but myself,” she recalls. “I can’t predict what other people are going to do, but I know exactly what I’m going to do, and I wanted to get back to focusing only on that.”

Renee had always wanted to work in downtown D.C., so she decided to take a position at a New Yorkbased company that had a Washington office. As luck would have it, they put her on a Department of Education contract that had her working in Arlington, Virginia, and she quickly rose to a project management role once again. In that capacity, she was directing a number of independent contractors making twice her salary, and she had long ago learned that she didn’t have to settle for such status quos. Instead, she decided to go out on her own. “I had confidence in my capabilities,” she recalls, “and I knew that if it didn’t work out, I could always go back and get another job.”

Renee formally left Computech and was then hired by a former manager as a consultant. The firm preferred to work with companies over individuals, so she used her maiden name to incorporate in 1989 as Davis Research and Development. Then Renee, who had tried all her professional life to march to the beat of a solitary

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drum and remain a one-woman force, found herself accruing so much work that she had to hire two individuals after the first six months. Several months later, she hired four more, continuing to grow slowly over time.

Without mentors or an expansive network, Renee spent those early years bootstrapping her success. She learned business through advice from her accountant, her lawyer, and other professionals she worked with along the way. “I quickly discovered that you win more bids when you build relationships with people because they get to know your capabilities and character firsthand,” she recalls.

Renee changed the company’s name to Quality Technology in 1993, shortening it to QuTech. She was deeply engaged in the firm’s day-to-day operations until 1999, when she gave birth to her twin boys. The company’s revenues dipped substantially in 2013 when deep sequestration cuts hit federal spending, but it has since recovered to an all-time high. Now, as the CEO of the burgeoning business, Renee directs the overall strategy of the venture, guiding its direction and working closely with the firm’s current President, Jeffrey Hamilton, and Chief Financial Officer, Rodney Whitfield. As a leader, she works to find the best employees she can and then provide them with the best resources so they can do the best job for QuTech’s clients. “Our personnel are our number one asset, so it’s crucial that I hire managers who treat people well,” she affirms. “We have good people in place now doing a great job for the agencies that put their trust in us.”

In advising young people entering the working world today, Renee underscores the importance of identifying your passion and then going all in. “To get where you want to be, you have to invest in yourself and put in the hard work to get there,” she says. “If you half-step or side-step, you won’t succeed. I wish I had learned it sooner, but now that I know, I’m all in, all the time.”

This level of commitment leads to tangible results which Renee distributes amongst the people, organizations, communities, and causes important to her and those around her. It’s the love and legacy woven between the lines of the company’s balance sheets and into the fibers of its mission statement. In its purest sense, QuTech is the means through which Renee empowers a thousand ends—her children’s school, the church in her hometown, the Culpeper seniors in need of assisted living facilities, and the military families to which the firm donates. “QuTech allows my employees and me to make a living so we can make a difference,” Renee says.

“I love my work because it allows me to do what’s needed, and there’s a lot I need to do before I’m done.”

Profiles in Success: Inspiration from Executive Leaders in the Washington D.C. Area — Volume 11

Melvin Petty _________________

If Not You, Then Who? Ever since he was a kid, Melvin Petty felt compelled to step up. He always ended up the captain of the sports team, an academic leader, or a helping hand on his father’s farm, organizing those around him and setting a standard of excellence. “I always thought I had good ideas for solving complex problems, and I was always willing to take charge if nobody else would, even if I was least prepared to do so,” he remembers. “Everybody has a purpose, and it felt like mine was to lead and solve. A mentor once told me, ‘If not you, then who?’ That always stuck with me.”

After college, stepping up meant looking at ways to make organizations more efficient by applying technology to emerging situations. With the core skills of an accountant and the transformational mentoring of two three-star generals, he excelled at helping businesses find ways to operate faster, stronger, and better.

The most important act of leadership Melvin has ever taken, however, came not in the dynamic confines of his office, but in the hectic rush of a hospital room.

Melvin’s beloved wife, Sandra, had just undergone a C-section delivery of their son, Travis Miles. In those first minutes of life, which should have been full of joy, it became quickly apparent that the baby was afflicted with Potter’s Syndrome. Travis had been born without kidneys, and his lungs would not develop. “Sandra was heavily sedated from the surgery, so I had to make what seemed like a whole lifetime of decisions for our son,” Melvin says.

“He lived only an hour—an hour that will always stay with me.”

In the act of stepping up in that singular moment of crisis and making the most of what little time he had with his son, Melvin’s fundamental value system and outlook on life were changed forever. “I had taken life for granted, assuming we would have a healthy baby,” he says. “It dawned on me that every moment is precious, and that realization changed my DNA. I know what darkness is like and how quickly it can come, so I treasure the good times dearly and am happy the vast majority of the time. In my relationships with my family, my staff, and those around me, I place an incredibly high priority on connecting.”

Years later, reflecting back on the course of their own lives, Melvin and Sandra identified a general pattern of living, learning, leading, and serving. They wanted to build a company whose culture mirrored this

evolution of life. Today, that goal has been realized in Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) International, a health, science and technology services company dedicated to enhancing performance and predictability in the face of complex problems.

When Melvin and Sandra decided to launch the company from the basement of their home in 2006, their engaged, thoughtful daughters, Erika and Rachel, properly vetted the idea. After confirming that they’d still have health insurance and the same quality of life, the girls were onboard. Melvin was in the process of phasing out of his role as the President of a Defense government consulting firm, and his non-compete agreement barred him from the weapons systems and logistics business he knew so well, so the Petty’s explored new markets.

“When you’re a CEO, it doesn’t matter what industry you’re working in, because your day is the same: you’re always looking for new business,” Melvin explains. “Where you spend your time is where you’ll get your returns, and healthcare was a big market I had been monitoring closely. The industry was transforming at the time, and the opportunities were vast.”

Seizing the day, Melvin and Sandra launched ERP as a military healthcare consulting firm in October and landed their first consulting contract in January. They lived off their savings for that first year, with Sandra shaping the culture and administration of the business while Melvin was out working on operations and development. In 2007, they landed their first sizeable contract to set up an enterprise content, document, and web services management system for the new Fort Belvoir Community Hospital facility. It was ERP’s first big win, and Melvin was able to leverage that momentum to develop relationships with prospective customers in the healthcare community. Those relationships garnered more opportunities, and before they knew it, they had seven healthcare contracts, ultimately serving civilian health entities as well as military. “As a student of small business, I know success comes from focusing on a specific niche,” Melvin explains. “That’s why healthcare has always been our story and specialty.” Today, ERP is a sprawling small business with operations in 42 states, supporting 140 military facilities worldwide and almost every federal agency via its Federal Occupational Health practice.

By its third year, ERP had grown to 40 people, and Melvin Petty

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today, it’s established a strong presence in big markets like the National Capitol area, Florida, Texas, Colorado, and California. With an aggressive value proposition and a 95 percent customer satisfaction rating, ERP utilizes its prowess in intellectual resources to help its clients modernize and enhance their services as the industry shifts to performance-based care. With a focus on integration and interoperability, it also houses a large IT practice managing client applications, electronic health records, and business analytics. It manages systems, pharmacies, and departments within hospitals, supporting around fifty facilities across the U.S. “There’s really nothing in healthcare we don’t do,” Melvin affirms. “Our expertise blends the functional knowledge of consultants with IT and the diverse professional skill sets of our clinical staffing division. And in this work, we’re better than anyone else you could bring to the table to solve any problem. We’re the best.”

As testament, ERP has been named the fifth fastestgrowing firm in the region by Washington Technology, and it remains one of the fastest-growing firms nationwide as well.

The mindset Melvin employs at ERP mirrors the approach he observed in his own father while growing up in Danville, a small textile town in southern Virginia.

The youngest of eight siblings, Melvin looked up to his father, a tobacco farmer and textile worker who modeled an incredible work ethic balanced with a policy of always putting family first. “Whatever you want to do, be the best,” he would tell his young son growing up. He valued honesty and integrity, raising Melvin to believe that his word was his bond.

Melvin’s mother was best known for her love of people and her deep desire to help anyone she could.

The company of others gave her tremendous joy, and Melvin inherited that affinity. “As I entered the business world later on, I was comfortable with networking because of her,” he reflects. “She taught me how to engage with people in a real, genuine way.”

Melvin was as much as fifteen years younger than his siblings, and he grew very close to his father when everyone else went off to college. “I loved hanging out with him—the laughs, the stories,” Melvin recalls. He was also close with all his brothers and sisters, who looked out for him and guided him as he grew up. “My sisters were the ones to push my educational and academic focus,” he says. “My parents always wanted their children to be educated. I was a stellar student and ended up graduating twentieth out of my class of around 200 kids, going on to be a lifelong learner. I have my sisters to thank for that.”

Melvin also loved sports, including basketball, football, and track. Taken together, his interests and obligations made for a very busy coming of age. “As a rural kid, I’d get up, take care of my chores, head off to school, go to practice, get home at seven, do my homework, and pass out,” he recounts. “If we had a game, it was much later. In the summers, there was a lot of farm work to consume your time. I worked a few odd jobs in 118

high school maintaining parks and roads, and one summer I started my own landscaping business, but there wasn’t a lot of extra time.”

The son of Wendell Scott, a popular black racecar driver, was one of Melvin’s coaches in high school, and he taught the young man that he’d have to work twice as hard and be twice good as everyone else in order to succeed. “His teachings paralleled my father’s example, and I learned to work hard and prepare myself to be ready for the opportunities that would come my way in life,” says Melvin. In his worldview, luck is when preparation meets opportunity.

His greatest opportunity came at the age of nineteen when he met Sandra, the woman who would steal his heart and become his lifelong partner. “We’ve been married 31 years now, and she’s made me a better person,” he avows. “Through life, we’ve been each other’s biggest supporters. She’s really focused me on being in the present and experiencing all the joys happening today, instead of living for the next success. She’s brought that balance to me.”

While Melvin attended Norfolk State and then transferred to James Madison University to play football, Sandra went to Averett College, a private school in Danville. There, he followed a premed track until he realized he wouldn’t be able to finish within four years—a deal breaker, considering his grants and loans would be cut off, and he was responsible for putting himself through school. “I decided I wanted to pursue an area of study that would be helpful if I started my own business, so I settled on accounting,” he says. “I always knew I’d start my own company, I just didn’t know what it would be.”

Sandra decided to move to Baltimore, so Melvin moved to Washington with some friends when he graduated in 1984. The two got married and set to work building a life for themselves. Without computers or the internet, applying to jobs was an incredibly cumbersome process back then, and Melvin can still remember standing on the corner of 14th Street and Pennsylvania Avenue with a hundred copies of his resume, handing them out to passersby and telling them he was looking for a job. He was hired as a temporary file clerk at the General Accounting Office, where he worked for nine months until he was hired as a staff accountant with Labat Anderson, a small environmental consulting firm.

Several years later, Melvin went to work for Freddie Mac in accounting and secondary mortgages, earning his CPA soon thereafter. After three years in that capacity, he returned to a direct marketing company as an accounting manager. The firm was acquired by a government consulting company looking to grow and go public, which quickly devolved into a disaster. “The company was bleeding money due to poor operations,” Melvin recalls. “When the comptroller for the parent company couldn’t wire over the money for payroll because they didn’t have any, I decided to leave.”

Melvin then went to work as an accounting manager with Federal Document Retrieval, a small company of

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$8 to $10 million. It was a very successful lifestyle business that fostered a culture of open communication.

The owner ultimately sold that company to Disclosure, a research products developer that specialized in the digitization of hard copy documents, and Melvin became the assistant controller responsible for all the financial reporting for his division. Disclosure was then bought by Primark, which went on to do fifteen acquisitions over the next year as it went global. Finally, in 1995, Primark was bought by Thompson Financial Services, and Melvin decided to move into government consulting by joining a small company focused primarily on defense information systems for weapons, logistics, and transportation.

As the company’s CFO, head strategist, and then President, Melvin embarked on a ten-year tenure that grew the company from 10 to 250 people. This was no small feat, considering it was among the worst times ever to get into the government consulting marketplace.

The government shut down late that year, and several months later, a severe blizzard caused it to shut down again. The turmoil cost the company its only contract, a $250,000 hit. Fortunately, they had ample cash on hand, and the investments they made through that tough period made them one of the fastest growing companies in the nation for four of the next ten years.

“We hired good people, developed good people, and prepared them for the next opportunity,” Melvin recounts. “It was a fantastic experience that prepared me for the next opportunity. I came into that organization with a lot of skills, but it provided invaluable leadership opportunities as I learned what it meant to be the one responsible for building a team and its culture. Drawing on the influence of my mentors, the help of an executive

coach, the tools of YPO, and the richness of the life exposure I was getting, I built leadership philosophies centered around connecting, engaging, and paying it forward.”

Now, Melvin leads ERP according to the principles of Jack Welch’s Four E’s—energy, edge, getting others energized, and execution. “The foundation of leadership is the ability to inspire and mobilize others through the power of your vision, ideas, and concepts,” he says. “Integrity is also a vital component of the leadership equation. And I believe leadership is taking care of the people you’re responsible for, just as mentors took care of me while I was learning how to lead. My life has been changed by a lot of wonderful people who took the time to be there, so now I make a point to be there for others that need help.” Outside of the office, this includes support for charities like Adoptions Together, an organization dedicated to finding families for children with disabilities and troubled pasts.

In advising young people entering the working world today, Melvin underscores the importance of hard work and establishing a high bar. “Strive for excellence, but make sure you’re enjoying life,” he says.

“Understand where you are, where you want to go, and what’s required to achieve your dreams. Things won’t go exactly as planned along the way, but you can still reach your destination if you stay mindful of the steps you take.”

Beyond that, Melvin encourages young people to step up into the roles they feel are right for them. Success takes hard work on a daily basis, but in the end, it’s worth it. “Leave it all on the battlefield, and then you can feel good about the outcome, whatever happens,” he says. “Everyone has a purpose in life, and the only way to find it is to step up. Because if not you, then who?”

Melvin Petty

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Theodore M. Prociv _________________

Structured for Opportunity “There’s a reason God brought us to this country,” Ted Prociv’s mother used to tell him. “Your father and I believe that you will grow up to be somebody important.”

This, the refrain of Ted’s childhood, played like a subtle yet compelling tape in the back of his mind as he came of age. Gone were the days where he’d grab a drawing pad and traverse New York City, sketching artifacts in the Museum of Natural History or the bridge in Central Park. Perhaps he could have had a future as an artist, foreshadowed by his first sale—a sketch of a squirrel that caught the eye of a passing stranger. But his mother decided to throw out the body of artwork amassing in the apartment. “In the old country,” she said, “artists were poor. I don’t want that for you.”

Ted’s father was born in the western portion of Ukraine. During World War II he served as a Russian tank driver, and was captured by the Nazis in Finland when he was 24 years old.

He was taken to a prisoner of war camp in Norway but managed to escape while being transported by train to Germany. He made his way across the country, seeking safe haven at a displaced persons camp in Cornberg, Germany. He met Ted’s mother there, a fellow Ukrainian who had been taken from her home by the Nazis at the age of 14 to work as a domestic for a wealthy German family.

Ted was born in a British Army hospital in Cornberg. At the age of two, his family boarded a ship to the United States, a country they knew little about. But they’d heard that, in America, you have the freedom to work, earn a decent wage, buy a home, and successfully raise a family. They were America-bound, and would raise their son to care deeply about what that journey had meant. “We came to a land that was structured for opportunity, and I’ve always felt a debt to this country that adopted us,” he says today. “It would never be enough for me to just collect a paycheck. I grew up really wanting to accomplish great and important things.”

Arriving on the other side of the Atlantic, the Prociv family set itself to simmer in the melting pot of New York City. They got an apartment in lower Manhattan, relocated to the Bronx a few years later, and ultimately moved to Ridgewood, Brooklyn, always remaining close to a Ukrainian church. Ted grew up interfacing with all manner of religions, cultures, and races.

Upon arriving in the US, Ted’s father found work as

a tailor for a custom suit business—a trade that he learned, ironically, while in the concentration camp in Norway. Ted recalls that leftover swaths of British tropical wool were often just enough to make custom garments for someone his size. “I had better suits as a three-year-old than I do now,” he laughs. Later, looking to make a better living, his father switched to building maintenance.

On Saturdays, Ted was sent to Ukrainian classes, where he learned to read and write in Cyrillic. It was the language of his roots, later to become the script of his future working on geopolitics in Eastern Europe, Russia, and Ukraine, but it came with a price. Typical childhood pastimes like baseball and football remained foreign to him, and when he began taking an interest in sports in high school, he found himself woefully behind his peers in ability. He worked hard and made letters in football and field events in both St. Francis Prep High School and Widener University. To Ted, however, his most exciting athletic accomplishment came later when he was named Captain of the Hunter College Rugby Team for four years while studying at the City University of New York Graduate School.

Ted credits his success through life to his parents, who modeled a strong work ethic and a compelling sense of adventure that put Ted ahead of his peers in other ways. When his father got his first car, the family drove to the Midwest and occasionally to Canada for vacations. They would take weekend trips to parks, zoos, and beaches, or engaging in local adventures together, creating a sense of wanderlust that would stay with Ted throughout his life. His mother loved to cook, and many of his fondest memories from childhood emanate from family dinners on Sundays.

Ted excelled academically, earning scholarships or teaching assistantships to every academic institution that he attended, culminating in a PhD in Chemistry.

Through it all, he applied the staunch work ethic he learned from his parents to his education. “It always amazed me that a couple with little formal education could produce a family of children who would all go on to earn advanced degrees,” says Ted. His younger brother, Stefan, is a lawyer and MBA, and his sister, Christine, is a Business Executive and Harvard MBA. Ted fashioned his young life such that there was no wasted time. His motto seemed to be, “If you have free time, find a way to make it billable.” At the age of fourTheodore M. Prociv

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teen, he fabricated a shoeshine box, which he carried on his days off to a New York City subway station. Adding an old folding chair, a horsehair brush, and black and brown shoe polish, he set up shop. This was his first source of income, and he set aside a portion of his earnings to contribute to the family finances.

When he turned fifteen, Ted found that he could earn more money by picking up a paper route, but he’d need a bike to do it—something he couldn’t afford. “I decided to build one myself from discarded parts that I found on the streets,” he says. “It was a monstrous thing on a frame with tires that looked like overinflated balloons, but it sure held a lot of newspapers. And now, even today, I still feel drawn to mechanical work and have always worked on my own cars and motorcycles.”

Ted then got a job as a runner on Wall Street during summer vacations, an experience which gave him some great insights that he was able to use later in his career as the CEO of a publicly traded company. Upon returning to school, Ted found a part-time job as a dishwasher in an Italian restaurant on weekends and holidays. One evening, when the establishment’s two chefs failed to show up for work, the owner asked Ted to cook, coaching him through the process. It was the start of a new skill set, and before long, his ornate anti-pasta creations were attracting the attention of local newspapers. In addition to learning how to cook, Ted learned important business and managerial skills before leaving restaurant life at the age of eighteen to work as a building porter for National Cleaning Contractors in Manhattan. It was the behemoth cleaning company where his mother worked in the evenings, and now, Ted was earning a Union wage.

Working as a building porter turned out to be one of the most formative experiences of his life. He was now observing the business world in New York City, gaining an understanding of the culture of success and failure.

On one occasion, Ted found himself moving furniture for an advertising executive starting a new job at a big Madison Avenue firm. As he was hauling the pieces, one of the other senior porters predicted that this executive wouldn’t last two months. “I was surprised and asked how he could know that when he had never even met the guy,” Ted recounts. “But he told me to just look at his furniture, compared to the furniture in the other offices. It didn’t even come close to the same character, quality and style. Just like he said, the executive didn’t even last two months. That’s when I started to really observe this world where, until then, I was only operating on the outskirts. I began noticing how executives dressed and behaved. I took note of the ones that treated me like I was invisible, and the ones that were interested in building a relationship with me as a person, asking about my ambitions, interests, family, and future aspirations in general. It cultivated my behavioral index, giving me a sense of how I wanted to act if I ever entered that world. More than anything, I learned the importance of empathy. Later in life, my success in business stemmed directly from that lesson. It was em122

pathy that allowed me to create real, genuine relationships with clients that persisted even after our business together was done.”

At “National,” as everyone called it, Ted’s coworkers were like his parents, newcomers to America without much education, wealth, or prestige to their name. But they understood human nature and were able to wield that knowledge in a way the corporate executives they worked for, rarely could. Slowly, as he worked to fill the free time over his high school and college years, he discovered the secret passageways of character, as surely as he learned many of the secret passageways under Wall Street and most of lower Manhattan. “All I had to do was observe…sit in the window seat once in a while,” he says.

Alongside the savoir faire of the service industry, Ted discovered a love of science through his high school biology class, aiming to pursue the field in college. He was offered a full scholarship at Widener University (formerly Pennsylvania Military College), so he seized the opportunity. After two years, he applied for and was awarded an Army ROTC Scholarship, which carried with it an obligation to serve in the military as a commissioned officer—one possible way he could pay back his debt to his adopted country. Accepting it and returning his previous scholarship, he also switched his major to chemistry, which proved a platform for his future interests.

Ted approached graduation as the Vietnam War was winding down, and determined to control his own future, he and a fraternity brother hopped in his Mustang and headed to the Pentagon. Wearing their cadet uniforms, they were easily led through security, and they commenced knocking on doors looking for someone who could consider them for deferments for graduate school. “We figured, what did we have to lose?” Ted recalls. “We ended up finding the right office, and we got our deferments after all. My friend went to law school, and I went to graduate school for chemistry at Hunter College, a part of City University of New York.”

It was around this time that Ted married Jo Ann, his high school sweetheart. She came from a working class Italian family with strong ties, and though the pair had broken up several times over the years, life always seemed to bring them back together. “She was smart and attractive, and she possessed an incredible memory, a compelling attention to detail, and a strong spirit,” he says. “While I was building my career, she raised our three children into wonderful, successful people, and still was able to earn a Master’s degree in Public Administration and operate a successful real estate business.”

Now, their oldest son Justin is a practicing lawyer in Miami. Their daughter, Kathryn, has a Master’s Degree in meteorology and works as a producer on the Weather Channel in Atlanta. Their other daughter, Lauren, has a Master’s degree in marketing and is an executive strategic planner for the Martin Agency in Richmond, Virginia.

While working on his PhD, Ted received orders

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from the Army to report to the US ARMY Dugway Proving Ground, a facility 87 miles west of Salt Lake City, for active duty. There, he continued the theoretical work toward his thesis, which he successfully defended in 1981. At the Dugway laboratory, he first began to study the structure and composition of chemical warfare weapons, and after developing several defenserelated measures, he eventually landed federal funding to study the destruction of these weapons.

As he published his findings, Ted gained significant visibility in the scientific community and landed a job offer from Battelle Memorial Institute. The company, among the most prestigious contract research firms in the world, was an ideal climate to continue his research in analytical chemistry, and Ted wrote his PhD thesis on the discovery of a rare strained molecule using theoretical calculations to predict a synthesis pathway. The work was published in the Journal of the American Chemical Society.

He began to find, however, that he was more drawn to the business side of chemistry, like marketing, management, and working with people. “As I got married and began to really think about my future, I grew more and more interested in managing the business processes of chemistry,” he says.

