Profiles in Success...Volume 3 eBook

Copyright 2012 © Gordon J. Bernhardt, CPA, PFS, CFP®, AIF® ISBN: 978-0-9849572-1-7 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® 2010 Corporate Ridge, Suite 210 McLean, VA 22102 (703) 356-4380 Toll-free: (888) 356-4380 www.BernhardtWealth.com First edition – Volume 3 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).

In cooperation with Executive Leaders Radio, Gordon Bernhardt conducted follow-up interviews with business leaders that were featured on Executive Leaders Radio. 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 or by Executive Leaders Radio.

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, Ken Robinson, Olivia Dewey, Bonnie Armstrong, Emily Burns and Jamie Bennett—I would never have been able to do this without your efforts and support throughout the process.

I am deeply grateful to Executive Leaders Radio and Herb Cohen, Rachel Blumenthal, and Faith Smith for your assistance on this project. Thank you Peter Schwartz, host of Executive Leaders DC and president of Peter Schwartz & Associates, Michael Manion, host of Executive Leaders DC and managing partner of Cerius Interim Executitve Solutions, for your help and encouragement on this project.

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

Contents

1 Foreword

69 Tony Jimenez

3 Introduction

73 Ned Johnson

Profiles in Success

77 Sonny Kakar

5 Kathy Albarado

79 David Kohlasch

9 Ahmed R. Ali

81 Alan Kruglak

13 Dr. Wayne Andersen

85 Paul Maguire

17 John Benbrook

89 Steve Malley

19 John Boffa

91 Lynda Mann

23 Nick Bruno

95 Denis McFarlane

27 Allen O. Cage, Jr.

97 Chris McGoff

31 Stephen Canton

101 Thomas E. Menighan

33 Clark Childers

105 Graham Milne

35 Jennifer Collins

109 Katie Moran

39 Jim Corcoran

113 Anne Reed

41 Matthew Desch

117 Travis Reese

43 Ernest Forman

121 Kathy Roberson

47 Scott Gessay

125 Shehraze Shah

51 David Guernsey

127 Win Sheridan

55 Patricia Hill

129 Marc Slavin

57 Amanda Hollins

133 Lynette Spano

61 Amy Hunt

135 Judy York

65 David Hunt

139 From Gifford to Hickman

by Gloria J. Bernhardt

Foreword Vistage International is a chief executive membership organization—a sort of think-tank for CEOs. As a Vistage chair, I facilitate three chief executive peer advisory groups for the purpose of helping the participants to become better leaders, make better decisions and produce better results. We meet in a confidential setting without any competitors in the room. This creates an environment in which everyone is free to be honest and in return receive unvarnished advice and insight from peers to a degree they simply couldn’t get anywhere else.

The level of raw honesty and the connectedness that result from that kind of interaction is extraordinary.

Through Vistage, I became involved with Executive Leaders Radio and happily accepted their request to be a show host. On the show each week I have a very personal conversation with business owners, presidents and C-level executives, just as I do during a Vistage meeting.

Through these interviews, listeners get to know a person in a way they wouldn’t ordinarily get to know them through a typical radio interview. We are more interested in the person behind the position and their trajectory across time. What was going on early in their life or career that influenced and shaped who they are? What set into motion a series of events that clearly indicate a connectedness across time to where they are today?

That’s a hell of a story to discover in just 12 minutes. You can’t hear that story and not be emotionally impacted.

Having associated with a number of small business owners for the past seven years–four of which have been during the most difficult economic period of my adult life–I believe the untold story is that of our country’s small business owner. I strive to draw their stories out in order to share what they have been doing not only keep businesses going, but to keep people employed.

The stories are about more than conveying the heroics of these business owners. They are consistently about the triumph of spirit over circumstance because many these individuals have come from, or have been toiling through, very challenging conditions.

Two Cs of Leadership

I was once a business owner. I was a start-up guy who took a couple of early-stage concepts to maturity. This is where I learned the “competency” side of being a leader– the tactics, processes and functionality. Competency is certainly necessary, but it turns out there is an even more

important component of leadership and that is “consciousness.” Consciousness is what is going on internally– the individual’s personal operating software–that we may not even be aware is running. It is the habits of thinking, subconsciously, that shape how we perform in a certain context. For example, a person who grew up under difficult circumstances makes meaning out of that experience which shows up in the way they lead. For some, it empowers them, and for others, it inhibits them.

As a coach, I work to help surface those habits of thinking. Through our conversations these individuals begin to take a new look at how think and they ask themselves, “Is what got me here going to get me there?”

Certainly every leader needs to develop a skill-set in order to execute appropriately and arrive at a certain level of success. However, a leader must grow their mind in order to handle increasing complexity and to achieve at the next level. That growth of mind is “consciousness”– seeing things differently in order to handle growth and a continuum of success more effectively.

A Trajectory of Success

Typically individuals enter into adulthood with a success strategy. Imagine a young man who grows up in a supportive environment, gets involved in athletics and turns out to be really good. He receives standing ovations for his accomplishments on the field or court and learns that in order to be worthwhile he must achieve. That is a healthy message that works for him to continue into adulthood with a determination to work hard and achieve. But then he works himself into a role where he must manage others. For the first time, he experiences a shift of consciousness. He discovers that it is no longer just about his achievements but the achievements of others that determine successful outcomes. “I need to value the efforts of others and start helping others to succeed because it’s not about me, it’s about us.” Such a significant shift can be very difficult for many people because it means they have to let go of strategies that had previously worked for them and find new strategies.

Some people will struggle through this stage before accepting that “what got me here won’t get me there.”

Opening the door to a change of consciousness is different for each person. Everyone arrives to a point in life with a success strategy that worked for them. But somewhere along the path, the limits of that strategy will become evident and the strategy will need to evolve.

Foreword

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Mentoring – Consulting – Coaching

In my experience, most leaders have sought guidance along their trajectory of success in at least one of three ways.

• Mentoring typically involves an individual with much more experience in a specific role helping another person develop their expertise. A mentor will serve as a sounding-board, provide guidance and help the mentee develop or improve particular skills. This is typically an informal and often long-lasting arrangement.

• Consulting involves hiring a person for their specific subject matter expertise in order to improve a situation or context. Simply put, this is the purchase of someone’s knowledge.

• Coaching is based on the belief that all the resources a person needs to succeed are internal to that person. The coach, through inquiry and conversation, pulls those resources to the surface and designs a set of actions that builds competency and confidence in a particular area.

Coaching is not about supplying answers, but it does involve working on very personal issues.

Gordon Bernhardt and I share a mutual enthusiasm for people and discovering their stories. We are both fortunate to work in professional fields that allow us to regularly engage interesting and successful people throughout the Washington D.C. area. In sharing the details and personal perspectives regarding their failures, disappointments,

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successes and achievements, each of the leaders profiled in this book has a lesson from their life to teach us. No matter where you are on your trajectory of success, this is good reading.

Peter Schwartz Vistage Chair, Vistage International Host of Executive Leaders Radio www.executiveleadersradio.com

Peter Schwartz is a Vistage Chair working with chief executives and business owners who want to become better leaders, make better decisions, and produce better results.

Vistage D.C. serves more than 300 businessmen and women from companies that generate $11 billion in annual revenues and employ more than 44,000 people. In 2011, Schwartz received Vistage International’s Chair Excellence Award for outstanding overall performance. As a Host of Executive Leaders Radio, he has conducted hundreds of elite interviews of prominent CEOs, COOs, CFOs, CIOs and presidents focusing on “what makes people tick.”

Profiles in Success: Inspiration from Executive Leaders in the Washington D.C. Area — Volume 3

Introduction Characteristics of a leader

The term ‘leader’ is used, and perhaps misused, often in our society. Leaders exist in our family, places of worship, philanthropic boards, businesses, government, and every other group or institution that inhabits our lives. But how many so-called leaders really possess the necessary characteristics to succeed as a true leader in their specific arena?

With a desire to achieve excellence in my own field, I found particularly intriguing the results from a CEG Worldwide LLC survey. The coaching program for financial advisors reported the following six characteristics as those which successful individuals value most in their advisor: 1. Character – Personal qualities such as integrity, honesty or dependability rank highest in any trust relationship. You can’t just tell people that you are honest and trustworthy. Good character must be demonstrated through actions and conversation about values—theirs and yours.

2. Chemistry – The ability to be “in sync” with individuals is crucial. You connect with others when you intuitively know what they want to talk about and you generally see eye to eye on important issues.

3. Caring – It is not enough to just care about another person’s well-being. You need to demonstrate your concern through actions and conversations during which you discover who and what are most important to them.

4. Competence – This is about being smart, technically capable and a leading expert in your field. Establish your authority and build credibility by writing articles, giving presentations, speaking with groups or donating your expertise to worthy causes.

5. Cost-Effectiveness – Simply put, deliver true value.

Whether in your community or your profession, there is merit and worth to the service or knowledge you provide.

6. Consultative – Being consultative is the framework for any ongoing partnership. It involves a collaborative relationship, consistent and meaningful contact, and a customized form of communication that satisfies all involved.

“Leadership is not an act. It is my life, a way of living.” ~ Chris Lowney’s Heroic Leadership

I was raised by my mother and father to always strive to make a difference in people’s lives and in the community we share.

Some years ago, I bought a Steinway piano because my mother loved playing the piano. It was a way for us to connect while living in different parts of the country. I took lessons and would play to her over the phone. The experience gave us both great joy, but after she passed away the piano was a painful reminder that she wasn’t around anymore. I quit playing the instrument and let it gather dust.

After several years, I realized the piano needed to be played. After much searching, I found the right place for it: a church with an active music ministry, serving several different congregations, which desperately needed to replace its aging piano. Every time I visit and hear that piano, it’s like having a connection to my mom. She would have been happy that so many people get to enjoy the music from this piano as talented pianists play it.

It’s not a great stretch to say that everything I needed to know about wealth management, I learned on the family farm. I grew up in Nebraska, and by the age of five, I was driving tractors and doing daily chores—tending cattle, cutting hay, growing wheat, raising pigs and sheep. These chores were a less-thanglamorous introduction to one of our country’s greatest qualities: hard work is rewarded.

On the farm, you couldn’t see the fruits of your labor until many months into the future. You had to wait until July or August to harvest the wheat you planted the previous fall. The work of rotating crops would not be repaid until you reaped a stronger crop the following season. There was always something that needed doing today to make sure you were rewarded down the road.

The life of a farmer is also one of uncertainty.

You had no idea whether a hailstorm would take out the wheat crop or a drought would starve your crops.

While much is out of your control, you can succeed over the long term by sticking with sound plans for planting crops and tending livestock.

In many ways, these are the same lessons I teach my clients. We can’t be certain when the next financial crisis will hit, where the next market bubble will occur or even what the financial markets will do next Introduction

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week. Because we can’t predict the future, it’s important to have a strong plan on which to rely in good markets and in bad.

Whether by donating a Steinway piano or by helping my clients utilize their money to accomplish greater goals, I feel fortunate to have the opportunity, in both my personal and professional life, to positively impact the lives of others.

What characteristics do you value in a leader?

Perhaps more importantly, what qualities do you strive for to earn the title of leader? Whether you are determined to be a leader in your profession, community or family, there are many lessons in character and leadership to be learned from the individuals profiled in this book. Their stories will serve us well in our ongoing process.

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

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, DC 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 3

Kathy Albarado Corporate Culture for Community Change If one were to work an average of 8 hours a day, 5 days per week, from the age of 18 to the age of 65, one would spend over 90,000 hours of their lifetime in the workplace. For Kathy Albarado, President and CEO of Helios HR, that’s 90,000 hours of potential. While many employees across America find themselves begrudgingly sitting down at their desks each morning and eager to leave when the clock strikes five o’clock, Kathy has dedicated her life and energy to the transformative power of corporate culture. “My personal passion has always been to make an impact through the creation of a corporate culture in which an employee’s life is not checked at the door, but is rather enriched and enjoyed within the walls of their workplace,” she explains.

“When you can create a place that people love to be a part of, that enthusiasm spills over into the community.”

Helios celebrated its tenth anniversary in September of 2011, and throughout its first decade, it racked in outstanding success. It grew forty percent in 2010 and is on track to grow another fifty percent this year, supporting between 80 and 100 customers at any given time. Despite Kathy’s obvious proficiency as a leader and affinity for what she does, however, she reports that she never had a burning desire to be an entrepreneur. She served as VP of Corporate Services at PriceInteractive, a rapidly growing speech application service provider, for four years before launching Helios. “As an employee there, I felt productive, engaged, and like we were really building something,” she remembers fondly. When the owners sold Price to a publicly traded company based in Boston, however, everything changed. “I couldn’t stand to see the culture we’d built unravel so rapidly,” she explains. The deal was completed in February, and she resigned in May. Kathy then found herself confronted with the ageold question: What next? Thoroughly engrossed in her work with Price, her professional network had lain dormant for several years. Undeterred, however, she began reaching out as she examined whether she would re-

turn to the corporate world or whether starting her own business was a better route to take. She invited people to coffee, bought them lunch, and asked how they’d started their companies, how they’d grown them, and what needed to be considered throughout the process.

“They were all very gracious and eager to help, and I realized that I couldn’t get excited about accepting another corporate opportunity because the culture we’d had at Price was so special,” she reports. “That’s when I realized that, if I could engage in an intentional focus on corporate culture and then share that vision with other executives and CEOs, I could help them as they grow and scale. I realized that I wanted to start a company that would help these leaders implement and maintain the right infrastructure to attract, retain, and engage the best workforce in the best place to work.”

In preparing to launch Helios, Kathy polled her network extensively but took each pearl of wisdom with a grain of salt, careful to review its applicability to her own unique situation. One trusted friend and business owner recommended that she keep her day job at Price until she had lined up her first customer, but Kathy decided that this wasn’t the right path for her. At the time, she was the single mother of her young daughter, Amanda, which had taught her the importance of perseverance. “As a single mom, you just do what you have to do to move forward,” she affirms. “You don’t complain or whine, you just do it.”

Her own childhood, as well, had taught her the value of independence and following one’s own path. “After my parents got divorced, my mother remarried into an abusive relationship that lasted for seven years,” she says. “I’m a firm believer that, if you’re in a bad situation, you leave and hold out for a good one. Do what you have to do, and don’t settle.”

After taking several weeks to realize that her dream was to build incredible company cultures for organizations throughout the Washington Metropolitan area, Kathy’s mission became very focused. She launched the company in a home office basement,

Kathy Albarado

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and she remembers nights when Amanda, at a spunky eight years old, would offer to make grilled cheese for the two of them while Kathy worked. Kathy also recalls with gratitude the support of her husband, Kevin, who was patient and supportive throughout the long days, nights, and weekends it took her to launch and grow the company. Helios’s original model has evolved over the years since that time and now provides human capital management, consulting, outsourcing, and recruiting solutions for a phenomenal client base focused on evolution and forward motion.

For smaller companies of a hundred people or less, Helios often serves as a fully outsourced HR function that provides a team approach. “Whether our clients need someone focused on compliance, someone who can conduct a compensation analysis for them with some benchmarking, or a technology expert to advise on what system to use as they scale, we provide them with access to all these resources, whereas if they hired one dedicated person to fulfill their HR function, that person probably wouldn’t have as broad of a background,” Kathy points out. Alternatively, for midsize and larger organizations, Helios does consulting work specializing in organizational development. In this capacity, it advises on growth management, reporting structure changes, role clarity, and adequate training and support functions, among others. Finally, Helios provides recruiting services across all professional services positions through an hourly model which saves an average of 30 percent on contingent search fees and on the placement of HR professionals on a competitive retainer.

Helios’s consultants are unique in that they rarely serve more than four clients at once, whereas many of its competitors use models in which a hundred clients can be assigned to one account manager. Helios consultants are thus extremely involved and visible within client organizations, providing CEOs and leadership teams with comprehensive and in-depth strategic advice and counseling. Kathy has also recently begun to leverage her extensive commercial network to begin organically building into the Federal sector in response to the market’s expressed needs. “I love that my access to these executives allows me to help them find innovative solutions to their challenges, which are often very similar from one company to the next,” she remarks.

One such opportunity came in 2007, when Kathy was struck with the idea to launch the Apollo Awards through Helios. Though some advisors told her that Washington already had enough awards, she received positive feedback as well and decided that they’d put out a call for nominations in March of 2007 for an awards 6

program that met in May of that same year. 188 people attended the first ceremony where 4 winners were chosen amongst 12 finalists, and all the CEOs of those finalist companies attended. “It was amazing to see all that energy and goodwill created in the community,” Kathy marvels. “People want to see how they stand against other companies in their size category, and we create a white paper to then distribute the findings. People love to be around like-minded executives, and the event is about collaboration and camaraderie—everything that Helios stands for and seeks to promote.”

Born in Alexandria, Virginia, Kathy has spent her whole life in the area. As a child she didn’t have a specific end career goal in mind, but was instead quite flexible and opportunistic. In college at George Mason University, she changed her major four times but ultimately settled on Psychology, which permitted her to intern at the Northern Virginia Mental Health Institute for 18 months. Working intimately with a wide range of patients in this capacity taught Kathy that all people are people, and that one had to be purposeful and unrelenting in their composure and intentions in order to be taken seriously. It also taught her the critical importance of pulling one’s own weight on a team, as failure to do so could result in serious injury. “As we progress down our careers, it’s interesting to see how experiences teach you what you do and don’t want,” she reflects now.

“I learned from that one that I didn’t want to go into clinical work. It’s important to remember that there’s always an opportunity to reinvent who we are and where our story is going.”

Kathy waited tables through college and managed a women’s sports retail store afterward but soon realized she wanted to head in a different direction, so she started personnel management classes and discovered an acute passion for the burgeoning field. She then began interviewing around town and was given a position at a company called Dewberry, where she developed a solid foundation in HR with the help of top-notch mentors. Within her first six months, she coordinated a program to consolidate the company’s 20 different vendors to optimize their savings and mass volume discounting.

She was also coached extensively in the importance of strong writing skills. “You have to be able to write in order to think through complex issues and articulate them effectively, and a mentor at Dewberry would redline my memos to help me learn those skills,” she recalls.

After Dewberry, she worked at ITC Learning, where she was challenged to truly stretch her limits and venture beyond her comfort zone. Her boss could tell that she was capable of more than her skill set and background

Profiles in Success: Inspiration from Executive Leaders in the Washington D.C. Area — Volume 3

implied, and he pushed her beyond HR by having her report to him directly on the business’s operations and sales force. “He was a visionary, and I helped him to execute those visions,” she explains. “Now, as I implement my own visions, I’m confident that I don’t have to have all the details figured out before launching a project. Even if I only have 80 percent of things ironed out, I continue to move forward, accept feedback, and adjust as I go. I don’t overanalyze things, and my decision may change from one day to the next because of that, but each decision is a better decision than the one that came before.”

In advising young entrepreneurs entering the business world today, Kathy echoes the popular sentiment that there’s no replacement for experience. “When you assume a position, be humble, appreciative of the opportunity, and aim to show them what you’re capable of,” she urges. “Having a strong work ethic and being able to understand and manage expectations is a skill set you only gain with experience, so understand that you need to develop that track record.”

Beyond this, Kathy echoes the entire philosophy upon which Helios is built: that success is never achieved in isolation. It takes a network of compassionate, supportive, collaborative people to help build a company. It takes a team of enthusiastic, driven, fulfilled

employees to keep that company afloat. It takes collaboration between leaders and consultants to develop the kind of corporate culture that enables such a team to persist. And it takes the work of all social institutions to build better societies, whether they’re public or private.

“There’s so many things leaders can do to impact the community, whether it’s providing employee time and support for volunteerism or educating people about community needs and solutions,” Kathy points out.

Despite Helios’s certain accomplishment, Kathy feels that one of her greatest successes is ultimately personified in Amanda, who is now 18 and a co-founder of Collective Change, a charity that provides easy ways for communities to come together, promote awareness, and raise money for important causes worldwide. Kathy fondly remembers the night of the organization’s first fundraiser, when her daughter directed the event to raise money for Haiti with exceptional poise, grace, and conviction. “I believe every person and every company has the privilege and obligation to give back,” says Kathy. “What I love most about Helios is having the opportunity to impact our client companies and to then connect these clients with the greater community to leverage that momentum. Amanda is an exceptional example of how that momentum can embody real change, and that, to me, defines success.”

Kathy Albarado

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Ahmed R. Ali Serving Our Country with Pride Ahmed R. Ali, Founder and CEO of TISTA Science and Technology Corporation, a government service contractor in the area of information assurance and cyber security knows the importance of hard work and providing service that you are proud to have your name on.

Within a few short years, Ahmed grew TISTA from a one-person company, with revenue close to $160,000 to over a 100 person company with over a $10 million operation which has continually doubled its profits every year since its inception.

“We’re poised for more growth and it’s only because of the quality people we have on board. I can’t take credit for everything.”

In addition to government contracts, TISTA also works with commercial organizations providing program management support, identity and access management services, disaster recovery and planning, secure registration-based email, software development, information assurance, certification and accreditation, network security, and enterprise life-cycle programs.

But Ahmed isn’t only interested in engineering and technology, he also has a deep-seated desire to serve his country and make a difference. When he saw the movie Top Gun, where a young Tom Cruise aspires to become the best fighter pilot in a prestigious naval training school, Ahmed was hooked. “I think that was the best recruiting movie in the history of the military,” he laughs. “It made such an impression on me.”

Such an impression that, when in his junior year of college he ran out of money to continue his studies in mechanical engineering, he decided to join the military and, after his tour of duty ended, use the educational benefits to complete his degree. Early on, Ahmed’s propensity for strategic thinking, his dogged determination, and his strong belief in the value of education were clear and evident.

Unfortunately, Ahmed did not meet the eyesight requirements to train to become a fighter pilot, like his Top Gun icon, and so he elected a track more aligned with his technical background.

Ahmed joined the Navy, opting to become a radio frequency engineer working on complex radar systems used on guided missile destroyers and cruisers. The training was intensive.

“It was like college, except you’re in class from 7 a.m. to 5 p.m. straight,” he says. “They packed four years of college into your brain in a year and a half.”

His days were very structured, but Ahmed enjoyed it and graduated near the top of his class.

After training, Ahmed was offered several options for his base station. He chose Pearl Harbor, Hawaii, serving three tours on a guided missile destroyer in the Persian Gulf. From day-to-day, his job entailed working on the radar systems, tracking missiles, helping pilots land on carriers, and track incoming threats. Periodically, he also served as part of a small team responsible for approaching, and if necessary, boarding any ships in Iraqi waters that did not have United Nations authorization to ship goods in that area.

“It was an amazing experience and I worked with some of the best people I’ve ever met in my life.”

Being in the military also helped Ahmed clarify what was most important to him. He discovered his love of country and his pride in serving. He also realized that he someday wanted to have a business that could somehow support the United States government and its mission. “I wanted to go to bed at night feeling like my work had a positive impact on the lives of other people and the national interests of our country,” he shares.

After his life-changing, six-year stint in the U. S. Navy, Ahmed chose to pursue a career in the civilian sector, and received an honorable discharge from the military in 2001. For two years, he worked as a radio frequency engineer with a small company located in the U.S. Naval Academy complex in Annapolis, MD, that worked with U.S. Department of Defense (DoD) agencies. He also returned to college, shifting his major from engineering to information systems.

Ahmed R. Ali

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Looking to move into IT, he accepted a job with the U.S. Department of Commerce as a patent examiner in the area of computer security and cryptography. In the U. S. Patent and Trademark Office, he reviewed patents submitted by IBM, Hewlett-Packard and other computer giants. This exposure opened his eyes to the tremendous growth potential in computer technology. Ahmed also noted how many different companies were supporting the government with extensive, high-end contracts for communications and engineering systems used in military operations. He was fascinated and intrigued.

After doing some research, Ahmed decided to focus on IT security. There was a huge demand within the federal government and in the private sector for people who could keep data and networks secure, preventing anyone from hacking into an organization’s network infrastructure. With his background, Ahmed knew he could easily master this growing specialty and promptly enrolled in graduate school, attending Capital College at night to pursue a master’s degree in Information Assurance, which he completed within two years while still working full-time and taking care of his family.

Upon completion of graduate school, Ahmed got an unexpected call from a friend and former colleague who was leaving his job as the Information Assurance Manager for an agency within the DoD. Ahmed’s friend suggested that Ahmed apply for the position, which he did, and he was hired. After working there for several years, Ahmed believed he had enough experience, background, and contacts to start his own reputable company, with the knowledge to do it right.

The timing was also auspicious because a recent Executive Order signed by the then-President George W. Bush mandated the increase of federal contracting opportunities for service-disabled veterans who owned businesses.

So, in late 2005, TISTA Science and Technology Corporation was born with the DoD as its first client.

Working alone on the project for about a year, Ahmed invited a colleague to partner with him and a year or two later, TISTA was awarded another government contract.

With a new partner on board to share the workload, Ahmed decided to pursue an MBA to complement his technical skills with a solid business background and to enhance his ability to more effectively operate and grow the business. Ahmed completed his MBA with a concentration in International Business two years later.

Starting out, Ahmed found the biggest challenge was cash flow. Like many entrepreneurs, he invested all of his own funds to get things rolling. Although he 10

had lots of great ideas for the direction he wanted to take the company, he couldn’t execute them because of limited finances.

“It’s hard to grow a company when you don’t have the funding to do it,” he professes.

Modest and down-to-earth, Ahmed came from a very humble background. His parents immigrated to America from Bangladesh in 1976. They had lost their first son to pneumonia and later when Ahmed was born, they wanted a better life for him and better opportunities for the whole family.

Although his father had an engineering background, he spoke very little English so both of Ahmed’s parents worked odd jobs to get established, while they learned the new language. They lived very minimally and moved around a lot causing Ahmed to attend five different elementary schools, two different middle schools, and two different high schools. Eventually, his father got an engineering job in the private sector and later purchased a home in College Park, MD, and after several years they purchased a home in Bethesda, MD, near relatives. Ahmed’s father later went on to be a senior government official, and retired in 2008.

Because his father was such a tremendous influence in his life, Ahmed decided to name the company after him.

“My father was born in a village near the Tista River, which flows through several countries in Asia,” says Ahmed. “What better way to honor someone you look up to and deeply respect?”

As a family man, Ahmed was also challenged by the amount of time he had to put into the company, working long 10 to 15 hour days, often on weekends.

But he persevered and he now credits much of TISTA’s success to his team, especially the people he calls the “pioneers” of the now multi-million dollar enterprise. These pioneers include Faisal Quader, who was instrumental in helping to shape TISTA from the initial idea, Marion Devoe, who had his own small (8a) business and then joined forces with Ahmed, and also Asif Ahmed who was a trusted and well-respected friend.

“Any company is only as good as the people that it has in the organization, especially the senior leadership team,” Ahmed asserts. “I have an amazing group of people, extremely hardworking and extremely ethical.

We share the same vision. I’m not in this for myself.”

Ahmed believes in supporting his team and this is reflected in his leadership that is based on the core principles of equality, respect, and commitment. He treats everyone the same, not based on their title or role, offering equal respect to all.

Profiles in Success: Inspiration from Executive Leaders in the Washington D.C. Area — Volume 3

“There is a perception that owners and seniorlevel executives are not approachable,” he observes. “I want the people that work around me, for me, or with me to be as comfortable as possible.”

Ahmed also believes it is imperative to stick to your word. As a leader he values follow-through and makes sure he stays committed to the people around him, not just the bottom line.

“Obviously, we want the numbers to be good and healthy, but if I have to sacrifice the bottom line to make sure that my people are taken care of, in every respect, I’ll sacrifice that bottom line. Our model is different.

Whatever profits we have, we reinvest in the company, in our people.”

Ahmed’s commitment extends beyond TISTA and he is an active champion for children’s causes. “My father comes from a part of the world where he saw struggle and because he lost a child he has always been

passionate about supporting children who didn’t have parents, food, clothing or education.”

This has inspired Ahmed and he supports his father’s efforts to build orphanages and schools in Bangladesh. As an organization, TISTA also provides continuing support to multiple nonprofits that help children, women, veterans, and others in need. “I feel that at least I can leave some sort of legacy behind, to make a difference in people’s lives,” he shares.

For Ahmed Ali, it all boils down to pride. Pride in his inspiring and generous father, the pride and joy that his children and family bring him, his pride in serving multiple deployments in hazardous regions around the world while serving the U. S. military, and the ultimate pride of bringing a long-held personal dream into fruition by creating a thriving, multi-million dollar business that is positively impacting our country and our nation every single day.

Ahmed R. Ali

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Dr. Wayne Andersen The Pursuit of Healthiness With any problem in life, you can choose to treat the symptoms, or you can choose to treat the root cause.

It was this simple realization that compelled Dr. Wayne Andersen—known far and wide today as Dr. A—to give up his position running an intensive care unit, acting as chairman of its Department of Anesthesiology and as the Director of Critical Care for a hospital in Dayton, Ohio.

“I realized I was tired of simply reacting to disease,” he remarks, now the co-founder of a comprehensive lifestyle program called Take Shape for Life. “I’ve always been extremely passionate about what I do and about taking care of people, but I realized I was getting up everyday to put band-aids on people without ever actually addressing the root cause of the ailments.”

Working tirelessly at the bedsides of the critically ill, Dr. A was used to wrestling with dire straights and long shots. As the first member of his family to attend college, he later found himself impassioned by the urgency of the critical care unit in medical school. Noting the disconnect between different medical professionals and their focus on isolated parts of the body, he was a pioneer student in the study of multi-system organ functioning that soon proved so important in critical care situations. Though he didn’t come from a prestigious, well known training program, he earned one of three spots in the Critical Care Program at the University of Miami, trumping many other applicants and graduating as the tenth critical care specialist to be board-certified in the nation. Committing his best to his work and beating the odds had always been enough for him, yet as time passed, he found himself wanting something more.

Dr. A had noted that these root causes of ailment so often lay not in a sudden accident or isolated mishap, but in the subtle yet powerful effect of daily lifestyle choices on overall health. It is readily acknowledged that diet factors prominently into one’s ability to achieve and maintain a healthy weight, but few approaches to weight loss also factor in how a person moves their body, how they sleep, how they handle stress, and a myriad other

incremental details that seem insignificant on their own but actually form an important index to success when taken together and over time.

This idea forms the basis for Habits of Health, the renaissance healthy-living concept Dr. A has developed and honed over the last nine years to help individuals all across the country live the life they deserve. Most people are initially attracted to the ideology because they hope to reach a target weight, but they soon find that Dr. A’s approach extends far beyond the concept of diet. Rather, it poses the trilogy concept of optimal health, which addresses the physical, spiritual/mental, and financial realms as a unified consortium.

“Beyond meal choice, people need to develop the time and resources to really focus on their health,” Dr. A explains.

“Their work should have an intrinsic value and meaning to them beyond providing money for basic survival, and it’s important to note that psychological stress can make it very difficult to maintain long term success. Yet when one can obtain a balance in these three areas, the optimal feedback loop makes it much easier to stay healthy.”