From his research job, Ted was transferred to Corporate Technical Development at Battelle, a strategic position within the corporation which included a promotion to a senior management position. In this capacity, he worked all over the world, dramatically expanding his vista in science. He was ultimately named VP of strategic programs, cementing a major life shift from science to business as he coordinated the company’s defense programs in Washington, D.C.. He helped design a strategic plan for the company that involved the opening of new field offices with proximity to key clients. He physically relocated to Edgewood, Maryland, to launch one such office and soon followed up by adding a second office in Crystal City, Virginia. After fourteen months, he was asked to relocate to the Battelle Dayton office to execute a turnaround.

While at Dayton, Ted pitched and implemented a defense field office operational concept, establishing additional offices in Alabama, Texas, and Utah—areas with heavy contract research opportunities.

Through this entrepreneurial boon, Ted’s expertise in the nature of chemical agents and the destruction of chemical weapons expanded to broader geopolitics. His name grew prominent in this new field, attracting the attention of Department of Defense executives. He was subsequently offered a position at the Pentagon as a Deputy Assistant to the Secretary of Defense at the highest senior executive service level of SES6.

“The happiest moment of my father’s life was when I told him I was going to be a Deputy Assistant Secretary at the Pentagon,” Ted recounts. “In graduate school, I had imagined how great it would be to be part of the science of the destruction of all the chemical agent weapons in the world. At the Pentagon, I got the oppor-

tunity to work on exactly that, and more. I’d leave each day with a tremendous sense of accomplishment, always feeling that I was making a real difference.”

Over those five-plus years at the Pentagon, Ted worked to transform the chemical biological business into a genuine military industrial complex involving numerous international partners. With the help of some of his former industry colleagues, he launched the NBC IG, an industry group for the Nuclear, Biological and Chemical (NBC) industries, which still meets once a month, two decades later. With the help of colleagues in Great Britain, he also started the Chemical Weapons Destruction (CWD) International Program, which is in its eighteenth year today. He revived the National Defense Industrial Association (NDIA) Chemical Biological Steering Committee, which resulted in NDIA awarding Ted their annual Gold Medal for supporting the US Defense Industry. At the Pentagon, he received the Department of Defense Meritorious Service Medal to recognize his achievements, an honor that sits alongside the elegant award he received from the French government “Ordre National du Merite,” awarded for providing assistance in developing concepts for destroying recovered chemical weapons in France.

After four years of working for the Secretary of Defense, Ted was offered an opportunity to become an Assistant Secretary of the Army. The Department of Defense’s weapons destruction program had grown so large that it was transferred to the US Army for management, and Ted was asked to continue his oversight of the program in a new position there. In that capacity, he continued to focus on advancing goals that were set by the United Nation’s treaty for the elimination of all chemical weapons worldwide.

In 1999, he accepted the President and CEO position at Versar Inc., where he worked for the next eleven years at the helm of an environmental and infrastructure company. “When I arrived, I found a lot of very smart people who weren’t having any fun,” he reflects.

“Their old way of doing business had disappeared, and they weren’t sure how to restore the operations to their former success.”

Ted focused on sketching out a plan to turn things around and then exuding the confidence necessary to lead the company in that direction. He showed the employees that he had a vision for the future, and he convinced the clients he could get them where they wanted to go. He also exercised the same sense of empathy that had gotten him through his career to this point.

“For me, leadership stems from empathy,” he explains.

“You have to be able to empathize with both the employees and the clients, getting on the other side of the fence and understanding what they need to be successful. In the business world, people try to understand, but they don’t always try to empathize. I’ve found through my career that building that empathy bridge goes a long way.”

Ted was able to leverage his past affiliations and experience to help increase the share of Versar’s defense Theodore M. Prociv

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business from 40 to 86 percent during his tenure. “I enjoyed my role in building Versar to a new, exciting company,” he remarks. In 2010, he retired from Versar and has since pursued various consulting jobs, projects, and commitments. Such diverse roles include serving on the Utah State Research Foundation’s Board of Directors, as a U.S. representative for Kobe Steel Ltd. Defense-related projects, and as a temporary CEO for a startup company in need of a growth spurt.

In advising young people entering the working world today, Ted echoes the guidance he offered his own children. “I never spent a lot of time agonizing over

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planning my career,” he says. “If you follow the sequence of events in my life, they were all opportunistic.

Each step forward came in the form of an opportunity where I decided whether I wanted to go one way or the other. From the shoe shine stand, to the Wall Street runner job, to the Italian restaurant, to National Cleaning Contractors, all the way up to becoming a Pentagon executive and ultimately a CEO, I was always focused on getting to the next level. The world isn’t structured for planning, it’s structured for opportunity. So keep your mind open to differing opportunities, and when you come across that thing that you love doing, jump in and never look back.”

Profiles in Success: Inspiration from Executive Leaders in the Washington D.C. Area — Volume 11

Linda Rabbitt _________________

Courage From the outside, Linda Rabbitt’s life seemed perfect. Married to a successful doctor. Two beautiful toddler-age daughters. A 9,000 square-foot home in McLean, Virginia, overlooking the Potomac River, furnished with beautiful antiques and with a housekeeper, gardener, and nanny to help out. But inside, things were far from perfect.

So far from perfect, in fact, that Linda came to fear for her life and the lives her girls. Her husband suffered from manic depression at a time when the illness was even less understood and accepted than it is today, and in an era where society rarely questioned the stability and authority of doctors. His bouts of cruelty were amplified through self-medication using diet pills, and Linda knew they couldn’t go on as they were. Finally, she asked him to leave, and with him went all the income and stability she had come to rely on. He moved overseas, where court agreements and child support obligations had no bearing. She had no credit card, no bank account, and no car titled in her name.

That same year, in 1980, Linda’s beloved father passed away, and she had to sell an antique clock to buy the plane ticket to Florida for his funeral. Her mother was too distraught to offer emotional or financial support, so Linda had to turn inward for strength. She sold the rest of the antiques, but in time she ran out of options, and the county turned off the home’s electricity and water. Linda and her girls moved in with a friend—one of the few acquaintances her controlling exhusband had allowed her to keep during their five-year marriage. There, at age 32, Linda set to work starting her life over.

Through the help of a friend, Linda finally landed at KPMG as a secretary making $16,000 a year. She can still distinctly remember finishing her first day of work on February 2, 1981, and walking to the corner of 20th and K Street in D.C., where she waited for the bus to take her home to her apartment in Tyson’s Corner, Virginia. She had never taken the bus before, so she hadn’t had occasion to learn that the vehicle might not specifically say the destination stop on its marquee. It was only after two hours waiting in the falling snow that she discovered her mistake and finally boarded the right bus home.

Staring up at the street sign with tears in her eyes as the bus pulled away, Linda made a silent promise to spend the rest of her life making sure that neither she,

nor any woman she knew or loved, ever had to go through something like that again. Through her heartache, the resolution was not the sound of her spirit breaking, but a rallying cry, calling on all the secret strengths and skills cultivated in her character through her life up to that point. Linda Rabbitt would not be broken, and she would not settle. Now the cofounder, Chairman, and CEO of rand* construction corporation, a $300 million firm with four locations licensed to do construction in 26 states, Linda’s road from secretary to CEO was pure courage. “Courage is operating on blind faith, doing what must be done even when you don’t have a clear understanding where the end zone is,” she says. “Building a new life and then building a new company was hard, but it was necessary, and in the end, it was the best thing I could have done.”

For the first three decades of her life, Linda never thought of herself as a businesswoman, and was never told she had a mind for corporate success. It wasn’t until she first set foot in the business world via KPMG that her innate skill and proclivity was tapped into—a sense for business that comes in part from her father’s influence. His own parents were very successful making carriages in Germany, and as he was their smartest son, they sent him to America at the age of nineteen to pursue an education. The year was 1925, and he set his sights on becoming a doctor, but his American aunt convinced him to instead make a foray in the brand new industry of automotive engineering. Seeing the opportunity, he took a job with Briggs, the precursor to Chrysler Corporation, and went to school for automotive engineering at night. He quickly rose through the ranks at Chrysler, where he met Linda’s mother, at that time a young, beautiful secretary.

Linda’s mother hailed from a poor family in Detroit, but when she married the brilliant, elegant German auto executive, she gracefully stepped into the role of community leader, socialite homemaker, and loving mother.

Linda was born in Detroit, Michigan, and the family lived in the countryside until her younger sister was born four years later. They then moved to Grosse Point, where the girls grew up. “I think my father wanted a son, but he got me,” Linda laughs. “He took me skeet shooting, fishing, and to every single hockey game— things girls just didn’t do in those days.”

Linda idolized her father, a disciplined Prussian who took her with him when he made the Saturday rounds Linda Rabbitt

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to various engineering companies doing work for him.

He’d check on their progress as they built die-cast model cars, pointing out imperfections. “Do you see this, Linda?” he would say. “This is a sixteenth of an inch off.

You can never be a sixteenth of an inch off.” He developed in her an eye for precision, accuracy, and perfection, which proves invaluable in the construction world today.

These high standards extended into Linda’s schooling, where she only got her father’s approval through absolute excellence. “I remember bringing home a report card with all A’s, save for one B+ in home economics class,” she says. “My father threw down the card and said, ‘I simply don’t understand the B+,’ and walked away. I learned quickly that I needed to be perfect to get the respect I wanted from him.”

When she wasn’t inspecting automotive engineering flaws or putting in the work to be a star student, Linda partook in every lesson imaginable. Her mother signed her up for swimming, piano, singing, skiing, and ballet lessons, eager to cultivate her daughter’s talents and give her the opportunity to explore every avenue available.

When Linda was in fifth grade, they wrote a newspaper together and sold it for a penny apiece around the neighborhood. “She made sure my sister and I were very involved and active, always learning,” Linda recalls.

“She was very outgoing, always volunteering or engaging with the community in some way. She threw wonderful dinner parties and had a wide network of friends, putting a very high premium on friendship. I picked that up from her, and it would become absolutely vital to my success later on as a businesswoman.”

Linda’s father was always adamant that she would go on to get a college education, and that she attend the University of Michigan, the best school in the state.

Through her whole life, she called him at his office only once, to give him the good news that she made it in through early admission. She was to become the first woman on either side of her family to complete college, the first to get a master’s degree, and the first to get a divorce.

In college, Linda got a liberal arts degree majoring in Social Studies and English, following her love of history, psychology, and sociology. Her mother had always pushed her to become either a nurse or a schoolteacher, and she hated the sight of blood, so she imagined she would go into education. In college, her aperture was opened enough to realize that if she wanted to make something of herself, Michigan probably wasn’t the place to do it. “Many people I knew there were pretty chauvinistic, and the auto industry was the only industry in town,” she reflects. “I studied political science and developed an interest in the way the federal government ran, so I decided that Washington, D.C. was my best chance.”

Upon graduating in 1970, Linda made the move to D.C., where she found teaching jobs were hard to come by. She instead enrolled at George Washington University to get her masters, and when she completed her 126

coursework in 1972, she landed a job teaching English and American History to seventh and eighth graders for the Fairfax County Public School system. Her starting salary was $7,800 a year and she taught for three years until marrying her husband in 1975.

Had Linda maintained her teaching credentials through the next five years, she probably would have returned to what she knew when the marriage fell apart.

Fortunately, her credentials had lapsed, compelling her to seek the position at KPMG. She joined the firm as the secretary for two of the partners, quickly coming to realize that the business world was the place for her. “I loved what they did—the conversations they had about how to get clients and how to manage the accounts,” she says. “I found business exciting.”

Having grown up around successful people in a high performing environment, excellence was simply Linda’s modus operandi at the firm, and when the managing partner needed an executive assistant a few months later, her name was submitted. In the interview for the elevated position, the managing partner mused at her two degrees from prestigious universities, and asked if she knew how to take dictation. Linda had not been trained as such, but she pointed out that she had a minor in English and could write the letters for him—he’d only have to sign. With that, she landed the job as Steve Harlan’s executive assistant.

Through close observation, Linda’s mother had learned how to speak and behave as the wife of a corporate executive. Displaying her mother’s same ability to observe and interpret the world around her, Linda mastered the world of business, and after only three months, Steve promoted her to a new marketing position as the Director of Practice Development. Linda initially tried to turn the job down, citing her complete lack of marketing expertise, but Steve told her to learn.

In this way, the people at Peat Marwick became her friends. “He saw something in me, and I made sure he was very well taken care of,” Linda recalls. “He was the head of the Washington Board of Trade at the time, and I marketed him very well.”

Through their work together, Linda and Steve came to be the best of friends, and when she was asked by an acquaintance to join her in launching the area’s first woman-owned construction company, he wanted the best for her. The woman, the Director of Marketing for an architectural firm, was convinced that they could make six-figure incomes within three years. Not only did Steve encourage Linda to pursue the opportunity— he also lent her the money she needed to start the company and insisted on being their first client. With that, in 1985, Linda joined her partner in launching Hart Construction.

“The less you know about an opportunity, the more interesting it looks,” Linda laughs now. “At the time, I knew nothing about construction, or business, or starting a company.” Fortunately, the D.C. metropolitan area was going through its first big real estate expansion when Hart was formed, and its two young female own-

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ers caused quite the stir in the traditionally-male field of construction. They were featured in Washingtonian Magazine, and though Linda had never taken a business class in her life, she learned how to run a business through observation and osmosis. Cognizant of the unparalleled value of relationships, she also joined the Washington Board of Trade and got involved on a committee. “Professional services firms are all about meeting people and showing them that they can believe in you,” Linda says. “The more people you know, and the more people that like you and trust you, the more you’re able to grow your business.”

Personal connections and trust also landed Linda a blind date with an executive at the Oliver T. Carr Company, a client of Hart, who needed a date to the opening party of the Willard Hotel. John Whalen turned out to be a perfect match for Linda, and the two got married several years later. “What I love most about him is his value system,” she reflects today. “His True North is True North. He’s the most principled person I know, always looking for ways to give back, and he keeps me grounded. I’m extroverted and he’s introverted. I’m the big picture girl, and he’s the one that fills in the blanks and plugs up the holes. In our differences, we’re incredibly compatible, and his support would prove key in my professional success to come.”

By 1989, Hart had grown to a $3 million company, and Linda had big ambitions to scale the company. As the 49 percent owner, however, those ambitions were frustrated. “My partner was also divorced, but she was receiving alimony. She didn’t quite have the fire that I did,” Linda says. “We decided to part ways in 1989, and with the money I received for my Hart stock, I decided to start a new construction company.”

Linda brought in a 30 percent partner whose last name was Anderson, combining portions of their two names to form rand*. The new company, focused on tenant and office build-outs, quickly found itself faced with the biggest recession in the history of real estate, but Linda excelled at getting work and connecting with the many workers being laid off from larger construction companies. Her first clients were local and national developers like Hines and the Oliver T. Carr Company, and rand* was off and running.

In those early years, Linda ensured her clients were well-served, which sometimes took the help of John and her two girls on nights and weekends. Focusing on commercial interiors and building renovations, their client list accumulated notable names like the Washington Post, Politico, General Dynamics, BCG, and around half the law firms in the area. Always a woman of the people, Linda would visit job sites to praise the blue collar workers that truly became the backbone of the company, and more important than the long series of “Best Places to Work” awards rand* received, her efforts garnered loyalty that has kept team members onboard for many years. “I have the utmost respect for every one of my employees, and I always tell them that rand* can’t be successful without them,” she explains. “We all have

to share, be kind, and have each other’s backs. I’m incredibly proud of what we’ve been able to accomplish together.”

All the while, Linda raised her daughters to be independent and creative thinkers. She taught them to take a sense of responsibility and pride in their schoolwork, in the same way she took responsibility and pride in her leadership of rand*. Today, she laughs at the memory of coming home after a twelve-hour day to find that she needed to assemble a Martha Washington costume for a play the next day. “In an entrepreneurial environment, the highs are high, and the lows are low, and there’s nothing in between,” she remarks. “But together as a family, we built a life we could be proud of—a life wellspent.” The Rabbitt household was a chaotic, nurturing, supportive atmosphere for all, and from 1989 to 1995, rand* grew to $20 million. By 2000, it had reached $75 million.

“I was just beginning my fifties at that point,” Linda recalls. “I felt like I had overcome a lot of obstacles and now that my daughters were growing up into wonderful young women and my company was on solid ground, I was ready to enjoy the fruits of my hard work.” But everything changed that fall when, at the insistence of her college friends, she got a mammogram for the first time in several years. When she found out she had breast cancer, it was like a punch to the stomach. “I couldn’t believe it. I felt like I had finally overcome all odds,” she says. “But my husband told me there was a blessing in it, so I looked for one. And it turns out he was right. The blessing was my decision that, if I was going to die, it would be with the fewest regrets possible.”

With that, Linda, began living life with a new sense of meaning and value. She let go of baggage she didn’t need to carry anymore, and she no longer allowed people to treat her without the respect she deserved. “It was actually very liberating,” she reflects. “I made sure my house was in order, and that I was square with all the relationships and circumstances in my life. I was going to do everything in my power to make it through, but in case I didn’t, I made sure I had everything taken care of.”

The next year, Linda was elected Chair of the Greater Washington Board of Trade and also served as Head of its Executive Committee. She underwent four rounds of chemo during those leadership roles and never missed a meeting, showing the world what courage looked like. “I felt a calling to serve as a role model and to teach people that they can face adversity with grace, overcoming it to have satisfying, fulfilling lives,” she avows. “Now, fifteen years later and cancer free, I have only three regrets: that my father never got to see my success, that my mother never understood my success, and that I never got to be 5’10” with long thin legs.” rand* went on to open offices in Atlanta, Austin, and Denver, and as partners came and went, Linda has rebuilt the company four times. She made smart, strategic business decisions that kept the company very cash rich with no substantial debt. She came to understand Linda Rabbitt

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that everyone has the same 24-hour clock, and that life is about choices. “Everyone gets to choose how they want to spend their time,” she says. “I chose to be a great mom and a great business owner, but I didn’t read novels or take long vacations or learn how to play golf.

Because of those choices, I have two smart, wellgrounded, happy daughters and rand* is a great success.”

That success has allowed Linda to support an extensive list of causes, many of them brought to her by clients and friends. Her personal experiences have led to her support of the Susan G. Komen Foundation and the Breast Cancer Coalition, as well as a number of initiatives to help battered wives. As a Trustee of George Washington University, she founded a program to teach women how to sit on corporate boards—an initiative she is now cultivating through Harvard’s business school. She served as the Chair of the Federal Reserve for the Fifth District and has served on various corporate boards herself. Her community service work won her recognition as the 2004 Washingtonian of the Year, and in 2016 she received the Horatio Alger Award for Outstanding Americans.

Through these various commitments and recognitions, and through her position at the helm of rand*, Linda finds herself teaching others far more now than she was able to as a school teacher, and demonstrating on a daily basis how good leadership makes a difference.

She seeks out smart, ambitious, nice people to join rand*, and she considers each team member a leader in their own rite. “I think that every successful leader builds a culture of one for all and all for one,” she says.

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“You have to be inspirational and aspirational. You have to be a good role model that inspires trust and is fair and honest and nice. It may seem trite, but not everyone is those things. Not everyone knows how to counsel people to find their best light.”

In advising young people entering the working world today, Linda remembers one of the many conversations she had with her mother before she passed away at age 87. Linda used to call her every morning on her way to work, and two weeks before she passed away, the elderly woman expressed her discontent that she hadn’t accomplished anything that day. “Mom, you’re 87 years old,” Linda had remarked. “What have you not accomplished?” Her mother replied, “I don’t know, but if I don’t accomplish something every day, I just don’t feel alive.” The conversation clarified for Linda the importance of incremental progress in ensuring one’s happiness, and the power of taking life-affirming actions on a daily basis.

Beyond that, Linda tells others to take her journey with a grain of salt, but with enduring hope for their future. “I would not advise others to do what I did, starting a business in an industry I knew nothing about when I had no business background,” she says. “But I hope my journey teaches other women that they don’t have to be secretaries if they don’t want to be. I hope it shows people that not everybody tells their story, but everybody has one. Everybody faces problems and setbacks through their lives. It doesn’t matter where you come from. It only matters where you’re going, and that you allow yourself the courage to get there.”

Profiles in Success: Inspiration from Executive Leaders in the Washington D.C. Area — Volume 11

Luis Riesco _________________

From A to Z “Which one?” asked the Kinko’s employee, holding out two copies of the resume.

Luis Riesco turned to Melissa, his trusted wife and life partner, and she chose the resume printed on manila paper. The other copy, printed on plain white paper, was tossed carelessly into the garbage can. “I was seven years out of college, working at a company called E-Systems doing systems programming support,” he remembers.

“At the time, though I couldn’t articulate it, I was frustrated at not being able to see the whole trajectory of running a business, from A to Z.” Luis was cold-called the next day by a representative from SETA Corporation, a Federal Government IT contractor. It wasn’t until several months into his tenure there that he learned that his new boss had been at Kinko’s that same evening making copies, and had noticed his resume in the trash. He spent the next eight years of his life in management and business development roles at three small businesses, where he learned how a business operates and captures new work. “I felt like I had earned a Doctorate degree and had serious thoughts about starting my own business,” he remembers.

It was a stroke of fate that set Luis on a ladder to success—a ladder that would lead him to that expansive perspective he had always been drawn to. It’s the ladder that led him to the world of small business, and later entrepreneurship, becaming the founder and President of Lumark Technologies.

Lumark is a professional services company in the Federal government marketplace, initially focused on providing commercial process improvement support to vendors bidding on government contracts. Luis’s systems background and expertise in performance management, combined with his senior leaders’ experience across many federal clients, demonstrate core competencies in the areas of IT services, program and project management, quality assurance and performance improvement, and engineering and logistics support service delivery.

“We’re skilled technical managers across many disciplines who can handle any high-tech or policy-oriented challenge, as well as meeting simple day-to-day project support delivery needs,” he explains. “Having in-house software and systems development capabilities enables us to help the government oversee large systems projects, specifically in the areas of work planning, cost tracking, schedule management, risk controls and delivery compliance.” The company also has a commercial consulting practice that helps vendors obtain Capability Maturity

Model Integration (CMMI) ratings and International Organization for Standardization (ISO) certifications.

Lumark is proud to have earned a CMMI Level III in 2015, a quality hallmark that indicates compliance with industry best practices and expertise in project processes.

This improvement initiative began in 2007 to include ISO certification and is embedded in the company culture with a strong focus on continuous improvement. In 2015, Lumark was honored with a US Commerce & Trade Research Institute (USCTRI) Excellence Award for its work at the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) William J. Hughes Technical Center (WJHTC) in New Jersey.

But Luis considers repeat business his highest award.

“At this point, customers can clearly see that we’re seasoned, experienced, and extremely efficient,” he says. “In a sense, we operate largely with a coaching mentality, helping the government make the most of taxpayer dollars from a delivery perspective.

And the best part about it is that we have a whole team of people we can put behind our customers’ success.”

Luis’s passion to succeed, and create pathways for others to pursue success stems from the earliest days of his childhood, where he watched his parents struggle with a lack of opportunity. His father, an Argentinean, met his mother, a Chilean, at a party her family was hosting. They married, and when Mr. Riesco landed an engineering job in New Jersey, the newlyweds ended up making a life for themselves on the Jersey Shore.

Luis and his two younger brothers were born there and would spend their childhoods playing sports on the beach, earning merit badges in Boy Scouts, and picking up English from their friends and neighbors.

Riesco in Spanish is interpreted as “risk,” and Luis’s parents lived up to their name when they immigrated to the United States to build a better life for their children.

His father, though a talented electrical engineer, was subject to discrimination based on his nationality, and wasn’t able to achieve his full potential. When he was fired for reasons beyond his control, he accepted a part-time job so he could continue supporting his young family. Still, Luis could see his father was meant for something more, and it affected him. “I remember seeing all that and feeling how important it would be for me to control my own destiny,” Luis reflects. “I didn’t want to be limited in that way. It was a feeling I never forgot, and it compelled me to have high aspirations for my own future.”

His parents provided the basic foundation all children need to grow—housing, nourishment, love, and care— Luis Riesco

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but they were limited financially. Left to his own devices, Luis was always very motivated to make his own money, starting with a paper route. “My mom was so proud when my friend and I won an award that first year for landing the most subscriptions,” he remembers. “We had our picture printed in the paper and felt like we had accomplished so much. It didn’t matter that we only earned pennies.”

Luis saved up to buy a ten-speed bike when he was in eighth grade—one of his earliest experiences in setting and achieving goals. Though he knew it would mean taking out large loans, he always saw himself going to college. He had ambition and drive, but he didn’t know yet where it would take him. After demonstrating an interest in chemistry as a young man, he set his sights on a future in the field, as his mother’s father had. This pursuit held through his first two college years at the University of Mary Washington in Fredericksburg, Virginia, but when he decided to take a computer science class his junior year, it was an instant natural fit. A second computer class confirmed that he had found his calling, so he extended his studies an extra two years in order to complete both majors.

Through college, Luis’s life purpose unfolded against a backdrop of soccer, his lifelong love since childhood.

He made the starting team as right defender during his freshman year and kept the position until he graduated, playing a key role in the team’s success as co-champions of their region during his junior year and making it to the national tournament in his senior year. Luis carries this lifelong passion forward today through participation in a competitive league with retired pros, which allows him to be a more balanced entrepreneur. It’s also an avenue for giving back, as he donates to a soccer team for underprivileged children. “Soccer is where I clear my head and enjoy great camaraderie,” he says. “It’s my passion, my hobby, and my outlet. On Sunday nights, when most 51year-olds are on the couch watching TV, I’m out there running around and having a blast. It doesn’t matter if I’ve had a high or low day—soccer always makes things great.”

Luis’s one notable regret from his college years was a decision not to study abroad in Argentina, where his father had attended college. “I was concerned my coursework wouldn’t be recognized as equivalent to education in the American higher education system, so I decided to turn the offer down,” he recalls. “It would have been a great experience, and in retrospect, I’m sure the academics would have been just fine. Since then I’ve been more cognizant of how important it is to seize those unique opportunities in life.”

When he graduated in 1988, Luis worked a brief stint at Versar before settling into his role at E-Systems. There, he quickly earned the reputation of the maverick—a hotshot programmer who received support inquiries from some of the world’s biggest vendors. He worked long hours with the pedal to the metal, so most supervisors were inclined to let him run with it. He was promoted to lead positions on various projects and teams to which he 130

was assigned. He also married Melissa, an incredibly bright woman with wisdom beyond her years who always recognized and supported his grand ambitions. Most days, it felt as if he had reached the pinnacle of life’s potential.

Five years into his tenure at E-Systems, however, a supervisor observed that his technical rating was off the charts, but his work style was not. “I was irate,” he recalls.

“However, I look back now and see that she did the best thing for me that day, giving me a dose of reality. It opened my eyes to the managerial aspects that come into play when you run a business. She also recognized immediately that I had an appetite to see from A to Z, and that I needed to transition to a small business setting.

With that, I moved to a smaller E-Systems subsidiary the following year, and in 1995, I left to join a small 8(a) professional services firm—my first real taste of small business.”

That IT company was technically-oriented, and the top executives quickly realized that Luis’s strong communications skills and expert technical knowledge were a hit with customers. He was quickly placed in business development, where he learned proposal development. “I definitely got my feet wet there, but I was still only seeing from F to R,” he remarks. “After two years, I took a position with a similar firm, which really allowed me to see from A to Z for the first time. I learned infrastructure, HR, legal, contracts, and quality, and from that vantage point, I could see for the first time the true nature and entrepreneurial reality of all I could do. I really came out of that experience feeling like I had earned a doctorate in business administration, company administration, and corporate development.”

By 1999, Luis knew he had the knowledge and experience to start his own company. He could write proposals, network, and line everything up from A to Z to capture business. He recognized the various pieces he needed to have in place, from legal counsel to a financial accounting system. He had the material to develop briefs and proposals, and the ability to deliver on what he won. The one thing missing, however, was a source of income. He knew he needed to work on developing relationships with potential clients that would lead to revenue and eventually a paycheck, so he incorporated Lumark and then set it aside to take a job with a small company. “I had a heartto-heart discussion with the owners before I took the job,” he explains. “I told them I intended to start my own business in two years and would love the opportunity to work for them in the meantime, maintaining the strictest ethical standards. In return, they wanted me to bring in new business and help them get to CMM level 3, which I delivered on in spades. It was truly a mutually-beneficial arrangement and I stayed a third year.”

By 2001, Luis knew that everything was in place to take the plunge, say goodbye to his steady paycheck, and invest himself in Lumark full-time. He had switched the company from a C Corp to an S Corp, as it should have been designated since Day One, and had set up QuickBooks as his accounting system. He decided against

Profiles in Success: Inspiration from Executive Leaders in the Washington D.C. Area — Volume 11

outside funding, committed to growing his business solely on what it earned. The company opened its doors in 2001 and within several months, he had landed his first contract for $8,020. “I earned $13,000 gross for that year, which all went toward paying off the computer, QuickBooks, taxes, and small business registrations,” he reflects. But it was time to make the break, and Luis transitioned to Lumark in June 2002 full-time with no salary.

“Thankfully, Melissa had enough trust in me to know that, at some point, it would probably work out,” he continues. “Still, it was a hard road at first, and I was definitely motivated by the desire to not disappoint her.

I’m grateful she was willing to be the breadwinner while I pursued it.”

Many business leaders view a company’s first five years as the time frame that determines whether it will sink or swim. Luis took the pulse of his company one year later, hosting a State of the Business Dinner where he assembled his small team and a few close friends for dinner. “I baked lasagna, prepared a nice little brief, and presented the plan—the projected staff growth, the target client base, and my goal to build up credibility through commercial work before going after federal contracts,” he explains. “I laid out the ‘why us’ rational and provided a report card of what we had done that year. It was an extremely helpful exercise.”

As planned, Lumark made it to its five-year mark, and Luis remembers that time as instrumental in positioning the company for continued growth. The people at Lumark had truly evolved into a team, and thanks to their collective due diligence, hard work, and perseverance, the company landed its first five-year Federal prime contract in 2007, and a second prime contract six months later. Through a process of controlled growth, its corporate structure continued to emphasize process and practicality, leveraging a centralized Microsoft SharePoint IT system that allowed for strong team and clientfacing collaboration, communication, and straightforward performance tracking.

By the time the company hit its tenth anniversary, it was mature by all counts, with its processes and identity firmly in place. It also had a diversified client base including the FAA, the U.S. Department of State (DOS), and the Department of Education (ED). Luis also seized this milestone opportunity to upgrade Lumark’s IT infrastructure into a private cloud implementation that has enabled its workforce to be virtual and scalable “by the press of a button.” This investment has well positioned Lumark for its growth over the past several years, making it “Day One Ready” for large growth “anywhere, anytime.”

Now, Lumark is in its sixteenth year of operation and nearing 45 employees with a strong backlog of work

through multi-year federal contracts to include the same FAA, DOS, and ED client base, as well as the Internal Revenue Service (IRS). In 2015, Lumark opened a Washington, D.C. operations office to better support its growth. This, coupled with its private cloud implementation and expanded CONUS and OCONUS program office presence, better positions the firm for continued managed growth in the global marketplace. Lumark is a mature, exhilarating, and rewarding place to be, thanks in part to the company’s early years when Luis had plenty of time to plan and implement a client-focused and managed growth strategy resulting in many lessons learned.

The company is now a tight-knit and high-functioning team that brings compounding returns to its clients. “To me, leadership is bringing out the best in people,” Luis says. “Where there’s an inadequacy, I work with it and try to bring it into the best light possible. And more than anything, leadership is about clarity and vision. There isn’t any problem I don’t see a solution for. I can visualize the ingredients, elements, or actions whose absence holds us back from those solutions. As a team, we set our sights on those solutions and move forward.”

This philosophy is key in Luis’s advice to young people entering the working world today. “Planning can be a pain, but it’s absolutely essential,” he says. “The basic understanding or ability to plan is huge, because with that comes an understanding of how to reach a pragmatic outcome. It’s important to be able to lay out a viable path forward, rather than an unattainable wish list.” Luis also underscores the importance of patience and perseverance, which are critical in plan execution. Things will undoubtedly go wrong along the way, so he stresses the importance of mid-course corrections without letting fear take over. Feedback is incredibly helpful throughout this process, and should be sought both externally and internally, calibrated against one’s own measures and observations of how the business is doing versus industry trends and standards. Keeping records of metrics from one year to the next allows for invaluable exercises in selfawareness, as long as one makes the time to review and reflect.

Luis highlights the importance of work ethic, motivation and drive—qualities that must come from within, rather than from the outside. “You either have them, or you don’t,” he remarks. “Sometimes, just being able to see from A to Z—in business, or in life—is not enough. One needs to translate those visions into action. When I was young, I thought success meant just having a job and a family. But after sixteen years in business and acting on my beliefs, I see that it’s just as much about delighting clients, motivating employees, empowering leadership, winning repeat business, and sustaining growth. Indeed, the true A to Z roadmap to success is far more textured, far more demanding, and deeply rewarding.”

Luis Riesco

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Profiles in Success: Inspiration from Executive Leaders in the Washington D.C. Area — Volume 11

Devin Schain _________________

Pareto Optimal “Just because I’m a little biased doesn’t make me wrong,” said Wendy Schain, her impassioned voice filling the auditorium. Her ten-year-old son, Devin, sat rapt in the audience and can still remember the room full of doctors erupting in applause at the end of her presentation.

Seven years earlier, when she had been diagnosed with stage two breast cancer at the age of 27, she thought she was going to die and leave her two young children motherless. She set aside the Psychology PhD she had been working on and underwent a radical bilateral mastectomy, clinging to what life she had left.

“We were very fortunate that not only did she live, but she thrived,” Devin recounts today. “She took that experience and became one of the world’s leading experts on the psychological effects of breast cancer. She also became a certified sex therapist and helped women all over the globe cope with the disease. She was a fierce patient advocate, a brilliant academician and Mensa, and the most dynamic orator I ever had the pleasure of hearing. Growing up, I was deeply moved by her work to give back to the community and make a difference. She was the one to really give me my soul for making a difference.”

The counsel of Wendy Schain was sought by Susan G. Komen in 1982 as she was dying of breast cancer. She was called to places like Israel, France, Germany, and Australia to work with high-ranking government officials and global thought leaders alike. In an era where big data and analytics were obscure concepts on a distant horizon, she understood the importance of getting life-saving information into the right hands. She was a fiery spirit blazing new trails with global impact, helping thousands of women confront the adversity of a physically and emotionally debilitating disease. “At every crossroad in her life, Wendy Schain forged ahead, determined to never let anyone or anything keep her from living a passionate life,” Devin wrote in the forward to the biography he had written for her, entitled A Mind of Her Own. Inspired to lead a passionate life of his own, Devin was an economics major at the University of Pennsylvania when he first learned about the theories of Vilfredo Pareto, an Italian engineer and thinker who believed in the pursuit of perfect outcomes for the good of all involved. “In essence, his theory of Pareto-optimal is the idea that all sides should be made the best they can be,” he explains today. “People often look at things as a zero sum game, where if one side gets 52 percent, the other

side gets 48 percent. But I believe we can expand the pie so every side can be better off. It’s good if each can get 50/50, but 54/54 is even better.”

Impassioned by the legacy of his mother, and inspired by the idea of creating opportunity for the good of others, Devin has devoted his fifty years of life so far to the tireless pursuit of Pareto-optimal states. He is the spark that has helped launch dozens of startups, fueled many early stage companies, and ignited for-profit, nonprofit, and purely philanthropic organizations alike, inventing opportunity for thousands upon thousands of people. A constant creator, he has never been an employee. His is a tour de force of deep resonance, the first notes of which were struck long ago by parents remembered most for their love and example.

Devin’s father was a blue collar entrepreneur who grew up in Baltimore. Known for his common sense and strong work ethic, he spent several years in the Coast Guard and then went to school at American University on the GI Bill.

After marrying Wendy, the couple moved to Washington together, where he became a homebuilder and she got her masters in psychology from George Washington University. They had a daughter, Dara, and by the time Devin was born, they had moved to Rockville, Maryland. “I had a wonderful upbringing and was fundamentally shaped by the unconditional love of both my parents,” Devin reflects.

When Wendy received her diagnosis and came face-to-face with her mortality, she wanted Devin to have loving memories of her and resolved to give him everything he asked for during the time she had left. Then several years later, when she realized she wasn’t facing imminent death, she knew she had to begin setting boundaries and saying no. “I remember vividly being in the drugstore and asking for candy, throwing a temper tantrum at the age of five when she told me I couldn’t have any,” he recalls. “Thank God she began enforcing some limits!”

Discipline was a good look on Devin, and a year later, he made up his mind to start selling stickers in his neighborhood. With resolve, the six-year-old donned a stocking cap and his jacket, which was four sizes too big for him. He started making the rounds, mastering the art of the “knock, walk, talk, and sell” that remains a foundational and powerful technique in his business repertoire even today.

Other foundational elements of his life took hold around the same time. He remembers observing his faDevin Schain

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ther, who always got up early and demonstrated the importance of a strong, self-sufficient work ethic. His mother had the same unrelenting drive, and modeled the vital connection between leading and learning. “One of my favorite leadership quotes says, ‘Readers don’t have to be leaders, but leaders have to be readers,’” Devin recites.

“My mother and I were both voracious readers. She also had a little sailboat she kept docked nearby, where she’d study and write.”

Devin remembers the life-changing day that Steve Gould moved into his neighborhood when both boys were only twelve years old. “We went to elementary, junior high, high school, and college together,” Devin recounts. “He had such a strong moral fiber, and I never wanted to disappoint him by drinking or doing drugs or getting into trouble, so I ended up having one too. He was my best friend and I wanted him to be proud of me.”

Devin also served as president of his sixth grade class—a responsibility that piqued his interest in getting things done. “I enjoyed being busy and organized—so much so that I served as class president during my 9th, 10th and 12th grade years as well,” he says.

Devin was a star athlete as a kid, excelling in tennis, basketball, and especially soccer. When he was in 8th grade, he was asked to join the Maryland Soccer School by the coach of the high school he would be attending, just so they could begin working together earlier. Over the years, he went from camper, to counselor, to high school player, to team captain, ultimately winning a state championship that paved the way for his admittance to the University of Pennsylvania. “Sports cultivated in me a love of teambuilding,” he reflects. “They taught me to be competitive and how to work in a group to be successful.

They also taught me to look at success not only through the binary lens of winning and losing, but as the simple act of doing your best. To quote John Wooden, the legendary UCLA basketball coach, I came to realize that if you always try your hardest, you’re always successful, regardless of the outcome.”

Highly motivated to make a difference, get things done, do well, do good, and foster deep social connections with the people around him, Devin spent his high school years cultivating his lifelong habit of staying up late and waking up early. Guided by the phenomenal role models he found in his parents, his soccer coach, and Steven, he finished high school strong and engaged in his first truly entrepreneurial experiment on the 4th of July of 1984, the summer of his freshman year in college. “Three friends and I bought 40 cases of red, white, and blue beer for $300,” he says. “We hauled them down to the National Monument and sold each of the 960 cans for a dollar apiece, grossing almost a thousand dollars.”

Devin had always set his sights on attending the best college he could, and thanks to soccer, that was Penn.

Unfortunately, his parents divorced during his freshman year, but it had minimal impact on his grades or athletic performance. At the time, he imagined he might pursue a career as a sports agent, but his life took a decided turn during his sophomore year when several friends came 134

over and remarked about the carpet he had procured for the cold linoleum dorm room floor. “People kept asking me about it, so I realized there was a tremendous opportunity there,” he recalls.

With a thousand dollars in his pocket earned waiting tables and working as a soccer school counselor, Devin went to his father’s carpet retailer with a 14-foot U-Haul truck. He could only afford thirty rugs, but he convinced the retailer to fill the truck on consignment, so long as he brought back whatever he didn’t sell. In six hours, and with Steve’s help, Devin sold all 114 rugs to gross $6,000.

“I made $3,000 in one day, when it had taken me ten weeks to make a thousand bucks in those other jobs,” he says. “The value was clear, so I officially launched the business as On Campus Marketing (OCM).”

By his senior year, Devin had expanded the business to 28 campuses covered by fifteen friends, sourcing his rugs from a big carpet mill in Dalton, Georgia. He grossed $180,000 that year and was ninth in the country in the Association of College Entrepreneurs, earning a place for himself amongst young powerhouses like Michael Dell.

Targeting incoming freshman by marketing to their parents, Devin and his partner Mike Schoen continued the business after they graduated in 1988. OCM was moderately lucrative, but they were confined by the need to use trucks for delivery. In 1992, they began to ask around about what else might be of interest to incoming freshman, and landed on the need for specialized linens and comforters to fit the extra-long beds at most universities. “After a test run, we estimated we’d do 6,000 orders at $50 each in our first year, which would have earned $300,000,” Devin says.

Much to the dismay of the young entrepreneurs, the company did half that, earning $150,000 for 3,000 orders and leaving them with several hundred thousand dollars of inventory. Still, they weren’t ready to give up on the opportunity. They set up affinity relationships with the universities where they operated, wherein 10 percent of their revenue was given to the school to fund scholarships and other needs. Thanks to this win/win model, the following year, they were able to put the schools’ names on the direct mail pieces instead of their company name.

“The mail to the parents read something like, ‘University of Pennsylvania Linen Program,’ with the signatures of the housing directors of the schools,” Devin recounts. “It lent solid credibility, and we expected to do about 8,000 orders at $60 each to bring in half a million dollars. But in no time, we received 32,000 orders at $105 each. Just like that, we were $3 million company.”

OCM had six weeks to come up with the inventory to fill the tremendous demand, so they launched a herculean effort to preserve the good will of the company and deliver on time. They rushed down to South Carolina, where they convinced their manufacturers to bump their Christmas clients and come up with the materials needed to get it done. By Labor Day, as promised, they had fulfilled every order on time.

Over the next ten years, OCM expanded to care pack

Profiles in Success: Inspiration from Executive Leaders in the Washington D.C. Area — Volume 11

ages and diploma frames, doing over $35 million in revenue and giving over $3.5 million to over 1,100 schools. In the aggregate, their twelve years of business amassed $10 million for scholarships. “That’s where I learned that you can do well and do good,” Devin says. “It was Paretooptimal in action and a tremendous defining moment that created more than just financial and qualitative value. It created a platform for us to be philanthropic while allowing me to invest in other businesses.”

Amidst his burgeoning business success, Devin’s life took a sudden dramatic pivot when he received a phone call at the age of 29. His mother, who was running the UCLA breast cancer hospital at the time, had had a massive stroke, and the doctors didn’t think she would live.

Devin flew out to Los Angeles immediately, drawing on the patient advocacy lessons he had learned from her over the years to ask the right questions and seek second opinions. “In an instant, she could no longer be my rock and the person I went to for support and guidance through difficult situations,” he reflects. “From that moment on, I had to be that for her, completely.”

After extensive research, Devin flew to San Francisco to meet with the godfather of neurology, who agreed to take a look at Wendy’s scans. While telling his mother’s story, Devin remembered she had recently done an interview with Harper’s BAZAAR magazine. He ran out to the waiting room, grabbed a copy, and brought it back to the doctor, flipping open to the photograph of his mother smiling from the glossy pages. “Your mother sounds like a real special lady,” the doctor said. “Let’s see how we can help her.”

With the doctor’s guidance, Wendy underwent a nine-hour surgery to place a clip in her brain. It was a full eight weeks before she could be transferred back to D.C. and Devin stayed in Los Angeles the whole time. Back in Washington, he found an independent living facility for her twenty minutes from his home, ensuring a nice quality of life with the care she needed. “On the day she had her stroke, I lost my mother the way I had known her for 29 years,” he says. “But we were so fortunate that she lived another 19 years. She never worked again, but she spent important, happy days with her children and grandchildren. She was living a nice, quiet life, and I hired a biographer to write her life story as a seventieth birthday gift to her.”

Life finally stabilized, and when Devin was 33, he sold OCM. As a parting gift, his 150 employees gave him a book entitled, Who Is Devin Schain? The pages depict him as an entrepreneur, visionary, marketer, philanthropist, leader, driver, and friend—a man whose genius had created both a market and a company. “We thank you for the legacy you leave behind,” the book read. “Here are some of the great moments over the past fifteen years, although there is no book large enough to celebrate them all.” The pages went on to chronicle over a hundred “Devinisms”—maxims and anecdotes either borrowed or coined by Devin and embedded within the culture of the company. It was a solid foundation, and today the company does almost $100 million in revenue.

“As a direct marketer, you learn quickly that it doesn’t matter so much what you think—it matters what the market thinks,” Devin recounts, of the lessons learned at OCM. “You have to put your ego aside and use empirical data to really listen to the market.” In 2003, when he sold the company in search of a bigger sandbox, listening to the market also meant recognizing the rise of the internet. “For my next business, I made a conscious decision that I wanted a bigger average order than the $70 average orders we saw at OCM,” he says. “And I wanted to be able to leverage the internet and its ability to get to people very cost-effectively.”

With that, Devin launched Educational Direct, a student loan consolidation business that grew to 470 employees, $120 million in revenue, and a $3 billion student loan portfolio value in only three years. “We were really the first ones to do online marketing in that space,” Devin recounts. “We were also among the first in the industry to create and utilize an electronic signature, saving us $1.2 million in mailing costs and picking up an extra 20,000 customers that would not have consolidated their loans with us if we hadn’t made it so easy.”

In 2006, when the company was valued at $375 million, Devin and his partner sold a third of the business to Providence Equity Partners and returned $150 million to their fifteen shareholders. As fate would have it, three months later, federal student loan law changed such that the market completely dried up. It was a quick rise and fall, and a good learning experience for Devin.

Over the following decade, Devin launched a series of companies and also got more heavily involved in philanthropy. Notably, he decided to launch a nonprofit online Hebrew school in 2011, which now has an executive director and twelve full-time employees. With an operating budget of $1.8 million, ShalomLearning has been used by 1,900 families in seven countries around the world, with free access for military families.

“Our nonprofit allows children growing up on foreign bases to learn from a teacher in real time or at their leisure,” Devin says. “We focus on excellence in terms of technology, curriculum, and teaching great teachers, which leads to what I call ‘economies of skill’. I’m very proud of ShalomLearning and the letters we’ve received from families thanking us for making this kind of learning accessible when their children wouldn’t otherwise benefit from Hebrew School because they’re too busy with sports, or because they live in a rural area that makes access difficult.” Devin’s two oldest children used the program, which allowed them to maintain their athletic commitments while preparing for their Bar and Bat Mitzvahs in Israel.