Take Shape for Life is a division of Medifast, a meal replacement program whose science-based and results-oriented approach has been verified by prestigious institutions like Johns Hopkins University and the National Institute of Health. Medifast had achieved substantial success on its own, yet many of its customers would regain the weight they had lost after completing the program and returning to their previous lifestyles. When Dr. A met with the CEO of Medifast in 2001, he found that the void the company sought to fill in its own method was the same void he himself had identified in society, and the same void he had sacrificed everything to fill.

At the time, Dr. A had sold the beautiful home he had spent four years building and moved his wife and two children out to Oregon in search of a new level of balance in life. He had kept one relic of his previous lifestyle—a 911 Porsche—which he used to drive his young

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daughters on adventures around the countryside that his previous hundred-hour workweek would never have allowed. “I tried to start a business that failed within seven months of launching, and I fell into considerable debt, but I was spending quality time with my family that took my fulfillment level to new heights,” he reminisces.

It was this new exposure to the importance of life’s varied spheres that lent Dr. A the perspective with which he was able to identify Medifast’s limitations. He recognized that today’s leadership should be about results that lent real, observable value to peoples’ lives, and he felt that the best way to accomplish this was through empowering them with the tools to take control in each area of life. Despite the soundness of this conviction, however, Dr. A reports that launching Take Shape for Life has been far from a cakewalk. “Being an advocate for what I thought was right was a lonely and uncertain road at times—a continuous struggle for many years in many different areas,” he says. “But I can tell you today, now that we’ve reached the other side, that it’s been the most powerful thing I’ve ever done. Take Shape for Life isn’t just a legacy; it’s actually changing the social fabric of this country.”

The initiative originally started as a licensing agreement with Medifast that allowed Dr. A to build a new company, called Health Inventions, around the meal replacement product. The entire infrastructure of said company was launched in the basements of two residential houses in Oregon, and Dr. A also opened a call center in Utah wherein he trained several staff members on how to talk to people about health. He had promised Medifast that each client would receive proper and individualized care, so his wife Lori, an RN, interviewed every single person who joined the program.

Within a year, the operation had grown so much that Medifast asked Dr. A to serve as its medical director.

Along with Medifast’s CEO, Brad MacDonald, Dr. A then made the decision to buy out all of the company’s other partners to make it a wholly owned subsidiary of Medifast. As a result, Health Inventions became Take Shape for Life in the summer of 2002, officially opening for business in January of 2003 with Brad and Dr. A cofounding the new entity.

With the general concept in place, Dr. A was then charged with figuring out how to build a working model for the enterprise. He created a division for healthcare professionals, wherein MDs, DOs, chiropractors, naturalpaths, or others encourage Habits for Health in their patients. These efforts are supplemented with a lay division of health coaches, which anyone can join. Coaches receive compensation as a percentage earned from meal 14

replacements. Dr. A then developed a program revolving around his conceptualization of the six key ingredients to weight control, which lay the foundation for the Habits for Health program he perfected later on.

“Habits of Health is a system that teaches people that creating health is an active process, versus the reactionary process that follows an affliction,” Dr. A emphasizes. “It’s more than prevention, it’s a change in orientation. If people in today’s society accept the status quo, relying on their genetics and their natural inclinations, America’s energy-dense foods and stressful yet sedentary lifestyle will make them obese and sick. It’s not merely enough to abstain from outright unhealthy practices; one must actively pursue the goals they wish to attain.”

Habits of Health helps people to do this by equipping them with their own coach and with what Dr. A refers to as a bionetwork—a network of doctors, nurses, institutional support, and online support that individuals can access from the comfort of their own homes.

Taken together, the program utilizes the meal replacements, the Habits of Health System, the guidebook, a workbook, and a set of DVDs to create the most comprehensive blueprint on the market. “It’s a self-study and an actualization in health,” Dr. A says with confidence.

Perhaps the most remarkable thing about this approach is the fact that there is no coaching fee on top of the cost of the Medifast meal plans. “I’m a patriot, and I love this country,” Dr. A puts simply. “Anyone who raises their hand and makes the decision to get healthy should be able to afford this program. It costs no more than regular food. We’re not about money; we’re about changing the tapestry of health in this country to make it better and to revive the American Dream. We’ve got to get our heart and spirit back, and this starts with our health. I want to gather a storm of people that literally say, ‘Yes, I’m going to take responsibility for myself.’ By reinvigorating the population in this way, we help them to organize their lives around what matters most, and that’s what life is all about.”

With this vision, Dr. A’s bionetwork model functions to help people heal themselves from the inside out, and quite often, these people are then compelled to become health coaches, reaching out to help others find the same success. Overall, this creates a community and an underlying structure of people who make health a priority in their lives. “It’s about synergy; it’s about people reinforcing and enabling each other to lead healthy lives,” says Dr. A. In advising young entrepreneurs entering the workforce today, Dr. A stresses an usual lesson that proves an invaluable component to self governance,

Profiles in Success: Inspiration from Executive Leaders in the Washington D.C. Area — Volume 3

which is a foundational tenet of leadership in any scenario. “Don’t spend time justifying a given reality as compared to another given reality,” he instructs. “Instead, look at each situation in its true nature. When you experience a strong emotional response to something, stop to understand and challenge the feeling, and then make the choice that will best support the outcome you want. For so many people, their emotions are the centerpiece and driving force of their lives. But once you can discipline yourself and make that mental shift to control your emotions instead of allowing them to control you, you’ll be surprised at how the world unfolds for you.”

This concept translates into a similar idea that Dr. A first grasped when he was nine years old. As a young boy growing up in a military family, he was used to moving every several years, but he felt the sting of nostalgia particularly strongly when the Andersens had relocated from New York City to Spain.

“It was October 31st, and I remember feeling sorry for myself because I was missing trick-or-treating,” he recalls. As he sat in melancholy, however, an ape suddenly popped up from the vegetation beside him.

Realizing he could either resign to sadness or instead embrace the wonder of being in a place where such a thing could happen, he decided that from that day forward, he would change his focus and thinking and

go out and experience all the great things his life had to offer.

“I realized that you can either let circumstances dictate your life, or you can be the dominant force of your life,” Dr. A marvels now. “The erosive forces of life are powerful, and if you just accept them from birth to death instead of actively pursuing what you want out of life, you’re going to end up with the shorter end of the stick. You’ve got to work for what you want, no matter the adversity. As we grow up, we are so often told no, and we are so often forced into a box to the point that many people resign and accept their reality, rationalizing it by claiming that they’re doing okay.

But this is the recipe for a pacified life rather than a driven life, and I believe that the people of this country were built for something more.”

To date, Dr. A’s system for health has helped over 500,000 people, and that number is growing rapidly as Take Shape for Life impacts upwards of 100,000 clients a year. With 10,000 coaches right now, he envisions a force of one million, and considering that there are about that many physicians operating in America today, this dream literally leaves no stone unturned. As Take Shape for Life progresses toward this goal, one can only imagine the transformation our nation will undergo as its people begin to pursue lives that are happier, healthier, more productive, and more fulfilling.

Dr. Wayne Andersen

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John Benbrook The Strategy of Strategy When John Benbrook was named CEO of Matthews Media Group (MMG), a communications company focused on connecting patients with clinical trial opportunities, a lot had changed for the small business.

The founder of MMG had sold the organization to Omnicom Group, which meant it could no longer compete for government contracts as a minority-owned company. “We couldn’t re-compete for the work we had lost, and I knew that we needed to quickly get a vision about what the company could do to grow,” John remembers.

“I felt that moving forward could only be done by looking back at where we had come from, refocusing MMG on the original passion upon which it was founded.”

He will never forget that day when he assumed leadership of MMG and stood up before his team to announce where they were going. Since the loss of several contracts had meant the loss of several dozen jobs, tensions were high.

“What can we hope for right now?” one woman asked. “What does the future hold that we can believe in right now?”

“Hope is not a strategy,” John quoted. “We come to work and stretch our limits every day.

We’ll create our vision and our destiny ourselves. It’s not about promises, it’s about execution and vision. As we navigate toward that vision, we’re going to have to be pragmatic. We’ll have to recalculate and recalibrate at times, and we’re going to have to take risks, but we’re going to get there, and this is how.”

With that, he proceeded to lay out a detailed description of the strategy MMG would be engaging in to reclaim a company culture and strength it had lost, and today, that vision John so affirmatively imparted is now a reality. “MMG has become a tremendous team of amazingly gifted people that I value each and every day,” he avows. “Since recommitting to our core values, we’ve sought to create an environment of collaboration, teamwork, stability, and trust, and I think we’ve achieved that.”

What exactly are these core values? Perhaps John’s words of inspiration to his staff were lent their resonance

because MMG was founded on precisely the same concept: that hope is not a strategy. When the founder’s mother was stricken with breast cancer and none of the medications on the market could offer her relief, the founder knew they needed more than just hope. After growing increasingly frustrated with the lack of information to help her mother’s cause, she decided to leave the PR world and start a company whose sole purpose was to help individuals identify clinical trial opportunities. “The founder’s grand vision was to provide these individuals with options and with some control over their futures,” John explains.

“Her goal was to create a vehicle to connect these patients with clinical trials that could supply them with medical care they might not otherwise have access to.”

A dynamic and well-connected woman, the founder had worked for Porter Novelly for many years. When she started MMG, she leveraged those connections and began competing for contracts that were tied to health communications and clinical trials. The Cancer Institute of the National Institute of Health was their first client, and 24 years later, they still retain this client today.

As the founder was honing her PR expertise and launching MMG, John was pursuing a very different professional path that would somehow still arrive at the same end. The oldest of four brothers, he grew up in a very close-knit family in New Jersey. “My brothers and I would always wrestle and roughhouse, and we loved sports,” he remembers fondly. “I think it was that competitiveness that got me into sales later on.” His first job out of college was assistant production manager of a printing company, and he then went to work for a typewriter reseller called Information Products.

“My boss there told me he thought my personality, energy, drive, and competitive spirit would make me a natural at sales, so I tried it and loved it right off the bat,” he reports. After five years there, he spent another five years working as a sales representative for a company specializing in printer and PC connectivity. That opportunity positioned him for a job offer from Hewlett

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Packard, which he heartily accepted. “Even with 90,000 employees, HP felt like a family organization,” he reminisces. “Its open door policy and culture of team work and training made for an amazing experience.”

After eight years at HP, John sought to leave the product sale environment behind to focus more on consultancy and technology information sales. He made his entrée into pharmaceuticals when he accepted a position in business development at Integrated Systems Consulting Group based out of Pennsylvania, but when that company was purchased by First Consulting Group, he began considering his next move. That’s when a friend asked him to come meet MMG’s founder. “I thought I was doing a favor by agreeing to meet with her, but I quickly realized it had been a tremendous favor to myself,” John laughs. “Since I’ve come to MMG, I’ve found that it’s really nice to do work you believe in, and the process of bringing a molecule to market is incredible.”

Though John was hired on at MMG as VP of Business Development, he spent that first year investing his time and effort into really understanding the business, observing where his leadership and teambuilding skills might best be used to maximize its effectiveness. “Certainly, you sell yourself every day, whether it’s to your clients or to your kids,” John points out. “You sell yourself to your employees, and the day they stop believing in you is the day you have to go start looking for something else.” With characteristic tenacity and success, he was able to make this sale to MMG by embracing innovation, excellence, collaboration, integrity, and stewardship. “The hardest thing to do during my leadership here has been to transform the company from a health communications business to a patient recruitment and retention business, but I also feel that it was the most important thing I’ve done,” he describes.

Though MMG’s focus had shifted somewhat throughout its life cycle, it today remains completely dedicated to helping government pharmaceutical, medical device, or biotechnology companies create awareness in both patients and principle investigators doing research about clinical trial opportunities. “The concept of donating blood is widely accepted throughout society, yet participation in clinical trials remains taboo,” John points out. “People will tell you how they try to talk family members out of this participation because of fear, uncertainty, and lack of understanding. Therein lies a tremendous opportunity to raise awareness of the importance of clinical trials.”

Promoting community understanding and acceptance is certainly a goal of MMG, but another primary focus is the global community. After a product 18

has been tested for safe use on humans, it enters the second phase of clinical development, which tests for effectiveness. This is followed by the third phase, in which the product is tested on a patient population that can be as high as 6,000. Eighty percent of MMG’s work falls within phase two or three, and when the company is contracted to support these more advanced projects, the endeavor evolves into a global affair. “When you’ve got forty or fifty countries to support, you’re dealing with translations, messaging, culturally unique ethic committees, and other constraints that are specific to each society,” John points out.

Supporting such expansive projects could not be done effectively without a phenomenal team, and John is quick to credit his success to his employees. “MMG is not about I, it’s about we,” he emphasizes. “I would be nowhere on my own; it’s the company and the team that allows us to do what we do.” John played sports all his life, and he firmly believes that the tenets of teamwork and perseverance honed on the basketball court have had a major role in his professional development. “In high school, my basketball coach refused to let us stagnate for even one day.

The sense of being on a team penetrated my DNA, and I use this instinct at MMG every day,” he adds.

In advising young entrepreneurs entering the business world today, John reflects back on decisions made when he graduated from college and cautions against playing it too safe. “We all have opportunities to make decisions in which we have to assess our appetites for risk, and it’s up to us to strike the right balance with our choices,” he explains. When John graduated from college, he had the opportunity to pursue his athletic career in Europe, yet even though he had fallen in love with basketball the very first time he dribbled, he declined. He had a job offer at the time, and he had heard that sometimes the overseas teams would renege on their contracts without even paying the players enough to buy a ticket back to America.

“In the grand scheme of things, if that was the worst thing that could have happened, would that scenario really have been so bad?” he asks now. “I’m not a big believer in having regrets, but I do think you can learn from every opportunity. Now I take calculated risks in which I weigh the pros and cons, and I remember that experience as having really helped to shape my tolerance for risk.” For this reason, John adamantly encourages today’s youth to find their passion and pursue it. This passion may evolve over time, so listen and don’t be afraid to readjust and recalibrate as you navigate. Hope may not be a strategy in itself, but having a strategy certainly is.

Profiles in Success: Inspiration from Executive Leaders in the Washington D.C. Area — Volume 3

John Boffa Managing Complexity In 1999, John Boffa was sitting with his accountant, going through the tax returns of his Washington, D.C.-based public relations and marketing company, Boffa and Associates. At one point during this meeting, the accountant informed John very politely that he could own more than one company. “One of his clients was ready to sell her business,” John reminisces today.

“Her company, Woodward Communications, was growing faster than she wanted. In that way, her situation was the opposite of mine.”

John’s accountant told him that there was theoretically no limit to how many companies he could own; that it was a matter of delegation. Woodward was a fullservice communications firm that served government agencies, primarily the U.S. Department of Transportation (DOT), and John had been a transportation policy analyst going back to the 1980s, when he had worked under Governor Mario Cuomo in Albany. Further, his accountant advised him to the economic reality that, even during recessions, government spending continues. Clearly, if John were planning to stay in Washington, it would behoove him to take on contracts with federal agencies. “So in 2000,” he reports, “I bought Woodward Communications. Less than ten years later came the recession, and today we’re doing great.”

After purchasing Woodward, John began to grow the company by securing larger and longer-lasting contracts with the DOT and Veterans Affairs. This required growing the small office of a few employees into something that could handle the escalating demand that Woodward’s former owner had struggled with. “This involved renting more real estate, and my accountant emerged again as a key adviser,” John says.

With this guidance, John soon realized that, for the amount he was spending on renting office space, he could be paying a mortgage on property he owned. He foresaw further growth in his business and an accompanying need for more office space, and if he would be investing in commercial real estate for Woodward, why not incorporate

another entity to take this investment to a greater scale?

“With that, I went for a walk,” John explains figuratively.

“There was a section of Washington near Thomas Circle that, ten years ago, was a bit sketchy.”

To most, this was not a wise place to invest. But John had a keen eye for recognizing latent value, and he noticed certain things, such as a Whole Foods that was under construction nearby. He inferred that the neighborhood was staged for a turnaround. He found a mixeduse building with condos on the upper floors and commercial space on the first floor, and bought the commercial space for about $175 per square foot. Ten years later, the same square footage is selling for closer to $500. A second investment came in a neighboring property in 2005, and John found himself the owner of no fewer than four separate LLCs. “So it’s true that you can have more than one business,” he concedes now. “You can have as many as you want. It’s just a matter of managing complexity.”

John asserts that one need not work a hundred hours a week in order to manage the complexity of four separate companies.

What it requires instead is proper delegation, and with the same eye that could recognize the innate value of given properties, John can just as acutely recognize the same innate value in key employees and delegates.

“If you try to focus your energy on every single task that’s put in front of you when you own multiple businesses, that degree of attention will be your demise,” he avows. “The most successful business owners in the world are not working ridiculous hours. Instead, they’re using their time efficiently, and they’re delegating intelligently to people whom they trust. That is the key.”

For how well he manages multiple enterprises, one might assume that John took a straight and narrow path to business administration. However, it was his skill in writing, and more generally in communicating ideas, that gave him his start and ultimately brought him to business ownership. He obtained his bachelor’s degree in English literature at Kenyon College, a major figure in literature and the home of the Kenyon

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Review, a prestigious literary journal. Then, John followed his childhood dream to become a newspaper reporter, working for an improbable female newspaper owner named Mary Louise Sprague. “I had been struggling with the decision of whether to go straight to graduate school after Kenyon, or to first go out into the working world,” John recalls.

John had interned for Mrs. Sprague while in high school, and after taking a job with her as a reporter, she became a mentor to him. She immediately cast him into sophisticated coverage of very complex areas such as zoning hearings, city council meetings, and court reporting. This was a tremendous experience for John, but also a source of great anxiety. “I was never quite sure if I was getting things right,” he remarks. “At first, a few stories of mine were rewritten completely. I felt bad, but I think it’s what she expected. Sometimes you have to go in way over your head in order to learn something.”

After fulfilling his desire to experience the working world, John went to graduate school, getting his master’s in public communications at the Newhouse School in Syracuse, New York. Then, after working as managing editor at the monthly publication, Empire State Report, for two years, John was hired by Governor Mario Cuomo’s press secretary, where he got his experience in transportation issues. There, he served as a political appointee for five years, working on the nation’s first mandatory seat belt law, as well as various issues related to the growing elderly driving population and on several initiatives to reduce drunk driving.

“We needed the support of the media to get these things through,” John says. “And if you look at the percentage of fatalities that are alcohol related, you’ll find that the percentage today is much lower. We made a lot of progress in that area.”

By 1991, after five years of working for Cuomo, John could sense that the governor was not going to pursue the presidency. John had always wanted to end up in Washington, so he set off on a job hunt there. After a very driven two-week period in which he participated in three interviews a day, he was eventually offered a one-year contract with the Association of American Railroads. Seizing the opportunity, he moved to DC and used this contract to finance the founding of his first company, Boffa and Associates, with the American Railroads as his first client.

“At the time,” John says, “the railroad companies were fighting a fierce and vitally important battle with the trucking industry over truck size and weight limit that figured intimately into labor costs.” If the trucking companies were successful in lobbying for relaxing 20

the regulations that limited double- and triple-tractor trailers, they would be able place significantly larger cargoes of freight behind a single employee. As coordinator for the northeast states, John helped the railroads win this battle while simultaneously developing Boffa and Associates by building up a considerable client base in Washington. Nine years later, he would purchase Woodward Communications.

John had long known that he did well running things, and that he enjoyed the autonomy that came with it. While in preparatory school, he was the features editor for his school newspaper, and at Kenyon he was the general manager of the radio station, WKCO. This entrepreneurial inclination stems perhaps from his father, who owned several medical testing laboratories that he later sold to American pharmaceutical giants.

“My father didn’t explicitly discuss business matters with me,” John says. “But I paid attention, and I noticed things. Watching his leadership and success had a strong impact on me, and I came to understand how business ownership had the potential to create wealth.

My father was very industrious, and watching him honed those traits in myself as well.”

John’s mother, too, contributed to John’s business savvy, though in a very different way. “She was a psychologist, and there is a lot of psychology in business,” he points out. “Everyone understands this. Listening to my mother talk about different situations equipped me with a deeper understanding of the dynamics of people and how they think and interact.”

According to John, this ability to understand people and how to delegate to them is one of the most essential ingredients to successful business ownership in that it allows for a skilled and nuanced management of complexities at every level, whether it’s the very individual and personal dynamics at play within an employee that might influence his or her behavior, or the broader and external complexities of society that act upon those individuals.

At Woodward Communications, for example, John has a single COO working directly under him. This allows him to delegate operations, which in turn allows him to focus on marketing. Abstaining entirely from micromanagement, John finds himself outside of the office as much as in the office. He believes that far more important than having his hand in every detail of operations is his ability to hire and manage the right people. “I’m not impressed by people who boast about how many hours they work each week,” John says. “It’s not the number of hours, it’s how intelligently you use them.”

In addition to direct marketing campaigns, John also carries out a more strategic approach to business and

Profiles in Success: Inspiration from Executive Leaders in the Washington D.C. Area — Volume 3

personal development. He takes lunches at the University Club, not only for the intellectually stimulating interactions with peers, but also for the opportunity to discuss common business problems and to cultivate relationships. This staunch commitment to intellectual physique is matched by a parallel commitment to athletic fitness, which is maintained by swimming laps every day after lunch. “I think there are other parts of life that are just as important as running your business,” he points out. “You must have things you enjoy doing outside of work that are enriching, and that aren’t about making money.” In the spirit of this point, John collects antiques and pursues his interest in history while also making a point to travel and to write. “You won’t see me sweating in an office all the time,” he admits, “but I think that’s probably true of most successful business owners.”

However, one must not mistake his renaissance interests and skills as a departure from the entrepreneurial engine that has propelled his success to this point.

At 57 years of age, John feels he still has a long way to go, and he continues to develop his various enterprises with great focus. Most remarkable is the way these enterprises tie him not only to his clients, but even more so

to his employees, whose lives are indelibly transformed through the singular experience lent through his leadership style. By providing a stimulating work environment punctuated with good insights at critical life turning points, John understands that work must be more than simply a “job” in order to be truly fulfilling; rather, it must be a career in which one’s professional and personal growth are cultivated and celebrated. “I feel good knowing I have a hand in this,” he explains. “For me, it’s one of the best things about being a business owner.”

One final aspect of business ownership that continues to inspire John today is the fact that there is always more to learn, whether from personal experience or from others at the University Club who have gone down this road several decades before John. “I think as a business owner, it’s imperative to continue to be active with your business because it’s what drives you,” he affirms. In this sense, he maintains a lifelong commitment to mastering the management of complexity that has gotten him to where he is today. By pursuing this mastery and blazing a trail so that others might achieve it as well, John continues to make a difference in the way we perceive the world and our ability to succeed in it.

John Boffa

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Nick Bruno Man on a Mission If you ask the average person on the street to define digital litigation services, most would be at a loss.

That is, unless you ask Nick Bruno. Not only is he an expert on the topic, he has also carved a strong niche in an industry that did not exist 40 years ago.

As the founder and Managing Member of Barrister Digital Solutions, Bruno provides the vital service of helping law firms manage the volumes of data and documents involved in large-scale legal proceedings. “We take away the burden of our clients having to sift through all those documents,” Bruno describes. “Litigation produces tons of material and documents, especially if the business involved is in an industry that is highly regulated by the U. S. Government.”

Barrister works hand-in-hand with in-house departments within law firms.

They are involved from the discovery process where both sides need to disclose certain information to each other, all the way through to document review where the attorneys are actually looking for evidence to bolster their legal position. “We provide an electronic platform for our clients to review and mark up their documents, separate them and determine exactly which documents they need to look at. Then they choose which documents they will use in court.”

Bruno describes one of his most memorable projects, “It was at the U.S. Army Proving Grounds in Aberdeen, MD. We literally brought in copy machines to do the duplication because the documents were from the 1940’s. Many were typewritten on delicate, tissuethin onion skin paper. That was quite interesting,” reflected Bruno.

Barrister opened its doors on Sept 10, 2001, one day before 9/11. “It was a pretty sobering time to start a business,” Bruno recalls.

Despite the unfortunate timing, the company grew from those three original employees to its current 35, operating three shifts to get their client’s needs met as quickly as possible. Currently, there are two locations in the DC Metro area, one the hub for their web-hosting

platform and the other serving as the production facility where copies are scanned and documents on disk are converted to hard copies. Their facilities are high security, with a biometric entry system that is perfectly suited for handling sensitive client information.

Bruno, who grew up in Northern Virginia, shares that he did not do well in high school academically, but loved the social aspect and the sports. He played football, wrestled, and competed in gymnastics. At 15 years of age, Bruno’s first job was at People’s Drug Store. After high school, he worked three jobs in order to help support his family.

“My first ‘real’ job was at National Hospital as an entry-level inventory control clerk. That was in the mid 80’s when I first got to use computers and heard about the World Wide Web.” When Bruno was 23, a friend convinced him to come to Tampa, Florida.

He waited on tables at The Centre Club, which was a prestige private club with locations across the country.

“I was there for 6 months and it was awful,” Bruno recalls. He requested a transfer to their Washington, DC location. Once there, he worked his way up from busboy to waiter to captain and was in-line for a maitre d’ position. “I was seriously considering managing my own restaurant for Club Corporation of America.”

It was at the City Club in DC that Bruno met Shane Gastineau and John Davenport, Sr., managing partners of Capital Legal Copies. Through a series of unlikely events, Bruno was offered a position as customer service representative at the company.

Bruno’s then girlfriend, now his wife, encouraged him to take on the challenge and he sensed a real opportunity to learn something new. It was a tough decision because he enjoyed the restaurant business and held a long-term goal to own his own restaurant, but fate had a different path in store for Bruno.

“When the industry was first introduced to me, I thought it sounded crazy, ‘A business that makes copies?’ I wanted to understand the business and began to

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do some research. I found out that Nightrider was the first company to get started in document management.

Before that, most attorneys went to local copy shops for their duplication needs.” As a customer service representative, Bruno would be responsible for the pickup and delivery of documents. “It was very physical work. I loved it and I loved meeting the clients. When I started out we were making hard copies. Today, much of that process is electronic.”

Four months after starting with Capital, Bruno’s supervisor resigned in order to start his own company in Kansas City. He and Bruno had forged a great bond during those four months. “He showed me the ropes; how to do the business, how to sell the business, he showed me everything. I learned quickly”.

This unexpected turn-of-events presented an exceptional opportunity for Bruno, who was promoted to a full-fledged sales representative and took over many of his predecessor’s sales accounts.

“I was very successful in sales and was one of the top producers every month. In DC alone, I held the number one position for 12 months out of a two-year stretch”. Bruno was ecstatic to be making more money than he ever thought he would make, but over time the daily sales grind was getting to him.

“I felt like I wanted to mentor people to sell better and to sell more,” he confides. So he moved up to the position of sales manager. That was the top position at Capital, and after four years there, Bruno decided to break out on his own.

After leaving Capital Legal Copies, Bruno went on to manage a number of businesses. The first was a start-up print shop where he worked with family. He also helped secure print accounts with local firms, including City Club, where he previously worked.

Bruno next partnered with a Houston firm who brought him on board to open a location in DC. They heard about him and knew that he had a substantial book of contacts in the area. “I got that business up and running and profitable, recruited and trained all the sales people, and recruited all the operators, basically starting it from scratch.”

Around that time, Dan Foil, Bruno’s previous supervisor at Capital Legal Copies called and asked him to open a document management location in DC. Bruno accepted the offer and started again from scratch, hiring operators, training salespeople and calling on many of his old clients. Within ten months the business was profitable.

Shortly thereafter, the company was purchased

by FYI, intended to be their entrée into the litigation 24

support arena. Bruno struggled with the company’s decision to change his role to one solely played behind a desk. That didn’t work for Bruno and he parted ways with the company.

“My wife was pregnant with our second child and we had just purchased a house. It was a rough period for us but luckily we had squirreled away some money”.

Within four months, Bruno got a phone call from Lex Reprographics asking him to manage their Tyson’s Corner location, which he accepted. “I had started two other businesses from scratch, but this was my first time trying to turn-around an existing business.”

And turn it around he did, taking sales from $30,000 to over $100,000, expanding and hiring more staff. “But I knew that eventually I was going to go back downtown to start my own business. It was on my heart every single day.” He didn’t have a plan, but the Tyson’s Corner experience convinced Bruno that he could do it on his own.

Bruno’s wife has also been a key force. “In looking back at who I would not want to let down, it’s primarily my wife.” She has been a sounding board for Bruno, especially when he was first planning his business strategy. “She helped me to define and refine my plans for the business and she brought up points I hadn’t even considered.”

The willingness to listen to and act upon feedback from those around him is clearly evident in Bruno’s leadership style. “I like to give our employees opportunities to be creative, opportunities to make decisions on behalf of the company, and the opportunity to make their own way. I like to make it safe for them to come to me and say ‘Listen this is what I think we need to be doing’ or ‘How about we do it this way?’”

Bruno’s management style has paid off with a strong staff that is willing to take the initiative in developing a greater vision for the firm. “If it were based on the vision that I had for the business when we started, we’d still be making copies. There would be no scanning service or electronic discovery or web hosting. Our employee’s drove the company to what it is today.”

Like many other businesses, the economic decline in 2008 had a serious impact on Barrister’s bottom line.

“We went from $5.8 million to $3.8 million in one year.

It was devastating, but we’re back on track now at $6 million because we cut a lot of costs and became more efficient. It was humbling.”

For Bruno, sustaining the business over the last two years was the most challenging and, in the end, most rewarding. He is rightfully proud of the fact that they were able to persevere without incurring any debt

Profiles in Success: Inspiration from Executive Leaders in the Washington D.C. Area — Volume 3

or bank loans. “That’s a pretty good achievement,” he responds. Managing the business finances conservatively over the years is what enabled Barrister Digital Solutions to weather the storm. “I’m proud of that and of my staff for the difficult conversations that had to occur during that time.”

Bruno’s faith has played a fundamental role in his growth as a person and as a business owner. “I believe that God blessed me with a servant’s heart. I am a Christ follower and I believe God has a purpose for my life. His intention is for me to serve people in some capacity. For me, the biggest kick is to please a client. When a client writes a letter that says ‘you guys really came through for us’, that’s a real win. This is what it’s all about” “Everybody has their strengths and weaknesses.

I’m not an analytical thinker. I’m not a numbers cruncher. I prefer to build relationships with people. Instead of sharpening pencils and looking at the numbers to reach a mark, I’d rather go out onto the production floor and talk to my employees about what’s going on in their lives.

That’s the kind of guy I am. That’s how God made me.”

Often asked to advise others on getting ahead in their career, Bruno’s counsel is threefold. “First, have something in your mind that you really want to do and that you’re passionate about. Second, be humble. Don’t think that you are owed something. You need to sell yourself to your employer. Ask ‘what can I do for you?’ and let them know that you’ll give whatever it takes.

And third, don’t be afraid to start at the bottom. If you aren’t willing to put the time and effort into it, you’re wasting your time.”