With one of his mentors, Verne Harnish, and a college fraternity brother, Gil Bonwitt, Devin also launched Gazelles Social Sector, a not-for-profit organization designed to help other not-for-profits grow. Devin had taken Vern’s Gazzelles methodology for for-profit growth businesses and applied it through the creation of ShalomLearning, discovering that it was also tremendously beneficial for not-for-profits. Together, they Devin Schain

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converted the curriculum for the social sector to make available to nonprofits powerful instruction on human capital, strategy, execution, and cash management. “Rather than Return on Investment, Gazelles Social Sector has been modified to focus on Return on Impact,” Devin explains. “We teach our executive directors and other clients how to make a difference and measure impact.”

For over two decades, Devin has actively invested in almost thirty startup and early stage companies, bringing an incredible eye for talent, drive, humility, resourcefulness, and good ideas. A third of those companies have not panned out, but a third have been monetized at varying levels with strong annual returns, with the fates of the remaining companies yet to be seen. “I’ve been very fortunate in these investments, and I think it’s because I put much higher value on the person behind a business, rather than on the business itself,” he says. “Ideally I’d like to understand the business, but that’s really secondary to understanding the founder or entrepreneur. It’s about the people.”

The human side of life, however, isn’t always easy.

While traveling for work in Singapore in 2015, Devin got another life-changing phone call. His mother had had another stroke and passed away at age 74. “I remind myself that I was lucky I didn’t lose her to breast cancer when I was three years old,” he says. “I’m so grateful I got 26 character-defining years with her, and then she had an extra 19 years to enjoy life.”

Around that same time, he experienced his first significant loss in business with the failure of Campus MD, a telehealth company Devin had launched to provide instantaneous, 24/7 health services to college and university students for a flat annual fee. “Timing is often the single most important ingredient in business success, and at this point, no one has been able to make direct-to-consumer work in telemedicine yet,” Devin reflects. “Still, it was a hard blow at a hard time, and everything compounded to land me in a bout of depression. It’s so important to remember that mental illness is a disease, not a character flaw. One in four Americans suffers from some form of mental illness, and it’s critical that we fight against the stigma surrounding it so people can get the help and support they need. Entrepreneurs especially experience a lot of highs and lows, so it’s important to be aware of our susceptibility to depression.”

Devin has always been active in the Young Presidents’ Organization (YPO), a network of 22,000 young CEOs worldwide. With a colleague, he created a mental health group within the organization to help raise awareness and provide support. “When you hit a home run, no one ever calls it a great learning experience,” Devin points out. “You learn so much more from lows and tough times than you do from successes. I really hope that my work helps others be open to therapy, medication, and

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social support as avenues for improvement. Mental health is a spectrum, and it’s important to realize that we’re always shifting between different degrees of mental wellness.”

Even with his bout of depression, Devin was hardly down and out. When he sold a company in 2015, he was given another book of gratitude put together by his employees, not so different from the book he was given seventeen years earlier with the sale of OCM. “It included beautiful notes from people I’ll never forget, like my mentor Bruce Levinson, and David Rubenstein,” says Devin. Also in 2015, he received the University of Pennsylvania’s Joseph Wharton Award for his important business and philanthropic contributions to the community over the years, and continued his role as an advisor to the University of Maryland’s School for Not-for-Profit Leadership and Philanthropy, launched by Bruce and Karen Levenson in 2007.

Through it all, Devin’s wife, Sarah, has remained a constant source of support, wonder, and joy. The two met in 1997 when she was in D.C. earning her masters from George Washington University, and they happened to be sitting back-to-back at a restaurant one evening.

They struck up a conversation, and as it is said in Hebrew, the rest was bashert—meant to be. “She’s a wonderful mother to our three kids, and she’s always understood and supported my passion to be involved in so many different organizations and areas of life,” he says.

“She’s a lot of fun, and fantastic on so many levels.”

Through his long and varied career, Devin’s leadership style has always begun with listening. “A good leader has humility, resourcefulness, and good emotional intelligence, or EQ,” he says. “I’m not a Mensa like my mother, but my strength is learning to appreciate everyone and what they have to bring to an organization.

Through empathy and strong interpersonal skills, I always try to find a way to get to yes and to make all people better off through Pareto-optimal.”

In speaking to young people preparing to enter the working world, Devin makes a point of taping a dollar bill underneath the seat of an unsuspecting audience member and then calling on them to stand up and look under their chair during his presentation. “The exercise is meant to illustrate that you have to get off your behind to make a buck in this world,” Devin says. “That’s what I did at the age of six when I started selling stickers across the street, and I haven’t stopped since.”

Beyond that, Devin echoes the legacy of his mother when he reminds us that we should strive to do good in the world as we do well for ourselves. “Your ‘why’ evolves through life, but the common denominator for me is that I’ve always enjoyed making a difference and connecting people,” he says. “We all have a responsibility to make a difference and to make things better for others, each person in their own way.”

Profiles in Success: Inspiration from Executive Leaders in the Washington D.C. Area — Volume 11

Eugene N. St. Clair II _________________

The World of Ideas Ever since he was a kid, Gene St.Clair has lived for the world of ideas. He was born an inventor, spending his childhood building model airplanes out of Legos and wiring up new creations in the garage. His love of building and inventing only grew as the years passed, and as an adult, he realized it would take multiple lifetimes to tackle all the invention ideas on his list—unless he had a team of engineers to help.

This dream sparked a wider vision, inspiring Gene to build a high-powered team of industry experts with the tools and skills to bring creative ideas to life. The key, however, lay not necessarily in the ability to shape and assemble physical materials, but instead in the ability to understand the human experience, the human mind, and the human condition. It lay in the ability to design and execute a concept with the end user’s experience in mind, first and foremost. And it lay in Gene’s commitment to creating a space where ideas are free to flow, transform, and improve the lived experience. Now the founder, President, and CEO of Humanproof, LLC, a human factors engineering government contracting company designed to nurture, explore, and bring to life great ideas, Gene has joined forces with other driven and talented individuals throughout the United States, creating an environment where dreamers become doers.

Although the field of Human Factors began with Frederick Taylor’s time-motion studies in industrial assembly tasks, it became a matter of life and death for World War II pilots struggling with a lack of consistency across aircraft cockpits. After an enemy attack on an airfield, pilots would try to fly the remaining planes, only to find the controls and displays in unfamiliar places. Suddenly, user experience became a critical design consideration. The assembly line had been developed decades before, prompting the study of human motion and efficiency, but people were now beginning to examine how a better understanding of behavior patterns could allow them to better meet the user’s expectations.

Since that time, the field has grown tremendously, incorporating everything from anthropometry to ergonomics in the pursuit of improving product, hardware, and software usability. In several U.S. Government organizations, the discipline of Human Factors is now packaged with safety, training, personnel selection, manpower, survivability, and habitability to form Human Systems Integration (HSI), and though maximum

results are achieved when these seven tenets act in consort, customers often have to hire competing companies to handle each component. Gene saw how these companies were incentivized to remain siloed through the design and acquisition process, preventing the HSI concept from delivering the return on investment it was capable of. “I took issue with that because HSI is something I strongly believe in,” he says. “I saw a big gap between what the government was asking for and what the industry was providing, and I knew HSI was capable of building better products and dramatically reducing lifecycle cost. I knew I could deliver the intended vision, and I began by starting one company to handle the entire process seamlessly.”

With this vision, in June of 2012, Gene launched Humanproof to convene leading industry experts in each category and made the investment to cross-train them to speak each other’s languages, creating synergy through collaboration. Designed to be a turnkey HSI solution for the government and deliver better products for less money, the company got its start putting together a strategic research plan for the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA). The agency is in the process of upgrading the national airspace system, so Gene and his team examined the challenges expected to face future air traffic controllers. Subsequently, they landed contracts with the Department of Homeland Security via the Coast Guard, and are currently working with a shipyard on the design of a new cutter. Humanproof has begun to expand into the Transportation Security Administration and beyond into the energy, healthcare, and manufacturing sectors, with plans for commercial work including app and website development.

Humanproof now has seventeen employees and plans to grow fourfold in the coming year. It’s growth comes in part from government contracts, and in part from its role in the creation of a rich collaboration of engineers and investors primed to generate ideas, flesh out designs, build prototypes, fund projects, and bring final products to market. True to this unique model, Gene has created a company culture where ideas are shared freely, with each employee secure in the knowledge that their intellectual property will be preserved. “My goal is to create a compounding effect, where our team creates great products for our clients and is also empowered to foster their own inventions, allowing great ideas to feed off each other and promotEugene N. St. Clair II

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ing the ability to execute and move those ideas to market as fast as possible,” Gene explains. “Humanproof is an evolving portfolio of talent and resources that allows us to do some pretty extraordinary things while having a lot of fun in the process. It was designed from the beginning to be an engine of innovation.”

While the company’s current upward trajectory is exciting, the future wasn’t always so certain, and Gene remembers the risk of leaving a stable government contracting job to start his own business. The move took guts, but Gene was emboldened by the example his parents set for him long ago. Born and raised in Leonardtown, Maryland, he can still remember when, as a five-year-old, he watched his father take out a $750,000 loan to start a real estate project. “With four kids to feed, my father was taking a huge risk, and I had the opportunity to watch it unfold over time,” Gene recalls. “There were no assurances of success, and we very well could have gone bankrupt, but we always had shelter, food, and education. Things turned out okay, and I developed the understanding that risk is just part of the package of opportunity. It set the stage for me to take a lot of risks later in life with the confidence that I’d still have the basics, and that things would work out.”

Themes of entrepreneurism permeated his childhood thanks to his father, a figure of consistency who rose at 4:30 every morning with patience and perseverance, and his mother, who lived her life with heart as she held down three jobs while raising four kids. Gene’s father launched a construction company which he operated for three decades, and on top of the property development venture, he starting a storage unit company and then a gravel pit operation. His mother, a nurse who later served as the disaster services chairman at the Red Cross, started a lighting center. As a kid, Gene himself was always looking for ways to make money, like catching blue crabs that sold for $50 a bushel. When he grew older, he spent summers doing hard manual labor for his father’s companies, shoveling gravel, installing water and sewer pipes, and constructing pumping stations for the surrounding communities. Through it all, his parents set an extraordinary example for integrity, morality, and values.

As a child, Gene retained a deep interest in aviation, but early on he grew bored in his classes and remained relatively disengaged when it came to academics. Despite a mediocre academic performance, his innate ability and potential landed him a slot at Embry Riddle Aeronautical University in Daytona Beach, Florida, where he pursued aerospace engineering in the hopes of realizing his dream of designing aircraft. Distracted by the engineering minutiae involved in the field, however, Gene didn’t truly connect with his coursework until he took his first human factors engineering course. “I was fascinated to learn that a perfectly trained pilot in a perfectly designed airplane could fly it into the ground if they were distracted,” Gene explains. “Once I started digging into the human mind and seeing how various factors influence behavior and decision making, I was 138

intrigued. I studied sensation, perception, and learning, and discovered a real passion for assessing how even the airline culture itself contributed to airline crashes.”

Once Gene found his life’s work in human factors engineering, he started earning straight A’s and shortly made the dean’s list. He also earned his pilot’s license, which he had been working toward since he was fifteen.

Before he graduated from college in 2001, he landed an internship with the nearby Navy base, working in their crew systems division on Human Factors for helicopters. Even then, Gene had ambitions to start his own company, though he knew he hadn’t yet gained the breadth of knowledge to take the leap. Instead, he spent the next decade working for various government contractors—a sequence of jobs that allowed him to see HSI from the ground level all the way up to a headquarters’ perspective across a number of contracts. At first, Gene focused on interface-level concerns at the field level.

Later, he served on a project team writing strategy for an agency’s implementation of a complex program with downstream ramifications. “I was able to explain to people at the highest headquarters management level how a program manager was thinking, and why something wasn’t working downstream,” he details. In this capacity, Gene helped agency heads better implement ideas and manage change, communicating not just requirements, but intent. From helicopters, to ships, to command centers, to headquarters-level organization, he developed a 360-degree, floor-to-ceiling comprehension of the HSI agenda as applied to various agencies.

Through his twenties, Gene was driven by the pursuit of an education, a career, and a success defined by material and financial victories. When he became a Freemason, however, his idea of success transformed into something much more expansive defined by selfimprovement, perfect tolerance for all religions, and societal contribution. “I started examining the concepts of integrity and morality in a much more intentional way, and I realized they were the very bedrock of life,” he remarks. “I had internalized those concepts along the way thanks to my parents, teachers, friends, and colleagues, but surrounding myself with the culture of Freemasonry meant opening my mind to a worldview defined by the brotherhood of all men. Based on this idea that we’re all in this together, I had to start thinking about the impact I was having on the world. From that perspective, I realized I was barely scratching the surface of what I was capable of contributing to mankind.”

Thanks to the tenets of Freemasonry, integrity and morality became the foundation of Gene’s approach to business, extending through every action and thought that would later shape Humanproof. The resulting commitment to transparency and fairness would become a defining characteristic of Gene’s company, resonating strongly with clients and evident in every transaction. Freemasonry also became a very grounding force in his life, allowing for a quiet mind despite the frenetic nature of business ownership to come. “The symbols of Freemasonry create a powerful impression

Profiles in Success: Inspiration from Executive Leaders in the Washington D.C. Area — Volume 11

on the mind and an ideal worth striving for,” Gene explains. “These are the things that stand solidly, even when the rest of the world is in chaos. When things are stormy in my own mind or within society as a whole, I remember to remain calm and stable and revert back to my foundation of morality and integrity, which has certainly contributed to the success of Humanproof.”

Now recognized by Leadership Arlington as a 2015 “40 Under 40” honoree for his community involvement and leadership, Gene understands leadership as so much more than just the ability to organize people to move in the same direction. It’s a continual process, and one that starts with the very foundation of the person looking to lead. “I’ve come to find that a leader must be the living, breathing example of what he wants to see in others,” Gene says. “If you’re not the hardest working person at your company, don’t expect anyone else to work harder than you. A leader sets the example, so ask as much of yourself as you do of others. Keep pushing yourself to be better and you will see those traits expressed in those around you.”

In advising young people entering the working world today, Gene underscores the importance of lifetime learning in the pursuit of something you love. “The pursuit of money leads to the golden handcuffs, so make sure you’re doing something you believe in and find worthwhile,” he says. “Don’t be afraid to abandon one path in favor of another. It’s your life, and it’s important to pursue something that makes you happy.”

Gene certainly lived this logic when he married his wife, Melanie, in February of 2014. The two had met through a congressional softball club, and Gene had spoken to her at length about starting a business.

Through that time, Melanie worked as a hairdresser, and a number of people had suggested she start her own

business. She finally decided to leave her job to start a salon in Clarendon, Virginia, which grew to become very successful. “I watched her tough it out, writing a business plan and then putting her life savings on the line to pull it off,” he recounts. “A year later, I launched Humanproof. I think we’ve had a tremendous impact on each other, helping one another make the jump and commit to taking the risk. I’m very grateful for her incredible no nonsense work ethic and what a great balance she’s been for me. I also owe so much to the exceptional mentorship of Paul Fauser, who continues to take the time to teach me everything from government contracting mastery to business relationship creation.”

Just as he did when he was young, Gene continues to live for the world of ideas. But he’s since built an infrastructure for this world that increases its power by countless magnitudes. Thanks to his commitment to self-betterment through public speaking and the Toastmasters program, he now has the poise and voice to deliver ideas to the world through award-winning speeches. “To pitch an idea to investors or raise money, you have to get out there and tell your story in a way that demonstrates your passion,” Gene says. “Otherwise, you lose.”

Gene has also cultivated the neural pathways to preserve inner calm amidst external turmoil, and the foundational values needed to build trust with clients and employees. “As I’ve built this infrastructure and this platform for success, I’ve really come to feel that there isn’t anything I can’t do,” Gene affirms. “Our goal is global, and it’ll take passionate people at every level of operation to bring our vision to life. After all, it’s the world of ideas that will transform today’s problems into tomorrow’s solutions, and Humanproof is committed to supporting this process at every step of the way.”

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Profiles in Success: Inspiration from Executive Leaders in the Washington D.C. Area — Volume 11

Bill Suffa _________________

Living Histories As Bill Suffa’s father fell deeper into the disconnected, distorted, unforgiving depths of Alzheimer’s disease, the doctor suggested that old photographs might help stir old memories and draw him back to reality, if only momentarily. Bill knew exactly where to go—the closet in the house his parents had lived in for over five decades. The musty space was filled with yellow boxes of old slides and one big cardboard box which the family had lovingly called the Junk Box, containing Bill’s father’s old film reels, canisters, and flashbulbs. Mr. Suffa had been an avid photographer, carefully capturing the many adventures that had taken him all around the world.

When Bill began going through the box, he came across an old metal 35mm film can. Rattling it, he despaired that he’d open it to find a roll of unprocessed film doomed to remain that way because most of the processing labs have since been closed. When he pulled off the lid, however, he found a lifetime of memories he had never seen before.

Rolled-up strips of black and white negatives portrayed the USS Missouri, the ship his father had served on as an officer during World War II. There were photographs taken across the U.S. from when his father had taken a cross-country train trip, and images from places Bill didn’t recognize at first—Rome, Istanbul, and Gibraltar just after the war, and Tangier and Capri and other far-off places. There was a photo snapped from the Chicago Tribune Tower before the bridges were built across the river, and there was the house in Providence where Bill’s father had grown up.

Bill had always had a deep affinity for photography, and when he stumbled across his father's photographs, his connection to the art form deepened. Though his father was dying, he had left Bill a living history—not only of himself, but of the world. Bill resolved that that history would keep on living. He would travel the globe himself, photographing the same scenes his father had captured all those years ago, chronicling the symbiotic balance between sameness and change over time. “It’s been a multiyear journey, and I’ve got a lot of cities yet to go,” he says today. “It’s an incredibly fulfilling process to take my father’s love of exploration and curiosity and make it my own in such a tangible way. I love finding out what a place looks like now and how things have grown and changed since he saw it.”

Bill’s father’s proudest days were spent serving in the

Navy during the War, and letters saved from that time recount what it was like to be on the Missouri when Japan surrendered. “He wrote about how airplanes of all shapes and sizes were flying overhead,” Bill recounts.

“The Emperor of Japan actually came onboard for a bit, looking none too happy. In 2000, my wife Cindy and I were able to send my parents to Hawaii, where the ship is now tied up at Pearl Harbor. We arranged for them to have a private tour, and they let him have free run of the vessel in exchange for sharing his war stories. Some of the proudest moments of his life were spent serving his country aboard that ship.”

When the war ended, Bill’s father got his MBA in statistics at Columbia University and then moved to Washington, D.C. in the early 1960s, where he took a job at the Bureau of Labor Statistics. His mother had gotten her master’s in education in Wisconsin and worked as a school teacher until Bill was born, at which point she stayed home to raise him and the two brothers that came after. By that time, the family had settled into their home in Alexandria, where all three boys would grow up.

Bill’s father later accepted a job in the Pentagon, where he analyzed military personnel needs for the Office of the Assistant Secretary of Defense for Manpower. His important work formed the basis for eliminating the draft, having a profound impact on the future of the country.

“My father spent his whole career dedicated to public service,” Bill recalls. “By the time he retired from the Navy reserves in the 1970s, he was a full commander.

He spent the last portion of his career doing consulting work for US government agencies and the military, and was then appointed to the Fairfax County Board of Tax Equalization.”

While the Suffa household was exceedingly stable, the community around them was notably transient, with the children of civil servants and military personnel coming and going every several years as their parents were re-stationed in other parts of the world.

This made for a culturally diverse upbringing that fueled Bill’s curiosity about the world beyond. “Growing up in D.C. through the early 1960s during the Cold War, there was this spirit of exploration and wanting to learn,” he recounts. “In elementary school, we had International Days, where kids would bring in food from their family cultures and countries. My parents and teachers showed me that the differences between people Bill Suffa

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are what create a better outcome—something that would become foundational to my leadership philosophy in business later in life.”

Bill’s parents also encouraged him to explore and discover the world around him, which often meant tearing through the house taking apart whatever he could get his hands on to try and understand how things worked. As a young child, he would take apart stopwatches or remote controls, and even when he couldn’t figure out how to put them back together again, his parents didn’t get upset. “They inspired a curiosity in me that’s still one of the most foundational aspects of my character,” he says. “And when I couldn’t figure out how to put something back together again, I’d use those parts to build other things—sometimes an improvement on the original, and sometimes something better altogether. It got me in the habit early on of embracing change as a good thing.”

Thanks to this supportive environment, Bill grew up loving science, chemistry, and math. He sometimes stayed after class and participated in activities that would most certainly be considered too risky or troublesome by today’s teachers. He loved working with his hands, building electrical and electronic gizmos and saving pennies to send away for an amateur “ham” radio kit. “I built a desk in my closet and sat there listening to the radio all night,” Bill remembers. “In high school I loved building things in shop, working with computers, and learning astronomy in the school planetarium.”

Bill also loved the outdoors, camping and water skiing and doing public service projects with Boy Scouts and other organizations. His parents always made sure he had the basics, but they encouraged him to learn personal responsibility: he had to earn spending money and money for college, so he did chores around the house and then got a job at an electronics parts store in high school. His parents were children of the Depression, incredibly conscious of money and fiscally responsible, and these traits became very important to Bill as well.

After finishing high school, Bill attended Virginia Tech for its good engineering school and academic standing. He majored in engineering and set the goal of landing his dream job by age thirty, working as a consulting engineer for radio, TV, and telephone companies. To help set himself up for success, he got part-time jobs at several radio stations and did some government contract work for small 8(a) firms during the summers.

When he finished college, Bill had several job offers and decided to take a position as a field engineer at the Federal Communications Commission. He started with an eight-month training program in Norfolk, where he met a lot of fascinating people and had the opportunity to analyze and solve a wide range of problems related to the enforcement of rules, regulations, and laws. He was then sent to New York City, which he loved and hated at the same time, and remembers as a learning experi142

ence. “The City was an interesting place in the early 1980s, and I got to interface with all kinds of government agencies—the FBI, the Secret Service, White House communications, the U.S. Marshalls, Customs, and others that used radios for various things. I also worked closely with private radio companies, including all the broadcasting networks,” Bill recounts.

He married his first wife, who worked for IBM in Poughkeepsie, and to help make life easier for her, they moved into a house an hour’s train ride from the city.

“I’ll always remember the culture of those train rides,” Bill reflects. “This was before cell phones, and once we’d get outside the City on our way home in the evenings, one person would dash off the train at Croton Station to use the pay phone to call in a pizza order for delivery at a later stop. The pizza guy would be waiting there for us, and everyone would buy in for a slice.”

After five years, Bill’s wife transferred to Gaithersburg, and he joined a consulting firm in Washington, Jules Cohen and Associates. In that capacity he worked with clients on regulatory support, engineering submissions to the FCC, and international matters, focusing on technical issues but gaining significant exposure to small business management. “I started to pick up on the fact that engineering techniques can be applied to building businesses—an idea that really resonated with me,” he says. “I felt myself drawn to business and entrepreneurship.”

That draw grew too strong to ignore when Bill was invited by a former employee of the firm, Karl Lahm, and a colleague, Gary Cavell, to join in starting a new firm. By then, Bill and his wife had divorced, and at thirty, he was prepared to take a risk. “Karl and Gary were very much of the mind that we could build the greatest firm on earth,” Bill recalls. “We were all smart, driven people with different strengths to contribute.

The market was good, and I figured that if it didn’t work out, I would simply need to find another job. With that, we launched Lahm Suffa & Cavell.”

The new firm hired an administrative assistant and a graphics expert from the previous firm, and set to work building a strong client base through a focus on the regulatory and strategy issues facing broadcasting, spectrum users, and telecommunications. Aviation radios and other navigation systems were using the frequencies immediately above the band used for FM broadcasting, and large high-powered radio transmitters were creating interference issues for the weaker aviation radios. Bill took a big interest in resolving the problems, and he had the opportunity to travel on behalf of the FCC and CBS to Geneva as a U.S. representative to an International Telecommunication Union summit to negotiate international standards. “It was an invaluable lesson in how things are accomplished in international government regulatory negotiations and international business in general,” he recalls. “We would go into the sessions and all the country representatives would argue back and forth until the moderator called a coffee break. Then outside of the

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session room, we were all best friends. In the end, everything got figured out during the coffee breaks. That’s how our own government operated for a long time— something sorely missing today.”

Bill’s experiences in international business and negotiations were supplemented by his work to earn his business degree through an executive MBA program.

Running the business while staying on top of the grueling coursework was the toughest challenge he had undertaken to date, but he completed the program with a stellar academic performance. He also completed his first joint venture with a fellow consulting firm out of Seattle to complete his first M&A deal, the purchase of a San Francisco company that specialized in public safety radio consulting.

All in all, Bill and his partners grew the firm to a $2 million business through his five years there, and he himself grew in important ways as well. “Seeing I could be successful at starting my own company changed me markedly,” he reflects. “It built a tremendous amount of self-confidence, and to this day, I’m not afraid to get into a new venture. Instead, I’m focused on the thrill of getting out there and exploring new things.”

In 1996, Bill decided it was time to leave the firm and find his next challenge. He happened to be flying through Cincinnati shortly thereafter and grabbed dinner with a client, the CEO of the publicly traded radio company Jacor Communications. Thanks to the recent federal deregulation of the telecommunications industry, companies were no longer limited to owning only twelve AM, twelve FM, and twelve TV stations. Companies could now own unlimited stations as long as they didn’t exceed a certain market share, and Randy had big plans for Jacor. “You’re the smartest strategist I know,” he told Bill. “We’re about to engage in an aggressive expansion, so why don’t you come work with us and figure out how to make that effort successful?”

With that, Bill moved to Cincinnati to work with Randy and his boss, Sam Zell, a prominent Chicago financier and the largest shareholder of Jacor. As VP of Strategic Development, he supported Randy as they expanded from twelve radio stations to over 400 across the US. Bill designed the back office for the rapidly expanding business, streamlining processes to create efficiencies. They traveled to London and the Netherlands to investigate the possibilities of expanding internationally, and Bill himself pursued global leads including opportunities in Canada, Australia, and Switzerland. “That was a great period of time where we were at the very forefront of a changing industry,” Bill recalls.

“Randy was a great to work with—someone who could take ideas and really energize people.”

In 1999, Jacor was acquired by Clear Channel, and Bill pitched them a plan to create a position to oversee capital investment strategy. They agreed to hire him on in that capacity as the Senior VP of Capital Management, so Bill and his then-girlfriend, Cindy, moved to San Antonio. He arrived to find a very lax system where no one really knew how much they were spending—a

figure that proved to be alarmingly high once they pinned it down. Working across all divisions domestically and internationally, Bill spent time talking to people to find out what they actually needed, and then set up a budget, controls, and a structured process.

By that time, Clear Channel had amassed radio towers, hundreds of stations, amphitheaters and venues around the globe, billboards, monster trucks, and more.

Bill found new ways to monetize underutilized assets. It was a fast-paced, exciting time, but after five years, Bill knew it was time to build again. He struck out on his own, picking up several projects while working to set up a music licensing business in New Orleans. When Hurricane Katrina hit, Bill and Cindy moved back to the Washington, D.C. metropolitan area, where he joined several partners to start a global and homeland security risk control market venture. As COO, Bill worked on M&A, structure, and finance, orchestrating a big deal to grow the company with some private financing from a London firm. He traveled to London to put the finishing touches on the deal, when the 2008 financial crisis hit. With the meltdown of the market, the deal was off, and Bill decided to take a job doing M&A deals for Raytheon’s Space and Aeronautical Systems Group. While there, Bill worked on monetizing and licensing the company’s IP and also helped investigate over a hundred deals, including closing its biggest deal in a decade.

In 2014, Bill decided it was time to take on a new challenge. He recognized the challenges facing large contractors in the defense industry and knew that he could make much more of a difference with a smaller company. He left Raytheon and reenergized his consulting practice. He worked with clients in a number of sectors, and in late 2015 accepted a role with a start-up firm at the intersection of several of his top-priority interests: early-stage investing, education, media and entertainment, and sustainability and social responsibility.

Now, Bill is CEO of Piranha Branding, LLC, which was founded by Gore Bolton. As an early-stage company itself, Piranha Branding operates the Piranha Tank investment events and programs. “Our goals are to educate entrepreneurs and new investors on how to do startups and how to become investors,” Bill explains.

“At the same time, we’re focused on ventures that contribute to the Piranha Bottom Line: profits for people and the planet. We’re all about making investments in companies that are focused on the sustainable, sociallyresponsible market.”

Bill is also deeply involved in mentoring MBA students at George Washington University. He also serves as part of the venture startup and mentoring service offered through Accelerate D.C., part of the D.C. Economic Partnership. In this capacity, he’s had the opportunity to join trade delegations and to consider other ventures with George Mason University, the University of Maryland, George Washington University, and Johns Hopkins University. “It’s like being a board member for some of these startup businesses, which I Bill Suffa

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absolutely love,” he says. “I really enjoy using my talents and experience to help them build and structure more efficiently.”

In advising young people entering the working world today, Bill underscores the importance of striving to take every experience as an opportunity to learn.

Hand in hand with the opportunity to learn is the opportunity to give back and share what you’ve learned.

“Thanks to this philosophy, I learn as much from the MBA program students as they learn from me,” Bill affirms. “To be successful, you have to be open. I think places like Silicon Valley and companies like Apple prove that point. Ethics is also critical. It takes years to build a reputation that can be ruined in an instance.

Personal and corporate ethics are critical as there is less and less tolerance for unethical behavior.”

Bill also emphasizes the power of diversity. When he left New York to move to Gaithersburg, his parting gift from his boss was a small glass pyramid, meant to remind him that one thing can be seen in many different

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ways. “I try to remember that each person brings a different view and perspective based on their background,” he says. “By understanding and deftly using those differences, you can build something even better. It’s incredibly important to respect peoples’ differences and to view them as strengths.”

Just as powerful as the differences between people are the differences that appear in the same person or place over time. Like his father before him, Bill tracks his own changes through still frames of moments in time: the day he fulfilled a lifelong dream and earned his pilot’s license, or smiles on the faces of clients when he’s able to deliver results beyond their expectations, or moments he’s particularly grateful for Cindy’s encouraging, nurturing, positive presence in his life. Like the photographs he’s retaking of his father’s journey, he reconsiders the black-and-white reels of his own memory, tracking trends over time toward betterment.

“In a sense, we’re all living histories, trying to understand how it all works and looking for a better way,” he says.

Profiles in Success: Inspiration from Executive Leaders in the Washington D.C. Area — Volume 11

Dale Sutherland _________________

The Message Dale was nineteen years old the day he was idling at a stoplight in Rosslyn, Virginia, watching the pedestrians crossing the street. Suddenly, he was overcome by a sense of deep hopelessness. “I remember wondering, what was the point?” he says today. “It then suddenly became really clear to me that there is hope in this world, and that hope comes from Christ.”

In the wake of his epiphany, Dale knew exactly what to do. He decided to commit his life to getting that message of hope to as many people as possible, lifting them from the bleak and disheartening existence that often plagues our days. And, now the Associate Senior Pastor of McLean Bible Church, his feet have never strayed from that path. “God brought me to where I am today,” he affirms. “The gospel of Jesus is the message that changed my life and the lives of millions of others. It’s the message that all of us are sinners in need of a Savior, and that there’s one Savior. Through the grace of God, the sins of man are forgiven.”

A successful life journey begins with the first step in the right direction. With the dream of working with urban youth, Dale enrolled in Bible college working three jobs to afford the tuition. After several years, he decided to finish his education later in life and instead became a policeman to get first-hand experience with the population he sought to serve. “I began to learn the urban world while also serving the Lord and my faith, getting the gospel out in any way I could at work during the day and then in the evening hours,” he recounts. “I knew that integrating Christ into my daily work was essential if I was going to reach people, and I dedicated twenty hours a week to serving the Lord outside of work. In this way, I was able to reach people I never would have reached as a pastor.”

The mission of McLean Bible Church is to impact the Washington metropolitan area with the message of Jesus Christ—a purpose divinely aligned with the goal Dale set for his own life at age nineteen. It strives to accomplish this evangelistically, whether by radio, serving others, or other means. It also focuses on discipleship, the idea of nurturing, shepherding, and helping people to begin to walk closer to God so that they grow and learn in Christ.

The Church’s main location in Tyson’s Corner, Virginia, serves around 7,500 people each weekend. Their Montgomery County campus, which recently merged two separate locations in a new building, has grown by

leaps and bounds to around 750 people—a number that increases each week. They also have a campus in Manassas that serves four of the poorest low-income housing project apartment complexes in Prince William County. There, they provide after school programs, food, and clothing, serving children and families as they communicate the Truth to them. Their Arlington campus draws about 300 young adults on Monday evenings, where stories are shared about God’s great work in their lives. Finally, Loudon campus is their largest, and the parishioners there focus on reaching low-income people.

Now over fifty years old, McLean Bible also runs an extension of the Dallas Theological Seminary, where classes and graduate courses are available. With all these services taken together, and supplemented by their online campus, the whole Church serves around 14,000 each week. “We’re among the largest 20 churches in America—an honor and achievement we never even had our sights set on,” he says. “I used to attend when it was just 300 people or so, and we’d just preach the Bible. The growth we’ve seen and the sheer number of people that have come to us—it’s truly a miracle.”

Born in Maine as the youngest of three boys, Dale never imagined growing up that he’d one day be guiding the direction and future of such a prominent religious institution, though some aspects of his upbringing might have suggested as much.

His mother, a teacher, was an incredibly hard worker who never relaxed, and his father could quote Scripture to address any problem someone might be having. His older brothers excelled academically and went on to become valedictorians of their classes, but Dale much preferred playing sports and being active. Still, he had a remarkable work ethic and sought out entrepreneurial opportunities even as a young child. Early on, he picked potatoes and strawberries for pocket money. Then he helped friends with their newspaper routes.

Dale’s father suffered from bipolar disorder, and the family moved around frequently through Dale's childhood. “Dad always had a good job, and we never missed a meal, but we were always on the road,” Dale recounts.

“He worked for the State Department, then as the VP of a Christian organization, and finally for U.S. Immigration Services. Through that time, traversing Maine, Maryland, Michigan, Texas, and Brussels, Belgium, I attended five different elementary schools, two different junior high schools, and three different high schools.

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And I was always miserable the first day at a new school. It was always a trick, figuring out how to fit in in a new place, because they were all so different.”

Everything changed when he was fourteen. He had grown up in a Christian home, attending church every Sunday, but it hadn’t really clicked for him. The summer before his freshman year of high school, he attended a Christian youth conference, as he had done many times before. Yet this time, as he was learning about meditating on Scripture, he came to Christ and connected with the Lord for the first time. When he returned home to Maine to start school, he felt totally different. “I was already popular, but I became so much more confident,” he recalls. “All the fear went away, and I relaxed as I felt purpose in sharing the gospel with folks. All my extra time was spent on the Bible, memorizing Scripture and meditating on God’s word. With God, I got along with everyone. It was like true peace, and provided a great foundation in life.” Around that time, he began attending McLean Bible Church.

Dale became very focused on his study of the Lord, exhibiting self-discipline completely alien to most teenagers. If he wanted to watch an hour of TV, he had to spend an hour with God. Around that time, when he was a sophomore, his family moved to the D.C. metropolitan area. Dale got a work permit and took a job at a rental car company, also continuing his track record of working at radio stations. Between God and part-time jobs, he found time to finish his high school courses early at the age of sixteen. “I stocked up my credits for that,” he recalls. “I did not like school, so I worked hard to get done as quickly as possible.”

Upon graduation, Dale got a job at the Sheraton National Hotel in Arlington, the downtown Hyatt Regency, and the Marriott. He moved on to hotel security, where he had the opportunity to talk long hours with the police officers on duty. Deeply moved by their stories and by the opportunity to work with a population that could benefit tremendously from God’s teachings, he decided to apply to the police academy when he was 21. He had also met a wonderful woman at Washington Bible College, Patricia, and the two had decided to get married. He was ready to start a career and see where God’s plan would take him.

For over two years, Dale was worked with the police department in Arlington County. He then spent the rest of his 28-year career in the force at the D.C. police department. At the time, uniformed officers were required to work in narcotics to gain a better understanding of the drug crisis plaguing the city, and because nobody else in his section wanted to go, the responsibility fell on Dale. With that, in 1988, he went to vice for the 30-day detail. “Working in vice is like working in sales,” Dale explains. “You have to build your own cases. It’s all on you. I like working all the time, so it was a good fit.”

In 1993, Dale served as a uniform sergeant for six months before switching back to a plain clothes unit, where he felt he truly belonged. Working undercover and leading squads to take down gangs, stop the illegal 146

sale of firearms, and bust drug rings, he felt truly in his element. He also served in homicide for a short time.

And while many around him struggled internally with the things they saw, Dale’s faith gave him a framework through which he could quickly make sense of the troubling dynamics he encountered on the job. “We saw sin at the extreme—prostitutes, drugs, people ruining their lives,” he remembers. “I felt like I understood it, and that helped.”

One particularly harrowing experience came when he was undercover doing deals with a gang of men who had committed a string of homicides, including around five of their own friends. Dale began buying from the gang with the help of an informant, and they happened to be running late one night in meeting up for an exchange. When the informant got out of the car to go talk to the gang members, he was shot and killed—a fate that could have befallen Dale if the timing had worked out differently. “I had spoken a lot about the Lord with that informant,” Dale recalls now. “I hope it was enough.”

Other standout performances during his time on the police force came when Dale worked as an undercover officer dealing with La Familia Mexicana drug cartel, and again with a commercial robbery group. Both investigations broke around the same time, prompting Dale’s Chief of Police to nominate him for the Congressional Medal of Valor. “Growing up, I was afraid of a lot of things,” he says. “If anything, I was probably more fearful than I needed to be. So I credit my relationship with God for these accomplishments. Only God could have changed me that much.”

While working full-time as an officer in the evenings, Dale accepted a second full-time commitment during the day as the Director of Student Ministries at McLean Bible Church in 2001. Over the years, when they were between youth pastors, Dale would fill the void, working with junior high and high school kids. He also worked to build a strong, positive relationship between the Police Department and the surrounding community. Before long, Dale was asked to serve as the Outreach Director for the church, a job that required his resignation from the police force. “I loved being a cop and could have made a life of it, but I decided to leave the force in August of 2013,” he says. “The following six months were hard, but the Lord ultimately knew best, and it ended up being the right decision.”

Dale’s leadership within the McLean Bible community was notable, but he never imagined he’d be named Associate Senior Pastor in 2014. “There’s no way to think of this, other than that this was God’s hand, because I don’t believe I would have been the logical choice,” he says. “I knew the Senior Pastor, Lon Solomon, but not well. We began discussing the state of McLean Bible, and I had a lot of ideas. I wanted to pray more, give more to missionaries, work harder to make sure we were taking care of our people, and lead through love of the people and the world around us. I wanted to reduce the bureaucracy so we could serve

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more souls better. Lon was moved by my vision, and the Church’s leadership decided they wanted to bring fresh eyes to the position to help ensure we were serving God’s will. Our size didn’t matter, and neither did our awards and recognition. What matters is having someone who asks God what He wants of us, and then strives day in and day out to pursue that. Lon knew I would throw my whole heart into that mission.”

Now, as Senior Pastor, Dale draws his leadership philosophy directly from the Scriptures, with a focus on the Apostles and the Lord Jesus. He finished his degree in Biblical Studies through Trinity College of the Bible, with plans of completing a Masters as well. As well, his wife Patricia walks closely with God, and has been an important influence on his spiritual life. “She’s always inspired me to stay with the Word and spend time with the Lord, even during the busiest of times,” Dale says.

“We have three wonderful daughters together, and she’s always been incredibly supportive of the work I’ve wanted to do.” Thanks, in part to her support, Dale ori-

ents his leadership style around love of others. “My role is to take the fruits of the spirit which are still to be evidenced in a Christian’s life, and constantly ask myself if I’m applying them,” he explains. “A Biblical understanding of leadership guides my work with everyone around me.”

In advising young people entering the working world today, Dale sings the praises of immersing oneself in the Bible’s teachings. Growing up, he thought the Bible was tiresome, almost like a math book. But when he became a Christian himself, its meaning transformed dramatically, and continues to change his life each day since. “At some point, it was like a light went on, and it started to make sense,” he recalls. “It’s the key to all aspects of life, both personal and professional. Through hard times, it’s the one thing I need, and in good times, it’s a practical guide to living well. Immerse yourself in the Scriptures, and you’ll get the direction you need in life. You’ll hear the message, and you’ll know the Truth.”

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Carolyn Thompson _________________

Placement When James Laflamme asked Carolyn to marry him, he picked out a yellow diamond wedding ring because he wanted the token to be unique, like her. When he placed it on her finger, it felt right. Carolyn, a lifelong expert in placement, knew the ring had landed right where it was supposed to, just as she had helped so many other things land over the years. After marrying off ten happy couples and placing countless individuals in jobs that have transformed their lives, she’s now the founder and Managing Principal of Merito Group, LLC, a firm specializing in talent acquisition solutions. And in this role, she continues her decades-long work to help each person land in the best place for them.

Launched in January of 2014 by Carolyn and one lone support employee, Merito now has 33 employees working in seven states and across continents—a testament to its steady growth path. Nine of those individuals work inhouse, while the rest are out in the field serving as recruiters, accountants, consultants, and project managers. Half their business is in retained search, where the firm is paid upfront to work on a special project or receives a deposit toward hiring for a specific role. The rest of their work falls into the category of contingency search, where they do temporary placements in the field or provide staff to perform services on-site. Merito places 80 to 120 people annually, and it has national contracts with seven companies spanning the healthcare, telecom, hospitality, and transportation industries.

Many of the clients who seek Merito’s assistance with placements were once job seekers who came to the company looking to be placed themselves. “When you help people with their resume or through coaching, you get to know them, developing a trust-based relationship of integrity,” Carolyn says. “Then, when they become an executive and need to hire someone, they turn to that relationship. It’s what allows us to exceed their expectations and meet the needs of employees and stakeholders alike, while remaining adaptive to ever-changing economic conditions and trends.”

Carolyn and her team pull long hours to interview between 60 and 100 people per week and to advance case files already pending. She also conducts career coaching sessions in the office, over the phone, and via webcam. “A lot of the executives we work with want help preparing for interviews,” she says. “The higher up they climb on the ladder, the more work they need to do

to make that pitch for the next rung.” Much of this work falls within the purview of executive coaching— something Carolyn earned her official credentialing several years ago. Now, she spends about 25 percent of her time coaching executives through the ins, outs, ups, and downs of getting and keeping a job. “I started valuing my time completely differently after I got my coaching credential,” she says. “You can’t create more time, so I’m a lot more discerning now with how I choose to spend mine.”

The firm also specializes in a wide range of services that extend far beyond the field of executive search, including leadership development projects and organizational structure projects. Merito has been hired by large publicly traded companies to help their recruiters identify efficiencies, sharing the expertise she’s developed from working in the thick of the industry on a daily basis.

With bright purple walls in its office, Merito has a culture of respect, collaboration, openness, and individuality.

Interviews are done with doors wide open and in common spaces, speaking to the firm’s transparency. And, while Carolyn can’t meet everyone who walks through the door, she aims to get acquainted with everyone the firm decides to work with.

“Merito is named after the Italian word for excellence, and we never forget that,” she says.

Striving to lead by example, she places little value on titles. “At Merito, everyone’s job is equally important,” she says. “We all work together, and if someone needs help learning something, I’ll sit down and teach them what we do and why we do it to help them understand. I also think people don’t spend enough time training their leaders, so I send everyone to outside training at least once a year. They bring their ideas back, and then we do three in-house training days a year to review topics relevant to leadership, the industry, and the practice.” Committed to pushing these themes beyond the walls of her office and out in society as well, Carolyn has worked to develop a course at George Mason University on Board Preparedness, specifically designed to support women and minority leaders in being active board members.

Carolyn’s passion for supporting women in leadership perhaps stems back to her childhood, born and raised in Omaha, Nebraska, the oldest of two. Her gregarious father worked for the Department of Housing and Urban Development, while her mother was a teachCarolyn Thompson

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er until she passed away when Carolyn was only ten years old. “It was miserable to lose her,” Carolyn remembers. “She worked a lot, and my sister, a baby at the time, was learning disabled, so there wasn’t a lot of time for closeness. It was tough, but I did emerge with strength and independence.”

In a sense, that independence manifested itself in a drive to be self-sustaining. Carolyn set up lemonade stands and took babysitting gigs when she was young, but the first signs of her entrepreneurial leanings came out in high school, when she picked up cake decorating.

She had learned to bake with her grandmother, whom she spent a lot of time with as a child. During her junior year of high school, she started making birthday cakes and wedding cakes with up to twelve tiers, meticulously icing them with ornate detail. She would often fill two dozen orders a week, and would make cakes for the families she babysat for as an extra bonus.

In high school, Carolyn loved taking a statistics class and then applying it from the sidelines of football games. She did well academically, earning mostly B’s but graduating with a 104 percent in chemistry because it came naturally to her. With 4,000 students in her high school, the guidance counselors had little bandwidth to address individual students, and nobody pushed her to truly apply herself, so she sailed by with minimal effort.

“My dad wanted me to become an accountant, but I had no thoughts about what I’d do in life,” she remembers.

In Omaha, not many people left, and not many new people came, but Carolyn’s world expanded when her father enrolled in the USC School of Public Administration to earn his master’s degree. The family moved to Virginia for that fourteen-month period mid-semester during her junior year, and by the time she returned to Omaha during her senior year, her perspective had acquired new depth. “My school had always been cliquish, but now that I was a pseudo-new kid, I was really popular,” she recalls. “During my time in Northern Virginia, I had gone to school with a lot of military brats, and people were used to coming and going all the time. It was a completely different mindset, and it made me realize I couldn’t wait to get out of Nebraska. It was so landlocked—so isolating. But I didn’t know where life would lead me. The plan was to just let life happen as it happens.”

As it happened, Carolyn scored in the 94th percentile on her SATs and sent her scores to several schools. Kansas State University was the only one to reply offering admittance based on her scores alone, without requiring her to fill out an application. She accepted and pursued a major in business with an accounting focus, though she would never do accounting a day in her life after college. She pledged a sorority and spent most of her tenure serving as social chairman, making best friends that would last her a lifetime. While there, she also held her first official jobs—a stint with Showbiz Pizza, a job dressing up as Bill Bob the Bear for kids’ birthday parties, and a part-time job as a bartender for a few hours a week. She also worked part-time as a retail manager at 150

Brandeis, a large local chain. By the time she graduated, she had four years of retail experience.