Crediting his own success to several factors, Bruno relays, “I’m competitive. I like to compete. I like to win. And I started from the bottom and worked my way up.” He also shares that he is motivated by a desire to prove himself.

With an unwavering faith, and a heart to serve, Nick Bruno has successfully combined hard work, competitive drive and an honest desire to be in relationship with others. An influencer of people and a positive reflection of his own beliefs, Nick Bruno is a man on a mission. A mission that he has fulfilled.

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Allen O. Cage, Jr. The Trust Factor With the wind rushing past his face, it’s hard to say what exactly was running through Allen Cage’s mind.

As he plummeted those 14,000 feet from the plane to earth, it could have been any number of things.

Perhaps it was one of his proudest accomplishments, or one of his happiest moments—the day he met his wife, the children and grandchildren to which he is steadfastly committed.

Perhaps it was the things that motivate him—the ten businesses he’s associated with, and his insatiable drive to identify and fill voids in the marketplace in a way he could never hope to fill the void through which he was falling at that moment.

Regardless of the specific nature of his thoughts, one thread undoubtedly underpinned the whole experience: a sense of trust in the parachute and instructors who led him, and more importantly, a sense of trust in himself. “You have to be confident in your strengths and know your flaws,” says Allen, now the founder and CEO of AOC Solutions, Inc. “You really have to be able to look in the mirror and trust in the person you see looking back if you’re going to accomplish things in life.”

Trusting and knowing one’s self can only come after learning who you really are, and there’s no better place for such an education than the Army. Allen served 24 years on active duty, some of which he spent in field units and some of which he spent on the business end of the military effort. There were two things he wanted to accomplish in life: to fly and to own his own business.

Although he had a private pilot’s license when he entered the Army, his time in the service taught him to fly the Cobra helicopter, a two-seater, high cost, high performance gunship that has no autopilot. Allen quickly learned to fly using both his left and right hands and both of his feet, accurately monitoring instruments, firing systems, and maps while communicating as he flew nape-of-the-earth missions. Relying on his self-confidence, integrity, and leadership skills, he was constantly processing this wide array of information, making solid decisions in a complex, quick-reaction environment.

The Army also taught Allen a wide array of management skills, which were supplemented when he earned his master’s degree in contract management and acquisition. “When it comes to leadership, I’m a firm believer in doing more listening than talking. Things get done in a more positive manner by instilling trust and earning the loyalty that comes along with it,” he remarks now. “You also have to be willing to take criticism, to answer the hard questions, and to make the tough decisions. Again, it comes back to truly listening to people and trusting that those people are telling you the things you need to hear.”

It becomes particularly hard to trust yourself when the risks you take are met with vociferous expressions of doubt from others, and this was certainly the resistance Allen faced when he retired from the Army in 1996 to seek his second life goal― to launch AOC. “Everybody has heard the statistics on how often new businesses fail, and everyone was second-guessing what I’d done,” Allen recalls. “Still, I had the support and love of my wife and family, and I knew it was something I really wanted to try.”

Near this time, a high-level manager at VISA became aware of Allen’s background in program management, contracting, and acquisition. He was able to leverage these credentials to land a contract helping VISA bid on a new procurement in the federal government dealing with purchase, fleet, and travel cards. In the beginning, AOC was just Allen and one employee he had hired out of the military, followed later by the addition of his brother, a retired mining engineer. Expanding his talent base with 14 professionals bringing a wide-ranging set of skills, the team worked with VISA and its member banks on the rebidding of that contract, and new opportunities cascaded from there.

“In the beginning, no bank wants to give you a loan,” Allen recalls now. He remembers the early days of AOC when his friend, a lawyer, lent them one computer, a phone, and some space in the basement of his building. Allen would lug the computer home at night to do more work after sharing it at the office during the

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day. “You do whatever you have to do,” he says. “You borrow money, you mortgage the house, and you make it work.”

Though VISA remained AOC’s only contract for the first six years of its operation, Citibank observed their platform and eventually signed on with Allen and his team as well. “That’s when we started growing the company, picking up federal financial business throughout the late 1990s,” says Allen. At that point, AOC began building a web-based reporting system.

They shelved the system after it drew little interest in the marketplace, but once they realized they wanted to grow the federal financial offerings, they returned their focus on that platform, and things have progressed nicely since.

Another pivotal contract was won after AOC developed its relationship with Wright Express (WEX), the largest private label fuel company in the U.S. WEX announced a procurement in 2004, and AOC was one out of three companies ultimately vying for that business. “We realized there were opportunities to improve their business processes, so we did our due diligence in proposing solutions for them,” Allen recalls. Finally, the business manager said he liked AOC enough to take a chance on them, but it would cost him his job if they didn’t perform. With that, AOC won the contract, and WEX enjoyed exponential growth as a result.

AOC went on from there to win several more large contracts, and when Bank of America bought one of their main competitors taking their similar platform off the market, Allen’s product became one of only a handful in the marketplace. With that, AOC seized the opportunity to set its sights on developing the next generation of payment solutions. “We realigned our business strategy and hired some very knowledgeable developers and account managers,” Allen reports. “Our goal has always been to stay ahead of the marketplace, which keeps us on the leading edge of technology and the industry.”

Though AOC’s client base was around 75 percent federal and 25 percent commercial in 2010, they made a conscious decision five years ago to lay a foundation that would enable them to rebalance to 50/50. “The federal space is a great line of business, but each election and change of leadership creates a period of instability,” Allen remarks. “That’s why we also provide purchase, fleet, travel, and accounts payable solutions to the private sector.”

AOC has certainly been an interesting ride, but it accounts for only part of Allen’s professional story—one tenth, to be more specific. Though AOC weighs in at 127 28

full-time employees servicing five Issuers and 12,000 clients and processing close to $1.5 billion a month on its Encompass platform, Allen’s other operations are nothing to scoff at either. Three Delta Systems, which he co-founded, services the acquiring side of transactions in the banking industry. Three Delta Systems and AOC together cover both ends of the connectivity spectrum, and the two platforms process $3.5 billion a month in accounts payable transactions throughout the U.S. Another of Allen’s initiatives, a company called FEDAC Processing, is a merchant acquirer, and these three operations together accommodate all the needs of business-to-business and business-to-government transactions. These transactions sum up to well over $25 trillion a year. Allen and his team seek to service the companies in this market by reducing their overhead, increasing their processing capability, and improving their methods in terms of accounts payable and receivable solutions.

In the beginning, Allen leveraged the success of his consulting business with the federal government to fund his other ventures, and all of his companies are sustainable today. His endeavors, however, are not only about identifying and filling needs in the marketplace.

By co-founding The YouthQuest Foundation, a nonprofit dedicated to providing at-risk teenagers with scholarships that open doors to quality education, Allen also uses his strengths to identify and fill needs within the community. “YouthQuest doesn’t contribute to my bottom line, it allows us to give back to the community in critically important ways,” he explains.

These companies have achieved their success in large part because of the common philosophy of stewardship that underlies them. Indeed, AOC and its sister businesses have no investors and no hidden agendas. Their sole concern is to take care of their employees and their clients. “I’m a firm believer that you set your own path and determine your own destiny,” Allen avows. “Through strategic planning, hiring the right people, and obviously through a little luck, you define your path and determine your future going forward. You have to take care of people along the way, and you have to do what’s right.”

These lessons are deeply rooted in Allen’s childhood, throughout which he always observed his mother working three or four jobs to make ends meet. His father passed away when Allen was young, so he and his mother worked as a team to stay afloat. “She definitely laid the foundation for my work ethic, for how I deal with people, and for my sense of right and wrong,” he reflects. He always held odd jobs to help cover his expenses beginning with a paper route at age 12, and he was the first of his

Profiles in Success: Inspiration from Executive Leaders in the Washington D.C. Area — Volume 3

family to attend college. While earning his undergraduate degree, he joined the ROTC and acquired a private pilot’s license.

Even throughout his many years of education and military service, Allen never quite let go of a dream he had from childhood. “My mother saved everything I did as a kid—every report card, every paper,” he laughs now. “Even when I was in grade school, I always said I wanted to start and run my own business.” He never would have achieved the success he’s realized today if he hadn’t ultimately followed this dream and invested everything he had in its pursuit. Yet he also wouldn’t have had the experience and knowledge base necessary to secure this success if he hadn’t dedicated himself to learning and absorbing all that he could during his days in the Army. For this reason, Allen advises young entrepreneurs entering the business world today to fully

invest themselves in their chosen path, whatever it may be at the time. “You have to be focused on what you do and have a real commitment to it,” he implores. “It doesn’t matter if you’re doing white collar or blue collar work, there’s honor in every profession as long as you’re committed and focused on it.”

Allen believes that only by applying the trust factor to all aspects of your life can you truly attain the success you’re capable of, and he lives to press the limits of this reality in all that he does. “My philosophy is that everybody has the same 24-hour day, so how do you use that time?” he queries. Whether it’s snowmobiling, deep sea fishing, or scuba diving sixty feet underwater amidst 250 sharks, Allen’s ability to trust himself and those around him in calculated yet substantive ways has allowed him to truly stretch the boundaries of professional success, life experience, and personal growth.

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Stephen Canton Confidence at the Core “The one thing I can tell you is that I have no issue with going against the grain,” stays Stephen Canton, chairman and CEO of iCore Networks. “It has always been my gut reaction to think that, if everyone’s going in one direction, there must be something in the opposite direction.” Growing up the seventh of eight children, his ability to employ innovative and outside-the-box methods for achievement was born as much from necessity as it was from his own innate skills. “There’s only so many dollars in a family of that size, and by the time they trickle all the way down, there’s very little left,” he remarks. “I knew that if I wanted a better life, I had to work for it myself.”

The way out for Stephen, then, was sales, and it just so happened that his skill set was perfectly equipped for such a role.

Always outgoing and lavishly confident as a child, he sported a fierce competitive streak, always aiming to be the best at what he did and fueled by an inner self-assurance that instilled trust in others even as it inspired fellow team members. “I thrive on engaging with people,” he points out. “Passive is the last thing I am.”

The effect of personality on his life’s path doesn’t stop there. “Only an optimist starts a phone company with their own money,” says Stephen, good-naturedly.

Ever the optimist, he began vetting and developing the technology for iCore in 2001 and formally launched the enterprise in 2003.

Weighing the pros and cons of various providers, he decided to take a “Southwest Airlines” approach, choosing Cisco as their sole provider and partner. “Our costs are cut in that all our technicians are trained on the same kind of system, and all our parts are designed for the same kind of system. Through developing one solution and perfecting it, we offer a more streamlined and sound product, and this affords a significant advantage to our customers,” he explains. iCore Networks essentially displaces the need for a traditional phone service by combining voice and data on a single platform, thus eliminating virtually all telecommunication costs. As trends in AT&T and Verizon

indicate, wire line services are becoming a thing of the past as FIOS services take their place, and iCore stands poised at the cutting edge of this evolution. Whereas traditional voice networks are exceedingly expensive to support, iCore utilizes a Cisco platform that reduces the cost of operation by half. “This is the one time in life that there’s a free lunch,” Stephen laughs. “We’re focused on bringing Fortune 500 capabilities to mid to high level enterprise customers. Competing at the commercial level, we handle commercial accounts that average 50 users, although we have some accounts as small as 20 and some as large as 5,000.”

Whereas other companies providing similar services tend to offer a uniform solution to residential consumers, iCore specializes in providing tailored solutions for businesses and the unique needs they might have. By eliminating the need for a phone network, the company affords real workforce mobility, increased productivity through ease of connectivity, reduced biometric footprint, and lowered costs that can otherwise be staggering.

In reflecting back over the birth of such technology, iCore itself has played an important role.

“This kind of development happens a little bit at a time, and then all at once,” Stephen points out. “You could see the national migration tending toward what we now know as cloud computing. I see this as the Renaissance for the telecom industry—a marked stage in the evolution of communication.” Navigating this pivotal period of development in an industry that has essentially transformed the way the world operates, iCore’s success is a testament to its dexterity and innovation, with a compounded annual growth rate of about 74 percent and revenues above that.

With such striking success, one would be surprised to discover that Stephen’s career actually began in the stock room of an office products company selling the first electronic typewriter to the Federal government. “By observing who succeeded and who didn’t in selling such a useful new piece of technology, I learned that sales is not about the better mousetrap. Rather, it’s about the person you hire to present that mousetrap,” he explains.

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Starting in the stockroom delivering equipment and as a janitor, Stephen’s diligence and willingness to do any task caught the eye of the upper level management, and he was surprised with his sudden acquisition of a sales territory and, along with it, the chance to draw a better paycheck. The territory, however, was unique to the company in that it was not a component of the Federal government and in that it was a 50-mile commute. “I had no money and was paid entirely on commission, so I realized that if someone didn’t buy something from me with cash, I wasn’t going to get home that night!” Stephen remembers. “That situation really put an emphasis on productivity in a real way, and that’s how I got started in sales.”

Though he certainly made his fair share of mistakes along the way, Stephen had an uncanny and innate ability to sell his product and was considered somewhat of a wildcard. He was good around the office and well liked by the management, but after four years, he had outgrown his slot. Having decided that he was ready to take his career to the next level, he struck out in pursuit of new ventures and was called by a recruiter with a lead in the phone business with a company called TDX. “I fluffed up my resume a bit in the interview, but the CEO could tell I had no management experience and no idea about their business,” Stephen remembers. “Still, he said they were about to close their New York office, but if I could make something out of it, they’d give me a shot. So I took it.”

In his role as manager and with an empowering new sense of freedom at his disposal, Stephen challenged the traditional industry practice of hiring people with prior industry experience, opting instead to hire untrained individuals straight out of college that he could mold himself.

“I would hire those that were manageable and coachable, and they would turn out to be highly dynamic and successful contributors to the team,” Stephen reflects now. By hiring in this way and then training each employee to go out and knock on doors, even instructing them to speak with a slight Southern accent to interest potential customers, he reports that he made a killing in New York, soon earning himself a promotion to Vice President of Sales for the company.

Stephen then extended the TDX brand into 20 different cities across the country, hiring independent and strong young adults that could go out into the world believing in their product. Indeed, his process was a grueling one, with each young employee spending about a year out in the field making cold calls day in and day out. “Today, those young professionals are running their own telecommunications companies,” Stephen remarks now. “They say working for me, while hard, was the most productive they ever were. That’s what it takes if you’re going to start a 32

company and establish a brand. Your competitor may have a lot of money and advertising, but if their heart’s not in it, you’re still ahead.”

When TDX became Cable and Wireless in 1988, Stephen departed along with the rest of the upper level management to join a company in Michigan called AllNet. He served in a similar capacity in sales and marketing through 1995, when the company was sold. Stephen then accepted a position with Frontier, which boasted a top-line revenue of $2 billion. “They were too big for me to work for them,” he remembers. “I’m the wrong guy for that kind of company, but the right guy to compete against them.” With that, he formed a group with several associates and launched a new company, which he took public in August of 1996 and then sold to his biggest customer from AllNet. Though Stephen had hoped to retire from that position, the new owner asked him to stay on, which he obliged until the company was sold to Bell Canada. “Then I had to look for something else to do,” Stephen says. Thus, iCore was born as his fourth venture but his first solo undertaking, affording him a tremendous learning experience thus far.

In addition to his remarkable skill set and innate expertise, Stephen credits much of his success to his management team. “Launching and steering a company like this takes tremendous and singular focus,” he remarks.

“You have to give a lot to get a lot, and it takes a team effort. You’ve heard of the better half, but my management team represents the better nine tenths.”

Stephen recognizes outside influences acting upon his success not only with his management team, but also in a much more expansive sense as well. “We’re truly in a country of opportunity,” he remarks. “In this environment of a free market system, we have the ability to go do and create. Through the vitality instilled in our country by influences like, say, Ronald Reagan, Bill Clinton and others, we know that if we have the confidence, we can achieve. This climate of confidence, opportunity, and promise just doesn’t exist in every country, and in this sense we’re tremendously fortunate.”

In advising young entrepreneurs entering the business world today, Stephen’s advice possesses the same element of directness and vitality that has marked his journey so far. “Go to work,” he says simply. “Work hard at whatever job you get. I don’t care if you empty the trash, but be the best and most reliable person emptying the trash your employer has ever had. You’ll get noticed. And when you get noticed, you’ll get an opportunity. There’s no job that doesn’t lead to the next job when you’re doing that. The opportunity is there for you, so take it.” Establishing a core of confidence in this manner enabled iCore’s existence today and will certainly beget many new innovations tomorrow.

Profiles in Success: Inspiration from Executive Leaders in the Washington D.C. Area — Volume 3

Clark Childers Do the Right Thing Clark Childers has built a life full of success and achievement. As current Partner and past Executive Board Member of Cherry, Bekaert & Holland, a southeastern regional CPA firm, Childers reflects that success in all that he does. With an unwavering moral code and a desire to help others succeed, Childers has worked his way to the top and stayed there.

Born the eldest of three children and raised in a career military family ensured that Childers grew up with a strong work ethic.

Childers recalls his first job, working at a beach concession stand selling umbrellas, “I have always had a job since I was twelve years old. I always knew that I had a skill, that I had something that people needed.”

Growing up with a grandfather who was a sheriff and a father who was a Naval Officer was very influential in Childers’ life.

“My father believed in honor and, in his time, everything was done by handshake. Your handshake meant everything.

If you said you were going to do something, then you did it.

I remember one day we were taking a road trip, and my dad wrote a check and he was asked for his I.D. and he got so offended. He said that he had signed his name to it and that should be enough.

When we got out to the car, he was so devastated.

He said, ‘What is this country coming to that people have to check-up on you and make sure of who you are and that you’re going to honor something?’ It really makes an impact when you see your father devastated by something like that.”

Childers’ spent a lot of his childhood moving from school to school because of his father’s transfers. He recalls the impact of those transfers as minimal, “You just get used to it. If you are used to it then you think that it is normal to change schools frequently. We were on military bases, so everyone was in the same boat. It’s a very different experience.

It was great.”

After graduating from high school, Childers attended the University of California at Santa Barbara and obtained his baccalaureate degree in Economics.

Childers recalls, “When I got out of college, I couldn’t get a job because of the Vietnam War; everybody was going into the service. I knew that I would be too, but I wanted to experience something that I always wanted to do first, so a bunch of my friends and I took jobs at a mountain ski resort in California and we worked and skied all winter. I worked at night and skied during the day. It was fantastic.”

In the spring, Childers joined the Army and volunteered for officer training school in Fort Belvoir, VA. Serving for two years in Germany as a Construction Engineer, when Childers finished his tour, he moved back to Washington, DC, where his family was stationed. There he obtained a position with a government contractor in the Accounting Department.

“The guy that I was working for noticed that I had a knack for accounting and he suggested that I take classes at Benjamin Franklin University, which I did at night and graduated with a second baccalaureate degree in Commercial Science (which was their equivalent of an Accounting degree).”

While working towards that Accounting degree, Childers was promoted to Controller and then after completing his coursework and passing the exam to become a Certified Public Accountant (CPA) he was then hired as an Accountant for Pricewaterhouse.

“At Pricewaterhouse I was on the fast track to making Partner. I made Senior Accountant in two years, and then became a Manager within another two years. As soon as I made Manager, they sent me to London and I spent a year there. I was handling some very successful clients. It was great.”

Childers’ approach to leadership and his management style reflect his intrinsic desire to help others.

“Everyone’s got their own comfort zone and I try to stretch my employees to reach a little bit higher.

There’s a difference between leading and managing. It’s

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easy to manage, you just tell people what to do. Leading is about empowering others. It takes a completely different set of skills.”

After his rapid rise to Partner, Childers worked at Pricewaterhouse for 17 years before starting his own firm with two of his colleagues.

Founded in 1990, Offutt, Childers & Putman grew from a small start-up to a firm of 25 employees and 3 partners within ten years.

By 2001, Childers’ company was so successful that it soon garnered the attention of several acquisition firms.

“When our third partner passed away, it was just the two of us and we were finding ourselves having to handle more and more administrative work. We were not looking to sell, but we were growing and many of our clients had gotten quite big and we were beginning to wonder if we would be able to continue to service them as they grew bigger or if we might lose them.

That’s when Cherry, Bekaert & Holland called.”

In January of 2002, Offutt, Childers & Putman merged with Cherry, Bekaert & Holland. At the time Cherry, Bekaert & Holland did not have a local office in Washington, DC so Childers’ company was able to stay in their own offices, but the transition was not as smooth as they thought it would be.

“A lot of the employees didn’t like being with the big firm, they had worked for big firms in the past and didn’t want that atmosphere, so they went out on their own. They liked the culture that we had built and so some of them went out and re-created the feeling in their own firm.”

Though the transition had some bumps in the road, Childers continued his successful career as a Partner at Cherry, Bekaert & Holland.

“We have grown through acquisition of other CPA firms and last year we brought in five new firms.”

With a total of 850 employees and over 100 Partners, Cherry, Bekaert & Holland has certainly benefited from the union.

Childers desire to help others succeed and his determined commitment to doing the right thing is evi-

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dent throughout his professional career. Even when it cost him a substantial client, Childers still stood by his own moral code.

“A few years ago, we were working with a government contractor performing an audit when we found an unbilled receivable. When I approached the contractor about it, he said that previous auditors had overlooked it for them and when I explained that I wouldn’t he said, ‘Well, let me put it this way, I can’t put a reserve on this because if I do, I won’t be in compliance with the bank covenants, so I can’t take a reserve on this.’”

Childers continues, “I told him that we definitely had a problem because I wouldn’t issue the report without a reserve. So he asked me to send him a bill for the time that I had put in and then he found a firm that would issue him a report.”

When asked to reflect on his life and accomplishments, Childers shares, “What I have enjoyed most about my career is that I have not only started a company from scratch and worked with one of the biggest firms in the world, but after being with Cherry, Bekaert & Holland for a few years they asked me to serve on the Executive Board. I was elected and served for three years. In a firm this size, it was really eye opening. It was a great way to finish my career.”

Childers’ message to those just beginning their career is, “Whatever you do, do something that you have a passion for, because you’re going to spend more time on your job then with your family or even sleeping. And remember, there is the right thing to do and there is the thing you can get away with. Always do the right thing.”

Though Childers has focused on his career throughout his life, he is most proud of how he and his wife raised their children. He wants his legacy to reflect how much he contributed to his children’s success and the success of others.

According to the Childers’ philosophy, in life we should have a passion for the things that we do, have fun, and always do the right thing. As Childers aptly shares, “I have had a few victories and a number of defeats, but I have no regrets. I can truly say, ‘that was fun’.”

Profiles in Success: Inspiration from Executive Leaders in the Washington D.C. Area — Volume 3

Jennifer Collins Slow and Steady Wins the Race Whether it was starting her own car wash as a youth or starting her own multi-million dollar company fifteen years ago, Jennifer Collins has entrepreneurial spirit in spades. As President and Chief Executive Officer for The Event Planning Group, LLC, Jennifer has led the company to create its own niche in the event planning industry. The Event Planning Group will not only handle the myriad logistics involved in small and large meetings and conferences, but they will focus on the intricate needs of each client.

Jennifer explains, “It’s more than just helping them with logistics. It’s really helping them to use their meeting or conference as a vehicle to speak to and reach their target audience. We find a way for these conferences and meetings to really help drive our client’s particular message.”

Jennifer started the company in 1997, working it part-time while still working full-time at public relations firms.

Primarily planning social events, Jennifer quickly realized that she preferred arranging business meetings and events.

“I started out planning weddings and anniversaries, and I just decided that they really were not where I wanted to spend my time. So this helped me to get out and do the business on a part-time basis so that, when I went full-time, I knew I wanted to shift and do more business-oriented meetings and conferences.”

Jennifer grew up in Boston, Massachusetts, the youngest of three girls, with a family that taught her the value of saving and planning for the things she wanted to have.

“That was a different time, in the sense that, we saved for things then. Whether it was a Barbie doll or some other toy or something else, I was taught I had to save for it. I think it’s funny now when you see commercials that say, ‘layaway is back’. I always think, ‘I grew up on layaway’. We paid as we went and then we didn’t have any outstanding debt.”

Jennifer also learned the importance of free enterprise and finding ways to bring in money on her own, which was the impetus for starting her own car wash business.

“I had to start the car wash; I just had it in me. I wanted to make a little money and I figured we were always washing cars in the summer so why not try to get some money that I could have in my pocket. I figured this could really help my allowance; that was really the concept at the time.”

Jennifer’s dedication to her clients and targeted approach was reflected even at such a young age. Offering several specialty services, such as vacuuming and tire cleaning, at an additional cost, it is easy to see the Jennifer was on a path to success from the beginning.

As she got older, Jennifer became very active in student government and leadership, serving as the class president for all four years of high school.

“I was very active during that time and didn’t really have a lot of time to do other things. I was a leader from the very beginning and student government really positioned me for that. It helped me become familiar and comfortable with being in positions of leadership as well as with public speaking. Even in high school we had to run campaigns, put up signs, and deliver speeches. We had ballots and voting. We had to do all of it.”

Jennifer’s many years as class president, being an integral part of the governing body of the school, instilled a deep-seated passion for politics and communications. When she graduated, Jennifer attended The American University in Washington, DC, with the intent to major in Political Science, but things changed once she began taking classes.

“I thought I wanted to become an attorney and when I went to American University my major was going to be political science. But they also have a major at American called CLEG, which is communications, law, economics, and government, and I decided to shift to that because I like economics and I liked law. But as I spent more time in Washington, that’s what helped to steer me away from wanting to become an attorney because I developed a bad taste for the governing process and what was happening on the Hill. So I decided that really wasn’t for me.”

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Though the legal processes of government weren’t Jennifer’s cup of tea, she focused on the communications aspect of influencing policy and government, in which she had always excelled.

“I still wanted to shape, form, or impact the public in some way, so I moved into communications because I figured that there was still influence on public communication and programming, and public relations; being able to have a message and shape the message so that people can receive it.”

During college, Jennifer interned at a public relations firm working on fire safety issues and after graduation, due to her reputation for being able to handle the heavy workload and do extremely well with it, she was hired full-time. After a year, Jennifer took what she learned at this firm and transitioned to another firm focused on infant mortality and then to a non-profit focused on preventing childhood injuries.

“I wanted to work with the media, because working with the media meant you had influence and would be able to shape your message and have them tell your story. Many of the programs I worked on were focused on public education and they were good topics that I felt would really make a difference. I felt like I was still working on the issues.”

It was during this time that Jennifer began thinking about starting her own business but she wanted to broaden her skill-base before stepping out on her own.

“I had the thought that I wanted to do my own business, I just didn’t know what it was going to be. And so I specifically went to my last full-time position to get some project management and budgeting skills. After a few years, I launched on my own.”

When deciding which direction to focus her business, Jennifer recalled her time planning her family’s reunions while in college. This is where the seeds were planted for The Event Planning Group.

“I planned my family reunions when I was in college and that’s what really helped me to work with logistics and understand what it meant to create an event.

We hosted a reunion in Philadelphia, two in Washington, and one in Boston as well.”

Unfortunately, disaster struck. Within two months after stepping out to work her business full-time, the 9/11 attacks occurred and the one client that Jennifer had, dropped out.

“I was trying to decide what to do because I didn’t have any more business and I had left my job and wasn’t going to return. I had family in Atlanta and I figured that if I was going to start over, that I should do it somewhere different. So, I figured I would go there and get another public relations job.”

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But upon arriving in “the wildness”, as Jennifer refers to her time in Atlanta, she realized that her journey was about much more than just her business.

“What was happening to me in Atlanta was about God building in me a stronger faith foundation. It was a foundation of me being shaped to become a Born-Again Christian and to really look to my faith to give me guidance and direction. Being in Atlanta separated me from the noise, people, and family and it was just me alone with God. And so that helped me to build up my faith and to trust that it was okay for me to do the business.

That’s when I returned to Washington DC because when I surrendered and said, ‘Okay, whatever it is God, that you want me to do with my life I will do it.” After that things just started to open up for me and opportunities started to come. But all the opportunities were back in this area.

So, it was a period of six months that I was in Atlanta and I came back very focused, and that’s when opportunities and doors started to open and business started to come.

That was really a defining moment in my life.”

Today, The Event Planning Group remains purposefully small, with just under ten full-time employees and bringing in annual revenue just under $5 million.

Focused on growth for the next few years, Jennifer is taking a cautious, methodical approach.

“We are under ten employees, so we’re small still, but it’s by design. I’m now in a mindset to grow, but it was so hard coming back from the loss of 9/11 that I’ve been very cautious about how to grow and not spend more than we have and to still be able to manage.”

Jennifer has had several mentors along the way, guiding her through, from her parents and friends to colleagues and other business executives, but she attributes the most influence to her family.

“My parents and one of my sisters have really impacted my life and my dad was very much on board when I was leaving my job. He was just like, ‘Go for it!’ but my mother was like, ‘Are you sure you want to do that?’ She was the one that was nervous for me. And then what happened over time is my mother totally shifted, and she really got on board as things started to progress and take shape. My parents have always been in my court and my sister as well. She would always be there to listen and provide some insight. She has worked for big companies the whole time and so she has that big corporate perspective and I pick her brain about processes and procedures. It has been so very helpful in the sense of giving me an idea of how they do things in bigger companies, which is funny because sometimes it’s really not that much different than how we do it in small companies, they just have more people.”

Profiles in Success: Inspiration from Executive Leaders in the Washington D.C. Area — Volume 3

Jennifer has not only been mentored but she has begun mentoring others as well. Sharing her business and life lessons through guest lecturing at American University and speaking to women business owners, Jennifer is ensuring that her message is passed on for others to share as well.

In addition to speaking at American University, Jennifer also donates to the school, recently committing to a five year gift for their School of Communications where the new Office of Public Communications will bear her name.

“I think about when I’m gone and what people are going to say. I would like people to say that whatever I was given, I did my best at it and took care of it. That I did the best that I could.”

Despite moving away from politics in her business, Jennifer still has a desire to influence policy which has spawned her newly voiced aspiration to run for local office.

“A long time ago I started paying attention to the political races or what the candidates were saying and doing. That’s why it’s interesting to me now when you hear people complaining about Congress. I say to myself, ‘Well, the candidates that were voted in were voted

in by the people. So we really shouldn’t be surprised about what’s happening because they’re just doing what they said they were going to do.’ I think people need to pay more attention to their votes and that’s what I tend to do and try to look at who I’m voting for. I try to see if I could make a difference. Now, I’m thinking about certain baby steps that I can do to make a difference.

I’m going to start going to city council meetings so that I can see how they’re run and who’s on them; to see if it’s something that I might be able to help with in some way.

Starting there and maybe moving up to a mayoral race.

It’s something that I might consider. It comes across my mind every now and then.”

With satisfied customers and having built great relationships, it is no surprise that Jennifer Collins and The Event Planning Group have reached their current level of success, with a positive forecast for expansion and growth.

Planting her entrepreneurial seeds so early in life, watering them with a contentious and methodical plan, and allowing the light from God to shine down upon them have yielded a path to success that we all can aspire to.