Upon graduating, she returned home for two weeks and then hopped in her burnt orange Toyota Celica to make the journey to Northern Virginia, where she took a job with a large discount pharmacy called the Drug Emporium. All went well until two weeks into the job, when she was balancing the cash register receipts against the bank deposits and realized the store manager was stealing. Things seemed resolved when she brought the issue to the owner, but by the end of the month, the Drug Enforcement Agency arrested the pharmacist for stealing drugs. At 21 years old, Carolyn decided to remove herself from the situation and accept a position in retail management at Lord & Taylor in the White Flint Mall. There, she became close friends with the other managers in the department store. One of these new contacts had an acquaintance who worked in staffing, who happened to have a sales representative position open. “The job paid a thousand dollars more than the position I currently had, so I went for it,” she says.

From there, Carolyn accepted her first job in recruitment with a woman who operated a small practice in downtown D.C. During her first week on the job, she made a major placement—the executive assistant to the President and CEO of ABT Associates in Maryland, who stayed for 20 years. She took several other jobs in the industry, including a job for a large company that asked her to launch an office in New York City. “Some people don’t like doing that kind of thing, but I love it,” she says. “I really enjoy getting new clients and pushing a growth path like that.”

After getting that operation up and running Carolyn returned to D.C. to launch another one. She loved the work, but as time passed, she grew tired of the dynamics of being an employee. “I got tired of training my bosses and being the one who did all the work while the boss got all the credit at the corporate level,” she recounts.

“When one of my team members suggested I start my own business, I realized it was a no-brainer.”

With that, Carolyn launched her first business, CMCS, with two other women in 2000. They each threw $5,000 into the pot to get the venture going. They grew the business to $7 million in revenue and 148 people on payroll, with an office in Kansas City. During that time, she got her coaching credential but found it difficult to comply with the 40-hours of continuing education credits required every three years. “I had put it off, so I had to get all forty hours in twelve weeks,” she recalls. “I signed up for the classes, but then they were canceled due to low enrollment. Ultimately, I had to go to FedEx on New Year’s Eve to mail them in, and I knew there had to be a better way.”

As it turns out, there wasn’t a better way, so she decided to create one by launching a company specifically geared toward continuing education for credentialed coaches. Their courses are all approved through the Coach Federation for CPE and are all web-based. Cus-

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tomers can sign up for an on-demand component, and there are also two live webinars each month. Now, the site has built up enough content that an individual can get all the credits they need.

Meanwhile, Carolyn also launched a craft store that grew to 15 employees—a “make your own mosaic” experience in Ballston. “I had learned how to make the mosaics myself, and a friend suggested I turn it into a business, so I did,” she says. “I found the space, opened the store, created the brand, and ran it for several years.

It was a good experience, but I didn’t like the burden of maintaining the property, responding to calls at three o’clock in the morning that our window had been shot in with a BB gun. When the lease was up, we left.”

As well, Carolyn’s partners at CMCS had young children at that point and were ready to spend more time at home. They decided to part ways in 2009, prompting Carolyn to take her portion of the business and join a CPA firm which had an existing recruitment practice doing $1 million a year. Four years later, under Carolyn’s guidance, the practice grew to $7.6 million.

Despite her success, she felt it was time to transition out by 2014. “My core values didn’t align with the overarching structure of how the partnership worked,” she says.

“I’m more oriented around serving people and achieving results, rather than how much money I’m making for each transaction or placement.”

While frustrating, Carolyn’s time at the CPA firm had been well spent in that it had garnered the launch of the Washington Women’s Leadership Initiative, a 501(c)(3) offering professional continuing education for women leaders. After seeing women and minority leadership development programs take root at other firms, she had originally intended for the program to be internal, but ultimately set it up as its own entity instead.

“Several of the women I was coaching were expressing the same problems, so I wanted to create something that could bring them together—not as people in accounting or marketing or government contracting or telecom, but women leaders,” she explains. “Only 17 percent of leaders are women. I wanted to create something designed to raise that number in a substantive way,

bringing them together for events based around women speakers who have led teams and can share their stories with others.” The initiative kicked off with a speaking engagement by Ariana Huffington, since its launch, it has accrued almost 200 members.

Now, Merito is the fifth project Carolyn has launched, and in a sense, she’s only just begun. As a serial entrepreneur and a well-respected thought leader in the talent acquisition industry, Carolyn is driven by the possibility she sees in each person who comes her way, including her own team members. “I could do what I do out of my garage at a folding table, but that’s not a company,” she says. “That’s not growth or development or evolution. I love having staff around me, giving me the opportunity to help develop new leaders so they can be more independent. I’ve hired and trained a lot of very successful people in this country, and they will all tell you that our work together defined a very pivotal moment in their life’s trajectory. That’s very inspiring to me.” She is also the author of several books spanning the self-help and fiction genres, most often published under her pen name.

Carolyn’s energy and vigor, which achieve excellence across such wide-ranging scenarios, are supported by her husband, James, whom she married in 2005.

Thanks to her talent acquisition insights, James now works as an Executive Vice President, and remains in high demand. “As a couple, we’re entertaining, and we keep each other inspired and moving forward,” she says.

“We really support each other for who we are, and that’s very empowering for both of us.”

In advising young people entering the working world today, Carolyn underscores the importance of thorough exploration of interests, followed by the pursuit of something one truly enjoys. “If you don’t enjoy it, it is work,” she says simply. “I love what I do, so I don’t mind working on evenings and weekends when I have to. The end result is positive and meaningful to me, so it’s worth it.” Indeed, when your life’s vocation is all about clearing the path for others to find theirs, the work is too vital, too exciting, and too life changing to leave undone.

Carolyn Thompson

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Joe V. Travez _________________

Building a New Tomorrow Nine hours. That was the duration of the propeller plane flight that took five-year-old Joe Travez from his old life to his new life. The Andes Mountains of Quito, Ecuador, faded from view, and along with them the culture, environment, and comfort of his early life. He had to leave behind his soccer ball, his tricycle, his toy elephant on wheels, and his small stuffed monkey. His incredibly smart, talented, and driven sister, Rina, was three years old at the time. His brother, Italo, was only one. The family landed in Miami and then made the trek to Washington, D.C., where Joe’s father was working as a green-card machinist for a Maryland-based company. They settled on Connecticut Avenue in Washington, D.C., and in some ways, Joe couldn’t help but feel that his childhood had been left behind.

“It was a huge paradigm shift in my life,” he reflects today. “I became the only English speaker in my family, translating everything for them and leading in that process of integrating.

There was an inherent trauma in immigrating, but soon enough, I was ready to build a new tomorrow. Who I am today is sown into those early experiences.” Now the co-founder and CEO of Prototype Production, Inc. (PPI), a technology development, advanced manufacturing, and product commercialization company that partners with government, university labs, commercial clients, and entrepreneurs alike to build smart products that are changing the way the world operates, Joe’s professional success is the product of his exceptional ability to build through integration, just as he has built his own life through integrating since that day he first arrived in America all those years ago.

PPI was originally conceived of by Joe’s younger brother, Italo, after working as the lead for the University of Maryland team working to develop the solar car.

At age seventeen, Italo was creating the Tesla of 1991, advancing a prototype with electric motors in each wheel and a solar array. The design won third place in a US competition, and when Italo went on to serve as a consultant for George Washington University, the GW Vehicle landed seventh place in a world race across the Australian Desert.

At the time, Joe was working at Marriott International Headquarters in Bethesda, Maryland, which had fallen on hard times due to the real estate recession.

Joe’s division went from 1,300 people to 80, and his boss

resigned, so he stepped up to run the then-small International Architecture & Construction Division for three years—a tremendous learning experience. In 1991, he received a call from Italo letting him know he had a chance to work at GM, but that he was concerned by his observation of a looming disconnect between engineering, design and manufacturing. There was a decided lack of understanding and regard between the fields, and Italo believed much greater things could be accomplished if they were all housed under one roof. He envisioned an innovative design/build firm where engineers and machinists work together to develop products.

Italo needed to say no more. Joe mortgaged his town house and put $50,000 toward building a new company with his brother. Their father donated two manual mills and laths, and in no time, PPI was up and running in a small shop in Rockville, providing free design engineering in return for the manufacturing contract.

Joe was still at Marriott at the time, and would help out on weekends. Creative, innovative, insightful, and futuristic, he had the uncommon ability to lead and innovate with parallel right-and-left-brain strengths. At the intersection of science and humanities, he emerged as a design thinker, bringing both IQ and emotional intelligence to his work at PPI. Through its early development, the company expanded from 1,000 square feet, to 3,000, to 5,000, and upgraded its equipment to computer numerically controlled mills, laths, 3-D printers, and electronic component manufacturing gear all under one roof.

“The big dream was, when we’re in our forties, we’re going to have a cool place where we can develop cool things quickly,” Joe laughs. “Basically we built ourselves a James Bond lab where we integrated scientist, engineers, and machinists, embracing the core of the company as its people and culture. We call it the ‘no collar’ workplace, where engineers and machinists respect each other. We also created a culture where you have scientists and artists collaborating to innovate. It’s not about the equipment and the clients and the things we do, it’s about the incredibly singular culture we’ve created by integrating innovation and commercialization under one roof.”

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cated tools and equipment and a team of around 150 people. The company has developed over 300 products for its clients across different vertical markets, and now has well over two decades of experience, infrastructure, and company culture. Joe and Italo invested to build an incredible platform and now, the company is ideally poised to capitalize on the advent of the Internet of Things, web enabled devices, data, data analytics, and Industrial Internet technologies. In a sense, PPI has been developing for twenty years what companies like Flextronics are doing now on a larger scale, building contracting manufacturing and then teaming with top clients to innovate great IP. Now, PPI is looking to be one of those partners, developing an intelligent, innovative workshop and continuing its creation of incredibly complex projects like international space station gear, advanced military products, and robotics training equipment for doctors.

The company is redeveloping critical technology for the U.S. Army, while also creating a meditation timer for a Georgetown professor. “We explore around a hundred opportunities each year, and decide to pursue around twenty of those projects,” says Joe. “We work to develop the product, license it or team with others who can, and build. Ultimately, one or two projects a year will result in true commercial viability.”

But PPI is also embarking on a monumental step forward—a move inspired by Joe’s analysis of market trends that show the big software and social media companies like Amazon, Google, Apple, and Facebook buying up hardware companies like those specializing in robotics, drones, and devices. “It’s now all about data analytics and information,” he explains. “When I saw this two years ago, I knew I needed to transform and evolve. As a hardware company sitting in the middle of the Internet of Everything hotspot—the D.C., Maryland, and Virginia technology hub—I knew we had an advantage, so I began looking for a software partner.”

As luck would have it, Joe met Pat Scannell and assisted him with a charity event one evening. Joe was later introduced to Pat’s brother, Jay, the former COO of SkyMall who had worked on the team that took the company from a lifestyle business to an enterprise company, successfully divesting both publically and privately three times during his tenure. With an expertise in IT software and e-commerce, Jay was brought in to build an e-commerce platform around PPI’s products. He also brought onboard a colleague, Martin Fisher, who had sold one of his first companies to Steve Case before joining Case at AOL as part of the acquisition serving as President of American Online Technology Group. Martin also spearheaded technology for Case at RevolutionHealth, which later went public as EverydayHealth.

“With his incredible success, Marty never needed to work another day in his life, so I asked why he wanted to join PPI,” says Joe. “His response was that it feels like 1984. There’s a new convergence occurring—a convergence of hardware and software that will change 154

everything. PPI was the best hardware company he’s seen, so with him doing the software piece, we’re really poised to excel in smart devices and execute this fiveyear plan for innovation leadership.”

Joe’s natural affinity for integrating hardware and software stems from the integration techniques he’s honed all his life, beginning with his early days as a new American. Joe was enrolled at a Catholic school quite young for first grade, and because he didn’t speak any English at first, he was bullied. Three months into the new experience, however, his teacher called him to the front of the classroom. “Come here, little Jose,” Sister Mary Allerita said. She turned to the class and announced, “Jose didn’t speak a word of English when he joined us, and now his English is perfect. Everybody give him a clap!”

The room erupted in the applause of tiny hands, and Joe’s chest swelled with pride. For the first time since arriving in America, he threw his shoulders back and knew in his heart that he could excel in this new land.

“From that moment, I knew it was going to be a great ride,” he says. “And to this day, I’m most inspired by the act of inspiring kids. My teacher’s gesture instilled in me a passion for youth leadership that I carry on in my work with YouthQuest, the Hispanics Against Child Abuse and Neglect (HACAN), and an Ecuadorian school I sponsor with Father Travez, the Archbishop of Quito, Ecuador, and a relative of mine.”

Thanks to inclusive mentors and peers, Joe never felt alienated or suppressed as an immigrant youth in America. The riots in the wake of Martin Luther King Jr.’s assassination drove the family to move from D.C. to Rockville, Maryland, where there were few Hispanics in the 1960s. Still, he made friends quickly. Joe mastered the language, learned the constitution, embraced the culture, and reflected on what makes this country great.

Through his passion for soccer, he also became a teammate, a leader, and then a captain. “That was critical for me as a young person,” he says. “Through rejecting divisiveness and embracing integration, I was able to really accelerate my own development and success.”

Joe’s parents worked incredibly hard to sustain the family, with his stern, conservative father working two shifts as a machinist for 35 years. “He had an incredible work ethic and courage,” says Joe. “I can’t imagine how hard it must have been for him, being the first person to ever leave his Ecuadorian village to get an education. He was hard on us kids, but he has a sense of humor and is an incredible person.”

Joe’s mother, a radiant woman with a phenomenally positive spirit, stayed at home while the children were young and was very nurturing, teaching them that they could do anything they wanted in life. She came from a line of entrepreneurs in Ecuador, with her own father running a decorative block and sewage pipe manufacturing company. “As a very small child, my playground was mountains of aggregate, stone, and sand,” Joe says.

“We grew up around builders.” His mother became a professional seamstress and jewelry designer and went

Profiles in Success: Inspiration from Executive Leaders in the Washington D.C. Area — Volume 11

to work for W. Bell and Co. once the kids were in junior high school. She would bring home thousands of pearls during the holidays that needed to be manufactured into jewelry, and Joe’s father invented a machine so they didn’t have to drill the holes manually. The whole family would set up a production line to help make the task faster and more fun.

As a kid, Joe was always outside playing basketball and football. “I was always running, always up to something, and always getting hurt,” he laughs. “Between my brother and I, we were at the suburban hospital every month for a decade. My mother was very patient with us.”

Joe made his first buck babysitting, and then selling subscriptions to the Washington Star. He nailed all the lines and quickly became the top salesman in Maryland, driven by the promise of ice cream sundaes at Friendlys.

He then got a Washington Post paper route through his apartment complex, waking up at 4:30 or 5:00 in the morning to assemble the papers and make the deliveries. He recruited Italo to help, incentivizing him with éclairs and hot chocolates from 7-11.

Every other summer, the family would travel back to Ecuador for extended periods of time, visiting his grandfather’s house in the city and his aunt’s home two hours south of Quito in a Spanish colonial village. In this way, Joe’s typical American upbringing was integrated with the rich cultural flavors of his roots, infusing his coming of age with a strong sense of heritage and global perspective. “The Andean village had a town square where they’d set up wooden trellises and hold bullfights,” Joe remembers. “As children, my cousins and I would walk along the walls of the bull pens and admire them. Once, my father had to rescue me from a bull that had escaped and was slashing people. I remember festivals, music, and the grain alcohol the elders would drink. It was so different from hanging out at the Jewish Community Center in Rockville, Maryland, near my high school, dating the prom queen. I really loved the diversity of those experiences.”

From the time he was in seventh grade, Joe also began getting more serious about soccer, joining the inaugural league of Montgomery Soccer Incorporated.

“It came naturally to me, and when I picked it up, I fell in love with it,” he remembers. “I began to really hone those skills, especially during those summers in Ecuador. I was incredibly driven, pushing myself to the max and then saying, I’m going to run five more miles or do five more pushups for my family. One for my dad, one for my mom, one for my sister, one for my brother, and one for God.” Joe’s soccer coach in high school, Coach David Scaggs, became the mentor and advisor that would accelerate his upward trajectory. He espoused core principles that applied just as perfectly to life as they did to athletics, which Joe still lives by today. “You’re only as good as your weakest link,” Joe recites. “If you hoot with the owls at night you can’t soar with the eagles at dawn. Are you a champ or a chump? The difference is

the letter ‘u.’ God first, country second, then family, then team. He taught us philosophy as much as he taught us soccer, and it made the team great. My brother and I collectively won three state championships thanks to those mantras.”

Coach Scaggs helped Joe land a full NCAA Division I soccer scholarship to Catholic University, a tremendous opportunity. When he packed up his 1979 Camaro, made the short drive to school, and set foot on campus for the first time, he was overcome by the same feeling he’d had when he stood at the front of the classroom as a five-year-old: that he was in for a great ride.

“I wouldn’t have been able to afford the tuition if I hadn’t gotten that scholarship,” he affirms. “I was so honored to join a class of superstars, who would go on to serve as Senators, banking executives, news anchors, and governors. It was a great education—a defining moment in my life where I realized how much more there was to experience and learn.”

Joe had a phenomenal freshman year, bringing the soccer team to a new level of excellence and settling on architecture as his major. “I always loved buildings and stone material, so it was a natural fit,” he says. In the summers, he worked for Williams Brick and Concrete along with his friend, Tracy Meyers, who now works as his partner at PPI Aerospace at NASA Goddard division. Together, they poured retaining walls and did brickwork, building all the second and third floor balconies of a Vienna apartment complex together. “It was laborious, grueling work, but we loved it,” Joe remembers.

After graduating from college and playing Division II soccer in Argentina for a year and a half, Joe returned to the U.S. and began looking for work as a young architect. The best he could find was a job as a temporary assistant at an interior design firm, cutting carpet samples and assembling presentation boards. One day, however, he ran into Anna Mooney, the woman who used to lifeguard at the apartment complex he grew up in. She was working for Marriott and had just launched a new division called International Architecture and Construction. She was about to go on maternity leave, so she offered to consider Joe to fill her position while she was gone. He came in for an interview with her partner, Art Ferrante Joe had only his college portfolio to show for himself, but Art recognized that Joe was more international than anyone in the entire building, so he was hired.

“The next thing I knew, I was in Castle Harbor, Bermuda, looking down the first hole of the mid-ocean golf club where Eisenhower used to play,” Joe laughs. “I teamed up with the local architect, Michael Peengilly.

Bill Marriott had been building these standard prototypical rectangular pink box hotels all over the USA, and we were ready to try something new.” With that, Joe and his team set to work renovating a limestone castle, adding 120 rooms and designing the aesthetic to resemble the sail of a ship. The project turned out beautifully, and when Bill Marriott held the grand opening Joe V. Travez

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of the hotel, Joe was invited. He rented a tuxedo and lived it up during the celebration, staying up late into the night.

At 7:00 AM the next morning, he awoke to a phone call from the general manager letting him know he was requested in the office downstairs. The Marriott executive team was waiting, along with Art Ferrante, and Joe worried he had done something wrong. Instead, they mused that they had never seen anything like the Castle Harbor hotel, and they wanted Joe on the permanent payroll. He was to start immediately on their next project in Europe, working on the Homburg, Munich, and Frankfurt Marriotts. As a 21-year-old kid, the opportunity was unbelievable. “I went quickly from being a designer, to a project manager, to Director of Architecture and Construction,” he recounts. “Being at Marriott as a young guy, I was exposed to the best of the best. I was part of the 1991 Marriott rework with Steve Bollenback, which was like getting an MBA on the fly. I was doing budgeting, finance, marketing, strategy, process, and procedure. I learned technical service agreements and how to really run something. I was invited and attended hotel development and hotel finance committee meetings.”

Over his fifteen-year tenure at Marriott, Joe and his great team built the company’s first 80 hotels in five continents, including Moscow, Bombay, Buenos Aires, Quito, Cancun, Frankfurt, Homburg, London, Hong Kong, and the Caribbean. “Australia and Africa are the only continents I haven’t built,” he remarks. “The true value of that experience was not the technical attributes I picked up, but building political formats in different parts of the world with different cultures, languages, and ethnic types. Globalization is firmly entrenched now, but back in the 1980s, Marriott was at the tip of the spear going global. We had an entire U.S. corporation that didn’t understand or respect what we were doing overseas, so we had to communicate the value of that work to people who had never traveled outside of the country. We were trying to institute a 5-star product in third world nations, which builds true political awareness and emotional capital. It was hard, but I was young, full of spirit, didn’t know better and didn’t care.”

Overall, Marriott was an exceptional learning experience and a wild ride, full of victories and only one plane crash—an incident in Cartagena where a wheel of the jet carrying Joe, former President of Marriott International Ed Fuller, and other key Marriott executives was shot during takeoff. Though the plane caught fire and came perilously close to skidding off the runway into the ocean, everyone onboard survived the ordeal, recounted in Ed Fuller’s book sold on Amazon.

Joe could have continued there, but in 1995, he married Monica Rodman, the gorgeous young woman he had met at an Ecuadorian Embassy event. Her father, among the first Peace Corps volunteers, met her mother while serving in Ecuador, and had gone on to travel the world in the CIA and the Foreign Service. As a result, Monica grew up with a global perspective much like 156

Joe’s, coming of age in the Philippines, Korea, Costa Rica, and Africa. Joe knew he couldn’t be the family man he wanted to be if he continued his hectic travel schedule with Marriott, so he resigned in 1998.

Upon his resignation, his boss, Alastair McPhail, sent a headquarters-wide email saying that Elvis had left the building. When the news made it to Ed Fuller, the then-President of Marriott and a good friend of Joe’s, Ed made a tremendous offer that was hard to refuse. But Joe knew he needed to give PPI a go, and when he explained his reasoning to Ed, his friend and mentor understood. Joe promised he’d be back groveling if he failed. “Joe, you won’t fail,” Ed said firmly.

Joe ultimately agreed to help Marriott as a contractor over the next three years, finishing the 22 projects he had helped start in Latin America and also taking care of five first new hotels in India. He was offered positions from an array of other hotels, but he turned them all down, opting instead to be as present as possible for his family. It wasn’t until 2002 that he was able to truly dive into his work at PPI, taking the helm as CEO. Things hummed along well in the business and in Joe’s personal life, until a miracle and tragedy struck in the same moment. Monica gave birth to beautiful twin girls, but one didn’t make it. “We were blessed to have Catherine enter our lives, but we lost Josephine, and that was incredibly tough,” Joe reflects. “I tried not to let it get to me because that’s just how I operate.”

Joe pushed forward, completing his Masters in Leadership at the Mcdonough Business School at Georgetown University. Business was booming at PPI, with manufacturing operations running 24/7 and raking in 27 percent gross margins as they developed highvalue IP. With a beautiful wife and daughter, a successful company, and monumental growth prospects on the horizon, he took a trip one day in 2008 to visit Josephine’s gravesite. He found himself kneeling down, speaking to the angel daughter he knew was there. He promised to protect, guide, and nurture her sister, and he asked that Josephine protect and nurture him. Then, he prayed she would ask God to make him the man He wanted him to be.

Two days later, Joe’s world fell apart. It was like a timed sequence of destruction—the collapse of Lehman brothers, the banking crisis, the government shutdown, sequestration, the rising costs of healthcare and energy, the overall global uncertainty. In March of 2008, PPI lost 70 percent of its revenue. “I never felt hardship like I did during that period of time,” he affirms. “We had the families of 250 employees relying on us, and our clients kept delaying contracts. I came close to jumping ship and pulling the parachute chord, facing debt for the rest of my life. Yet as a leader, you have to come in everyday with a smile, encouraging your people that things will be okay. Those years were horrific, the dark night of the soul, but I think God gave me what I asked for. It was a personal and professional resurrection—the kind I think everyone must go through in accepting the gift of humility. Through faith, prayer, perseverance, the

Profiles in Success: Inspiration from Executive Leaders in the Washington D.C. Area — Volume 11

entrepreneurial spirit, and the American way, we made it through, and I’m far better prepared now for the incredible blessings I see in front of us. My wife and my daughter have been my angels through everything, and now we’re on the other side looking forward.”