There can be no doubt that Jennifer Collins is on a leadership track that will ensure that she will come across the minds of thousands of constituents—her own.

Jennifer Collins

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Jim Corcoran Business Development 101 Any good story has a unifying theme that ties its various components together. Similarly, any good anthology has a unifying theme that lends cohesion and purpose to the stories within it. Read collectively, such a collection imparts a message that is more compelling and comprehensive than any single story on its own. No one understands this concept better than Jim Corcoran, President and CEO of the Fairfax County Chamber of Commerce. If the Chamber itself is an anthology of businesses throughout the Northern Virginia area, Jim and his work are the unifying theme that ties them all together.

Known as “the voice of business” in Northern Virginia, the Chamber was first established in 1925 to provide an innovative and influential platform for businesses to converse with one another and with the government. Today, it has a membership of approximately 600 businesses that represent between 350 and 400 thousand employees.

16 percent of those businesses have over 50 employees, and seven of the eight Fortune 500 companies headquartered in the region belong to the Chamber. “Together, our members form a strong collective voice that deserves to be heard, and it’s our job to make sure that happens,” Jim affirms. Theirs is the only Northern Virginia chamber with a full-time government relations position, and by engaging appointed or elected officials on pertinent issues ahead of the curve, the Chamber is often able to achieve resolutions on matters of concern to their membership before such matters even reach newspapers.

Prior to his work with the Chamber, Jim spent 14 years in the national trade association business with the National Confectioners Association and Chocolate Manufacturing Association (NCA-CMA). When he was presented with the opportunity at the Chamber, he immediately recognized the potential. “Throughout my career, I’ve always been about business development—sales, marketing, attracting new members, and developing new products,” he explains. “With this background, I could immediately recognize that the Chamber needed to create real and perceived value for

their members in order to seize the tremendous opportunity for growth that lay before them, and I knew how to make that happen.”

There was no question that the Chamber boasted great advocacy benefits, membership benefits, programming, and access, especially in light of its rich heritage in the government contracting industry and its associated sectors. What Jim promised to bring to the table was the capability to communicate these benefits. “It’s my job to get the word out that the Chamber is about so much more than just networking,” he points out.

“In addition to advocacy, we create programming that is truly beneficial to participants.” Additionally, the Chamber hosts a variety of special interest groups, which include government contracting, women’s business, international, health care, corporate social responsibility, workforce development, and real estate development.

From the one-man show to the headquarters of a multimillion, multinational corporation, the Chamber’s membership base truly spans the gamut, yet the organization has something for everyone.

Though Jim’s textured professional background certainly honed the business and leadership skills he uses to advance the Chamber today, the foundational elements of his savoir-fare began when his family moved from the bustling city streets of Philadelphia out to a quiet suburb.

His father decided to challenge him by taking him to a golf course to caddy. “That fateful day launched a love affair with the sport that really opened up a new world for me,” he recalls fondly. “I was able to observe and learn from a wide range of white collar professionals who were successful, independent entrepreneurs, and I absorbed many of their traits and relational styles. It was Business Development 101, and I had a front-row seat.”

That experience, combined with foresight few 18-year-olds entering college have, brought Jim to St. Joseph’s College and a food marketing program that had a 99 percent employment rate upon graduation. As the statistics promised, he was quickly snatched up by Del Monte, a Consumer Products company in New York.

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Following five years and five promotions at DelMonte, Jim joined Borden, a dairy and grocery producer. Later, he assumed the management of a grocery division of Richardson Brands, a candy manufacturer in Philadelphia, and eventually became a minority owner. It was a much smaller enterprise than he was used to, but this was actually one of the primary draws for him. “For every $100 thousand in sales in a company of that size, you’re throwing 10 to 15 thousand toward the bottom line, and that’s powerful,” he explains.

He participated in growing Richardson from $12-million to $30 million before an acquisition in 1992. Jim agreed to stay on for two more years and was then approached by NCA-CMA. At that time, the National Confectioners Association was a $4 million operation with several hundred members. The board had just made the strategic decision to start a trade show for the candy industry, and they were looking for the right person to spearhead the project. With ample experience in the sales and marketing of big companies, as well as the ownership of a small company, Jim knew how to develop a relationship with the customer side of the industry. From 1995 until 2009, he was instrumental in growing the association from $4 to $14 million—an incredible feat in the nonprofit arena.

“Through it all, the key was communication and building the trust with our customers that we would be good on our word,” he explains. “It’s a lesson I learned on the golf course, that building a bond of trust with the person I was caddying for was an important part of the experience. Trust isn’t just given to you, but instead has to be earned, and this trust factor is very important to me. I might not be able to do everything for everybody, but I make sure that I can always be taken at my word.”

Since Jim started at the Chamber on April 1, 2010, new membership has increased by 30 percent. “It’s all about access.“ Jim explains. “Access to information, to influence, and to each other.”

His proficiency in capturing, enhancing, and communicating the Chamber’s value certainly draws on the experiences of his past, but it relies just as much on his

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forward-thinking attitude. “I really don’t look back,” he poses. “When people are saying that we should have done a given thing, I say we should be doing that thing.

You must learn from mistakes, not lament them. And it’s especially important in a leadership role that you’re always looking to that next step.”

With his eye on this next step, Jim envisions a Chamber that will double in size over the next five years in terms of new members, programs, services, products, and revenue.

Constantly seeking new ideas, he aims to actively engage his employees along the road to success, cognizant that no victory is ever won in isolation. “The Chamber is about collaborative creativity,” he says. “We have employees that are as driven and as passionate as I am, and they play a crucial role in achieving our goals.

In promoting that role, it’s important to find out what your employees are passionate about and then help them to identify how that passion fits into the overall corporate objectives and goals.”

Just as each employee contributes to the whole of the Chamber’s administration through their own unique passion, each business contributes to the Chamber’s membership through its own success and innovation. These businesses and their employees span size and sector, yet one thing unites them—a common interest in creating value and translating it into success.

And although each business across Northern Virginia has a unique story to tell, Jim believes that the individual stories form a powerful story of the whole. It is this message, he believes, that is critically important to communicate to stakeholders.

These innovators and entrepreneurs are a group that Jim today focuses on harnessing to propel the Chamber forward and help it to achieve its goals for success and growth. “Though I might not have known it at the time, the mentorship that I experienced on the golf course as a child helped me to build my career,” Jim says. “It’s this same mentoring that we can use to support young professionals and entrepreneurs as they become the powerful business community of the future.”

Profiles in Success: Inspiration from Executive Leaders in the Washington D.C. Area — Volume 3

Matthew Desch Leading A Mission of Global Proportions It was Wednesday. The day that third-grader, Matt Desch, was scheduled to make his weekly deliveries of the local advertising paper, called the “Shopping News”. But he didn’t feel well. “It was funny how every Wednesday I would get taken over by some illness,” he laughs. “My mother called it ‘the shopping news blues’ and, of course, she would send me right out the door, because she knew I wasn’t really sick.” Amazingly, Desch always “recovered” while delivering the last inserts when nearing his home.

Desch’s mother passed away last year, but while giving her eulogy, his brother reminisced about their childhood and how hardworking they all were.

“I didn’t think that was so unusual because everybody in the family worked.

It was more about getting out there and completing the job.” His mother’s insight was fueled by a desire to instill a strong work ethic, which would be essential to his success in life.

Desch, the second of six children, grew up in Dayton, Ohio. “We didn’t have a lot of money, but we didn’t know that at the time.” His father was an assistant manager of a forklift truck distributor. “My father had no college education, though he was quite smart and demonstrated great values to his kids.”

Tenacity and the willingness to work hard are two of the values that have proven to be the cornerstone of Desch’s stellar career. As Chief Executive Officer of Iridium Communications, headquartered in McLean, Virginia, he has come a long way from the little kid who had not yet heard the siren call of ambition.

While that first paper route taught him diligence, the boyhood job that most developed his confidence and leadership skills was caddying at the local golf club.

“There were 60 or 70 kids who had all been trained to caddy,” Desch recalls. “Everybody would get together each morning between 7 and 8 a.m. I was interacting with lots of kids from different schools, different socioeconomic backgrounds, and different parts of Dayton.”

He also enjoyed spending time with the golfers, many of who were lawyers, doctors, architects, and real es-

tate brokers. He became so popular that club members began to request him. “Learning how to interact with adults was powerful mentoring for me,” he confirms.

There was another valuable perk of Matt’s golf club job. It made him eligible for The Evans Scholars Foundation, which gives college scholarships to caddies from modest means. He was awarded a full scholarship, majoring in computer science at Ohio State University.

After graduation, Desch was hired as a programmer by Western Electric, (part of AT&T). He quickly became a manager and found a way to get transferred to Chicago to fulfill his goal of earning an MBA from a top five school.

He succeeded, receiving his master’s degree from The University of Chicago. By that time, AT&T had deregulated and their growth slowed considerably. “I really wanted to get into something faster moving where I could make a bigger impact,” he recalls. So he relocated to Raleigh, North Carolina and became a product manager for Northern Telecom (Nortel), a small Canadian company which was expanding into the United States.

Over the next few years, Desch realized that wireless was the next big thing. He opted to move to Nortel’s Network Division in Richardson, TX. Starting out as a first level manager, he ascended to President of the Division, which he grew to $4.5 billion in sales and the # 2 position in the market.

While in London, running Nortel’s international operations, Desch was told that he and another executive were being considered for CEO. Six months later, the other person was chosen. “That was fine with me, but unfortunately the newly chosen executive asked me to leave as a way to remove the competition. It was at the peak of the telecom bubble and I suddenly found myself on the street.” But with a solid reputation, and because he’d been a part of the development of the global wireless industry, he rebounded quickly, being called to transform another telecom icon Telcordia Technologies and consulting with a number of venture capital firms helping start-ups.

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By the time Iridium came calling, Matt had amassed 25 years of varied experience in telecommunications. “I was immediately attracted and excited to be involved in a company with this kind of potential,” he discloses. Six years later, he continues to successfully lead the only provider of global voice and data communications with complete coverage of the entire Earth via a network of 66 low orbit satellites positioned 500 miles above the planet’s surface. “There’s no network like us in the world and never will be,” he claims. “We can do things no one else can.”

Iridium’s inspiration for this massive system is the stuff of lore. While on vacation in the Caribbean in the late 1980’s, a Motorola executive’s wife complained that she couldn’t get a connection on her cell phone. She wished that there was a phone that worked everywhere in the world. Thus, the idea was seeded.

Eight years later, the satellites were successfully launched. Unfortunately, the business couldn’t service the massive debt it had amassed to construct the system and Iridium filed bankruptcy several months afterward.

Private investors bought the company in 2000 and immediately restructured it. They decided to direct all their efforts away from competing with cell phones and toward providing services to enterprises and governments for use in areas that don’t have cell phone coverage. These areas still constitute over 90% of the globe.

Under Desch’s guidance, the company has grown, going public in 2009. “We have doubled the revenues and roughly quadrupled the earnings in the 5 years I’ve been here,” he shares. Other growth includes nearly doubling their partner base, expanding operations to other countries, and dramatically increasing the product line. “Like many satellite companies, we’re not quite at the mature stage, but we’ve already achieving 50% operating margins, and expect 60 – 70% margins in the coming years,” he reveals. Iridium’s biggest project is updating the current satellite network, which must be replaced every 15-20 years.

Desch knew he could get financing to replace the network, but it would take a lot of convincing especially because the company was in bankruptcy only 10 years prior. “We are now fully financed and committed with a team of partners who will put our Iridium NEXT satellites together in the next four years, launch them between 2015 and 2017, and replace our complete network,” he reports. “I wasn’t expecting a global recession, but it makes it even more satisfying that we were able to take the company public and get financed in the middle of all that.”

Notwithstanding his exceptional professional achievements, Matt is most proud of his reputation, his 42

relationships with people, and his overall accomplishments as a person. “No matter what I do in business, I consider those my most important assets. If I ever left this business to do something else, that’s the only thing I’ll take with me, and when I retire that’s the only thing that I’ll have to manage through the end of my life.”

Matt feels honored to be associated with Iridium’s turn-around. “I’m very proud of taking the company from being a good company, but one limited to a 15year run, to one that now has long-term success ahead and is financially secure.”

Beyond Iridium, Matt wants to create change in other causes that he supports. Ever since his first airplane ride at age 9, he’s been passionate about general aviation. “I’m trying to find ways to preserve general aviation in the US and help it start growing again,” says the long-time aviator who flies a large single engine Cessna. Instead of just talking about it, he took advantage of the move to the DC area to volunteer support to the Aircraft Owners and Pilots Association (AOPA), the 400,000 member organization tasked with protecting general aviation. Within a few years of volunteering his time, they asked him to join their Board of Trustees to take advantage of his knowledge and leadership.

‘Passion in action’ might describe the leadership development program that Matt created at his alma mater called The Buckeye Leadership Fellows. “We just had our first class of 20 exceptional students who are going to get experiential learning in leadership during their junior and senior years,” he beams. His vision is to bridge the gap between college and their future work life to help prepare students better for the challenges that await them after graduation.

He also challenges aspiring leaders to think bigger, have bigger dreams, set their goals higher, and then act as if they were achieving those goals. “Look around and start acting like the leaders in your organization,” he counsels. Don’t focus on promotion, just start acting in the more senior role and when people see you doing that, taking those responsibilities, achieving results— they almost have to give you the title for what you’re already doing. It’s not about waiting or doing time.”

From the springboard of a deeply rooted work ethic, Matt Desch models a blueprint for doing whatever you set your mind to, through hard work, taking the initiative, and reaching for the stars. Using his broad expertise and a pragmatic approach, he has piloted an almost failed business from the brink of insolvency to the very pinnacle of success as an industry and world leader with financial stability and growth forecasted through 2030, and beyond.

Profiles in Success: Inspiration from Executive Leaders in the Washington D.C. Area — Volume 3

Ernest Forman Ideal Practices There is often a gap between theory and reality.

Thanks to Ernest Forman, however, that gap is one society can hope to bridge.

A professor of decision sciences at The George Washington University, Ernest was teaching a range of business school classes like statistical decision making and operations management when he came to a disturbing realization. “It began to dawn on me that there was a considerable distance between what we were teaching and what was actually practical,” he recalls today. “What’s more, I noticed that what we were calling ‘best practices’ weren’t even that good, and often lacked a theoretical foundation. In that gap between common, everyday practices and best practices, I began to develop what I now call ‘ideal practices.’”

Ernest’s goal was elegant in its simplicity: to base the student experience on concepts that were theoretically sound and whose pragmatic validity did not dissolve when translated to real-world scenarios.

The PC had just come out, and Ernest became acquainted with the work of Thomas Saaty, a professor at Wharton School of Business who had developed the theory of analytic hierarchy process (AHP). Through this methodology, a problem is decomposed into its various sub-problems and then analyzed in a mathematical and neutral manner, thus evolving the decision making process from a subjective art to a more objective science and enabling users to discern the best decision in the context of their own unique goals, preferences, and values.

Seeing how the philosophy could be marketed across a broad range of industries, and after reconnecting with a colleague who had studied under Saaty, Ernest met Saaty himself. The ideas of the two visionaries seemed perfectly aligned, and they set about developing software that could automate this objective and rational way of conceptualizing of the world. Thus, in 1983, Expert Choice, Inc., a software and consulting company committed to turning best practices into ideal practices, was born.

Ernest had started a software company before, but Expert Choice was a shift away from that path.

Another notable aspect of the Expert Choice journey was that Ernest was able to overcome a criticism that AHP was flawed because it allowed for something called “rank reversal.” “People were dismissing it, but I knew there was a way to overcome this aspect of AHP and to develop some very useful peripheral activities for the system based upon its fundamental theories,” he explains. After working together many years, Saaty spun off and launched a family business with his two sons, but the Expert Choice programs and their offshoots remain the most widely used decision methodologies in the world today.

“When people approach decisions, they often debate the alternatives. It turns out, however, that it’s much more effective to debate the objectives,” Ernest points out.

“What are you trying to achieve? Our process works by first identifying your objectives from a strategic perspective in a top down fashion, including the mission, vision, goals, and objectives of your organization. Then you look at your alternatives to determine which ones contribute to the various objectives, and how these connections interplay to lead you to the best decision. In short, our applications are used to structure complexity, to measure tradeoffs, and to synthesize to arrive at a solution.”

Through this approach, Expert Choice is able to help people across a myriad of scenarios, whether someone’s trying to decide which company to acquire, where to invest, or how to be an effective leader. “We can apply this technology to any decision, whether it’s how to negotiate with a competing party, or which cancer treatment would be optimal for a given patient,” says Ernest. “By accepting data and judgments from the many different players involved in a decision, the software can help identify the best decision.”

The software also becomes invaluable in issues of resource allocation in which decision makers must choose a combination of alternatives, rather than just

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one. The federal government, for example, has been tasked with cutting back the budget, and Expert Choice could be used to make important decisions in the allocation of funds and resources. “One of the most important things about the process, aside from synthesizing qualitative and quantitative information, is the potential for communication,” Ernest points out. “One person can never have all the answers, so people have to communicate with each other. Debating values and recognizing that different people have different objectives is important. It doesn’t necessarily solve the problem and force everyone to agree, but it at least illuminates the possibilities and increases the chance of arriving at a win-win situation.”

Expert Choice currently has fifteen employees and is defined by its phenomenal development team as much as it is defined by its unparalleled product. When he’s not working in this capacity, Ernest’s main focus and love is teaching decision making and resource allocation principles at The George Washington University’s graduate school of business to MBA students, as well as to a combination of on-campus and distance students, in its wellknown MS in Project Management program. Across these two interconnected spheres of his professional life, he recognizes decision software and methodology as the way of the future and strives to prepare clients and students alike for what’s to come. “Generally speaking, there exists a big time lapse between when things are first developed and when they’re widely accepted,” he explains.

“It was that way with email, and I believe we’re witnessing a similar trend with this technology. There is certainly a pressing need for it. Today, the big decisions faced by organizations are decided by a bunch of guys and gals sitting around talking or what we jokingly refer to a BOGGSAT. There is a better way, and that is AHP.” The son of a taxi driver, Ernest was raised in New York City and attended high school in Queens. It was here that he met the love of his life, the former Mary Ann Selly, with whom he later collaborated to create two companies, Decision Support Software and Expert Choice, and with whom he co-authored a book called Decision by Objectives. His high school offered a strong academic curriculum, and he also enjoyed running track and cross-country. The track team won the Queens County Championship all four years of his high school career, and his coach also happened to teach honor’s English, coaching his students in college admittance just as he led them to success in running. “I had never given much thought to college before that, so his influence really opened doors,” Ernest reflects today.

Ernest was awarded a Navy scholarship and a New York 44

State scholarship, opting to use both to attend the University of Rochester. “My coach cautioned me against committing to four years of active duty, but my parents couldn’t afford to help, so I accepted it anyway. It was something I had never planned for, but it all worked out great—almost serendipitously,” he marvels. “I loved all five years I spent in the Navy, undergoing midshipman training and flying propeller and jet planes.”

Following this defining experience, Ernest spent another five years teaching in Admiral Rickover’s nuclear power program during the Vietnam War. He also earned his master’s from Johns Hopkins University in management science, in which he studied the mathematically-based techniques for better management that form the essence of decision making. After serving his country, he took a job with a think tank in McLean, Virginia called The MITRE Corporation, which was a great experience, albeit somewhat limiting. “We were only advising, not doing,” he explains.

Then, in 1972, when a hands on project turned up, he jumped at the opportunity and worked on the development of the first distributed database system on the Advanced Research Projects Agency’s “store and forward,” packet-switched network called ARPANET— the precursor to the Internet. Meanwhile, he earned his doctorate degree at George Washington, at which time the engineering school offered him a yearlong adjunct faculty position. After taking a sizeable pay cut to accept the position, he then had the opportunity to transition over into the business school. “That shift provided a nice contrast in that, with engineering, you often learn an array of disciplines and how they operate.

Business, on the other hand, is a much softer science,” Ernest points out. “One of the biggest differences is the way things are measured in technical sciences versus social sciences, and that has figured prominently into how our software works. We’re able to derive priorities to reflect what people really mean, so their decisions are much more faithful to their wants.”

In advising young entrepreneurs entering the business world today, Ernest details three different kinds of people that one can expect to encounter in life. “There are those that make things happen, those to whom things happen, and those who wake up one day and say, ‘what happened?’” he explains. “No matter how smart you are, unless you’re one of those that make things happen, you’re not doing it right. You have to make a difference. You don’t have to be the brightest or the wealthiest, but you have to find something worthwhile to do. If you find something worthwhile that you enjoy, you’ll be successful.”

Profiles in Success: Inspiration from Executive Leaders in the Washington D.C. Area — Volume 3

Beyond this, Ernest stresses the importance of what might best be characterized as a lifelong pursuit of knowledge, a healthy dose of skepticism, or perhaps even the “ideal practice” for going through one’s days.

“So many things in life are not intuitive, but instead run contrary to common knowledge,” he explains. “Conventional wisdom is often wrong.” Looking at the world with this understanding allows one to travel off the beaten path, pursuing innovation and garnering success as Ernest himself has done with Expert Choice.

Ernest lived in accordance with this philosophy even before the Expert Choice journey began, his first invention being a double entry bookkeeping system that could be utilized by people who didn’t even know accounting. That technology was purchased by Dow Jones, confirming a flare for the entrepreneurial in Ernest that he had never intentionally developed. Rather, the expression of this trait has always been organic in nature and solutions-oriented in intent. One sum-

mer, for instance, his house and car air conditioners both broke at the same time, and being low on cash, he read up on how to fix them himself. Interested by the process, he enrolled in a high school air conditioning course and then started a modest air conditioning business. “I would take my kids out on runs with me, and they’d watch me traipse into attics to change expansion valves,” he remembers fondly. “Now, both of them are very handy themselves.

“That’s why I love teaching so much,” he continues. “When you pursue a theme of constant learning throughout your life, you’ll come across knowledge that benefits both yourself and society. You can then use that expertise to serve a need, and people will appreciate what you’re doing.” It is at this juncture, where genuine interest meets utilitarian value to create a passion that betters both self and society, that Ernest has achieved his greatest success, and where future successes inevitably await.

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Scott Gessay A Difference in the World In September of 1984, Scott Gessay went to work for a company called CTEC, where he and his team developed Cold War Era software systems to track submarines all over the world. For two years, Scott loved working for what he called an “energetic, mission-focused company.”

“We focused on what we did for the customer,” he says, “and not just on the bottom line. And because we loved it so much, we worked all kinds of hours. At the end of the day, we were making a difference in the world.”

But as often happens with small, successful companies that provide a niche service or product exceptionally well, CTEC was acquired by a larger company in the mid 1980s. For some time it maintained the culture embodied by Scott and his colleagues, but by the end of the decade, the management gradually changed, and that culture began to change as well. “The tipping point for me,” Scott says, “in terms of thinking about doing something different, came during a project we were working on.”

He and his colleague, Mike Morehouse, worked almost 48 hours straight, over a weekend, to finalize a capability to be delivered to the Air Force in Hawaii. That weekend they were holed up in a small lab that was adjacent to the executive suite, and using the coffee station there to keep up the breakneck pace necessary to finish the project on time. They finished working late on Sunday, shut everything down, and went home for a few hours of sleep before coming back in at 9 A.M. on Monday morning.

“Upon coming back to the office, we realized that one of us forgot to turn the coffee machine off,” Scott recalls today. “It had exploded all over the kitchen.”

Scott and Mike received a memo stating they were no longer permitted to use the coffee station—but the memo said nothing about their considerable effort to complete the deliverable and to support the customer’s mission in Hawaii. “To me, it was a signal that things had changed,” Scott says. “It was no longer a missionfocused company.”

Not long after that, Scott and a CTEC task manager, Mike Fortier, traveled to Hawaii to support a software delivery. While there, they had the opportunity to discuss their perspectives on CTEC and its direction since being acquired. “This led us down the path,” Scott says, “to say, I think we can do better at creating a company that is better focused on the customer’s mission … one that is better at providing opportunities and growth for the employees, and that will enable them to feel like they’re making a difference.”

With that, in 1987, at just 27 years old, Scott Gessay and his colleagues at CTEC, Mike Fortier and Mike Morehouse, started FGM, named for the initials of its founders. And while Scott had never run a company before, his life up to that point had certainly showed signs that he would one day take that entrepreneurial leap.

Scott was born in Rockville, Connecticut, where he lived for nine years before moving with his parents and younger sister to Rockville, Maryland. Scott’s father, an educator, started as a shop teacher in the early sixties. He moved his family in order to pursue advanced degrees in education, eventually becoming a senior administrator in the Montgomery County public school system. Neither he nor Scott’s mother came from affluent backgrounds, and they instilled in Scott a strong work ethic.

“One thing my mother and father taught me,” Scott says, “was that if I wanted something, it was up to me to go out and earn it.” He would partner up with a friend in his neighborhood to mow lawns, deliver newspapers, and sit pets. “My work ethic is a tribute to my parents,” he avows today. By the time he was preparing to apply to college, his parents said they would pay tuition for his undergraduate degree, but that Scott would have to pay for everything else on his own. Most of his classmates set their eyes on the University of Maryland, but Scott felt as though his path lay elsewhere. “I didn’t necessarily want to follow the pack,” he says.

Enrolling at James Madison in the fall of 1977, he worked two jobs throughout his college career, the

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first in campus security. “I walked a beat at night,” Scott says. He looked out for any kind of incidences, checked buildings to make sure they were locked, and responded to any calls that came in. But more demanding and far more interesting was a position he later took at a meatpacking plant in nearby Timberville, Virginia.

There, Scott worked on a loading dock moving beef and pork products. As the only college student who worked there, he certainly had a unique perspective.

“Working in the slaughterhouse had a big influence on me,” he says today. “It really made me appreciate the opportunity I had to go to college. The young men I worked with were very bright, but they didn’t have the opportunities that had been presented to me. It really inspired in me a determination to take advantage of the opportunity I had, and to appreciate where I was.”

Scott had always been interested in engineering.

His father was a shop teacher, and growing up under his influence led Scott to participate in the formulation of many of his father’s lesson plans. “I would be a guinea pig for some of his projects,” he remembers. “He would always say my inclination was in the area of engineering and mathematics.” Although Scott experienced a brief period of rebellion thinking he might go into broadcasting, he soon changed his major to math with a concentration in computer science.

Graduating in 1981 at the age of 21, Scott entered a stagnant job market. His father thought he might become a teacher like himself after all, but Scott was able to find an opportunity with a small, now defunct company in Bethesda called Vector Research. He was assigned to work at the David Taylor Model Basin in Carderock, Maryland, where he was first exposed to shipboard engineering, testing various hull designs in the quarter-mile canal built there.

“We were testing submarine hulls against active sonar,” Scott explains. “The submarine hulls would be coated with different materials that would be effective at sound absorption underwater.” Acoustic engineers would take these test submarines to open water and hit them with sonar from all angles. Scott’s job was to work on a team that would take the data and run it through various mathematical transformations. “This was a tremendously interesting project to me,” Scott recalls. “I got to leverage my math background, and at the same time I ran software to do signal processing of the data.

And that’s where I fell in love with building software.”

In 1984, Scott felt he had reached the limits of his position there, so he left to join CTEC, which was performing higher-level software development that seemed perfectly aligned with his desire to further develop his 48

software-building skills. And after a few years of mastering those skills, it was only natural for him to set out with his partners to begin his own venture.

Natural, too, was the cooperation of Scott and the two Mikes. “We may not have known it up front,” Scott says, “but it turned out that the team was very good.

We all had different skills and acumen that we brought to the table.” Scott was the detail-oriented person, who had the desire and know-how to build a solid corporate infrastructure. Mike Morhouse, the extrovert of the bunch, led the sales and marketing side of the business. And Mike Fortier, ever the technologist, focused on what the next big thing in technology would be, and applied that to customers’ problems. “He very much focused on the art of the possible,” Scott says. As of June 2012, FGM will celebrate 25 years as a company, and its founders’ chemistry is reflected in the fact that they are still at the company today after all these years.

Not only will this year be FGM’s 25th anniversary as a company, but it will also be Scott and his wife’s 30th wedding anniversary. Having met while freshmen at James Madison, both 17 years old, they married a year after graduating.

“One of the things about being an entrepreneur and starting a business from scratch,” Scott says, “is perseverance. You’ll see that common thread with a lot of successful entrepreneurs. At the same time, it’s vitally important to have someone at the end of the day with whom you can go to and talk those things out with— someone who can push you to persevere in those difficult times. My wife was that rock for me as we built the business, and she remains so today.”

Today, FGM is an information technology company that serves the national security community, including the Department of Defense and the State Department. “Our primary focus,” Scott says, “is enabling our customers to leverage their most important asset: information. They leverage that asset through a spectrum of services that range from information protection, to sharing and exploitation.” This year, FGM won an award related to work they did to support the Information Management System for Mine Action, a humanitarian de-mining organization.

FGM has also been featured in the Washingtonian’s Great Places to Work list four times. In discussing his own leadership style, Scott relates the experience of working under a retired Army colonel at CTEC, who had been in Special Forces in Vietnam. “This is someone who led people in some very difficult situations,” Scott says, “and in some tough times. One of the things I learned from him was that he would never ask us to

Profiles in Success: Inspiration from Executive Leaders in the Washington D.C. Area — Volume 3

do something that he wouldn’t do himself. He was always there for us. If we were working long hours, he was working long hours.”

Scott’s leadership values are similarly collaborative. “I try to bring the group together and the leadership team together,” Scott says, “and collaborate on different ways we can approach something. At the end of the day, what I try to achieve is that everybody has had a chance to voice their opinion and their ideas, and then generate a collective buy-in to what we’re going to do and how we’re going to do it.”

More than creating a successful company from scratch and leading it well, Scott is proud of the stability of his family and the success of his two children.

One has just graduated from James Madison and now works for Scott. The other is thriving as a third year student at Dickinson and has interned at FGM since high school.

In giving advice to young entrepreneurs entering the working world today, Scott advises that careful consideration be given to one’s chosen course of study.

“You need to look at what the opportunities are going to be in this next decade,” he says. “Really think about that in terms of positioning your education. I have a strong opinion that we need more students involved in science, technology, engineering and math. I fear our country is falling behind in these areas in the global marketplace.

With innovation comes new opportunities, and it is in these areas that we need to focus if we will continue to be a global leader in innovation.”

Beyond this, Scott emphasizes a strong work ethic above all else—one that not only transcends college to characterize one’s life, but also makes that difference in the world that he himself sought to make all those years ago. It is this difference that makes work—and life—so worthwhile.

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David Guernsey Necessity Dictates In the course of a person’s life, a single event can change everything. For David Guernsey, the founder and CEO of Guernsey Office Products, a forty-yearold company and one of the largest independent office products dealers in the United States, that event came in his senior year of high school, in Falls Church, Virginia.

“At the time,” David recalls, “I was really lacking focus. I had been accepted to college, and I had a vague plan to work and go to school once I graduated from high school. But I was an average student, and sports and girls were more interesting to me than my studies.”

It could have been this lack of focus, or it could have been that David spent most of his life up to his junior year of high school outside of the United States, traveling the world as part of a military family. Whatever the reason, as graduation approached, David got into a car accident, colliding with a pristine Cadillac and causing $150 worth of damage.

In the 1960s, this was no small amount.

David did not have adequate insurance and needed to pay for the damage himself. Suddenly, without a dime to his name and about to graduate from high school, David found himself in a critical, defining moment. Without any other option, he postponed his plans to go to college and took a job with the Royal Typewriter Company, a division of Litton Industries.

“The job was a necessity,” David says. “I didn’t have any money, and it was my responsibility to pay for the damage. I had to put college on hold and work full time. I didn’t have a choice, really.” And so, driven out of necessity, David began his career in office supplies in the humble position of driver’s assistant, delivering office equipment for the Royal Typewriter Company.

“Clearly,” he explains, “coming in just having hit a Cadillac, they wouldn’t let me operate the truck, itself.”

David rode along with the delivery driver through downtown Washington DC and unloaded the equipment and supplies at each destination. Although he had seen himself as an average student, he had always been a

hard worker. During the school year and in summers, he had ushered at local theaters, flipped burgers at McDonald’s, and worked in construction crews doing paving and roofing. “I knew what hard work was,” he affirms, “and I knew there had to be a better way to earn a living than to do asphalt paving in the middle of summer.”

David was quickly able to pick up the technical aspects of the equipment he was delivering. Royal Typewriter recognized that he was bright and a hard worker, and rewarded him with further opportunities. Before long he was promoted to sales. “In every area,” he says, “I did well. They looked at me and said, this is a well-rounded kid.

He’s ambitious, and he sees things that need fixing.”

But David wasn’t just observant.

When he saw something that could be done better, he would verbalize his observation and what needed to be done without hesitation. According to David, he learned this from his experience traveling with his family.

“We traveled all over the world,” he says. “As a military family, we did not have very much income available, and there was only so much we could do. But my dad bought a Volkswagen camper, which afforded the opportunity to really see the sights. I was immersed in many new and challenging situations. It was a great experience because it taught me not to be afraid of anything. It taught me to just jump in, because any barrier can be overcome.”

It was this adventurous spirit that first took David’s career to the next level. When Royal Typewriter offered him the chance to open his own dealership in Arlington County, he jumped at the opportunity and founded Guernsey Office Products in May of 1971. With no business experience whatsoever, David approached the challenge with an attitude of “nothing ventured, nothing gained.” Still, as he began developing a clientele and marketing his products to local businesses, he realized that he would need an education.

“I was sitting with the accountant and the lawyer who helped me form the business,” David explains.

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“They were talking, and I had no idea what they were saying. I had no clue. It was one of those moments where the light goes on, and I said to myself, you better spend your evenings going to college and learning about all of this.”

This began a five-year period where David worked during the day and went to classes at night. Money was still scarce, and David only took the classes he needed in order to understand his own business, first at George Mason and then at the University of Virginia. And just as before, when the simple necessity of the Cadillac bill drove David to work his way up through Royal Typewriter, now the necessity of understanding his own business drove him to spend all waking hours working and studying. “At that age,” he points out, “you can live on three hours of sleep and do just fine.”

He completed all but a few of the credits of the core business program at George Mason and UVA and later took a few graduate courses, primarily in finance.

Before long, he had a solid educational background with which he could lead his business to new success.

“The interesting thing about that period of time,” David remembers, “was that while I was going to school at night, I was actually applying what I learned at work during the day. For me, studying wasn’t just something I would do after the workday ended. It was something that I did during it. It was nonstop, and those were difficult but rewarding years.”

Through those years, David learned the critical lessons that would turn him into a keen businessman.

He learned that a strong balance sheet was crucial to a growing business. Realizing he was dangerously undercapitalized, David directed every penny that didn’t go to food or housing back into the business. Again, necessity drove him to build his business and invest everything into it. After those five long and intensive years, David found himself and his business on solid ground at last.

But it wasn’t just his work ethic that drove him to succeed. Leadership, too, came naturally to David.

When he was in high school, he was elected president of his fraternity. On his sports teams, he was made captain.

When he went to sales school with Litton Industries, his class elected him president, too. And it was about the time that he was finding his business on firmer footing that he was able to hire his first employee. “Now that I was running a business,” David says, “I had to be a leader in a way I hadn’t been before. When I was taking business classes, that gave me a more academic sense of what leadership was. But I didn’t truly understand it until that real-world application that went along with actually hiring, training, and motivating a staff.”

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As he progressed through his business career over the years, and as Guernsey Office Products grew and grew, David would go on to serve as Chairman of both the Arlington and Fairfax Chambers of Commerce, and as Chairman of the Office Products Industry Association. Today he is Chairman of the Board of the National Federation of Independent Business. “As this all unfolded,” he explains, “I wasn’t surprised by it. From early on, I knew folks perceived me in that way. And as we all grow even more through our experiences, we understand more about why people perceive us the way they do.”

David learned that he was a good consensus builder. He was never authoritarian in leadership, and always happy to give credit to the other guy. He found that people would warm to him very quickly. He placed a high priority on being fair and consistent, but also on making strong decisions confidently, and on having a clear head about where the company needed to go, what they needed to do to get there, and finally, how to communicate that to his employees.

In locating the initial source of these abilities, David returns to his childhood. One reality of moving around the world so much with his family was that he never spent more than a few years at any one school.

This meant that he was constantly thrown into new situations where he had to learn to make new friends and understand new environments. “It was just like wrecking my car and hitting the Cadillac,” David says. “I was thrown into something, and good things came out of it. I never really wanted to move from school to school and have to make new friends. And, no doubt, at the time I was frustrated and unhappy about it. But from all of that came really good experiences.”

Through David’s continuous hard work and strong leadership, Guernsey Office Products experienced growth every year leading up to the financial crisis of 2008, followed by only a brief stagnation in 2009 before resuming its pattern of growth in 2010—a trend that has continued ever since. In fact, over the past 40 years, David’s company has expanded from a single distribution center in Arlington County, with him as the sole worker traveling door-to-door selling his wares, to one of the largest of a shrinking number of independent office supply dealerships. Guernsey has over two hundred employees spread across offices from just south of Baltimore, through Washington and Northern Virginia, down to Richmond and Tidewater.

David’s brother, seven years his junior, is also involved in the company, and David says he’ll be at it longer than David himself. Also involved is a senior

Profiles in Success: Inspiration from Executive Leaders in the Washington D.C. Area — Volume 3

manager who has been with Guernsey for thirty years, Gordon Thrall. Gordon isn’t the only employee who has been with the company for a long time. In fact, one of David’s proudest accomplishments has been that he’s never laid anyone off in forty years—not in the turmoil of 2008, and not even when faced by the enormous challenge that was the emergence in 1989 of Staples and Office Depot. David sees a younger group ready to take over as crucial to any office product company’s continued survival. “There aren’t so many of us independents anymore,” he affirms. “The process is that, if you don’t have competent folks to take over from you, then it gets sold. And typically it gets sold to a public entity. That’s why so many of us are slowly disappearing.”

Reflecting further on what he’s learned as a business leader over the years, David focuses in on how he has learned the value of a holistic approach to one’s professional journey. “A business is many things,” he says.

“When you’re running it from the top, there’s sales, operations, marketing, finance, hard assets, people, and business strategy. I think one thing that successful business owners probably share is the ability to grasp it all.

You need the capacity to understand how all the parts move together. I found out early on that not only could I do that, but I enjoyed it.”

In evaluating his own success, David also places a strong emphasis on community. Having been a leader of business and neighborhood communities alike, he has worked hard to give back to the environments that have made his personal and professional successes possible.

“When you live in a community, and raise a family in that community, you have the obligation to give back in a substantive way. You can do that in many ways, and you don’t necessarily have to be a leader, but you must be somebody that helps push it along, whatever it is.”

David’s last and perhaps most urgent word is on the crucial importance of balancing work and family.

“You can always come up with a legitimate argument to do more in your business,” he says, “and you’ll find yourself with no time for your family. But as a father or a husband, finding that balance is something that must be done.” Like so many other aspects of life, it’s just another product of necessity that enriches one’s experience, both professional and personal, in unimagined yet vital ways.

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Patricia Hill A Successful Partnership Patricia Hill understands the importance of hard work and dedication. As the CEO of Bay State Computers, she puts those principles into action each day. Starting as a mainframe company, Bay State Computers is now a graduated 8(a) government contracting company that provides technology solutions to federal and commercial entities.

Though the company was founded in 1988, it was not until four years later when the founders turned its leadership over to Patricia’s husband, Robert Hill Jr., that the company began to thrive.

“When Robert and I acquired Bay State Computers in 1992, there were no contracts or incoming revenue. It was only a shell of a company. We started from ground zero,” Hill recalls.

Working from the basement of their home, Patricia and Robert Hill grew the company from the ground up. Patricia handled the administration and operations behind the scene, while Robert ventured out to build relationships and bring in Bay State’s first few contracts.

“We both continued consulting work to keep the stream of the household income flowing. I’ll never forget the first contract award. We were literally working 24 hours a day. While Robert was in the front creating business opportunities, I did the back-end operational side: setting up the accounting system, developing the human resource processes, as well as developing the operational infrastructure.

Robert’s connections and natural charisma allowed Bay State Computers to create and grow its client base, leading to the company’s immediate success. Within a year of transitioning to his leadership, Robert received 8(a) Certification and brought in approximately $2-4 million in revenue.

“This has always been a faith walk,” Hill explains, “In the beginning, we leased a warehouse in addition to taking on significant costs of running a business prior to even being awarded a contract. Both of us had given up our full time jobs, before the company had any revenue. All this was compounded with raising a toddler and an infant.

Some eighteen years later, the company is now bringing in approximately $14 million. Hill and her husband built their company on the foundation of fostering a healthy work/life balance for themselves and their employees.

“We were very much a holistic type of company, maintaining a balance between professional and personal growth. We realized the importance of maintaining a balance and as such had a very high retention rate. Employees invested their talents back into the company.“ Growing up in Warrenton, Virginia, Hill, the oldest of five children, recalls her earliest years as being full of family, fun, and good times.

“I had a great mom and dad. We lived with my dad’s parents until I was of the age of 5. My dad bought a “fixer-up” home. The home lacked an indoor bathroom. It was not until several years later that we could afford to install one.”

Hill’s father worked hard to make ends meet, working a full-time job and then performing side jobs to bring in additional income for the family.

“My dad was very hands-on. In addition to his full time jobs, he found time to run a lawn maintenance business. He was a hard worker. He was driven for success. Integrity and excellence were important to him. He was a perfectionist and put a lot of value in his work.”

Then Hill’s father was laid off from his full-time job. “Losing his job was devastating for my dad… He had put so much of himself into working, and then to get laid was very tough. He had four young mouths to feed. His pain was very evident to our family.

My mom continuously encouraged him by telling him God had a plan for him and this was a beginning and not an end. Through my mother’s witnessing and evidence of her faith, he accepted Christ and began his own faith walk. Soon after he was offered a position with C&P that offered better compensation and more promising benefits.”

Hill’s father was not the only person who worked hard for the family. In addition to taking care of the

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household and children, her mother also took on the side job of cleaning homes. Hill would sometimes accompany her mother while cleaning houses and would assist with the work.

“My mom had regular clients, who also employed me. One client would pay me to help serve at their house parties and dinners. Other clients would pay me to babysit for their children.”

After graduating from Virginia Commonwealth University with a degree in accounting, Hill first worked for The Red Cross, and then accepted a job with a small government contracting company.

“It was at that company, I learned how to manage a small business. Although, my primary position was accounting, I had many opportunities to learn about other parts of the organization, including contracts, human resources, security, operations, and proposal writing. Because it was a small company, I was able to see the ‘big picture’. After several promotions, I reported directly to the senior-level executive, which gave me an opportunity to have influence on certain corporate decisions. ” It was during this time that Hill met and began dating Robert, who was her company’s banking professional.

“I dated Robert for two years before we were married. He was a great guy, one of a kind; he had a heart for giving, even when we first met. Every time we met, he would bring me trinkets that had some personal meaning. He was genuine, and he really cared about people,” Hill continues, “Robert grew up in a family that didn’t have very much financially, similar to my own. He received a grant to attend St Albans High School. There he received a basketball scholarship to attend Colgate University. He made great connections and friendships at both of these schools that lasted into adulthood. Robert was the kind of guy that could go into any environment and people were immediately drawn to him.”

Hill and her husband married in 1987 and over the next eighteen years created a tight-knit family together with their two sons.

In 2005, after a day of family fun, food and basketball, tragedy struck Hill and her family. Robert had a heart attack and lost his life.

“Robert was coaching our younger son. I remember at the basketball game, the boys were down by one point. One of the players got the ball and shot it. It went around and around the net but then it fell out. It was a very intense game. A short time later he was gone.”

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Faith is very important to Hill and her family, and she attributes her ability to weather the loss of both her father and her husband in a short period of time to it.

“I was able to get through my loss because of my faith. It was only through God’s grace and strength that I had the courage to move forward. I lost my dad two years before I lost Robert. My dad was diagnosed with a brain tumor and died a year after the diagnosis. Then right after that, I lost Robert. These were two very significant men in my life.

The support of family and friends were also instrumental in getting through such a difficult time.

“The loss was so great that I felt if I stopped, I might not have ever started up again. The choice was to keep going.”

The loss of Robert was not only felt in Hill’s personal life, but also in her professional life.

“It was very hard after Robert’s death. He and I fed off of each other. There is a big gap since he has been gone. He is no longer here to bounce ideas off of. Robert was my mentor, both personally and professionally. He would encourage me to step to the next level.”

Despite the loss of her love and partner, Hill has certainly succeeded in stepping up to the plate. The company has grown from $10 million in revenue to its now average annual revenue of $20 million.

Hill has also continued the ‘family first’ creed that the company had established and nurtured. This furthered her leadership style and belief in mentoring and coaching young people.

“I believe in coaching and mentorship. My goal is to provide opportunities for employees that capitalize on an employee’s strength and potential; then an employee/ employer partnership is created. There is an energetic charge to see employees working within their talents.”

Hill gives back through her company as well. The corporation supports and gives back to the community including organizations such as St. Jude, Barack Obama Elementary School, The We Believe Foundation, and our military vets.

Hill’s message to graduates is to never stop dreaming, keep your eye on the prize, and stay the course.

Hill and her husband created an organization that balances work and home. The company focuses on results rather than clock punching. Despite the loss of her husband and partner, Hill has continued to thrive as a mother and CEO, taking what could have stopped many and turning that into a powerful lesson in determination and dedication.

Profiles in Success: Inspiration from Executive Leaders in the Washington D.C. Area — Volume 3

Amanda Hollins Good Old-Fashioned Horse Sense: A New Model for Business Determined not to meet the fate of his father, a coal miner who died of black lung disease, Amanda “Aimee” Hollins’ grandfather moved to Southern Maryland and started his first business, selling snack foods. Several other very successful businesses followed, including a gas station, an upholstery service, and a horse training and breeding service. He did all this with only a thirdgrade education.

A big man with a deep belly laugh, he didn’t realize he was grooming a future leader when little Aimee traipsed behind him, attentive, ever eager, and always full of questions, “Poppop, why’d you do that?” or “How did you know that, Pop-pop?”

“My grandfather had a keen sense of people, so he was able to work his relationships even before it was fashionable to have relationships as your basis of business,” Aimee Hollins recollects. “Watching him interact with other folks just fascinated me. It just drew me in. He had this instinct about people and about business itself. It was one of the tools that allowed me to learn to trust my own instincts.”

Pop-pop’s wisdom and common sense approach became the touchstones for Aimee who grew up to become the co-founder her own business. She now serves as the President and Chief Financial Officer of Constellation Software Engineering Corporation (CSE), a government contractor providing information technology and engineering program level support services to government agencies.

Aimee and her business partner, who both previously worked in government contracting, knew all too well the frustrations and inefficiencies that can plague a bureaucracy.

“We first saw a need within The National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) for collaborative software technologies and we had a sponsor who was willing to get us started with a task contract.”

Founded in 2002, CSE started out like many companies, in a home basement. As they continued to

deliver quality products to their clients, their reputation grew by word of mouth.

“I liked the idea of writing my own ticket and determining how this business is going to be driven,” she states.

It’s wasn’t just the gratification of being the president of a well-honed firm that motivated Aimee. Her intention is that CSE will not only make a difference for their clients, but to also really make a difference in their employee’s lives. “I wanted to be a part of an organization that cared about the individuals, not just the work they were doing. One that took a holistic view of the employee and the company and the corporate citizenship and the fiduciary responsibilities that encompasses all of those things. That was a big driver for me.”

Since opening, CSE has grown to 32 employees with reported revenues of $8 million last year, covering three major areas of service, configuration management, software and enterprise engineering and collaborative technologies. “All of these different supporting roles help on a program level to get people to talk to one another, whether it’s electronically or physically,” Aimee informs. “We work on compliances and regulations, making sure that programs follow their own guidelines which is sometimes a little bit of a challenge,” she chuckles. “We also offer other services like graphic arts, website design and technical writing.”

Because she started the business when she was 29 and had not yet completed her college degree, Aimee initially struggled with being able to walk into a boardroom and have older, more seasoned colleagues take her seriously. Over time, her confidence grew, with the help of mentors and classes she took. “I didn’t like that commanding, militant style of leadership,” Aimee admits.

“My style is more of a conversation. I like to ask questions, to put a personal flavor on leadership.”

Aimee’s growth as a leader has been steady. “As the oldest of five children, it was my role to make sure that everybody stayed in line,” she says. “I’ve been bossy

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for as long as I can remember, but that doesn’t always mean being a good leader. I’ve learned a lot of my leadership skills through modeling people who have strong personalities, who are able to communicate well, and excite people about their vision.” She also read biographies and memoirs to study and learn about the leadership paths of business leaders who were known for their effectiveness.

Another characteristic of Aimee’s leadership is her belief in giving back to the community. CSE sponsors cystic fibrosis events and supports local baseball and soccer teams.

“Our newest push is corporate citizenship and we’ve offered funding to a girls robotics team to promote opportunities for younger women in technology. Being in a rural community, some of local schools have really suffered financially, so providing financial support for these projects to move forward is important to me as president of CSE.” On a personal level, Aimee does a great deal of small business mentoring and volunteers with local organizations, both corporate and civic.

Inspired by companies like Patagonia and Google, Aimee strives to create an environment at CSE where employees can thrive and fosters a healthy work-life balance, telling new employees, “I want to empower you. I want you to grow your empire. I will give you tools and training. I want you to go home to your family. I want you to volunteer in your community. I will help you make that happen because you’ll be a happier and more balanced employee.” She shares, “It’s really important to me that they have that opportunity.”

Aimee’s commitment to balance may stem from the dynamics of her childhood. While she has pleasant memories of her time with her grandfather, the family was extremely pro-male. “All of my male cousins got college educations and vehicles handed to them.

The girls were supposed to get married and be taken care of. I was the exception.” And even though Aimee worked with the horses with her grandfather, she wasn’t taught the business. “I was interested in it and learned by proxy, she says.”

Aimee vividly remembers a pivotal occasion when she was in high school. “My mom and dad were married for 13 years. During that time he was very abusive to her. She never complained, but eventually, she began to stand up to him. I was scheduled to take the Scholastic Aptitude Test for entering college. On the day of the test, my father told that me I would have to work at the gas station that day instead. My mom came to the gas station and told him, ‘Look, 58

she’s taking that SAT and I don’t care what you say.’

That was very empowering,” Aimee recalls. “Watching my mom stand up to him with grace and strength and conviction opened up so many doors for me”. She realized in that moment that she didn’t have to accept whatever was handed to her.

But Aimee didn’t attend college right after high school. She got her first real job (and her first taste of government contracting) when she was 18.

She also got married, and stopped working to raise her children, home-schooling her sons through their first six years of education.

“At one point when I was home-schooling my children, I felt like my own brain was turning to mush, so I decided to start college.” Majoring in engineering, Aimee eventually realized that she just wanted to play with numbers and that CSE, which had been newly started, needed a strong financial person, so she switched her major to accounting. It took her eight years of part time study to get her baccalaureate.

During that time, Aimee also started her first small enterprise. Building on what she’d learned in her grandfather’s horse business, Aimee became a horse trainer.

She specialized in problem solving for horse and rider teams, including teams participating in competitive equestrian sport. “That was fascinating to me to figure out the psychology of where they were getting hung up and how could I ‘un-stick’ them,” she notes.

Beyond her grandfather’s tutelage, Aimee had several people take her under their wing along the way. Her first mentor was a certified public accountant. “I don’t know what I would have done without him,” she confesses. “Many times I called him in the wee hours of the morning and he helped me work things out. He was also pivotal in getting CSE through some of the practical accounting issues that all businesses experiences.”

Aimee is most proud of being able to use her own ingenuity and drive to find the answers and to stick with it through the end. Knowing that she was able to figure it out puts a smile on her face. “I hope that others will look at my story as an underdog story. Look at where I started and where I ended up and say, ‘Wow, she didn’t give up’ or ‘She didn’t listen to the criticism or the people telling her that this is not what she should be’.”

When asked what was one of the biggest lessons learned, Aimee quickly responds, “That you don’t know what you don’t know until you know you don’t know it—and then it’s too late,” she continues, “When I mentor younger businesses, I encourage them to do a lot of research and to really think strategically, not just throw themselves into an idea.”

Profiles in Success: Inspiration from Executive Leaders in the Washington D.C. Area — Volume 3

In fact, Aimee’s advice to anyone starting out, whether in their own business or a job is to ask a lot of questions and to look for the value. “Even with opportunities that look like you won’t get anything out of it, find the value. Whether it’s shadowing the trash man for a day or sitting in a CEO’s office for a day, find value in every single experience. Find the lessons. Don’t just dismiss an experience.”

For Aimee Hollins, leading Constellation Software Engineering Corporation has been about building a business based on fundamental values, creating balanced relationships, and modeling good practices.

Coming from down-home origins, she shows us, by example, that all things are possible if you trust your instincts, tackle problems head-on, and respect learning in all of its configurations.

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Amy Hunt Turning the Pages Long before she was President of Landon IP, Inc., a global leader in professional patent-related support services, Amy Hunt was three years old, and she was already charting her own course.

“My sister Beth was six,” Amy recalls now, “and she was going into the first grade. I announced to my mother that I, too, would be going to school.”

This was no idle request. In order to pay for preschool, Amy’s mother would have to give up the life of the stay-at-home and get a job. And so she did.

“Of course,” Amy continues, “when the bus arrived on the first day, I refused to get on it!”

But by day 2 she was on the bus and off to school, taking the first of several important leaps that would ultimately lead her to run an international patent firm with her husband.

Certainly one of those key moments came around in August of 1989. Amy had graduated that spring with a degree in Marketing and Management Information Systems from the McIntire Commerce School at the University of Virginia, and was now a buyer at Woodward and Lothrop, Washington DC’s first department store that was still going strong prior to the recession of the early 1990s. Each Thursday night, a group of “Woodies” employees would go to happy hour at T.G.I. Friday’s. For some time, one of Amy’s coworkers had extended a standing invitation to her roommate, hoping that he and Amy might hit it off. On this particular Thursday in late August, he showed up with some friends.

“I was on the far end of the table,” Amy recalls, “and he walked over next to me. He pulled up a chair, sat down, and never left.” Inseparable ever since, Amy says now it was as if they had been married that night.

Dave Hunt had graduated from William and Mary two years prior, and before long he returned for graduate school. After earning an MBA there, he took a job in Houston at American General, a large insurance company with many subsidiaries. Meanwhile, Amy realized that she had no interest in resuming a career in retail

and decided to tap the information systems side of her degree instead. Thus, she also took a position with American General, training employees on early spreadsheet and word processing software such as Lotus 123 and Word Perfect.

“I fell in love with training,” Amy says. “But Dave hated his job. It wasn’t what he thought it would be.” It seemed to her that if there wasn’t a potential career keeping them in Houston, they should return to Virginia, where her family was. On top of that, she was able to find work there training medical transcriptionists during their transition from typewriters to PC-based software. Starting there in 1994 in Bethesda, Amy deployed her alreadyestablished training skills, and her management style began to emerge and develop.

“You take a woman who is in her sixties,” Amy says, “who has been working on a typewriter for most of her lifetime. She can type over one hundred words a minute on that machine. Then her boss comes in and tells her that they’re moving her to a computer. How would you feel? She’s scared to death.”

But Amy would sit down with these trainees patiently and was able to show them that, in just five minutes, they could start to use the computer without too much trouble. She found that experience to be immensely rewarding, and it wasn’t long before she was a Vice President of the company, managing the department where she herself had begun as a trainer.

Around the same time, Dave was dreaming big.

“He was always looking to own his own business,” Amy says. “He had done it in the past, and for ten years after that he was looking to do it again.”

One Sunday, now in the late 1990s, Dave and Amy were spending time at her parents’ house, and Dave was reading the Washington Post. Amy vividly recalls hearing Dave exclaim very suddenly from the other room, I’ve found it! “I rolled my eyes a little,” Amy laughs now, “and thought, here we go …

Dave had found an ad in the Post advertising that the owners of a patent research firm, Landon & Stark,

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were retiring and looking for a buyer for their company.

The ad required that the buyer have both experience and access to significant capital, and Amy and Dave had neither. Still, the couple was undeterred. “When you’re married to an entrepreneur,” Amy says, “things like that don’t dissuade you.”

Dave called the broker that very Sunday, and he answered. The following day, Amy and Dave were sitting in the broker’s office discussing the business. Dave was able to sell himself to the owners as someone who could take care of this business that they had worked so hard to build. In June of 1998, the Hunts bought the company. At first, Dave ran the company himself, managing what was at the time only six to eight employees.

It was two years before Amy joined him.

“I am not the visionary,” she says. “I am not a dreamer by any stretch. Dave and I are complete opposites in that way.” Indeed, it was Dave who saw the opportunities, and Amy who provided the counterbalance by seeing the potential pitfalls. Amy always assumed that she would work for someone else. Though she had always wanted to be her own boss ever since she was three, the opportunity had not yet come—until Landon & Stark launched the couple into a perfect working relationship that was as symbiotic as that of their personal lives.

Dave didn’t want to deal with the 8 AM phone call that some employee’s car had broken down and she wasn’t coming in. He wanted to stick to the big picture.

“He wants to be in the clouds,” Amy says, “thinking of how we can grow and be that engine. I, on the other hand, like to be the rudder, to keep us going in the right direction, growing our creative people.”

Both Dave’s high-altitude perspective and Amy’s steady hand would be essential in driving the growth of what became Landon IP, Inc. The Landon IP of today consists of four unique business units, but when they first acquired the company, document retrieval and research was its only core component. This meant a range of services from retrieving patent files or documents related to patents, to taking documents to embassies to be certified by their legal office so that they can be filed in another country.

The next piece, which Amy and Dave developed in the early 2000s in response to the growing significance of the Internet and its ease of access, was the patent search business. Dave and Amy hired scientists and engineers across the entire spectrum of technical areas related to patents—individuals who held advanced degrees in areas like chemistry and engineering. With this expertise, Landon IP’s platform of experts and specialists investigate patent, literature, and foreign language databases 62

to report on related patents and prior art. A significant portion of this business is performed as part of a contract with the US Patent Office, which outsourced some of its patent sourcing to Landon IP in 2005.

The third of the four components of Landon IP’s business is their analysis group. This is similar to the patent search work but is conceived of and directed at a larger, more macro scale. Instead of determining the prospects for a single patent, the analysis group will survey the landscape of certain areas of patent activity.

This service is utilized by companies making important decisions regarding the deployment of their research and development budget. “They want to know, for example, what the patenting activity is like relating to semi-conductors,” Amy explains. “What’s going on in that space? Where is the hot patenting activity? That’s where we come in.”

The final area is training. In 2005, a company called Patent Resources Group contacted Landon IP. Patent Resources Group was a training company launched by Irving Kayton, the founder of the IP law departments at George Washington University and George Mason.

The company was started in 1969 as a bar review course for would-be patent attorneys. By 2005, Mr. Kayton was ready to retire, and Landon IP acquired the company in January of 2006. “We now do patent training all over the world,” Amy says. “We do advanced law for attorneys who have been practicing for a long time, as well as a workshop for newer attorneys and a bar review for people who want to practice before the patent office.”

After starting with one business line, eight employees, and $1.2 million in revenue in June of 1998, Landon IP has since grown to 160 employees across four divisions and will bring in $25 million in revenue in 2011. It has experienced constant growth with the Hunts’ leadership, with the devastating exception of 2009, when the company entered an unstable time in the wake of the financial crisis that began in 2008. This instability culminated in a total of 55 layoffs by March of 2009, which Amy reports as the hardest thing that she has ever had to do.

When Lehman Brothers was allowed to fail in September of 2008, Dave, always looking at the big picture, knew at once that this event was ominous, and could indeed signal an imminent economic catastrophe. “We had grown so much in 2008 and had hired so many people to handle that growth, that when January of 2009 came along and we took a tremendous hit, we were immediately in the hole by several hundred thousand dollars over the course of just a couple months,” Amy details.

Profiles in Success: Inspiration from Executive Leaders in the Washington D.C. Area — Volume 3

Today, though, she calls 2009 their “blessing in disguise” year. Until the traumatic experience of having to lay off 50 of her employees whom she had trained and helped grow, she had considered hers a charmed life. This optimistic perspective is a testament to Amy’s character in that many might view her childhood quite differently, considering the fact that her biological father began to distance himself from her family when she was in elementary school. Instead of capitulating to a victim mentality, however, she instead took matters into her own hands, gaining an inner locus of control and a spirited attitude toward life that have led her toward success since that time. She also leaned on her very supportive PE teacher, Mr. Flanagan, who helped keep her strong and directed—so much so that in a 5th grade race, she outpaced even the fastest boys.

By the time her parents divorced when she was 12, she had developed a belief in herself that defined both her leadership skills and her success. Her life was a book that was unfolding, and she only had to keep turning the pages.

Those pages were also certainly augmented by Amy’s stepfather, who welcomed her into his heart and taught her how to truly manage and lead people—a skill that proves invaluable in her work today. Through his

influence, she also realized the strong appreciation for technology that has contributed greatly to the nuanced understanding and intuitive sense of the the industry that keeps their business so competitive.

Since March of 2009, Amy is still determined to make her husband Dave’s vision a reality, but they are both keeping a tighter hold on the finer details of the company’s financial health. “We watch it like a hawk,” Amy says. “We were perhaps a little loose at the time.

We were experiencing such growth that we felt we were fine to hire people in anticipation of the increased business. Now we’re experiencing that growth again, and looking at candidates, but we’re going to be absolutely certain before we pull that trigger.”

As Amy and Dave continue to turn the pages with the wisdom and foresight that can only come from experience, what will the story hold next? Dave envisions global expansion for Landon IP, beginning with Japan.