In advising young people entering the working world today, Joe underscores the importance of having a mentor or advisor to help you along the way. Ed Fuller, one of his own mentors, taught him that a leader can’t lead from behind a desk. They have to be out there in the trenches. Father Don Bosco, a Catholic priest who worked to get children off the street and had a profound influence on Joe’s father, professed leadership through love and not fear. Joe also believes in the Jesuit principle of contemplation and action, reflecting at the end of the day or at the beginning of a project to ensure optimal performance and continual improvement.

Sometimes, contemplation means reaching deep into the past. For this, Joe keeps the spurs and poncho that belonged to one grandfather, a distinguished Ecua-

dorian cowboy. He also keeps memories of the entrepreneurial, adventurous spirit of his other grandfather, who loved to go Inca gold hunting deep in the Andes and the jungle of Ecuador. He treasures the Bible with his grandmother’s notes written inside. And he reflects on the gratitude he feels for the childhood his own daughter has enjoyed—beautiful, stable, uninterrupted in the way his own was.

With the tools of culture, character, and compassion, Joe builds. He built incredible three-story forts and tree houses when he was a child, leading the other kids in the elaborate endeavors. Later, he built hotel after hotel for one of the premier companies in the global industry. And now, through PPI, he builds success across industries. “I’ve always been a builder at heart,” he says. “Now, I’ve fallen into this lucky situation where my business is building better lives for people. We build things to help the war fighter. We build medical devices to help surgeons. Our company is very diverse, but at its essence, we’re sophisticated builders ready to build a new tomorrow.”

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Rosemarie Truman _________________

Forever Upward People, industries, and the world. Ever since she was a little girl, Rosemarie Truman watched her father change the course of history itself through his drive and dedication, and set her mind to doing the same. In the four short years they had together, he taught her as much as he could—foundational skills that drove her early acceleration. In between teaching physics courses at Harvard University, he would read her the countless books she brought home from the library. As he worked to build the first rocket propulsion engine for NASA, he taught her to read, write, and look things up in the encyclopedia, instructing her to review his scientific papers on heat physics. His final lesson was in how to make a gigantic paper machete volcano that actually erupted.

By five years old, Rosemarie was a thoughtful, inquisitive girl firmly rooted in the belief that God had put her on Earth to maximize her skills to have a positive impact. Embracing the phrase sursum in aeternum or forever upward, she went on to transform the lives of thousands of people through her various high-powered roles in corporate America. Her work has changed whole industries, disrupting archaic processes and catalyzing growth to seize opportunity and create epic companies of tomorrow. And now, as the founder, CEO, and Chairwoman of The Center for Advancing Innovation (CAI), her impact is going global. “We’re commercializing and maximizing the potential of life-saving inventions by NASA and the National Institutes of Health (NIH), which is very exciting,” she says. “I’m certainly proud of all the corporate growth breakthrough strategies I’ve orchestrated for companies over the years and the success I’ve been able to achieve for them. But to save peoples’ lives and have the GDP impact I’m having now—it’s a whole new level I never imagined reaching.”

After traveling the world for her previous work at companies like IBM, Rosemarie decided to launch her own consulting firm in 2008, which laid the foundation for the official creation of CAI as a nonprofit organization in 2012. Her first mission was to apply the strategic growth skills she had honed in the private sector to the NIH, a government agency charged with impacting public health. The NIH and its world-class scientists had developed thousands of inventions over the years available for licensing and commercialization, but only a fraction of these inventions become breakthroughs.

“With such a small percentage of NIH’s portfolio get-

ting through the commercialization process, there were—and are—some phenomenal commercially-viable inventions that could be capable of saving lives, reducing the burden of illnesses, and diagnosing diseases early,” says Rosemarie.

With that, she worked with the NIH to develop five major recommendations for the agency, laying out a framework for optimizing, accelerating and increasing the volume of technology commercialization. “At a company, you would look at your current portfolio while also systematically identifying net new growth breakthroughs that could make a market,” she explains.

“So, naturally, one of the recommendations was to identify which inventions in the NIH portfolio were commercially viable and which could be discarded to save on patent prosecution fees.”

Thanks in part to the trust and open mind of Tom Stackhouse, her main partner at NIH, CAI partnered with the National Cancer Institute to identify fifty great inventions, as well as a number that were ready for discontinuation. The agency then needed to identify a path to commercialization to maximize monetization and reduce the cost and time it took to set up licensing agreements with private companies. “Big drug companies could afford to acquire inventions from the NIH, but often the inventions were too early stage,” Rosemarie explains. “As well, life sciences startups and mid-sized companies are very nimble, but many couldn’t afford to license these inventions under the traditional model. The majority of companies in the Life Sciences space are small and midsize companies, so NIH created an exclusive licensing model for only $2,000.”

Rosemarie then shifted her attention to figuring out the most expeditious path to commercialize promising NIH inventions, as well as how to leverage NIH’s startup licensing agreement. She saw that the traditional business plan competition model within the pharmaceutical and device industries could be hyper-extended, so in collaboration with Tom Stackhouse, CAI and NCI decided to turn everything on its head by conceiving of and launching the Breast Cancer Startup Challenge. “It was a challenge where teams came together to compete on the basis of bolting a startup around these de-risked inventions from the NIH portfolio,” she explains. “It had never been done before, so I had no idea if it would actually work, but I knew it was worth trying. We took ten promising inventions and allowed up to ten teams Rosemarie Truman

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per invention to put forth ideas for commercializing each one, pitching business plans and really unleashing their creativity. The first year running, it was the largest challenge in the world, and we were getting inventions off the shelf that could really impact human health.”

Rosemarie’s revolutionary idea for crowdsourcing talent from around the world to build startups around promising inventions created a brand new channel for NIH to bring its inventions to market, winning the HHS Secretary’s Pick Innovation Award from the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) as the 2014 Secretary’s Pick. Also in 2014, CAI won the Technology Transfer Excellence Award from the Federal Laboratory Consortium for its challenge. Rosemarie and her team set to replicate the model’s success through a Neuro Startup Challenge, extending across all of HHS to launch twenty more startups around treatments for neurological diseases like Alzheimer’s, ADHD, Parkinson’s, Schizophrenia, brain cancer, drug abuse, and Batten’s Disease.

“The idea, which I now call the Federal Government Startup Challenge Catalyst, has become a huge accelerator program in which we teach all participants about the business of science and how to create jobs,” Rosemarie explains. “They learn how to create a commercialization plan, develop an intellectual property strategy, navigate FDA pathways, perform a live pitch, build financial models, and more. I get hundreds of thank-you notes from people saying how the program changed the trajectory of their career, even if they didn’t win. Never could I have anticipated the impact we would make on the people we taught and the people who filled the jobs we created.”

Rosemarie is now working on the Space Race Challenge with NASA and the Nanotechnology Startup Challenge in Cancer with the NIH, which has been featured by the White House’s A Strategy for American Innovation, published in October of 2015. That same month, HHS honored her with a Best in Business Plans Award and an Entrepreneurship for Five Years of Excellence in Federal Challenge & Prize Competitions Award.

The cycle of invention commercialization, economic growth, and job creation generate a layered impact— impact that will be magnified in the future as Rosemarie builds the Gazelle Futures venture strategy & commercialization fund. The fund will inject capital into CAIassociated startups to accelerate their R&D and provide the velocity needed to land Series A funding. “The success of our challenges has been incredibly defining because it’s allowed us to change the world,” she says.

“Through our challenge platform, one new scientist entrepreneur got an antibody conjugate investment that will change the face of cancer treatment forever. I was presenting these ideas at a conference once, and someone told me I had done the only thing I needed to do in my whole life. There’s so much left to do, but at least I’m on the right track.”

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The road to get here, which leads forever upward, has been long yet highly intentional and never meandering. Rosemarie was born in Oklahoma as the fifth of six children, and from those days of childhood, she can still remember everything about her father, right down to the peanut butter popcorn he would make and the way he would cut her peanut butter and jelly sandwiches into triangles for her. “I wasn’t allowed to have soda, but he’d take me to get orange soda after trips to the library, which I loved,” she recalls. “We’d go to the tasty freeze for ice cream, and he’d use physics tricks to get the silly putty out of my corduroys. Like all losses through my life, the pain of losing him didn’t hit me until years later.”

Rosemarie’s mother, an incredible woman who passed on her unflagging drive and work ethic to her daughter, made the decision to buy a new home in West Virginia after her father was gone, where she got a job as a teacher. She taught piano and organ lessons after school and got a job in the evenings singing at a night club. She later became Mayor of their town, employing Rosemarie and her siblings to write letters to stop controversial sand mine projects from infiltrating the area.

“She’s an absolute saint,” Rosemarie says. “My biggest strength and my biggest weakness is that I’m driven, and I got that from her. She gets stuff done, and she’s a phenomenal artist. There’s a lot of art in strategy, and her influence expresses itself in everything I do.”

Despite her mother’s best efforts, Rosemarie and her siblings grew up markedly poor. As the youngest girl in the family, Rosemarie got all the hand-me-downsclothes that were patched, safety-pinned, and not cool enough to get her in with the popular crowd at school.

Instead of grade-school social hierarchies, the children focused on the things that would change their course through life. Rosemarie’s mother expected all of her children to get straight A’s and play an instrument, creating a one-family band. She assigned them each several rows in the garden, and the kids would compete to see who could grow the best vegetables.

Rosemarie loved gardening and swimming in the river by their house, mastering double back flips off the diving board. She had a few close friends but was never a social butterfly—perhaps because she was so driven to succeed and focused on self-improvement. “I’d do anything I could to make money, which I put straight into the bank,” she recalls. “I’d ask people if they needed their yard raked or their weeds pulled.” At age twelve, she started babysitting and even landed a waitressing job she was technically too young for, quickly earning the admiration of her employer for her punctuality and reliability.

When Rosemarie was thirteen, her mother remarried, and the family moved to Nazareth, Pennsylvania.

Her southern accent drew the ridicule of her classmates, but she still managed to get straight As and an 111 average. She picked up an extensive paper route that kept her busy from 4:30 to 6:00 each morning, but even hard work couldn’t cheer her up. She missed West Virginia,

Profiles in Success: Inspiration from Executive Leaders in the Washington D.C. Area — Volume 11

and during her senior year of high school, she moved back into their old house her mother still owned. “That was a really great year,” she reminisces. “I was in Odyssey of the Mind Club with a core group of friends, and we won fifth place in a world competition for our skit showing world peace.”

Rosemarie’s mother mandated that her children all get full-ride scholarships to Ivy League Schools, and Rosemarie landed a full scholarship to Smith College.

There, she picked up part-time jobs at the Alumni Association, the Computer Center, and as a waitress to cover her living expenses, allowing her to graduate with only minimal debt. She triple-majored in Math, Econometrics, and Industrial Engineering Research, with minors in Comparative Literature and French—the eclectic combination she believed would put her in the best position to achieve her goals and be successful later in life. She also completed a groundbreaking econometrics thesis showing that 93 percent of the wage gap between males and females is explained by preferences for certain job characteristics.

Rosemarie knew that, for her, there would be no wage gap. “I didn’t have any personal exposure to big business at that time, but I studied the richest companies in the world,” she says. “I had made up my mind that I wasn’t going to be poor, and that the best way to avoid poverty was to figure out exactly what I wanted to do in life. I knew that if I was going to achieve the future career trajectory I had in mind for myself, I’d need to be very targeted and strategic as I graduated from college in 1994 with high honors and also earned the Samuel Bowles Prize which hadn’t been given out for 13 years.”

With that, Rosemarie set her sights on Goldman Sachs and McKinsey Consulting, highly competitive organizations that generally wouldn’t give applicants another thought if they didn’t have an MBA. Undeterred, Rosemarie wrote to every relevant alumni she could find. “This was before the internet, so I had to do the best I could to research their backgrounds and try to make a personal connection through my letters,” she recalls. “I wanted my letters to be interesting to them, and to address problems they faced every day from an industry standpoint. I must have written a hundred letters in an effort to show my value proposition above anybody else. They must have thought I was smart or crazy or both.”

Rosemarie also wrote an entire business plan for Goldman designed to save the company $40 million through new methods to reduce errors on the floor of the New York Stock Exchange. She noted how the institutional sales traders at 85 Broadway would call up the people on the floor of the Exchange and shout orders through the phone, and how the details were often lost in translation. She conceived of putting touch screen PCs on the floor of the Exchange for the first time, through which trade instructions could be transmitted and accepted. “I said they could hire me for one percent of the savings I planned to deliver, or $400, 000,” she

recounts. “I thought it was a great deal, but when they made me an offer, they forgot a zero.”

Rosemarie was grateful her strategy had worked, and she set up work as the only analyst at the listed stock block desk. With her sign on bonus, she bought her first TV, which she still has today. After two years of grueling workdays that began at 4:30 AM and didn’t end until around 9:00 PM, Rosemarie set to work finding a solution for some database performance issues they were experiencing on the touch screen PCs she had helped deploy. By that time she had taught herself a plethora of programming proficiencies so she could communicate with the IT specialists.

During that time, Rosemarie reached out to Oracle, and after learning of their entrepreneurial culture, she accepted an offer to join their team. At Oracle, she was first tasked with learning the company’s products to the extent that she could teach them. She also analyzed the profit margins and profit leakage opportunities. “I loved working at Oracle,” she says. “I’d put together wellstructured proposals which they’d allow me to pursue.

Then they asked me to co-lead the implementation of one of my platforms globally, with multiple currencies, languages, organizations, and bookkeeping strategies at play. I was 23 years old at the time, and the implementation proved incredibly complex. But we pulled it off—a victory that would prove key in setting me on a career path geared toward growth strategy and strategy consulting. It was an amazing place to work that empowered me to implement my ideas.”

After Oracle, Rosemarie accepted a position at Ernst & Young, putting together their e-business strategy at a time when the dotcom bubble was growing and people hadn’t yet figured out how to design internet platforms.

A lead partner soon left to become the CIO at Marsh & McLennan, a global professional services firm, and asked Rosemarie to come along as the Global Strategy Leader. As the youngest VP ever hired at the firm, she created a new exchange platform model for insurance brokerage. Tragically, their offices spanned floor 93 to floor 100 of the North Tower of the World Trade Center, and all Marsh & McLennan employees in the tower on September 11, 2001, lost their lives. Rosemarie, who happened to be in the UK at the time, wasn’t able to internalize the devastating loss of her colleagues until she heard their names read aloud at a service later on.

Rosemarie returned to Washington, and after a brief stint launching e-business and IT strategy plans at Booz Allen Hamilton, she accepted an Associate Partner position at IBM. There, she set to work monetizing the company’s patent portfolio and advancing the work of its Emerging Business Opportunity Group by creating a new-and-improved model for identifying and nurturing growth breakthroughs. When her model generated an additional $16 billion in three years, IBM’s Executive VP of Innovation, Nick Donofrio, knew they needed to bring the strategy to market worldwide. With that vision, she conceived of and created IBM’s Innovation & R&D Strategy Practice, where she worked on a global Rosemarie Truman

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scale with companies like Exxon Mobil, Chevron, PepsiCo, Nokia, and Microsoft to identify and drive growth breakthroughs. “We analyzed everyone in the space and asked, ‘What are they doing that’s working and not working?’” she recounts. “We found that you really need to inject an enormous amount of rigor in your due diligence process and the incubation process to try to identify and drive growth breakthroughs.”

Rosemarie and her team developed revolutionary diagnostic tools that created new revenue streams for the company, systematizing those tools over a sixmonth period. They coupled this with an aggressive growth strategy that restructured several areas within IBM, including the emerging business opportunity area, so that IBM would consistently select growth breakthroughs and nurture them. Rosemarie worked with the billion dollar sales team to orchestrate a number of multi-billion dollar deals, and her groundbreaking work earned her IBM’s prestigious Golden Circle Award—an honor reserved for the top .09 percent of IBM employees.

Rosemarie had an outstanding run at IBM and would still be there today if not for receiving an offer she couldn’t refuse in 2007 from PRTM, a 600-person boutique strategy consulting firm. She came onboard as an equity partner and the Global Leader for their Innovation Strategy Practice, where she led notable projects that included driving billions in top line revenue growth for Nokia. She hadn’t yet achieved the level of impact she had always envisioned for herself, however, and decided to leave to start her own firm.

“I had a no compete, so I had to reinvent myself,” she says. “Around that time, my sister Gina came up with a novel cancer invention. I told her she had to commercialize it, but she reminded me she was a lab manager and didn’t have a commercial bone in her body. I told her I would help her figure it out, so I set up a 30-minute meeting with the Head of NIH’s Technology Transfer Group. I knew the federal government had one of the largest patent portfolios in the world, and that NIH had the largest life sciences inventory with many de-risked inventions representing millions of dollars’ worth of investments that had enormous commercialization potential.”

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Rosemarie’s work through CAI has helped over 1,200 people land jobs that would change the trajectory of their careers and launch 33 startups in the past two years alone. But her commitment to the success of others doesn’t stop there. In 2015, she took on the role of Director of the D.C. Metro Area Chapter of the Founders Institute (FI), the largest international entrepreneur training and startup launch program there is. FI is committed to building sustainable startup ecosystems that will create one million new jobs worldwide. “The program is ideally suited to my leadership style, which follows an apprenticeship model,” she explains. “I believe you don’t just tell someone to do something—you have to be working with them side-by-side in the trenches so they can learn how it’s done. People who’ve worked for me will tell you they never worked harder, and they never learned more. So much of leadership is about teaching.”

Rosemarie also continues to run the Take Me Home Foundation, a charity for battered women and children in West Virginia like the broken families she encountered as a child growing up there. “I remember kids in my class who would slip food into their pockets at lunchtime because it was the only meal they’d have that day,” she says. “It’s very important to me that I’m at least doing what I can for some of those children down there who don’t have good family lives.”

In advising young people entering the working world today, Rosemarie stresses the importance of being strategically focused on what you want. Rather than sending resumes to a thousand people, she suggests taking the time to think about how you’ll distinguish yourself, and how you’ll position yourself to fill a given role. “Take the time to ask yourself what you want to do and how you can put yourself at the front of the line to do it,” she says. “Think about who your competition is.

You may not be the strongest candidate on the planet for an opening, but you can position yourself so you’re the only person offering a solution like yours because nobody else thought about it that way. Through life, I’ve always been opportunistic and driven to seize the day.

I’m always thinking about how I can improve myself and maximize the talents God gave me. The only way to get there is to aim forever upward, bettering the world as you better yourself.”

Profiles in Success: Inspiration from Executive Leaders in the Washington D.C. Area — Volume 11

Mitchell Weintraub _________________

Making the Difference Mitch Weintraub was two weeks into his freshman year at the University of Maryland when his father lost his job as the sales manager for a Fortune 500 company.

There was no severance package, no lifeline, and no way to predict how tough things would get for the family from then on. The kind, laid-back, even-keeled provider Mitch had always looked up to was stunned at first, and as weeks turned into months without a new job offer, his attitude turned defeated.

Mitch didn’t know what it meant that his father had to start borrowing money out of his retirement plan, and he didn’t know what it meant when they had to cash out an insurance policy. All he knew was that, come summer, he had to start working full-time to make enough money to start covering the tuition his family could no longer afford. He headed to Ocean City with friends and landed a bar-backing job. By the end of the summer, he had mastered bartending and could bring in a couple hundred dollars a night, honing his communications and sales skills in the process.

Mitch kept his foot on the pedal, picking up odd jobs while at school and bartending in the summers. He brought in enough money to put himself through school, and when his young brother started college three years later and asked him for help covering his college costs, Mitch said yes without hesitation. “That expedited process of transitioning from a dependent to a provider was one of the most defining experiences of my life,” Mitch remembers. “I concluded that failure would never be an option for me, and that I would never be put in a position where I don’t have options. It was the cornerstone moment where I resolved that I’d never put my family, staff, or business at risk through failing to plan, drive opportunities, or develop a relationship. And I’d never fail to pull myself out of a hard time.”

Mitch made enough money to help with his brother’s freshman year of college, and his father finally found work on the west coast of Florida. His mother, an outgoing, social, entrepreneurial go-getter, got a job selling wedding dresses and held the family together through the turmoil. The Weintraub’s got themselves back on their feet, but not without profound changes to the constitutions of their characters. “I’ve always been driven to make a difference for my family, my community, my staff, and my clients,” Mitch says today, now one of the founders and Managing Director of Cordia Partners. “But I know my drive was focused by the experience of going through

that time with my family. It taught me what it is to step up, make it work, and make the difference.”

Mitch had been a partner at Beers + Cutler, a large regional CPA firm, for six years when he spun out the firm’s outsourcing practice in 2006, creating Cordia Partners. “They effectively sold the business to Mark Melton, Joseph Greeves and myself, allowing us to transition all our clients and employees,” Mitch recounts. “I’m so grateful to my former colleagues over there, now Baker Tilly, for enabling us to do this. Still to this day, we support each other, personally and professionally.” Cordia thus started with around thirteen people doing $1 million in revenue, and has since grown to a $12 million company with a thriving team of 50 full-time employees and 35 contractors and part-time workers.

Since its inception, the firm has evolved to serve all aspects of a company’s finance needs through its consulting, outsourced accounting, recruiting, staffing, and executive search services. “We have a unique platform that allows us to speak to business owners, boards of directors, and stakeholders to assist with a company’s accounting department,” Mitch explains.

“They may want us to simply consult, or they may want to outsource all of those functions. It might be a startup that wants us to build and operate their entire back office, or it might be a $50 million notfor-profit, government contractor, or technology company that wants to outsource core functions so it can focus on its mission and growth.”

With the goal of helping clients become as efficient and effective as possible in their accounting function, Cordia developed a consulting practice around business best practices, maximizing the three pillars of people, process, and technology. Mitch and his partners then added recruiting and staffing, allowing Cordia to take on interim staffing, placement, and executive search work.

“Many of us are CPAs and have been CFOs, VPs of Finance, and Controllers,” Mitch points out. “We believe that these qualities, coupled with our extensive industry experience, allow us to support our clients better than others. Our business model fosters mutual trust and engagement between the firm and its clients. We overturn every stone until we find the right person to take a company to the next level. And if we end up placing the wrong person at first, we do it again for free for a reasonable time period. Fostering trust with our clients is extremely important to us.”

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Just as strong as his commitment to Cordia’s clients, is Mitch’s commitment to his staff. He and his cofounding partners, Mark Melton and Joe Greeves, have a complimentary relationship when it comes to management and leadership, and their powers combined create a perfect partnership. “I’m brutally committed to teaching the people around me and doing everything in my power to enable them to grow,” says Mitch. “I’m very intentional about making the difference with my staff, empowering them to engage with the community and take initiative with clients.”

Today, Cordia has six phenomenal partners overseeing a series of directors, senior managers, managers, seniors, and staff. Their model is designed to identify rising stars and elevate them throughout the organization, teeing them up for ultimate ownership of the business. As a leader, Mitch works to teach and encourage entrepreneurship, which means empowering others to ask questions, make decisions, and take chances. The Cordia workspaces are designed to be open and collaborative, and employees work in teams to serve their clients.