Amy marvels at her husband’s determination to make their company the best in the world, and she is certain that he will be successful. As Dave continues to write the plotline and Amy spins it into reality, anyone would agree that this is one story worth reading.

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David Hunt A Master Craftsman Highly profitable professional firm serving attorneys and legal support staff. Excellent client list and growth record. Substantial cash required. Call Wendell Swan.

“I’ve found it!” Dave announced excitedly, circling the notice in the Businesses for Sale section of the Washington Post.

Despite the apparent gravity of the discovery, his wife, Amy, barely looked up from her section of the paper. Her parents were similarly unenthused, perhaps desensitized by comparable announcements from their son-in-law in the past.

Dave will admit that, yes, he had been the man who cried wolf before, but something in his gut felt different when his eyes fell across the newsprint. Leaping up from the chair, he hurried into the other room to dial the number in the advertisement—perhaps the single most transformative phone call of his life. Now the CEO of Landon IP, Inc., the very same legal support company he saw in the paper that morning, Dave has built his professional journey from the ground up and with his own hands, drawing on diverse materials and tools and synthesizing them into a formidable masterwork that rivals those of even the greatest craftsmen.

Yet he couldn’t have done so alone. Though Amy may not have leapt to her feet that day when her husband made his proclamation, her skills, support, and enthusiasm soon became a primary determinant in whether Dave’s visions would persevere the transition into reality, and it was evident early on that the two were as ideally suited for one another in the business world as they were in home life. “From the very beginning, Amy has kept me grounded. I’m a bit of a risk-taker,” he explains.

“I had always wanted to start a business, but I was working at Freddie Mac at the time and knew it would be difficult with a mortgage and a young family. But Amy had a good job, and we both had our educations to fall back on. I figured life was too short not to go for it.”

Dave had actually taken that risk once before in 1988 when he and two friends went into business selling documents from the U.S. Securities and Exchange

Commission. It had gone well until an electronic system named EDGAR came along and transformed the industry. He had seen a similar trend later on working for Freddie Mac, when an automated underwriting system threatened the livelihoods of mortgage underwriters.

Some might call Dave opportunistic, but the scope of his skill far exceeds the simple ability to identify potential opportunities. Rather, he is more of a craftsman, and his craft is synthesizing opportunities by bringing together like ideas and information across a wide range of experience. In this sense, he had been training to take over Landon IP his whole life.

Dave was born in Michigan but moved to Island Park, New York, with his mother shortly after his parents divorced when he was four years old. They lived on Long Island until he was ten, when they moved to New Jersey and then to Virginia.

His mother worked as a saleswoman who sold door-to-door, and it is to her glowing influence that he attributes the entrepreneurial spirit driving him today. “She and my uncle are ambassadors of business,” he describes. His grandparents were both German and couldn’t find work during World War II because nobody in New York wanted to hire Germans, and his grandfather had died unexpectedly. Struggling to make ends meet, his grandmother had to put his uncle in an orphanage. The boy then struck out on his own at age 13 working for a carnival, eventually starting his own roofing company that evolved into a real estate developer and then took on real estate management. Within two decades, he had become the largest non-union contractor in the state. “It’s so much better to work for yourself,” he would tell young Dave.

His mother, a devout Christian, always underscored this sentiment. Having worked her way up from a salesperson, to local manager, to regional manager, to division manager of the Mid-Atlantic by the time Dave was in high school, she was also a staunch advocate of hard work and leadership. “My brother and I were conditioned since we were kids, and it’s part of the fabric of who we are,” he points out today.

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Also deeply ingrained in his character was a firm conviction in his own capabilities. “I remember particularly well a time when I bought a present for my uncle for his birthday,” Dave recalls. “Someone told me I didn’t need to do that because he had more money than I ever would. I was young at the time, but it stuck with me. I was thinking, ‘I’ll show you that you’re wrong.’

It was motivational rather than discouraging, and even today I feel that it’s nonsense when people try to tell me that I can’t do something.”

This mindset served him especially well in high school, when his guidance counselor told him that he might not be college material based on an assessment test he had taken. “I’m a quiet person who thinks deeply but not necessarily quickly,” he explains. Making a mockery of the counselor’s suggestion, Dave got straight A’s in school and earned a degree in government from William and Mary, where he also attended graduate business school. “I may not be smarter than anyone else, but I push myself and work extremely hard,” he says. “With this persistence emphasized by book smarts and street smarts, there’s a lot I can do.”

Dave struggled at first to find a job after graduating in 1987 but soon landed a gig as a paralegal. It was also around this time that he first met Amy. Then, after earning his MBA, he took a job in Houston, Texas, as an internal management consultant for American General Corporation, a large financial services company. In this capacity, he took a three-month training program taught by senior executives that equipped him with the core principles for how to lead and manage an organization. Individuals coming out of that training program were then placed in a subsidiary and assigned to a senior officer to help make that organization better, and Dave was placed with a subsidiary called the Variable Annuity Life Insurance Company (VALIC).

Dave’s experience there proved exceedingly frustrating because the senior officer he was placed with was uncooperative and didn’t believe in the breakthrough aims of the program. This didn’t hold Dave back. He resigned after a year and was immediately flooded with calls from four other subsidiaries offering him positions. He turned these down too, however, feeling that his future lay elsewhere. It was this feeling that led him to Freddie Mac, eventually paving the way for his path to cross with Landon IP. Landon IP was actually launched as an information company in 1949, selling patent copies and patent file histories. Patent file histories can range from a hundred to a thousand pages in length, and Landon IP would retype these documents before the time of Xerox 66

machines. Even after the machines became available in 1971, patent stenographers had become so good at the process that they continued to retype documents.

When Dave and Amy came across the business in 1998, they were already well aware from prior experience that it would soon be disintermediated by the advent of the internet. Noting that patent searching could be made profitable by emphasizing the mental work over the clerical work, they knew they would have to diversify the business from a copy service to a research service.

The couple’s first obstacle, however, was procuring the company. At the time, Dave was instead planning to open a restaurant and had secured several investors for the project. The owners of Landon wanted $1.2 million for it, with a $400 thousand down payment. The Hunts only had $5 thousand socked away, but Dave was convinced they could swing it after conducting a cash flow analysis and with the help of investors. He then launched an all-out campaign to win over both the investors and the owners. “At some point, the light bulb went off and the owners decided they wanted to sell to me,” Dave remembers. “One investor, however, was not as cooperative, and Amy ultimately put her foot down and resolved that the bargain would do more harm than good.

It was a very tense time, but in the end, and through a combination of resources and heart, we reached a deal with the owners that worked for everyone.”

The deal closed on June 1, 1998, and the company drew $1.4 million in revenue that year. Amy joined the team in 2000, and aside from the devastating effects of the Recession felt in 2009, Landon IP has grown steadily since 1986. Today, the company earns about $25 million in revenue and employs a team of 160 people. Known as the 800-pound gorilla in professional patent searching, it remains fiercely competitive and firmly committed to making a difference in its industry by creating real value and great return on investment. Now specializing in legal and technical translations and advanced patent training in addition to searching, Landon IP has recently opened offices in England and Japan, lending a worldwide presence to an already world-class service.

In advising young entrepreneurs entering the business world today, Dave stresses the importance of pursuing a career path in line with one’s true passions and interests—something that he feels is often overlooked today. “Young people will tell me that they want to go to law school, for example, but they really don’t know why,” he points out. “They think lawyers are prestigious and make a lot of money, but they can’t tell you what type of lawyer they’d want to be, or why. We condition our kids to do well in school, to get involved in a wide set

Profiles in Success: Inspiration from Executive Leaders in the Washington D.C. Area — Volume 3

of activities, to work hard, and to get a good job, but we don’t do a good enough job at teaching them to ask that fundamental inner question of themselves: why?”

Asking this question is what has allowed Dave not only to live life, but also to create it. By fusing opportunity from the raw material of circumstance and experience, he and Amy have synthesized a business that their employees and clients can count on. “I try to learn

from every situation and opportunity I’m faced with, whether it’s reading a book, interacting with someone, or observing the news,” Dave explains. “Regardless of what I’m encountering, I’m always asking how it can change our lives or benefit the company.” Remaining constantly in tune with life in this way, Dave not only lives it to the fullest, but also invests himself to the fullest in all that he does.

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Tony Jimenez Going All In “How many of you have money to start your own company?” Tony Jimenez asks a room of budding young entrepreneurs. A sea of hands go up.

“How many of you used your homes to get that money?” he continues. About half the hands disappear.

“How many of you are willing to lose your home, everything in your IRA, everything you had ever hoped to put aside?” Only five or six brave hands remain in the air.

“The rest of you can go home; you’re not ready,” he concludes.

As the President and CEO of MicroTechnologies, LLC, or MicroTech, Tony has certainly walked the walk of going all in. The equity in his home, his credit cards, his 401k, and his wife’s retirement with the Federal government—all were put on the line in the hopes that MicroTech would persevere through the fledgling stages that spell certain doom for so many entrepreneurial endeavors. On several occasions, he told his wife that he couldn’t make it past the first of the month. He turned to his parents or to people he knew who owed him money, offering them a discount if they paid early. Once he was within 48 hours of calling the whole thing quits, when he suddenly received a check in the mail that would get him through the next month. “I had done everything I could do and ran out of options, and once again I was blessed,” he remembers. “If you really want to start a business, you have to be willing to go all in and hope that luck will make up the difference.”

Originally founded as a one-man show at Tony’s kitchen table in 2004, MicroTech has transformed into an award-winning technology integrator that employs a team of around 450 people in over 25 states today.

The company specializes in identifying, developing, and delivering the most efficient, best-of-breed technology solutions to their customers, and ensuring that large agencies like the Department of Defense and the Social Security Administration are all developing information structures that can operate efficiently together.

“When you’ve got a lot of pieces all operating differently

at different levels of efficiency, there’s going to be waste and it’s going to be a mess,” Tony points out. “Our government and Fortune 500 companies are realizing that commonality breeds efficiency, and MicroTech serves to create and enforce that commonality.”

When he left the Army after 24 years of service that instilled in him a dogged commitment to achievement, Tony’s dream was to work for big business in order to hone his expertise enough to launch his own operation. “I figured that, if I looked at big business and how those companies worked in cooperative arrangements with smaller businesses, I would get a feel for how it was done,” Tony explains. “I already knew enough to get started, but I also knew there was a piece missing in terms of how those arrangements come together, and I wanted to make sure my knowledge base was comprehensive.” With this in mind, he went to work for Unisys, where he was involved with small business partnerships and was exposed to a wide range of small companies. “I was shocked at the success of some of those businesses that really weren’t very good,” he says. “It formed my vision of what I needed to do going forward.” Tony took this knowledge and firmed up a business plan he had been working on, thus laying out the official foundations of MicroTech.

Shortly after launching his company, Tony realized that, if he was going to achieve what he hoped to in the timeline he had set for himself, he’d need to bring in some partners to invest money and knowledge, and to provide support. “I had some doors slammed in my face, but several people saw the spark,” he reports. “I could speak Army fluently, but little else. Still, they recognized the passion in my entrepreneurial spirit and were willing to throw gas on the flame to keep it going.”

Tony has now been working with the same two partners for the last seven years, and the tremendously positive working relationship between the three has been a driving force in MicroTech’s success.

MicroTech has done five acquisitions over that seven-year period, but Tony acknowledges that purchasing

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smaller companies becomes increasingly difficult when doing business with the government because so many contracts are conditional on the size of the business. Therefore, MicroTech would need to acquire operations roughly its own size, which requires more capital. Regardless, Tony forecasts definite growth in the company’s future. “We spend a lot of time looking at where the market is going and what the government, big business, and small companies need from technology to make things more accessible and efficient,” Tony affirms. “As I’m building this machine, I have to make sure that everything I add to it, whether through partnerships, acquisitions, or organic growth, is an investment in the ultimate growth of the overall capability of the solution we’re developing.”

How does one acquire the tools to build this kind of machine? Tony’s father equipped his children with an unparalleled work ethic, driving home the point that there’s no substitution for hard work. “He taught us that, if you don’t work harder than everyone around you, you won’t be noticed,” Tony explains. “For him, success was bred from hard work, perseverance, and passion. He’d say that anyone can sell a product, but if you love what you sell, you’ll sell a lot more of it. Because it makes you passionate, loving what you do is 90 percent of being good at what you do.” Tony cut lawns and delivered newspapers as a boy, and his father was a great support mechanism for that.

Though Tony’s father also placed a high premium on education, Tony himself wasn’t sold on the idea because, when he was younger, he couldn’t be sure where it would lead him. His guidance counselor in high school was convinced he wasn’t college material and advised him to consider an occupation instead of an education.

This message, combined with the fact that he knew very few college graduates, engendered the mindset that college just wasn’t an option for him. Instead, Tony felt his greatest avenue for growth lay in seeing more of the world and diving into what was out there.

Pursuing this dream, he enlisted in the military and settled into the Military Police branch. He subsequently left the military to attend college at night and was ultimately hired as a Colorado Public Safety Officer.

“I loved that it was truly selfless work,” he remembers.

“I was giving back to my community and providing a service, which was extremely fulfilling and definitely in line with the hands-on kind of work I had always envisioned for myself, but after several years it became clear to me that something was missing.” That something was the military service he had left, and he reenlisted to spend a year on active duty before he was offered a scholarship in that capacity.

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For that period of his life, Tony was attending school full time during the day, studying about six hours a night, and sleeping one. “After meeting more people and gaining a new perspective, I started to believe for the first time that it was possible for me to succeed in advanced education if I gave it a shot,” he explains. Defying the expectations of everyone except his father, he graduated with honors at the top of his class and earned his degree in business in 1984. Through his scholarship, he earned a dual degree in business and counseling, and he reports now that he probably uses his counseling degree more than he uses his business degree. “Counseling is something I love because I have a passion for helping people,” he avows. “That education helps me understand when and how people are impacted by things you wouldn’t otherwise be tuned into.”

After earning his first masters degree in 1993 and his second in 1999, he began working on his third in 2000. While working on his Bachelors degree in 1982, he accepted a position at a large cable company, where he quickly rose up the ranks. “At that time, I made some heart decisions as opposed to money decisions,” he concedes. He walked away from a salary twice as large as he would have been earning as a lieutenant so that he could pursue a career as an officer in the Military.

After retiring from the Army as a lieutenant colonel and accepting a position at Unisys, Tony again walked away from a great salary to launch MicroTech, knowing he wouldn’t be able to pay himself for the first year. “I found ways to keep the company moving in the right direction, and about eight months into the process I reached a point where I was bringing enough money in that I could start paying myself,” he recounts.

In advising young entrepreneurs entering the business world today, Tony echoes his father in advocating for that particular blend of traits that makes for a great entrepreneurial character. “A good degree is certainly important, but when you actually get out there in the hustle and bustle, you have to love what you do and do it better than anyone else,” he emphasizes. “Through experience, you’ll collect tools to help you do this along the way, but they’ll mean nothing without a sturdy foundation of strong work ethic, passion, and the pursuit of excellence. Lay out your plan, and don’t be satisfied with mediocrity. People take this for granted, but the beauty is that we have the opportunity to do this in America.”

Indeed, the beauty of the American Dream is that it is available to all. Yet for those select few who really are willing to go all-in, to risk everything and call on every resource and faculty at their disposal in their drive

Profiles in Success: Inspiration from Executive Leaders in the Washington D.C. Area — Volume 3

toward success, these individuals will come to embody the American character that goes beyond individual accomplishment and that reflects true achievement. “My great fear today,” Tony allows, “is that there will be those who will see my success and wonder how I do it, that I don’t seem to work hard at all. But even now, I still take

risks on a regular basis. I remain “all in,” and as long as I’m involved with MicroTech, I always will be.” It is those who are prepared for total commitment in the face of great adversity and risk, who even at the brink are willing to give even more of themselves, who create for themselves the greatest opportunities for success.

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Ned Johnson Mind Over Matter When Ned Johnson, a student at Williams College, first agreed to help a friend with her tutoring group, his motivations were not entirely altruistic. In fact, Ned had a crush on this particular girl and readily allowed her to drag him to a local high school each day to teach. Ned soon came to find, however, that he felt as natural in a teaching role as he did with the young lady—so natural, in fact, that both would become the cornerstones of his adult life.

Now married to that same girl he met all those years ago, Ned is also the proud President of PrepMatters, a tutoring and test preparation tour de force assisting students in the D.C. metro area. “The organization is so much a part of who I am now, that I’m that guy who goes on vacation and still loves to talk about business,” he laughs. “It’s so innate to me that it doesn’t feel like work.”

PrepMatters, like most test prep organizations, helps people to surmount the hurdles standing between where they are and the high school, college, or graduate school they hope to attend. What sets it in a category all its own, however, is its uniquely holistic and in-depth approach to identifying and clearing those hurdles. “I fundamentally reject the idea that these tests measure some kind of immutable, fixed ability,” Ned stresses. “It’s more about academic and test-taking skills, not innate intelligence. Everything on these exams is learnable.” This philosophy forms the foundational principles of his organization: encouraging students and their tutors to extend the limits of their expectations, and truly considering the mechanisms at work that might be preventing a student from meeting those expectations. Through this ideology, each student is granted a new degree of agency, and each tutor is challenged to get him or her to that higher bar.

One particularly interesting aspect of Ned’s leadership style is the fact that he didn’t start with a business plan—a reality that stands in stark contrast to his tutoring philosophy, which is chiefly goal-oriented. “The idea of setting worthwhile goals and helping people find success is huge because it becomes a never-ending,

reflective, and living process,” he observes. “Once one mountain is tackled, we work with students to identify, approach, and tackle the next one. “ When it comes to conquering these mountains, Ned doesn’t shy away from the many Everests he comes across, and this is perhaps the defining element that makes PrepMatters so unique. “We are more than just test prep tutors; we’re test prep therapists,” Ned points out, placing an emphasis on the psychological considerations in which his approach is so deeply rooted.

“Study skills and test prep are inherently linked to memory, motivation, lifestyle, and psychological mind-set, so we take all these factors into consideration when helping each individual student reach his or her potential.”

Ned has come face-to-face with an array of emotionally trying experiences in his own life, and it is perhaps for this precise reason that he so excels at helping children tease out the subtle nuance of emotional conflict now. “When I come across an individual who is working with a lot of emotional baggage, I throw myself into the fray,” he concedes. “I believe in deliberate practice—improving oneself through embracing the challenges that nobody else believes can be taken on.

I guess I’m just arrogant enough to believe I can help when other people can’t,” he jokes.

Ned may speak in jest of his confidence, but the reality of the observation is indisputable. Therapy is, after all, about understanding, and the ability to personally relate to a student who is dealing with psychological conflicts imparts a kind of understanding that is as unique as it is authentic and meaningful. Similarly, personally triumphing over one’s hurdles allows one to speak with true and compelling authority in advising young people dealing with their own obstacles. After turning the divorce of his parents into an affirmation of his own agency, Ned is a living example of this triumph.

“With the divorce, I learned that, when push came to shove, there would be no cavalry to save me,” he recalls. “Though painful, it was ultimately inspiring

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to discover that I am personally responsible for all my failures and all my successes. That is certainly an empowering idea.”

Despite Ned’s demonstrated affinity for his profession today and his brush with tutoring in college, Ned did not immediately intend to pursue such a path.

Rather, upon graduating from Williams with a degree in economics, he initially sought a traditional investment job but didn’t find anything that suited him. Fortuitously, he then came across a local test prep company.

“I was good at standardized tests and at working with high school students, and it was better than waiting tables, so I accepted it and worked in that capacity for two years,” he remembers. He did not, however, see eye to eye with his employer—a reality that he now considers extremely fortunate considering it compelled him to strike out on his own. “If my boss had been a different guy, it’s very likely that I would still be there,” Ned marvels. “It was a tremendous risk to jump into this with student loans and no financial support, so I feel lucky that I had the motivation to do so.”

This less-than-ideal professional experience was also beneficial in that it left a void that Ned himself was challenged to fulfill. If one coworker failed to show up for an appointment, Ned would naturally assume responsibility and step up to the plate to ensure that the student was taken care of, and this strong exhibition of integrity garnered respect and trust in those who observed it. He came to be known as “the guy you want” by those seeking tutoring and test prep services, and this reputation proved invaluable when he started PrepMatters.

After embarking on his solo professional adventure in January of 1996, Ned found that he had impressed enough clients during his previous employment that business was good from the outset. Those initial clients, in turn, referred more clients to the point that he could no longer handle the volume alone and began hiring help. The operation remained modest throughout its fledgling years with three to five employees until the early 2000s, when Ned upped the ante somewhat.

“At that point I could identify what worked and didn’t work, and I was able to adjust the business model such that we built more infrastructure to support our employees and accelerate the learning curve,” he explains.

Today, PrepMatters touches the lives of approximately 2,000 students per year, assisting with everything from isolated essay assignments to full-fledged academic support, coaching and educational counseling. Not surprisingly, Ned’s management philosophy somewhat mirrors his approach to goal setting for his students in that it involves well-constructed targets 74

that everyone agrees upon and offer flexibility in their means of achievement. The orientation of the PrepMatters team is non-hierarchical, with each employee selected for his or her “rock star” affinity for teaching and ability to connect with students. Ned himself tends to put in over 2,000 hours of one-on-one face time annually while balancing the running of the business with the management of personnel.

Despite this demanding yet rewarding work schedule, he still prioritizes his roles of husband and father, ensuring that he recognizes the lessons and best practices he has accumulated from his own life experiences and applies them to his home life, just as they are evidenced in his career. “My company is based on an enduring faith in the resilience of the human spirit—in the ability of a person to identify and overcome his or her obstacles, both internal and external,” he observes.

“We can take these lessons and build better environments for our own children, and that’s what I aim for every day with mine.”

In advising young people entering the business world today, Ned emphasizes the importance of self-reflection in selecting an optimal career path. “I think that a person should sit down and really think about what he likes to do and what he’s naturally good at,” he says.

“Many times, people dismiss things they’re naturally good at because they assume they’re easy for everyone, but this is certainly not the case. Figure out what you already excel in and see if there are ways to explore that.”

He also cautions against fear of failure, which always makes a risk seem more insurmountable than it really is. “When taking a risk or considering a mistake, envision the worst thing that could happen,” he advises.

“When you see that you’ll survive this worst-case scenario, let go of your fear. The most important thing is adaptability. Approach things with a forward-thinking attitude and always have Plans B and C on hand in case Plan A doesn’t work out.”

Operating without fear in this manner, Ned is free to take more leaps of faith, which in turn have the greatest impact. When this momentum is coupled with the direction imparted through goal-setting, the result is truly compelling, whether it’s instigating change in the life of one student or on a more structural and national level, where Ned claims it is also sorely needed.

“For the one who is ignorant of the port where he’s sailing, no wind is favorable,” he says, quoting the Roman philosopher Lucius Annaeus Seneca. “I’ve got my goals of effecting change, and many of my best decisions in this regard stem from those times when someone says ‘wouldn’t it be cool if …’ and I actually pursue that.”

Profiles in Success: Inspiration from Executive Leaders in the Washington D.C. Area — Volume 3

Indeed, when life is thought of as an 80-year business plan, this system of risk and reward fits naturally into the framework.

At once the science of preparatory skills and the art of therapeutic reflection, it suffices to say that PrepMatters offers living proof of mind over matter, helping thousands of students to master their material through

a mastery of self. “When you change how kids do on a test and likewise how they fundamentally feel about themselves, that is the neatest feeling ever,” Ned reflects.

“As the philosophy goes, we are what we think, and it’s amazing to see how our work enables kids to gain a different sense of themselves and how they will carry themselves throughout the rest of their lives.”

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Sonny Kakar Taking the Higher Road for Faith and Family When Sonny Kakar’s father first stepped onto American soil at LaGuardia airport in 1975 with his wife and two small children, he did not speak any English and only had $7 in his pocket. Four of those dollars had to be used for the taxi that would take them to their connecting flight to Washington, DC, which was departing from nearby JFK airport. Upon arrival, the family would be welcomed by the uncle who sponsored their entry into the U.S. Born in India, Sonny’s parents gave up a lot to come here. But what they hoped to gain—a better life and education for Sonny and his sister— was much more valuable to them. In their native land, the Kakar’s lived the equivalent of an upper middle class lifestyle and were involved in a family-owned business. But Sonny’s father wanted more for his children; he wanted them to get an education.

“I give them lots of credit for making such a bold move,” admits Sonny.

“They didn’t speak the language and they had never been to America before. It must have been daunting to cross the world and just arrive without a plan. It’s actually kind of amazing to me.”

Although his father had a very good job in telecommunications, his engineering degree didn’t translate well in the competitive telecom market in the U.S. “So he did whatever he had to do, mostly blue collar work, to make ends meet,” Sonny shares. Within a year, his father got a job at the Baltimore Washington International Airport.

“He worked the afternoon shift from 4 to 12pm and was not home in the evenings. During the day, he had odd and end jobs to earn extra money.”

Sonny’s mother also shared a strong work ethic, taking jobs at different fast food restaurants, until she got a position with the Government Employees Insurance Company (GEICO) performing data entry work.

“My mom is the ultimate caregiver; she worked full-time and didn’t skip a beat when she came home, cooking dinner and taking care of everything. They are both really super hard workers,” he says proudly.

From these beginnings, Sonny Kakar learned the value of a hard day’s work and putting family first. He was also

grounded in the traditional spiritual practice of the family religion, Sikhism. “Sikhism is the fifth largest religion in the world, even larger than Judaism, but it’s not as well-known in this part of the world,” informs Sonny. “It identifies everyone as equals and a part of the universal brotherhood.

Service is a big part of what our faith believes in and it’s such a huge part of me, what I do every day, and what I grew up doing. I wanted to bring that into my business.”

Sonny’s firm, Sevatec, Inc., is a full service technology and management consulting firm serving the U.S. Federal Government. At only eight years old, it boasts 150 employees and more than $20 million in revenue. As a government contractor, Sevatec’s core focus area is helping government organizations solve their most complex, mission-critical challenges focused around strategy, technology solutions, cyber security, identity management, and human capital. Sevatec excels at complex systems engineering and integration for Law Enforcement, Homeland Security, and Defense and Civilian Agencies.

They work with a network of partners to address a client’s challenges and achieve their mission-critical objectives, efficiently.

The desire to create a business based on his personal core values was the genesis of the company name.

The word ‘seva’, in the language of Panjabi, means ‘a commitment to lifelong service’.

“That became the core element of what was going to be our differentiator,” Sonny notes. “We were going to provide a service commitment that would be unparalleled in the competitive D.C. landscape.”

Sonny was first inspired to explore government contracting while working at Karta Technologies, a company based in San Antonio, Texas, and owned by his wife’s uncle. “It was my first exposure to government contracting. San Antonio is a huge military town. When I began to meet people professionally, I saw people who stayed with companies for years. The loyalty was unbelievable. I fell in love with that culture.”

Three and a half years after opening a location in the D.C. area for Karta, Sonny decided it was time to start

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his own business. It was in late 2003 and Sonny and his wife were expecting their first child.

“I had to ask my wife if it made sense to start this company, especially since we were expecting our first child,” he recalls. “She’s absolutely the pillar and my motivation for even getting started,” he admits.

Luckily, she gave him the thumbs ups, and it’s been thumbs up ever since. For the last three years, Sevatec has been ranked by Inc. Magazine as one of the fastestgrowing private companies in the United States.

“In the beginning, it was a struggle to attract and retain the right talent. We continued to invest in our core values and corporate culture—which eventually resonated with our existing and future employees,” he relays. Looking beyond just technical competency, Sonny wanted to know how potential employees were really wired. He wanted to assemble a team of people who would make decisions based on the core values that they all believed in. For him, it was all centered around ‘seva’.

Two key components of Sevatec’s success are building a strong relationship with each employee and providing growth opportunities within the firm.

“I try to make a personal connection with every single employee. Even with 150 employees, I still know everyone’s name in the firm,” Sonny reports.

In fact, he still sends handwritten birthday cards for every employee and makes an effort to get to know each of them personally during regular visits.

“It is important to build a relationship with each of our employees. It helps us continue to maintain a positive and high-energy culture and build employee and employer loyalty.”

Several years ago, Sevatec’s employee attrition rate was a respectable18%. Today it’s less than 10%.

“One of the commitments we make to our employees is that we want to provide them a career at Sevatec.

That means we want to hire them for the current opportunity and also provide them with their next career move within the firm. We have to be extremely growth oriented to keep retention high and career opportunities plentiful. So we’ve invested in training, education, and employee development.”

Sonny’s dedication to creating employee longevity has also been noted within the local business community. Recently, Sevatec was named a finalist for the Helios Apollo Award that recognizes employers in the Washington metropolitan region that promote employee growth and development as an integral part of their organizational culture.

In Sonny’s opinion, relationships are key. “My most significant mentor was my wife’s uncle, because I really 78

learned about the importance of building a good team and how to identify people who can truly help make your business successful,” he affirms. “My uncle who sponsored us has also grounded me in a belief system that would not have been there had he not been so proactively involved.”

In turn, Sonny wants to instill that same positive value system into his children. “I want my kids to be able to make really good decisions based on the foundational principles of remembering God, helping others, and giving an honest day’s work.” This commitment to his kids is non-negotiable.

“One of the things that my wife and I agreed to when I started the company was that I was always going to be home for dinner and that I would avoid regular travel. And I’ve been able to build that relationship with our kids, so my quality of life, even though I work hard, has been fantastic.”

Growing up, Sonny attributes his commitment and direction to his parents. Because his parents were set on him being an engineer, Sonny pursued a degree in mechanical engineering. After college, he went to India and was involved in entrepreneurial projects.

“It ended up being a disaster from a financial and investment standpoint, but it was absolutely the most amazing growth experience of my life, mostly, because I knew that nothing could get that bad again.”

So deep is Sonny’s commitment to family that he and his wife agreed that whenever either of their parents needed them, they would be there, and that they would never put them in a home or retirement community. Sonny’s mother and father (who recently retired) now live with them.

“There are seven people in our house now—two parents, three kids and my wife and I,” he laughs.

Sonny’s commitment to family extends to the Sikh community as well and he is a dedicated contributor to organizations that increase cultural awareness about the Sikh people.

“People are ignorant of Sikh Americans and many have been harmed because they were mistakenly identified as terrorists. We’ve been very active and proactive in organizations like Sikh Coalition, The Sikh Research Institute and various other nonprofits designed to increase awareness and education about Sikh Americans,” says Sonny.

As a CEO, Sonny Kakar leads by example. He shows genuine appreciation for his clients, he pledges loyalty to his employees, he possesses a relentless commitment to hurdling barriers, and he models a well-lived life of balance. He doesn’t lead from behind a desk, but rather in the trenches, face-to-face and soul-to-soul, connecting to the shared core values that he has centered his life upon—his family, his business and his faith.

Profiles in Success: Inspiration from Executive Leaders in the Washington D.C. Area — Volume 3

David Kohlasch Off the Beaten Path When David Kohlasch graduated from high school in 1978, he had no plans to go to college. Instead, he wanted to see the world. He had a friend living in Las Vegas at the time, which seemed as much a part of that “world” he wanted to experience as any other place, so he and three other friends decided to throw caution to the wind and set out on their own. “I threw everything I owned into my Mazda,” he remembers today. “I didn’t have more than $400 in my pocket.”

That $400 didn’t last long, and David soon landed a job at the front desk of a hotel called the Holiday Casino. “School wasn’t even on my radar screen,” he explains. “I was eighteen years old, working and having fun, living paycheck to paycheck and figuring out what I was going to do.” After a few months, however, the answer seemed apparent to him.

His personality fit well with the fast-paced, service-oriented, 24-hours-a-day lifestyle of the hotel business, and for the first time, he felt a keen sense of certainty about his future.

“This is it,” he remembers thinking. Now the general manager of Landsowne Resort, a 300-room, all-inclusive paradise nestled in Leesburg, Virginia, David couldn’t have been more right.

The thirty intervening years would be a long and winding path, but David never once questioned his commitment to the industry—even in those early years when he came face to face with the prospect of putting himself through school. It just so happened that the University of Nevada, Las Vegas, had a phenomenal hospitality program, but David was well aware that, if he wanted to go, it was up to him to make it happen. Growing up as the youngest of eight children, his father was a fisherman who owned a boatyard, while his mother worked in a hospital as a nurse’s assistant. “I didn’t have a silver spoon of any kind,” he laughs. “My parents were putting two of my older brothers through school at the time, and I knew the resources just weren’t there to support me.”

His parents did, however, equip him with the most valuable resource of all: a work ethic strong enough to propel him through the five years it took to finish college while working full-time. His father was an advocate of

“the school of hard knocks” as the greatest learning tool around, and David recalls both parents working with unparalleled commitment to support the large family. This work ethic was honed by the fact that young David had to contend with his seven older siblings for everything he wanted. “We have a great family and love each other very much, but as the youngest, I was always the one who had to kick and scratch and fight for whatever I wanted,” he remembers. “Soccer was the Kohlasch sport, and I was always the youngest one out on the field.”

Things changed a bit, however, when David was struck with a wave of independence and quit the soccer team after his sophomore year of high school. “Everyone was upset that I had broken the family tradition, but I just realized that I didn’t enjoy it,” he concedes. “I was good at it, but my heart wasn’t in it.” With the extra time, he landed a job as a cook in a restaurant, supplementing that modest income by raking leaves, shoveling snow, and doing other odd-jobs around peoples’ houses. Following his own interests and breaking with the beaten path in this manner lit a flame of confidence within the young man, laying the foundation of firm conviction and independence that compelled him to hop in that Mazda several years later.

His strength of character was certainly tested by that dramatic change of lifestyle after high school, yet his principles remained strong. “I didn’t return to New York for several years, and there were certainly times I felt homesick sitting in the middle of that Las Vegas desert,” he muses. “There were times, as well, when I questioned whether I should actually continue the pursuit of my degree or not. I was working forty to fifty hours a week doing the overnight shift at the hotel while taking classes during the day, and I wondered every now and then if it was all worth it. But I knew I loved the hotel business, and on those occasions when I wondered whether I actually needed that diploma, I’d call my mother and she would reaffirm the importance of sticking it through.”

Even after earning his degree, however, David continued to find that the hotel industry was not for the

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faint of heart. “There were times I was working ninety to a hundred hours a week—it’s just the nature of the business,” he remarks. “You get a lot of kids coming out of hospitality school these days who simply don’t understand the reality they’re about to enter. Don’t get me wrong, book knowledge is great, but a 40-hour week will only be enough time to get your paperwork done in this business. It’s the extra 25 hours you put in that will really make a difference in advancing your career and getting you where you want to go.”

David was willing to put in those extra 25 to 60 hours, and it did indeed launch him forward. After earning his bachelor’s degree in hotel management, he accepted a position in a hotel in Dallas, Texas, where he acted as a management trainee for six months—the beginning of his management career. After remaining in Dallas for two years, he moved to Boston and then to Orlando before transferring back to Boston. “In the hotel business, you have to be mobile, and I was bouncing around from city to city for a while,” he points out.

After returning to Boston, however, life stabilized somewhat and he had the privilege of working with John Drew, a true visionary who saw the potential in David and offered avenues to cultivate that potential time and again. Drew was the president of the World Trade Center, a convention center nestled in the heart of Boston Harbor. “I would sit in meetings with him and hear his vision of things, half the time thinking it was impossible,” David recalls. “But then, nine times out of ten, at some point perhaps two years down the line, those visions would come to fruition.”

One such vision was Drew’s dream to start a food company within the Center and with David at the helm, and it wasn’t long before Sebastian’s Catering was born.

Within six years, it was earning $30 million a year in revenue, employing 500 people, and servicing six states. “John Drew gave me all the freedom and resources I needed to build that operation from the ground up, and we created an incredible company,” David reminisces. “The experience really taught me that, when you have the right people working with you and with the right vision and support, you can do things you never thought you could do before.

We went through blood and sweat and tears to get there, but in the end we had a very successful business.”

Then, in 1999, Drew invited David to veer off the beaten path yet again by helping him launch a management company in Virginia. David, who had started a family by that point, accepted the challenge, and the Kohlaschs moved south. A full seventy percent of the job was real estate and asset management—something he had little previous experience in. “One of the reasons I 80

took the job was because I wanted a whole new business,” he remembers. “I learned a lot and even got to manage the Ronald Reagan building here in DC, but after three years, I decided to return full-time to my passion, which was the hotel side of the business.” With that, David accepted a position at Flik International, a subsidiary of the largest food service company in the world, Compass Group. At that time, in 2002, they had just launched a hotel conference center management division, and David was there to guide the development of the practice from the ground up as he had done with Sebastian’s Catering.

There’s no question, then, that the common themes permeating David’s story are an entrepreneurial dexterity that is only paralleled by the other, his proficiency in service. In fact, it was exactly this combination of tried-andtrue business savvy coupled with that keen awareness of his customers’ every need that first compelled the Landsowne team to approach David for the general manager position in 2009. The resort had been a pillar of support and pride for the surrounding community for over two decades, and its spas, golf courses, and fine dining options had won it renown as one of the Mid-Atlantic’s premier resort and event destinations. David understood its allure to guests particularly well because, prior to assuming the position, he frequented the resort for ten years as a guest himself. “I knew the terrain from both the customer angle and from the business angle,” he affirms. “I had a good perspective of what the service was and what it could be, and the past several years have undoubtedly been a win-win for both the owners and for me.”

In advising young entrepreneurs entering the business world today, David avows that, when it comes to seeking professional success, it’s all about heart. “To this day, I firmly believe that life is way too short to not do what you love,” he says. “I tell my kids everyday to forget about the money, because as long as you’re doing what you love, the money will come. Go where your heart tells you to go, because that’s what life is all about.

That’s why I’ve been in the hotel business for thirty years and can still approach each day with the same thrill and enthusiasm I had when I first started.”

Indeed, by keeping his compass set to his greatest passion and letting it lead him along paths both familiar and new, David has led a life defined by jobs well done.

“It comes from being in the service industry my whole life, from that very first day I started as a restaurant cook,” he says. “Everything you do, give it all you’ve got.

If you’re raking leaves, finish at the end of the day without a single leaf left in the yard. Make sure it’s perfect.

Success is giving it all you’ve got and leaving it all on the battlefield, wherever that battlefield may be.”

Profiles in Success: Inspiration from Executive Leaders in the Washington D.C. Area — Volume 3

Alan Kruglak Never Just a Number As a small business owner with over thirty years of experience in the security systems integration industry, Alan Kruglak has an interesting perspective to contribute to the age old debate on whether size matters.

For him, his partners, his employees, and his clients, it most certainly does. “In general, small businesses see things differently from the way big corporations do.

They understand that, if you take care of your customers and employees, they’ll take care of you,” he observes.

“Bigger corporations don’t seem to realize that there’s so much more to business and to life than profit, and they often act accordingly.” As the cofounder of Genesis Security Systems, LLC he has dedicated his career to offering an alternative.

Indeed, working at large corporations certainly has its perks, but Alan sees the small business route as the best path for him because it affords control over one’s own world. “The joy isn’t about making money. Of course it’s important to make money, but the value really stems from your ability to create livelihoods for your employees,” he describes. “Most large companies have rules and stock prices and can’t have the same amount of compassion for their customers and employees. For Genesis, however, if the company does well, the employees do well. If the company doesn’t do well, it’s the management that takes that bullet, not the employees.”

Alan launched Genesis in 2002 along with three cofounders, one of which was his older brother, Glen.

Since that day, Genesis has made a name for itself as a premier security systems integration company specializing in design, installation, maintenance, and monitoring for commercial clients. With clients like AARP, World Bank, and the Howard Hughes Medical Institute, they also do a lot of work with government contractors.

“For me, a great success in any business is partnership, and I’m especially grateful and beholden for the relationships between by my partners and me,” he says. “I look at them as an extended family of sorts. I just can’t believe how lucky I am to be with partners that are both

incredibly talented and great friends.”

Prior to launching Genesis, Alan and his brother had started another company called GIC, which grew to 200 employees and was generating about $20 million in revenue when they sold it in 1995 to Sensormatic, which was later bought by Siemens. Equipped with a wealth of knowledge from the whole experience, he took the following four months to try his hand at writing a book.

The Entrepreneur’s Handbook was met with widespread enthusiasm, and he was invited all around the country to lecture on the material. He then decided to write three more books, which allowed him to work from home and spend valuable time with his young children.

After his foray into writing, Alan was approached by two former employees that had previously worked for him at GIC. Their current employer, a large multinational company, lacked the personal attention to customer service that had made Alan’s business so successful, and these individuals asked him if he might be interested in getting back into the industry again. “The timing was right—I was ready to get back into something meaningful,” Alan reflects.

“I talked to my brother, and that’s when we decided to put Genesis together. We applied all the lessons we had learned from the other company we built, and it’s worked wonderfully. Today, we’ve got great employees, great customers, and I love what I do. It’s a match made in Heaven.”

Alan grew up in Washington, DC, with three older brothers. The four boys worked in their parents’ 1,200 square foot music store, and Alan credits this as the experience that first taught him the art of excellent customer service. “I know it’s cliché, but the customer really is always right because they’re the ones who are signing your paycheck,” he points out. “Those early days in the retail business taught me what I know today, and in the intervening years I’ve really noticed that most companies really aren’t delivering the highest level of service that they could be. Most businesses are looking at it from the perspective that they’re important to

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the customer, but it should be the other way around.

They should be thinking in terms of how important the customer is to them.”

Alan studied environmental management and public policy in college at the University of Wisconsin and Duke, and although he doesn’t use those skills directly today, his course of study did hone sharp analytical and writing skills that always come in handy. “When you’re an 18 year old kid, you go to college and you find that every year yields a different dream,” he laughs. “But you learn.” Upon graduation, he accepted a position at Booz Allen, and this experience taught him exactly what he didn’t want to do with his life. “It was a great company, but I knew after a year that I didn’t want to work for a large entity,” he says. “It confirmed for me that I wanted to get involved in a small family business—one in which I had more control and felt as though I had a more meaningful impact.”

With this concept as his motivation, Alan left Booz Allen in 1980 and joined the fledgling company his father had recently launched. The family’s music business had morphed over the years into a security electronics business, which was a very infant industry at the time. The entire enterprise consisted of Alan, two of his brothers, his father, and one receptionist. At 25, he had little experience in that line of work, but his older brother gave him a quick and dirty lesson on sales. One, know your product. Two, never lie or misrepresent your product. And three, always put your feet in the other guy’s shoes. Equipped with these concepts, Alan sat down with the phonebook and began looking for business, making cold calls to economic development associations for different counties. Within that first week, he actually picked up two major accounts worth around $200 thousand, which was big money for the small fiveman company.

“I had one advantage that a lot of people in our industry didn’t have, and that was my ability to write— to structure my thoughts into a cohesive argument,” Alan explains. “So we grew the company.” The family business hazarded close to bankruptcy several times, but Alan credits these mistakes for the savvy he has accumulated now. In 1987, with $3 million in debt, the Kruglaks called on a financial guru to implement a massive restructuring of the company, and after three years of zero-base budgeting, that debt was reduced to nothing. This may seem like a Herculean feat to some, but for Alan, it was a no-brainer. “When you’ve got your family and employees counting on you, you do absolutely whatever it takes to make that company survive,” he says resolutely.

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Alan then hired someone with a background in the software industry to run the sales aspect, and that individual introduced the industry’s standard compensation plan to the company. Consequently, during the time between 1992 and 1994, their sales doubled from $10 to $20 million. That’s when they decided to retire and sell, but as history indicates, Alan quickly discovered that every ending holds new beginnings in its wake.

Today, Alan and his team of around 45 employees at Genesis focus on several key systems products that cover access control, closed circuit television, intrusion detection and alarms, intercom and emergency communications, and command and control consoles.

“We remain highly specialized in what we do because I never want to be a jack of all trades and a master of none,” Alan points out. “I want to stick to offerings that will attract those customers who want to create that partnership relationship. Our customers are never numbers to us, and we don’t want to be just a number to them either.”

Though this specialization has been key in setting Genesis apart today, Alan would not have been able to accomplish it without first building a diverse base of knowledge and skills. In fact, in advising young entrepreneurs as they enter the business world now, Alan emphasizes the importance of acquiring a breadth of experience before committing to a niche. “Settling on a professional path is a lot like dating,” he points out. “If you marry the first girl you meet, you’re not going to really understand the terrain. As you go out there, pursue your hopes and dreams, but be open to learning and seeing as well. You may find they’re actually not what you want after all, so you need options to really learn and grow.” Beyond this, Alan stresses the pragmatic importance of knowing your numbers if you’re going to run a business. “Know what the market will bear, and price your product accordingly,” he advises.

Having made a mini career out of giving entrepreneurial advice, Alan certainly has a thing or two to say about business ownership. What it all ultimately comes down to, however, is the individual attention, customized expertise, and compassionate service that Genesis’s clients have come to expect—expectations that simply aren’t often met today through the more standardized and impersonal approaches of larger companies. “We look at customers, not margin,” Alan stresses. “And we look at customers not at one point in time, but over the life cycle of their revenue stream. Even if we’re looking at a small project, we know that securing that project for our customers also secures the lifetime of revenue

Profiles in Success: Inspiration from Executive Leaders in the Washington D.C. Area — Volume 3

associated with it. We really take a holistic, forwardthinking approach.”

The consideration with which Alan and his team treat their clients is laced with a compelling optimism and commitment that stems directly from the influence of Alan’s father, who always saw the glass half-full and implored his sons to never give up. “Because of him, I always remember that happiness is a state of mind,” Alan points out now. “If I have a bad day, I just remind myself that I’m not living on the streets of Afghanistan, and I’m not worried about where my next meal is coming from.

Keeping things in perspective and maintaining this positive outlook allows us to keep our focus away from negativity and oriented solely around our clientele.”

Thus, size does matter. It matters because building a business is not just about building a machine, but about building a solution. “I find time and again that business owners are most proud of what they can create, not of how many big houses they can build for themselves,” Alan affirms. “It’s about what they can build for their employees and about how that contributes to the larger community.”

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Paul Maguire Making It Happen Woburn, Massachusetts was not the kind of town its natives usually escaped. Paul Maguire, the son of a union electrician and a stay-at-home mom who witnessed his family and neighbors suffer long periods of unemployment through the 1970s, knew the story all too well. “There was a pattern where I grew up,” he reflects today. “If your father was in the trades, you would go into the trades too. But that’s not what my father wanted for me. In that regard, he became my first mentor.”

Even at a young age, Paul had the foresight and vision to know that it wasn’t what he wanted for himself, either. “I knew exactly how my future would go unless I took matters into my own hands,” he continues. “I’d live at home, go to state school, and come back to be a teacher or to work at Raytheon.

Those were the big opportunities where I was. But I decided I didn’t want to be limited by that, so I made a decision.” Now the president of Ultra Electronics, ProLogic, a government contractor providing breakout information technology services in the DC metropolitan area, it’s safe to say that that decision was the right one.

Truth be told, it wasn’t a single decision that launched Paul down the path to success, but rather a series of positive steps that have successively landed him where he is today, the first of which being his commitment to doing well on the PSAT. Indeed, through his sophomore and junior years in high school, he had the decision to either go home early during his last free period of the day, or to stay for a PSAT class. While the vast majority of his classmates opted to leave campus and have fun, Paul instead invested himself in achieving the score that won him the merit scholarship that paid for his college education. “That decision gave me the freedom to choose where I wanted to go to school,” he remarks.

Paul decided on Long Island University because it offered him a free ride and because of its environmental biology program. “My goal in college was to reinvent myself,” he recalls. “I had done well in high school academically and athletically, but I wasn’t the best in any

category. I decided that, while I was in college, I would start focusing on really trying to be better.” True to his word, he was elected president of both his freshman and sophomore class. He worked with the Dean of Students, now a U.S. congressman from New York, to change the provision in the school’s constitution dictating that only seniors could be student body president, instead opening it up to any class year. He then seized that opportunity and was the first person to serve in that capacity for both their junior and senior years.

Paul had hoped to become an environmental lawyer but thought it best to change his plans after watching President Reagan dismantle the EPA and the Department of the Interior, eliminating many of the jobs he would have been interested in. As he wondered what to do after college instead, he was contacted by the Navy and the military, who were dismayed at the fact that they had not been invited to recruit at the university’s career day since before the Vietnam War. Since military contractors were invited, Paul thought it only made sense to advocate for the presence of military recruiters as well, and the Dean granted permission at his urging. As fate would have it, Paul himself felt drawn to the military, and he entered Aviation Officer Candidate School upon graduating from college.

Paul was commissioned and sent to intelligence school in Denver, Colorado, and was then assigned to a navy carrier. After completing several deployments overseas in the late 1980s, he came to Washington, DC to work at the Office of Naval Intelligence, serving in the Pentagon during Desert Shield and Desert Storm and working for a recently promoted Navy Admiral who allowed him to assist with and attend post war briefings at the White House, the National Security Council, and in Congress.

It was then that Paul came across an opportunity to transition over to the POW-MIA office, an intelligence office that investigated the fates of POWs and MIAs from Korea, Vietnam, and World War II. “They

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were looking for someone two ranks senior to me,” says Paul. “Still, I reached out to the Navy Admiral for a recommendation and got the job.” Through that opportunity, he gained a much broader understanding of the world. Whether he was testifying in Congressional committee hearings or traveling to refugee camps in Hong Kong or on the ground in Vietnam, he found himself challenged by the position, but well equipped to rise to the occasion.

In 1993, however, he and his wife decided it was time to leave the military lifestyle and venture forth into the government contracting realm. Paul accepted a position working for one of his former mentors in the Navy at a small firm, Autometric, which had been around since the 1950s but had not experienced much growth. The company was doing $17 million in revenue when he arrived, yet soon began to experience unprecedented growth, selling in 2000 to Boeing for more than $120 million while doing $104 million in revenue up to that time.

“That growth was all organic, and it really gave me a taste for business,” Paul points out. “I benefited at every step of the way from phenomenal mentors— people who took an interest in showing me how to do just about everything I know about business. I eventually took over business development and marketing for the company, and after Boeing acquired us, I got to sit on the other side of the table and deal with mergers and acquisitions.” Having seen both parts of the equation and feeling as though this wisdom was his life’s calling, Paul knew he wanted to see if he could repeat the process and “make it happen” all over again.

After staying a year at Boeing as part of the Autometric acquisition deal, Paul knew it was time to put his capabilities to the test. One of Boeing’s subcontractors was trying to break into the defense market at the time, and they brought over several key members of the former Autometric team to help build a defense business practice. Paul, along with two former colleagues, formed the new management team for ProLogic in 2001, and their goal was to take the enterprise from $4.7 million to $50 million before selling it.

“After we sold to Boeing, we didn’t have the appetite to go through the bootstrap process and start from scratch,” he remembers. “We wanted a business that had a platform already—something we could graft our business development and execution models on top of. The previous owner, who became a mentor to me, had hit an inflection point right around $5 million and couldn’t break through that barrier by himself. Rather than struggle along at that level, he decided to bring in 86

people who had done it before, and it was a good fit.”

Entirely organically and with no acquisitions, ProLogic grew to $62 million through the next seven years.

It wasn’t all smooth sailing, however, and Paul remembers the early years as being especially challenging. “We’d buy our own office supplies on our personal credit cards and assemble our own furniture,” he recalls.

“We were self-funded and without a line of credit.” Upon joining ProLogic, Paul and his team won a contract with the Air Force to do a study on 3D visualization technology. The Air Force was pleased with the recommendations Paul and his team made and hired them to implement several of the ideas. ProLogic then repeated this process with medical information technology contracts for the Department of Defense.

Overnight, ProLogic went from being a NASA sub-contractor doing $4 to 5 million a year, to adding a $7 million IT business and a $10 million DOD visualization situational awareness business. Their goal was to add a new core competency in each of their first five years, and they did. ProLogic then stabilized, and Paul and his team have been focusing on perfecting those niches ever since.

One aspect that makes ProLogic so unique is the fact that, while most other 8a businesses are run as sole proprietorships by individuals, ProLogic’s owner shared a large portion of his equity with the management team and the rest of the employees. “Our owner was generous enough to make it essentially an employee-owned company,” Paul points out. New talents were brought on board, and the company opened offices in northern Virginia, California, Maryland, Indiana, and Pennsylvania.

Paul certainly had bigger hopes for his future than what his circumstances had in store when he was a young boy, but he had never imagined he’d become president of a company like ProLogic. In fact, he was planning to leave the enterprise to run the M&A portfolio of another defense company in 2010, when he received a phone call from his boss. “Between Autometric and ProLogic, I’d worked for him for 17 years and he never called me on weekends, so I knew it was something important,” Paul remembers. “He said he was planning to leave, and he asked if I’d be interested in applying for the job.” Paul declined at first, but as other individuals began jockeying for the position and framing themselves as “heir apparents,” it became clearer and clearer to Paul that he might actually be a better candidate. Thus, he applied.

“The funny thing is that I had never wanted to be president,” he acknowledges. “I was focused on my role in business development, and that allowed me to

Profiles in Success: Inspiration from Executive Leaders in the Washington D.C. Area — Volume 3

get along with all the presidents I worked for. They never had to worry about me wanting their job.” Furthermore, in 2008, ProLogic was acquired by Ultra Electronics, a UK company. The foreign ownership prevented them from being awarded several million dollars in re-competes virtually overnight. In order to regain its U.S. status, ProLogic had to establish a Proxy Board of Directors with three American citizens managing the company. The president thus had to report to a U.S. board, which then reported to a UK board—a reality that entailed too much oversight for the former president, who had always been his own boss.

“I had always worked for somebody else, so it didn’t bother me to have a boss or bosses,” Paul explains. “Also, a large portion of the remaining revenue was business I had brought in. I knew all the customers, and most of the employees had come on during my nine years there, so I knew the whole staff as well.” Leveraging this knowledge base, Paul proactively created a 3060-90 day plan, complete with staffing and role responsibilities, for his interview. The plan was keenly aligned with a strategy that the board itself had put together, cinching the deal. Since the advent of Paul’s leadership in 2010, ProLogic has grown back up to $52 million,

employing 270 people across 13 offices as it focuses on data planning, collection, sharing, and protection.

In reflecting on the business world that young people are entering today, Paul notes how important it is to give employees the kind of mentorship that he received while climbing up the ladder. “My last boss taught me that everybody has value, but he also taught me that we all have a responsibility to add that value every day and to avoid feeling entitled,” Paul avows.

The entitlement attitude he cautions against is nowhere to be seen in his own ascension to success, and it is in large part due to this absence that he was able to achieve so much. “I was blessed with a lot of fantastic mentors along the way, starting with my dad. However, when it came to succeeding in life, I really knew it was up to me,” he remembers. “My parents didn’t have the money. My dad would work two to three part-time jobs when he was laid off from his regular job, and I’d watch him get up at 3:30 in the morning to take the bus into Boston. From watching my parents, I got a wake up call early on about what was needed and expected of me if I didn’t want that to be my future. I knew I had to make it happen.” That’s exactly what he did, and exactly what other young people can aspire to do too.

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Steve Malley Work Hard and Success Will Follow Driving down the Beltway in the Washington DC area, a driver is sure to see signs of the ongoing construction efforts to reduce the traffic and congestion that the area is known for. The many cones, barriers, barricades, and signs that make those efforts possible are primarily supplied by one company, locally headquartered National Capital Industries, helped run by Steve Malley, it’s Senior Vice President and Chief Financial Officer.

Founded over 50 years ago, National Capital started as a provider of road construction services. In 1980, the business began specializing in the sale and rental of road construction safety equipment, providing the materials needed to build roads, parking lots and garages, and ensuring that contractors have what’s needed to help save lives and lessen work zone injuries.

With a relatively small staff and locations within 50 miles of one another, National Capital’s size belies its success.

Having fewer than 40 employees across 3 locations in the DC metro area and bringing in revenue close to $20 million annually, National Capital has certainly created a niche with its specialization.

Recently the company’s progress has been hampered by changes in government agency funding. A Bill was passed in 2005 which provided funding for federal highways, but it expired in 2009, which has impacted highway construction.

“Once the Bill was passed,” Steve explains, “there was an immediate decrease in road fatalities by 8% and it’s continually gone down since then because of the funding of projects that helped work zones become a safer place for the workers. Unfortunately, that expired two years ago, and the government has kept putting a band-aid on it. The extension was going to expire this year but they put another 6 month extension on it which will expire March 30, 2012. So, the federal government is still funding highways and giving money to the states to complete road extensions and repairs, but we need a long term Bill in place to continue funding highway projects that will make it safer to drive and function in work zones.”

Starting at the company in 2005 as a controller, Steve quickly rose to the position of CFO. “When they offered me the position, they were reluctant since I had no construction industry experience, but I have proven myself,” Steve describes, “The controller that I replaced was a wonderful person who did a great job in accounting, but he didn’t know payroll tax regulations. After I started, I discovered some issues with previous year’s taxes and I worked extensively with the Internal Revenue Service, the District of Columbia, the Maryland Department of Taxation, and the Virginia Department of Taxation and saved the company about $475,000 in fines and penalties.”

Steve’s discovery not only saved the company financially, but reflected his steadfast dedication to hard work and commitment. A dedication that was rewarded when, due to the unfortunate loss of their President in 2009, the company promoted Steve to Senior Vice President.

Steve’s proven success and ever increasing responsibility was not unique to his work at National Capital. His first job out of college was working for a small chain of pet stores with 7 retail locations. Hired as its controller, Steve was quickly thrust into leadership when the current controller quit while training him.

“The president of the company came in and said, ‘She left you on your own’ and I thought, ‘oh my gosh, what am I going to do? I’m fresh out of school with a brand new job and I have no idea what I’m doing’.”

Steve quickly figured it out and the company grew from 7 to 44 stores during his 21 year tenure. Unfortunately, the company’s success did not last as large pet store chains became popular in the late ‘80s and drove the smaller retail stores out of business. The company was forced to file bankruptcy and the president of the company stepped down.

“Because of the bankruptcy, we closed quite a few locations, everything but 17 of the 44 stores. And at that time the new president came into my office and told me that they couldn’t afford to keep me on staff. My first

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job out of college and I had worked there for 21 and a half years. I just sat there thinking, ‘I’ve got a wife and 2 small children. I’ve got a house payment’. I had never had to look for a job, especially with so much responsibility. I was scared to death.”

Steve’s wife was extremely supportive and he began searching for positions in the immediate area but couldn’t find anything suitable. After taking a one year contract position in Portland, Oregon, which, due to the weather, didn’t work for the family, Steve sought out positions in the DC area, close to family.

Hired by a company called Professional Controllers, as a recruiter for temporary financial staff and to bring in new clients, Steve soon felt the desire to seek out another position, more in alignment with his goals for the future. Soon thereafter, Steve was hired by National Capital.

Born and raised in St. Louis, Missouri, Steve learned the importance of hard work at a young age. With a genealogy full of strong men and women who worked hard and valued family, Steve inherited a legacy of success.

“My grandfather came over to the United States from Poland around 1910 with the intention of earning enough money to bring my grandmother and their kids over. When he had saved enough money to send for them, World War I broke out and they couldn’t come. My father had a brother and a sister and while they went to school, their mother would take water to the front lines in Poland to the soldiers. That’s how she earned a living in Poland to survive and earn enough money to feed the family. It wasn’t until 1920 when my father was able to come over to this country with my grandmother. At that time my father was 14.”

After Steve’s father finished secondary school, he joined the Navy, and when his service was up, he joined the Air Force, becoming a pilot.

“My father wanted to be a pilot and he worked hard and he got his wings. Then his ear drum blew out and he couldn’t fly. He would never fly again. So he was released from the Air Force and joined the Army. In total he served the country for 14 years.”

After leaving the Army, Steve’s father took a job at a company called Peoples’ Liquor. They were purchased by another liquor chain and Steve’s father stayed with that company until his death. He worked there for 25 years.

“He loved that job and he was a hard worker,” Steve speaks of his dad, “He worked 6 days a week but he was still a family man. Family was very important. He would work one week on the morning shift and one week on

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the evening shift and if he worked mornings, we’d always have dinner together, and if he worked evenings, we would have breakfast together as a family. It was just important to him that we sat and ate as a family.”

Steve also learned the importance of commitment and character through his mother. A stay-at-home mom, Steve recalls a particularly poignant memory when she taught him a life lesson.

“I learned a lot of work ethic from my mom as well. One instance in particular, I was probably 8 years old and my sister was sick with a cold and she wasn’t going to school that day. I was all dressed and ready to go to school but I wondered why my sister got to stay home when I couldn’t. I remember saying, ‘Mom, I don’t think I want to go to school today because I don’t feel well’.

My mom kind of knelt down and just held me by my shoulders and looked me in the eye and said, ‘You know Steven, if you’re really not sick you should go to school.

You have a commitment. If you’re supposed to go to school then that’s your commitment. Your father has a commitment to go to work and if he didn’t go to work you wouldn’t have shoes to wear, we wouldn’t have food on the table; we wouldn’t have a roof over our head. He has a commitment and he adheres to that commitment.

You don’t see him staying home sick because somebody else stays home sick. You need to go to school.”

Needless to say, Steve went to school that day.

That strong work ethic has stayed with Steve his entire life, spurning him to work harder and perform better at all that he does.

“Early in my career I was usually the first one at work and the last one to leave.” Steve recalls, “I regret working as many long hours because I missed things with my kids early on. But I’m making up for it now.

And don’t get me wrong, we had a great family life, we went on family trips together and we had fun on the weekends but there are things that I really wish that I’d seen, like the first steps that my kids took, or their first tooth coming out. But we do things together now and it’s important to me that we have dinner together every night. That’s something that has stayed with me. I’m still the first one at the office in the morning but I make sure I’m home early enough that we can all sit down together as a family and have dinner.”