Mitch first began fostering a fierce commitment to teamwork as a means for accomplishing goals when he became a baseball fan early in life. He was raised in Baltimore County, Maryland, the oldest of two brothers.

Growing up in the golden years of the Orioles, he treasured the baseball he had signed by Cal Ripken and picked up the sport when he was six years old.

Creative, smart, and a good writer, Mitch did well in school and particularly excelled in math and art. Like his father, he was a natural listener, and like his mother, he loved being around people. Noting elderly neighbors who couldn’t get around easily, he was compelled to start mowing lawns and shoveling sidewalks for them. He began earning money not for money’s sake, but in the hope of helping where it was needed—a theme that would play out in the years to come.

When Mitch reached high school, the baseball coach quickly saw his talent and pushed him hard to reach his athletic potential. As a result, Mitch accomplished the unthinkable by making varsity and earning the role of team captain, all in his freshman year. “My coach was a key figure for me, influencing me to work hard and to always do the right thing,” Mitch recalls. In his junior year, his team had the honor of playing an All Star game in Memorial Stadium, where Mitch hit a homerun. Like Ripken and his other idols Frank Robinson, Jim Palmer, and Rick Dempsey, he dreamed of growing up and playing professional baseball.

But Mitch was also an optimistic realist, and after spending a summer interning in the marketing department of his father’s company, he opened himself to the possibility of other lines of work. “In retrospect, I was only helping out with marketing material and copy, but at the time it felt like I was doing something important,” he laughs. “I liked that feeling.”

Mitch’s close-knit family had always expected him and his brother to pursue college one day, and even though only about a quarter of his graduating class went 164

on to higher education, Mitch knew without a doubt that it was something he needed to do. He enrolled at the University of Maryland as a general business major, planning to do sales and marketing like his father. “Now that’s the lion’s share of what I do,” he says today.

Several key professors, however, advised him to switch his major to accounting—a degree that all but guaranteed him a job upon graduation. The accounting coursework came easily to him, and combined with his affinity for communicating, would equip him to later present complex financial topics in a meaningful way to any group of stakeholders. When he graduated in December of 1988, he was offered a job at Harab & Kamerow, which at the time was a small but very reputable firm based in Rockville, MD. He had some time between college graduation and his start date, so Mitch earned his Series 6 license and took a job selling insurance. “I was schooled in the art of the cold call— something I think every young person should experience,” he says. “You can’t be afraid to pick up the phone and ask for business. You learn how to face rejection and how to talk to people, and you learn how much better it is to build leads and develop warm relationships so you don’t have to cold call all the time.”

At Harab & Kamerow, Mitch worked closely with Marty Kamerow, a phenomenal mentor who taught him the importance of being deeply engaged with the community. Marty brought Mitch to board meetings and volunteering activities, demonstrating the importance of giving back and donating both time and money. The partners at the firm also recognized Mitch’s business development potential and began bringing him to prospect meetings early on—something Mitch makes a point to do today with young people at Cordia. “It’s important to let them listen and learn,” he points out. “I had the opportunity to do a lot of listening early in my career, and that was absolutely instrumental in cultivating my skills.”

Early on in Mitch’s career, he recalls winning a significant audit and tax deal. Six years later, the firm went through a year-long merger with Snyder Newrath, which then split again. Mitch chose to go with the latter firm, which became Snyder Cohn. There, he learned under tremendous mentors—notably Eddie and Stanley Snyder.

After five years in that capacity, he transitioned over to Lang Group, where he began shifting his focus from audit work to consulting. “Back then, consulting was oriented around helping companies improve their business processes,” Mitch says. “I also spent several years running their outsourcing practice.”

Mitch’s success caught the attention of Beers + Cutler, who decided to bring him on as a partner in 2000 to build up their outsourcing practice. At the request of some peers, he started volunteering around that time for Potomac Community Resources, a small Montgomery County not-for-profit serving people with developmental disabilities. That commitment would become important to the Weintraub family—both of Mitch’s children would go on to volunteer there in their high school years, and Mitch and Karen held a successful fundraiser for the

Profiles in Success: Inspiration from Executive Leaders in the Washington D.C. Area — Volume 11

group. Giving back became a central component his character—a trait that would be reflected in Cordia as well. Mitch and the firm have donated countless pro bono hours to charities that have benefitted tremendously from their services, including the World Police and Fire Games, Chambers of Commerce, Interfaith Works of Montgomery County, and Potomac Community Resources. Most recently, Mitch was named Chair Elect of the Men of St. Johns College High School, where his daughter attends school.

When Mitch and his partners left Beers + Cutler to launch Cordia, there was much to be done. From securing office space, banking relationships, IT services, and professional liability insurance, they no longer had the security of the large firm to rely on. “It was definitely scary, but it was also a dream come true,” Mitch remembers. “It was another one of those moments in life where failure simply wasn’t an option.”

In Cordia, Mitch saw the opportunity to take a step beyond consulting. He was tired of teaching best practices and producing consulting reports on how to improve efficiencies and reduce risky behaviors, with no platform to actually participate in the enactment of those changes alongside the client. “In helping companies identify problems through consulting, I really came to understand their operations, and I knew I could bring a lot to the table in terms of implementing the solutions that our reports recommended,” he says. “I saw a lot of potential in our ability to pull a team together quickly to do it better, faster, and more cost effectively. I wanted to help our clients talk the talk, walk the walk, and reach their full potential.”

Guided by this vision, Cordia is celebrating its tenyear anniversary, and is projected to grow around 30 percent in its outsourcing services in 2016, along with a projected 30 percent growth in consulting and 50 percent growth in its recruiting and staffing practice. They opened a second office in Rockville, Maryland, in 2015, and their growth shows no signs of letting up anytime soon. Plans are also in the works for a small D.C. office in early 2017.

Central to Cordia, and to Mitch’s own journey, has been the concept of making a difference in the business community. Thanks in part to the influence of Dale Peck, a former partner at Beers + Cutler, Mitch joined the Fairfax County Chamber of Commerce, where Dale was a past Chairman. He took Mitch under his wing and promptly introduced him to all the key players, launching the younger man on a fifteen-year journey to fill his shoes. In that time, Mitch was instrumental in launching the NextGen Counsel, where young people are paired with board members to attend board meetings. He assumed leadership roles as Secretary and then Vice Chair, and in June of 2015, he had the great honor of being sworn in as Chairman.

In a quiet moment before the ceremony commenced, the preceding Chairman, Phil Panzarella, handed Mitch a small medallion he had received when he graduated from West Point in 1979. “That meant so much to me—I still carry it with me today and pull it out when I need inspiration,” Mitch says. “I can’t describe the feeling of all my efforts culminating in that tremendous vote of confidence from the chamber, my partners, and the community. Phil is a close friend, mentor and confidant.

When I was sworn in, I sat down with my family and explained to them that my commitment to the community and the chamber will help fulfill my dreams and ultimately make me a better father and husband. Now, we’re celebrating our 90th anniversary and have successfully rebranded as the Northern Virginia Chamber of Commerce—a name that embraces our identity as an organization that transcends jurisdictional lines to be a strong, unifying voice on regional priorities.”

In advising young people entering the working world today, Mitch underscores the importance of connections and relationships. “I believe in Kevin Bacon and the six degrees of separation,” he laughs. “Find people you trust that you can cultivate business and personal relationships with—people you can count on, and that can count on you. Engage in the exchange of ideas and the building of trust. It’s all about getting entrepreneurial early on. Get involved with a chamber of commerce or on a board, and ask someone to mentor you. I’ll never forget the day I took my son to the opening ceremonies of the World Police & Fire Games. He struck up a conversation with a prominent CEO from the region—an international executive. He asked for the man’s card, and asked if he’d be willing to mentor him down the line as he pursued his major in international business. I was stunned—I must have done something right!”

Indeed, all the work done throughout his career connects back to the family he’s built with Karen, his wife of 22 years, and their son and daughter. “Karen is incredibly supportive and has keen attention to detail,” Mitch affirms. “The kids, the house, the family, the finances—she holds it all together. She’s been my rock, my best friend, my confidant, and my coach. When I look at where I am today, family really drives it. For them, failure is not an option.”

Family, community, staff and clients. Mitch has spent his life not waiting for the difference to come along, but instead actively making the difference for these four driving forces in his life. “On all fronts, there are great things coming down the pike,” Mitch affirms. “And now, more than ever, my job at Cordia and my position at the Chamber requires listening and learning in order to lead.

With this formula, I’ll continue to do all I can to make the difference that spells out success for the people, businesses, and communities I have come to care about so deeply.”

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Profiles in Success: Inspiration from Executive Leaders in the Washington D.C. Area — Volume 11

W. Douglas Wendt _________________

Leveraging the Power of Difference The seeds of entrepreneurship are often planted in unexpected ways. For Doug Wendt, the core of his entrepreneurial vision is rooted in three experiences that formed and shaped his worldview. One was his father’s own passion for driving change. Another was Doug’s truly unique educational journey. And the third was the emergence of new technologies that had a life-changing impact.

Through the 1960s and 70s, American cities were falling apart at the seams. It was a period of decay marked by rampant inflation, oil embargoes, and urban collapse, dwarfing the turmoil of the 2008 financial crisis and its aftermath. Revitalization was a pipe dream that would take years of carefully-planned and boldlyexecuted initiatives for cities across the nation to realize.

Thankfully, Doug’s father was up to the task. Having built a career that included roles as the controller for the Rouse Company and later as an executive in the real estate investment divisions of both Prudential and the Travelers Insurance Company, Doug’s father was at the forefront of projects that led to the revitalization of the American city.

From the Inner Harbor in Baltimore and Faneuil Hall Marketplace in Boston to the Embarcadero Center in San Francisco, Doug’s father was a key player in packaging and financing projects that returned critical investment and energy to cities across the nation. “My father didn’t realize at the time how much his example inspired me to think like an entrepreneur,” Doug recalls today. “His insights and experiences created the formative framework that would ultimately shape my own entrepreneurial journey.”

Now the founder and a Senior Partner of Wendt Partners, a business consulting firm dedicated to helping CEOs accelerate the growth of their companies, Doug brings a lifetime of strategic thought to the service of his clients. “Strategy is about taking a disciplined approach to solving a problem,” he explains. “It’s creativity plus commitment. It’s also about embracing technology, uniqueness, and change. Ultimately, it comes down to leveraging the power of difference.”

For Doug, that focus on difference is more than a theoretical concept or a tactical checklist — it’s an intensely personal belief. Wendt Partners is the product of Doug’s commitment to driving change, which he inherited from his father, and his stubborn commitment to excellence, which he learned from his mother. Doug

was born in Baltimore, Maryland, where he spent the first year of his life before his family settled in Chatham, New Jersey. He developed close friendships with the children in his neighborhood, which endured later on when they went on to attend different schools. He loved soccer, swimming, and trains, and his parents were always very supportive of anything he took an interest in.

“I had a very active childhood, never sitting still,” he recalls.

Doug was always intensely curious about the world around him, a trait that was nurtured from an early age when he spent his preschool and kindergarten years in Montessori school. There, children are allowed to wander through an open classroom with an array of activity stations that they can gravitate to base on their interests. A self-driven explorer, Doug flourished in that environment until first grade, when the public school system decided to create an open classroom setting without allowing students to wander. Pursuing the fad at the time, his local school district built a “one-room schoolhouse” of 100,000 square feet to house ten different groups of students, all being taught through traditional lectures.

Perhaps it was the strange setup of the classroom, which seemed to amplify every little distraction. Or perhaps it was Doug’s inability to handwrite for longer than a minute at a time—the result of a motor condition that wouldn’t be diagnosed as a legitimate learning challenge for several more years. Both factors certainly contributed to the early assumption that Doug had a learning disability, and he was quickly pigeonholed as a problem child. “Once you’ve been labeled, the label takes on a life of its own,” he reflects. “I went through a litany of tests, sitting down for long sessions with all manner of PhDs. I got high marks from each one. Yet even though no one could figure out what was wrong with me, no one stopped to think that maybe that’s because there wasn’t anything really ‘wrong’ with me in the first place,” he recalls.

Doug, however, rolled with the punches. The sessions became an opportunity to hone his verbal and intellectual skills, and as he was moved from school to school and classroom to classroom, he grew adept at adapting. His mother worked as an incredibly strong advocate for him through the process, and his parents and neighborhood friends remained consistent forces in his life. “Thanks to my curiosity and enthusiasm for new things—entrepreneurial skills I really credit to my W. Douglas Wendt

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father—I never saw change as a bad thing,” he says.

Finally, in 1981, Doug’s parents decided their son had had enough. A new private school, the Winston School, was being formed specifically for students who could benefit from a more personalized approach to learning than that being offered in the public schools, and they decided Doug would be one of its first students. That year, ten students of all ages and from all over the area convened in the rented basement classrooms of a nearby church for the first day of school.

And there, Doug had the opportunity for the first time since Montessori school to stop following someone else’s model and rediscover his own. “It was an educational experiment in helping students who think and learn differently,” he says. “The traditional education system had told me I didn’t fit in—that I was outside the norm. So in this new environment, I was taught to embrace that as a strength. With the freedom to explore, I learned that one person’s difference is another person’s gift.”

Just as transformative as this realization was the advent of a little piece of technology known as the personal computer. Doug’s father, always looking for ways to integrate new technology into his life and work, bought an Apple II computer when it first came out in 1983. Monitors had not been invented yet, so small black-and-white TVs were mounted on top of the devices. Doug really took to the new machine, and one evening, he decided to type up a school essay assignment instead of handwriting it. The result was a nearinstant change in his experience of school, as his written work and the experience of delivering it with pride on typewritten sheets from his dot-matrix printer altered the dynamics of his relationship with teachers almost overnight.

For Doug, the personal computer gave him more than just a hobby or an outlet – it truly revolutionized his life. “The computer gave me the ability to craft, format and present my work with depth and precision” he remembers. “I honestly believe that if the personal computer had not been invented during that time, my life would have been a completely different story. Technology made it possible for me to achieve my true potential.”

Doug’s parents convinced the school to allow him to bring the computer into the classroom and mount it to his desk. Because the technology was so new, he had a tremendous uphill battle through the next several years trying to educate his teachers about the importance of the technology—something he looks back on with a sense of irony today, in the era of smartphones and tablets.

Beyond allowing him to find his stride as a top student, the computer also opened avenues of entrepreneurship for Doug. He taught himself how to use early desktop publishing software, and in no time was printing out custom letterhead, business cards, posters, cards, and banners for paying customers who sought out his services, often teachers and students 168

alike. He ran a cottage print business all through middle school, continuing this effort when he started high school at the elite Hotchkiss boarding school in Lakeville, Connecticut.

At Hotchkiss, Doug taught himself how to use the new Apple Macintosh computers and became adept with PageMaker, the first truly visual graphic design software. This gave him the tools to communicate at an even more professional level. As a personal project, Doug created a newsletter for a youth group he belonged to, and when the program’s executive director included it in their annual fundraising letter, they received record-breaking donations. “People were hearing from the students themselves rather than just from administrators and staff, and even though we were high schoolers, we were communicating through a highly polished medium,” Doug explains. “That was the first time I created a business-class communication output that had a direct financial impact on an organization.”

Doug took this experience to heart, and it became a core part of his academic life from that point onward.

Later, in college, he co-founded a scholarly journal named Humanitas dedicated to publishing undergraduate research. He and his college roommate produced it in their dorm room. “It was so well received that, soon, PhD professors were saying that they thought our publication would be an appropriate venue for their work,” Doug recounts. “We were receiving article submissions from all around the world. Again, that was due to the power of quality, depth, and sophistication in written communication, as enabled through technology. It reinforced what I had always known—that if you want the ideas you put forth to be taken seriously, you have to communicate with gravitas at a professional level.”

After college, Doug began his career working for an educational publisher in the Philadelphia region, then moved to New Hampshire and shifted his focus to the technology sector. Beginning in a marketing role with MTL, an international industrial electronics company, he soon found himself being asked to engage in key change efforts involving the company’s ISO 9000 quality certification process, the development of new user documentation, and the launch of a groundbreaking new product line. Doug subsequently worked for a series of technology companies in sales, marketing and strategy roles that often focused on new product launches or new market entries.

In 2003, Doug was recruited to apply for a position in the public sector, and he ultimately became the President and CEO of an economic development agency in Pennsylvania that had sought him out to help build a technology-centric regional economy. Doug landed the job, where he became a turnaround architect, leading the agency out of a series of financial and strategic hardships and focusing aggressively on building a strong leadership team. “With the great support of the area’s elected officials and business leaders, I was able to turn the agency around and adapt a management consulting approach to economic development,” he explains.

Profiles in Success: Inspiration from Executive Leaders in the Washington D.C. Area — Volume 11

Under Doug’s leadership, the economic development agency was spun out into a quasi-independent corporation, where it focused intensively on providing cutting-edge services to businesses and other partners across Pennsylvania. The agency was soon recognized for excellence at the state, regional and national levels with a series of awards for its achievements in strategy, leadership and communication.

As a next step, Doug originally conceived of creating a private, for-profit consulting division within the economic development corporation, with the idea that it would generate revenue for the agency without geographic border constraints. But Doug ultimately decided that a private sector consultancy within an economic development agency could become a political nightmare, even though it was both legally and operationally feasible. “To get anything done on a larger scale would be almost impossible, and our path would always be constrained by geographic boundaries because that’s how politicians are elected,” says Doug. “But that’s not how business works, and it’s not how I wanted to operate.”

Nonetheless, Doug’s feasibility assessment had generated a great deal of interest from businesses throughout the region, many of whom told him that they would love to partner with him in one way or another. As a result, he decided to pursue the management consulting model after all — but as its own company, rather than connected to the economic development agency he had built. “Instead of building other businesses through the economic development agency, I recognized that it was time to build other businesses while building my own business as well,” Doug recalls.

With that—and three signed contracts in hand before the company’s first day of operation—Wendt Partners was born.

Within the firm’s first year, it expanded to serve clients in New York, New Jersey, and greater Washington, D.C. Today, the firm is headquartered in the Washington, D.C. region and serves clients throughout the MidAtlantic and beyond. In addition, the firm has further honed its methodology, which focuses on synthesizing and optimizing sales, marketing, strategy, and leadership to drive growth in an integrated manner.

Another milestone during the company’s first year of operation was the addition of Doug’s wife, Alice, to the management team. She brought extensive experience in law, accounting, and professional services, having worked most recently as the Director of Operations for a prominent CPA firm. Upon joining Wendt Partners, Alice helped build the firm’s infrastructure and then moved her focus to business development, including development of the firm’s powerful network of partners.

Today, in addition to advising CEOs on growth strategy and building his own team at Wendt Partners, Doug serves on the adjunct faculty for American University’s graduate program in strategic communication, and also mentors young students and emerging professionals on their professional growth and career strategies. He reminds them that professionalism is not a list of things to be accomplished—rather, it’s a list of attributes to be attained through experience. “Professionalism should be a goal,” he says. “When you take a very professional approach to how you present yourself, you instantly command a credibility level beyond your age, overcoming barriers for yourself.”

Beyond this, Doug reminds us that the most empowered, engaged, and successful people are those who see their journey as never over, but as constantly unfolding. “One of the keys to successful leadership means understanding that everyone is on this journey,” he says. “No one person has arrived. The wonderful thing about the business owners, CEOs, and executives I work with is that no matter where they are in life, they see the next weakness they want to overcome, the next mountain they want to climb, the next challenge in themselves they need to defeat in order to be even better and achieve even more. It’s what makes us different, and therefore what makes us each powerful in our own way.

“I was able to become an entrepreneur, start a business, and flourish because I believed in the power of difference,” he affirms. “Today, Wendt Partners exists to teach business owners how to embrace and leverage that difference for their own growth and success as well.”

W. Douglas Wendt

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Pvt. Jonathan Lee Gifford was the first U.S. soldier killed in Iraq. He was killed just two days into the war on March 23, 2003. Spc. David Emanuel Hickman was killed by a roadside bomb in Iraq on November 14, 2011.

The Washington Post on December 17, 2011, said Hickman “may have been the last” U.S. soldier killed in Iraq.

After reading an article about Gifford and Hickman my sister, Gloria, was inspired to write the following poem.

From Gifford to Hickman

By Gloria J. Bernhardt From Gifford to Hickman…and all those in between, You fought bravely amid chaos and dangers unforeseen.

Twenty-one guns have sounded, the rider less horse walks on.

Fond memories are remaining. A nation’s child is gone.

Sons and daughters; fathers, mothers -- broken hearts intertwined.

Hugs and kisses; their successes – major milestones left behind.

Your selfless gift -- a life laid down; for fellow soldier, family, land.

Duty called -- call was answered -- no greater love hath man.

“I’m getting taller. I lost a tooth. I got 100 on my test!

Miss your pancakes and your tickles, goodnight kisses were the best.

Who will answer all my questions now? I’ve important stuff to learn!

You said you had a big surprise on the day that you’d return.”

“I talk to you at bedtime -- after lights go out at night.

I told Jesus that I miss you…sure wish you could hug me tight.

When Grandpa says I look like you, Grandma starts to cry.

I’m mad that you’re not coming home…I need to say goodbye!”

From Gifford, to Hickman, through every soldier who has served, Liberty’s fruits are savored and freedom is preserved.

We live freely due to soldiers, willing to support and defend Our Constitution, our country -- against enemies ‘til the end.

Sons and daughters; fathers, mothers -- broken hearts intertwined.

Hugs and kisses; their successes – major milestones left behind.

Your selfless gift -- a life laid down; for fellow soldier, family, land.

Duty called -- call was answered -- no greater love hath man.

“I had a dream the night before…you smiled and walked on by.

When I awoke, I thought it odd…it seemed like a ‘good-bye’.

I couldn’t put my finger on the dark cloud that remained, When the phone began to ring…I knew my life had changed.”

“I questioned God, ‘Why MY child? Why do I have to lose?’

I imagined His response would be ‘If not your child, then whose?’

Your bright life flashed too briefly… seems He only takes the best.

I’m thankful for the time I had. For that I’m truly blessed.”

From Gifford to Hickman

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From Gifford to Hickman and every warrior who has passed, The price you’ve paid bought freedom, but will we make it last?

Your last breath drawn for citizens in this country and abroad Are we worthy of such gifts is known only but to God. Sons and daughters; fathers, mothers -- broken hearts intertwined.

Hugs and kisses; their successes – major milestones left behind.

Your selfless gift -- a life laid down; for fellow soldier, family, land.

Duty called -- call was answered -- no greater love hath man.

“My world stopped spinning…I couldn’t breathe! Lord, how can I go on?

My days are all one midnight…but they say it’s darkest ‘fore the dawn.

I can hear you say, ‘I’m proud of you! I know that this is hard.’

What do I do without you here? What dreams do I discard?”

“I miss your laugh. I miss your smell. I even miss our fights.

No more messes. No embraces. It’s more ‘real’ late at night.

I saw you in a crowd today; but you vanished in the throng.

Wishful thinking changes nothing! I know my “rock” is gone.”

FOR Gifford, FOR Hickman…FOR all the fallen in between, You’ve trudged through shadowed valley and joined heroes’ ranks unseen.

Upon freedom’s altar, we sacrificed our daughters and our sons.

Empty boots stand at attention. The flag is folded. Your mission’s done. © 2017 Gloria J. Bernhardt. All Rights Reserved.

Reprinted with permission.

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