A loyal, hard worker and devoted family man Steve Malley has worked his way to the top. With a family legacy that reflects the American Dream, and a work ethic that mirrors that dream, Steve Malley proves that if you work hard you will be a success.

Profiles in Success: Inspiration from Executive Leaders in the Washington D.C. Area — Volume 3

Lynda Mann Daring to Use a Different Lens “What’s missing?”

This is the first question Lynda Mann, co-founder of the YouthQuest Foundation, asks herself when she meets a young person who’s made the decision to drop out of high school. In order to effectively encourage the inner reflection necessary to answer this query, she turns outward, addressing the student directly to ask what’s important to them in that moment about their decision to discard their education. In other words, she knows she has to approach the situation through a different lens—one that will allow the struggling youth to see more clearly.

“In these situations, it’s so easy to focus on trying to push these kids to stay in school, but the reality is that 30 percent of our high school students will drop out this year—a trend that’s been persistent since 1970,” Lynda says. “Until we can understand what they’re thinking and truly grasp the root of the problem, however, all that pushing only serves to push them farther away.” By uncovering these roots within troubled youth, the missing piece in the equation becomes clear, allowing Lynda to address and reframe the situation to promote healthier decisions and better futures for America’s atrisk young people.

Though YouthQuest was formally founded in 2006, Lynda, who has served as President of its Board of Directors since its inception, began advocating for troubled youth by challenging society to see their troubles through this alternate lens long before. As a senior member of the AOC Solutions, Inc. leadership team, she served as the Program Manager of a contract evaluating a program serving at-risk youth since 1993. Lynda recalls one day in 2002 when she learned that youth from one of the programs couldn’t attend an important academic event because they didn’t have the money for a bus, so she instigated a grassroots campaign to raise the money. Driven to do more, she and her friends and colleagues began holding golf tournaments and other small events to fundraise. “We realized that this need is great, not just within this particular program, but

across the U.S.,” she points out. “Thus, our mission today as a national foundation is to provide scholarships, infrastructure funding, and life enriching activities for America’s at-risk youth.”

Today, Lynda and her team focus predominantly on high school dropouts. With the dropout rate hovering at 30 percent since 1970, the situation is nothing short of an epidemic, casting deep inflictions across the face of American society. High school dropouts are more likely to enter the prison system, more likely to require government assistance, and more likely to commit suicide than those who finish high school, and to make matters worse, they are also more likely to beget future high school dropouts, perpetuating the cycle.

YouthQuest has taken up a compelling weapon in battling this social issue by identifying yet another social issue—the fact that our nation’s skilled trades pipeline is drying up. Workers in the blue-collar trades such as plumbing, roofing, pipe fitting, culinary arts, and nursing assistance are aging out of their professions, and there are few replacements in the pipeline, presenting a tremendous void in the marketplace of the future. “Oftentimes, kids who drop out of high school are very bright, they’re just not suited for the current educational model,” Lynda explains. “For those youth who are not college bound, we have the opportunity to marry them to a program that is focused on creating an avenue by which they can have a productive, fulfilling life.”

However, while other programs might stop there, YouthQuest envisions going a step further by instilling in its students advanced critical skills including work ethics training, responsible behavior, and attitude management, along with advanced science and math skills and critical life skills such as financial management and goal setting. “We not only want to provide the training around the skill set; we also want to provide a more progressive knowledge base so that, when they’re considered for a position, our students are seen not only as entry level employees, but as people with the capacity to grow and advance,” says Lynda. To realize this goal, YouthQuest

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now has its sights set on constructing a job skills training center aimed at addressing these two social issues.

A 501(c)3 organization for six years now, YouthQuest currently provides scholarship and grant funding for organizations and programs that support GED achievement and job skills training for at-risk youth as it incubates its long-term goal of its training center.

Though most of these children aren’t college bound, several are, like one student who is finishing his JD at Georgetown University. Another young woman was living in her car at age 16 and found a program to help change her life. She is now married and has a family and a position as a school principal after earning her master’s degree. “By supporting programs that affect such profound change, YouthQuest seeks to give young people the chance to maximize their potential and create the life all of our children deserve,” offers Lynda.

It is rarely disputed that we work our hardest on issues that hit close to home, and Lynda’s dogged commitment to YouthQuest is no exception. Her mother and younger sister both dropped out of high school before graduating, and Lynda found herself wondering at a young age what other advantages they could have had in life, had they crossed paths with an organization like YouthQuest. In this sense, her sister, now a remarkable businesswoman who formulates holistic and natural skincare products, is among her most powerful motivators. “What would have happened if she had had the opportunity to stay in school to really nurture and grow her gift of understanding chemistry at an elemental level?” Lynda asks. “There are some questions that will never be answered, and it’s our mission to limit those kinds of questions. Everyone should have the chance to sort out who they are, what gifts they have, and how they want to share those gifts with the community.”

Growing up as the eldest child in a troubled home, Lynda fell into the role of over-achiever early in life as a coping mechanism to draw attention away from other aspects of her home life. She finished school and was accepted to college, but the family didn’t have the means to send her, so she instead received an associate’s degree at a local junior college. Obtaining her degree in the midst of the Vietnam War, and desperate to escape the home life she grew up in, Lynda decided to veer off the beaten path and enlist in the military.

Searching for a way out, Lynda made the decision to enlist before she had ever heard the term Officer Candidate School (OCS)—the program that would soon change her life forever, although not without the help of the recruiter who interviewed her when she applied to join the Air Force. “The man had a quota to fill, 92

and as a woman, I fit it perfectly,” Lynda recalls. “Yet in the Air Force, you aren’t qualified to apply to become an officer unless you have a four-year degree, while mine was only two.” Setting his own self-interest aside and daring to don a different lens of his own, the recruiter asked himself the very same question that Lynda would ask of troubled youth so many years down the line— “What’s missing for this young person?” By taking the time to look at the situation a different way, the recruiter quickly noticed officer potential in Lynda and told her to go enlist in the Army, where the OCS application process only required a two-year degree. “I didn’t understand how drastically my life changed on that day until much later,” Lynda muses now. “That’s the kind of giving that changed my life, and it’s the kind of giving I try to return as often as I can.”

Because of the recruiter’s altruistic spirit, Lynda was one of only 15 women per year accepted to OCS, and along with her access to the GI Bill, she was able to earn her bachelor’s degree in Occupational Education, her master’s in Sociology, and to complete the coursework for her doctorate in adult education. She spent 26 years proudly serving her country and was the first military woman to become a National finalist in the White House Fellows program, in which applicants submit recommendations to the President for making the country a better place. True to form, Lynda’s piece explored the possibility of mandatory public service for every American citizen, which could be as local as assistant teaching at a public school or clerking in the local city or county offices.

The fellowship experience was a defining moment for Lynda in hinting at the impact she could potentially have, and her advocacy of the importance of service draws from a belief in giving back that remains as integral to her character as breathing. “I truly believe that, in order to be a fully successful and actualized person, one needs to achieve that wholeness that can only come from giving back,” she affirms. “You can’t do everything, but you can do anything. If you believe you can make something happen, you will. Fusing these two concepts, the importance of giving back and the impact of taking action is not only clear, but urgent.”

Underlying this urgency is a belief in the power of one person to make a difference, and Lynda periodically gauges and channels this power through an examination of her progress toward her life goals. “Perhaps the best thing I’ve ever done for myself was to spend some quiet time with myself 30 years ago, figuring out what I wanted to do and who I wanted to be and putting my goals in writing,” she says, drawing out the dog-eared

Profiles in Success: Inspiration from Executive Leaders in the Washington D.C. Area — Volume 3

three-by-five index cards that bear her life’s most sacred intentions. Lynda carries these cards with her and rereads them several times a year though she already knows them by heart, examining how she’s doing in terms of her health, her relationships, her work, and her giving back. “This practice has allowed me to be a better businesswoman and a better community activist,” she continues. “It’s critical to have goals that really reflect who you want to be, and if you constantly remind yourself of those things and act on them, you will become the person you were destined to be.”

When YouthQuest first formed its goal of constructing a job skills training center, it pursued this goal with a similar tenacity, seeking out large donors and backers to realize its vision. As fate would have it, however, the stock market plunge of 2008 hit just as the project was gaining momentum, and the center’s funding faced considerable setbacks. Undeterred, however, Lynda and her team began focusing instead on perfecting the project’s groundwork. “We’ve been working on infrastructure documentation and planning during this interim so that, when the money becomes available again, we’ll be able to hit the ground running,” she says with confidence. “I do believe things happen for a reason, and we’re taking this time to really get our planning aligned so we’ll be ready to launch once we find that funding source.”

Lynda’s analytical and optimistic perspective is as inspiring as it is pragmatic, and it is a wonder how she maintains these important qualities even in the face of

the uncertainty of our time. Indeed, in YouthQuest’s journey to facilitate the connection of communities for a better future and in Lynda’s personal lifelong journey of achievement and service, she admits that she, like anyone, can fall into a rut. The solution? “I take some time out to do something completely different from what I do on a daily basis,” she explains. Having always been fascinated by professional bull riding, Lynda, along with two girlfriends, own an event winning 2,000-pound bucking bull. “Watching a professional rider on a rank bull gives you a completely different perspective on the relationship between power, skill and pure luck. It’s a great reminder to pay attention to what you can influence.” Also an avid scuba diver, Lynda has been diving all over the world, and truly enjoys her treks under the sea. “It’s a humbling environment, and it allows me to see the world through a completely different lens,” she explains, true to form.

The fresh perspective she continually seeks can come from as simple an activity as flipping through a biology book—another technique Lynda uses to achieve the same effect. “I’ll be struggling with a problem and come across a picture of the musculature of the human arm, and I’ll suddenly understand what it is I was missing in the organization because I’m finally seeing things through a different window and from a different perspective,” she says. Lynda’s path has certainly been unique, demanding, and trying at times, but perhaps it is just this kind of path—one that is entirely its own, and one that dares to use a different lens—that makes lasting change possible.

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Denis McFarlane A Good Example “Make sure you play the game,” said Mr. McFarlane to his son.

A first-grader, Denis really had no idea what his father meant by that, although with time he would come to understand that it pertained to a way of life and not to a game per se. It meant that he should play by the rules and ensure that the other people involved—whether they’re teachers, clients, or employees—are happy. Now the CEO of Infinitive, a consulting firm based in the Washington, D.C. metro area, the mantra has served him well once he grew old enough to understand it, and it has become a foundational element in his character, his career, and his advice to others ever since. “It’s about making sure people enjoy the experience of working together and the value of your service,” he explains. “And it’s about being a good example for others.”

If you ask Denis today what many of America’s most successful entrepreneurs have in common, he would suggest that they probably worked a paper route in their youth. The vocation of paperboy has changed significantly over the years, but in Denis’s day, the paperboys themselves purchased the neighborhood’s newspapers from the publisher and were then responsible for collecting the monthly dues from recipients. “I’ll never forget how people would see that I was there to collect payment and literally turn off the light when I knocked on the door,” he remembers, bemused. He even proposed a revised payment structure such that neighbors would advance-pay for their papers six months at a time, but nothing really eased the burden of the paperboy plight.

Perhaps such an obstacle serves as an early litmus test for good CEO material, as only those with the strongest inner entrepreneurial flames tough it out. Indeed, it became clear that Denis’s was burning strong when, in college at the Catholic University, he started a mailbox installation business that taught him how to determine if an identified void in the marketplace is actually a need or just a neglect. He then launched a cookie baking and delivery service called Big Dens, Big Cookies, which imparted some valuable lessons on marketing after he submitted mailings

to the home addresses of the entire student body. “I would make all the cookies from scratch,” Denis reminisces. “I didn’t meet the sales I hoped to meet, and I understand now that a business model like that simply isn’t scalable, but in college you’re not thinking about those things. I just liked making cookies!”

Denis credits the Big Dens, Big Cookies endeavor for landing him a position at Andersen Consulting, where he assumed employment after graduation. Andersen soon became Accenture, an international consulting firm where he had the opportunity to acquire a wealth of expertise and to focus specifically on small company issues and services. Denis had always wanted to start his own business, but it took him a while to build up the gumption to do it—twelve years at Accenture, to be exact. He ultimately realized this dream in 2003 when he launched Infinitive.

After volunteering to leave his former position at Accenture, Denis acquired a six-month contract with a client that provided enough stability to get the ball rolling. “All I had at the time was a business name and a computer,” he laughs now. But, as they say, everyone has to start somewhere, and that’s exactly what Denis did. Over those six months, he set about determining his marketing strategy, finalizing his product, signing more work, and hiring employees.

In hindsight, Denis feels as though he should have left Accenture after two years of employment to pursue his entrepreneurial ambitions, but such dramatic risktaking is easier said than done. “I see now that I didn’t need to know as much as I thought I needed to know to start the business,” he reflects. “Still, I had so much to learn after I began. It’s okay to not know everything before you start. I postponed it for so long because I was waiting for the perfect thing or the perfect climate, when really, just jumping in was the most important thing. Be pragmatic, but don’t over-think things.”

When Denis finally decided to take the plunge, he made the decision to do it alone, knowing full well that the stresses and strains of getting an enterprise up and running can devastate partnerships and ruin long-time

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friendships. “I knew the risks, so I decided to do it on my own,” he reports. “That said, it was very lonely, and it would have been great to have a partner.”

Within a year, the fledgling operation was up to ten employees. “It was scary, exciting, and fun,” Denis remembers. “I was certainly learning as I went along, but I was able to hire really good folks to help build out the business.”

And build out, they certainly did. Within two years, he felt the operation was stable enough to recruit Phil Kyle, a colleague from Accenture, to join him. Phil was at a point in his own life where leaving Accenture made sense, and the two have been tremendous business partners ever since.

Through 2006 and 2007, Denis and Phil’s team grew to over 70 people as Infinitive enjoyed phenomenal growth. Hoping to preserve the culture and utility of Infinitive as a local business providing service to the D.C. metro area while still stretching the brand’s horizons, they founded a number of sister companies as well that provide service throughout the country. Infinitive Analytics offers web analytics services, helping clients to track a wide range of data on the web to effectively gauge the success of their sites, campaigns, homepages, and social media. Infinitive Federal provides consulting services to the Federal marketplace, and their newest company, Infinitive Insight, provides risk management expertise, such as security, compliance, and audit readiness.

“The vast majority of security breaches and violations are insider,” Denis explains. “The vast majority of errors are accidental. Infinitive Insight will address concerns with how to prevent security and compliance risks in the face of ever-steepening penalties.” Separating Infinitive, Infinitive Analytics, Infinitive Federal, and Infinitive Insight in this manner allows for more specific and targeted advertising: the CMO of an entity will be primarily interested in web analytics, whereas the CFO and CIO will be more concerned with risk management.

“We wanted to be able to steer these targeted niche businesses toward a specific buyer in an enterprise, focusing and personalizing each service in light of who we’re talking to,” Denis points out.

Today, Infinitive sells process engineering work, project management assistance, and other support services to Fortune 500 companies or other businesses looking to scale dramatically. Across the four companies, the enterprise totals around 75 employees, and Denis strives to infuse the company culture with the elements of humor, collaboration, and fun that make his leadership philosophy so distinct. “I want people to enjoy their time with us,” he explains. “When company meetings are engaging and lively, our employees will be more invested, more interested, and will ultimately take more away from them.”

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In reviewing Denis’s history and the eruption of entrepreneurial leaps that define the past decade of his life, one might characterize this shift after twelve years of relative calm as a transformation of his risk profile. Denis, however, feels that risk actually has very little to do with it. “We believe there’s an opportunity here,” he says. “Entrepreneurs generally feel that starting a business is easier than going to Vegas and putting money down on a bet.

We have great people, there’s a market for our product, and we know how to start and run a consulting firm. I’m very confident that things will be successful.“ Despite this confidence, however, Denis remains focused and driven by a certain element of fear—the fear of letting others down. “You’re a leader, and the other kids will listen to you,” his father had told him when he was young. “If you’re behaving and doing the drills, the other kids will, too. You have the ability to set an example, so make it a good one.” When he served as captain of the football team in eighth grade, he didn’t want to let his teammates down. Now, as the CEO of Infinitive, he doesn’t want to let down the employees who entrust him to make the right decisions, leading the enterprise to success. And as always and in all aspects of life, he doesn’t want to let down his parents, wife, or children. “Everyone’s watching, and that’s what drives me,” Denis affirms.

In advising young entrepreneurs entering the business world today, Denis echoes the wisdom his own father imparted to him all those years ago. “Play the game,” he says.

“Don’t go in there acting like you know everything, because in the vast majority of cases, your predecessors know much more. If someone has ten years of experience, they’re an expert.” Socrates is famous for recognizing that true wisdom lies in acknowledging what one does not know, and Denis stresses this tenet as a gateway for learning and respect in both academia and the workplace. “It’s one thing to be confident, but it’s another thing to be a know-it-all,” he continues. “Employers want someone who’s confident enough to say they’re not sure but they’re anxious to learn.”

Anxious to learn. Anxious to provide a service, to fill a void, and to operate with integrity and focus. This is how Denis himself strives to be, and it has certainly served him well. “I remember a friend reporting the statistic to me that 80 percent of businesses fail within the first five years,” he says. “Of that remaining 20 percent, 80 percent fail within the following five years, and of that remaining 20 percent, another 80 percent fail in the five years following that.” Regardless of the absolute accuracy of those statistics, they continue to motivate Denis to this day. “Nothing is guaranteed, and it’s not easy,” he says. “That’s why our team has committed to never becoming complacent.

We are and will continue to be that good example.”

Profiles in Success: Inspiration from Executive Leaders in the Washington D.C. Area — Volume 3

Chris McGoff The Business of Empowerment On November 1, 2001, Chris McGoff first came face to face with himself.

No one could claim that he hadn’t been successful up until that point. Chris spent ten exhilarating and enriching years at IBM before launching three separate companies, honing his innate skills as a business builder while building his family as well. On that day in 2001, he and his wife Claire had six lovely children and a relatively happy life, yet his current business, Touchstone, was experiencing some instability. “In terms of revenue and profit patterns, deviations from a straight line should be minimal in a well-run business,” Chris remembers thinking. His business partners couldn’t put their finger on the problem, so Chris decided to look inward.

It is often said that with great power comes great responsibility, but Chris’s story demonstrates that the reverse is also true.

By taking great responsibility, especially for one’s self, one actually heralds great power.

On that November day, when he took his future into his own hands by embarking on a personal journey inward to better understand himself, he commenced the breakdown of the inner limitations that were preventing him from being the best leader he could be. “Up until that point I had been operating under a mindset that a lot of kids growing up in the Depression era had,” he recalls.

“I was always jumping to the next complex and exciting project, never finishing what I was working on. I was designing intricate webs in which my company, my family, and I were stuck always struggling, never achieving.”

By identifying and naming this convoluted set of internal dynamics, Chris was able to control and limit the behavior that used to control and limit him. “What you resist persists, but what you embrace disappears,” he remarks now. Once he empowered himself in this manner, Touchstone’s success skyrocketed, and the relationships around him transformed. In the aftermath of this miraculous transformation, he sold Touchstone to SRA and founded The Clearing, a problem solving company dedicated to empowering leaders throughout the DC metropolitan area to realize their visions by literally

creating a clearing within their minds and schedules to focus deeply on their goals. So driven by the empowerment of himself, he went into business of teaching others how to do the same.

Primarily serving government leaders, presidential appointees, and leaders of companies that service those entities, The Clearing knows that historical data indicates the average government leader has 18 months in their position. Considering this limited time frame, The Clearing urges these leaders to work quickly to establish their intentions, thereby maximizing the time available for effective implementation such that the system can’t retract once that leader leaves. This is accomplished by establishing within a group of people a shared perspective of a problem, a shared intention of how to solve it, and synchronized actions to accomplish this intention.

“To implement systemic changes in today’s cash-strapped environment, we help leaders to really think through the intricacies of these changes, enabling them to get in touch with their core mission,” Chris explains. “We help them eliminate all the superfluous activity, anything that doesn’t add value, and then build a strategy to bring the system into alignment with what they’ve imagined, which is usually radically different from the status quo.”

Though the end goal of Chris’s work is the accomplishment of transformation and new systems, the means used to do so are far from cutting edge. Rather, Chris and his team see themselves as archaeologists, dusting off big rocks and chipping away at the benign stimuli and interruptions of everyday life to access deep focus—that timeless essence which has allowed humanity to coordinate in the name of creation for hundreds upon hundreds of years. “We believe that the essence which allowed the pyramids to be built is the same essence that will develop warp drive,” he affirms. “The Clearing explores these timeless principles that are so deeply embedded in systems, and in people themselves, asking how we can bring them to the surface so they’re clear and useful to today’s problem solvers.”

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According to Chris’s philosophy, people are blessed with God-given gifts, and virtues are what we do with those gifts. The Clearing empowers people to truly embrace, maximize, and capitalize upon their gifts, thus enabling them to be as virtuous as possible. Through the facilitation of transformations in how leaders and teams conceptualize of and work toward their goals, The Clearing in turn facilitates transformations in broad societal structures through the accomplishment of those goals, and therein lies the fundamental value proposition of the company. “Through these troubling economic times, we identify a wonderful opportunity for the large U.S. systems to clean up their acts and to move into a position where they can have sustained value creation in the future,” Chris affirms. “We’re learning to do this shoulder to shoulder with some of the most remarkable leaders in one of the most difficult times to lead, and in one of the most important cities in the world. I can’t imagine anything more exciting than that.”

Chris’s entrepreneurial interests were first sparked as a young boy growing up in Scranton, Pennsylvania, when his father quit his corporate job to assume the role of director of the family business, a funeral parlor. “The funeral business is not about dead people,” he reflects today. “It’s about helping living people who are going through a tough time.” He and his family took great pride in their work, and he still recalls the great compassion and care with which his father treated each and every customer. “I knew I could start a business because my dad did,” he adds.

In high school, Chris was selected for an accelerated medical program, yet he realized several years into it that he wasn’t passionate about the idea of becoming a doctor. Thus, he left to enroll at the University of Scranton, where he continued on the science track and earned a degree in biophysical chemistry. Then, while working as a researcher at a battery plant, his supervisor said that his experience and degree qualified him for a scholarship to become an industrial hygienist, which the industry sorely needed. Analyzing and responding to market need in this way would become a crucial skill later in life, and a cornerstone of his success as an entrepreneur and business builder.

Upon finishing his studies, he was offered a job at IBM, which he reflects on as a tremendous environment in which to learn and grow. “In most companies, the management takes the credit, but not at IBM,” he gushes.

“Young engineers did the work, and management stood behind them to help guide them when necessary and to outfit them with the tools they needed for success.” He was later transferred to their headquarters in Bethesda 98

on a special assignment and absolutely loved the experience, but after ten years of working there, he felt an inner voice beckoning him down a different path.

Chris first lent gravity to this voice one evening when he and Claire were washing dishes together, casually mentioning that he might someday try to start a business on his own using his father as a reference. “Are you telling me you’re not going to be at IBM until retirement age?” asked his wife. When he said no, she didn’t miss a beat when she answered, “Then go in tomorrow and quit.” Though they had three kids to support with another on the way, she explained to him that their health would never be as good as was at that time, that their expenses would never be as low, and that she wouldn’t want to live with him when he was 55 and wishing he had taken the chance when he could.

Thanks to Claire’s wisdom and bravery and to Chris’s own willingness to follow the calling within, he suddenly found himself unemployed, and he launched GDSS in 1990. The engineering company got off to a decent start, but falling prey to a common error of young entrepreneurs, Chris tried to do too many things with too few people, and the business failed four years later. “It was a blast putting that crater in the ground,” he laughs now. “I learned that it’s pretty risky to try and run a business, but it’s impossible to run one that acts as three or four business at once. The big takeaway from that was focus—an idea that The Clearing revolves around today.”

Chris also launched SoftBike, a software development and collaborative technology company that ushered him into the wild ride that was the Dotcom era.

Though that company also ultimately failed, he remembers it fondly as well. “I wouldn’t have missed being part of the Dotcom thing for the world. Why would I want to sit that one out?” he exclaims.

Having had enough with products, he then moved into services and launched Touchstone. “We reflected back on what we’d seen in the DC market in 1990,” he reminisces. “We knew that the biggest games were crossenterprise and cross-agency, and that all the big projects delivering substantive value would require agencies to work across their boundaries. What this town needed was a very high level of collaboration literacy.” Touchstone was built to address this need by providing tools and techniques that would enable large-scale collaboration between influential people. The company continues to fulfill this goal successfully today, but The Clearing illustrates yet another shift in understanding of market need.

“Consensus leading is still valuable in certain circumstances, but today’s leaders have to operate across

Profiles in Success: Inspiration from Executive Leaders in the Washington D.C. Area — Volume 3

a spectrum of techniques, and the opposite end of that spectrum is the benevolent monarch—the person who takes control of a situation,” Chris explains. “The Clearing starts with this command and control style because it’s the fastest and cheapest way to achieve an outcome, yet leaders must have a situational awareness of what style to use when, and we help them do this.” The business does so by pulling together an array of best practices, crystallizing them into methodologies, and creating a system that allows a company to scale effectively.

In advising young people entering the business world today, Chris advocates for a confident, purposeful attitude. “Be intentional and persist variously,” he encourages. “Do your thinking behind closed doors and in private with close friends. When you’re out in the real world, always have an answer for what you want to do and why you want to do it. You can change those an-

swers whenever you want, but go someplace quiet to make your adjustments. When you’re out in the world, always be clear with what you want, because the world will listen and help you get it.”

Beyond this, he also attributes his success to his firm belief not only in himself, but also in the concept that the world is a wonderful orchestration of a divine plan in which each individual has a unique role to play.

“You are here on Earth perfectly designed to do something, and as long as you’re playing into that strength, you’ll be okay,” he says. “If you play against it, you’ll be fighting an uphill battle, so try to figure out what your strengths are and follow that route.” Only through the business of empowerment can one truly fulfill one’s potential, and Chris continues to produce value and create jobs everyday by working to bring this empowerment to the leaders so that they might effect the most substantive, lasting, and meaningful change possible.

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Thomas E. Menighan Making A Difference Through Service Whether Tom Menighan is serving one person or one million people, his passion for the practice of pharmacy echoes prominently throughout his distinguished and multi-dimensional career.

As the Executive Vice President and Chief Executive Officer of the American Pharmacists Association (APhA), the national professional society of pharmacists, Menighan leads an organization that represents 62,000 members practicing in all areas including hospitals, community practice (both chain and independent), long-term care, academia, and industry. “If you’ve got a pharmacy background,” Menighan affirms, “you’ve got a home at the APhA.” Menighan’s own ‘pharmacy background’ started when he was quite young.

In his hometown of Sistersville, West Virginia, he got a chemistry set in the fifth grade. He loved playing around with it and fondly recalls performing the experiments in the instruction book. He also had a friend whose dad was a chemical engineer and had a small laboratory in their garage.

“We did a lot of messing around with formulas and that was neat,” he recalls. “It got me curious.”

That curiosity lead him to frequent trips to the local pharmacy in order to replenish the chemicals in the chemistry set for more experiments or to buy sulfur, charcoal and other supplies. When the pharmacy’s ownership changed, the new owner, Jim Phillips, visited the bank where Menighan’s father worked. He mentioned his son’s interest in pharmacy and Phillips responded, “Well, send him up, I’ll find something for him to do.”

Menighan went to work at Phillips Pharmacy restocking the drawers with vials to put medicines in.

Soon after he started working there, the long-time janitor retired, so he took over that responsibility as well.

“Because I participated in sports, it was better for me to go to work very early in the morning, before school. I did that until I went to college and even came back during the summers to help out.”

The sports that Menighan was involved in were baseball, basketball and football, at which he excelled.

He even received several scholarship offers.

“I knew that pharmacy would be an intense curriculum,” Menighan confides. “For me, focus would be required and trying to play collegiate sports and carry that kind of program would be difficult. I decided against pursuing an athletic career and saved my money to pay my way through college.” Menighan attended West Virginia University and graduated after completing two years of pre-pharmacy and three years in pharmacy school.

“I knew I wanted to start a pharmacy when I graduated but I didn’t think beyond that. I thought that working for a chain was a good way to learn, so I figured I’d work at a chain pharmacy out of college and save as much as I could for starting my own business.” When Menighan heard about the Medicine Shoppe, a relatively new franchise opportunity, he decided that would be his route to entrepreneurship.

After graduation, and with his brand new wife Jeannie, Menighan moved to Zaneville, OH, to accept a position at Thrift Drugs, an eastern regional chain based in Pittsburgh, which was a division of J.C. Penney. The chain included Treasury and later acquired Eckerd Drugs before being acquired

by CVS. He worked in Zanesville for two years and was transferred to Danville, VA, as a store manager. After working in Danville for two years, Menighan was transferred again, this time to Huntington, WV. “Shortly after that transfer, I opened my Medicine Shoppe. By that time, my wife and I had saved enough money to pay the franchise fee and still have some money to start the pharmacy. So I made the flying leap to become an entrepreneur instead of taking the common path. That probably was one of the best decisions I ever made because that allowed me to begin to differentiate, to try some different things.”

Around the time of the grand opening, Menighan learned his wife, Jeanie was pregnant, and then shortly learned she had a recurrence of an earlier ovarian tumor.

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This was an intense five-year period for them. In addition to the new baby, his wife was bedridden, struggling with chemotherapy and radiation, and they discovered a third tumor. “Those were challenging times,” Menighan recalls, “but we always found a way to look at the positive in things.”

Though it was a difficult and painful period and, in 2003, Jeanie passed away, the treatments (and Menighan’s strong desire to help others) led to a new area of service for his business.

“Because of my wife’s illness, she couldn’t keep food down. She was being treated at Duke University in a program that allowed patients to return home with an intravenous feeding tube in their chest. As her caretaker, I learned how to do manage home infusion therapy and I thought, ‘Maybe other people need this service, too.’ I spoke with two other pharmacists, Frank McClendon and Harvey Barton, about offering this service for other patients and that’s how the home infusion service was started. Both of them are still good friends and business partners today, 30 years later.”

It was the infusion business that launched Menighan’s 24-year relationship with the APhA. He first became involved as a speaker in 1984. “The home infusion practice that I started was very innovative in its time,” Menighan shares. I gave a series of talks on home infusion all across the country for the APhA, teaching people how to start that kind of practice. In late 1986, I was recruited by a senior staff member who said, ‘We’re trying to build the organization and are looking for people who have your skills. Would you consider coming to work at APhA?’” “Well, I did consider it and frankly, it seemed like a higher calling. It wasn’t that I left my practice because I disliked it; I saw an opportunity to extend the optimization of practice to other pharmacists, to help them do a better job in patient care and ultimately impact the lives of more patients. The fact that the association is involved in legislation and regulation to expand consumer access to pharmacist services can have a huge impact on millions of lives. And that’s what associations do. I couldn’t do that at my pharmacy. I could touch one life at a time. This was different.”

With his breadth of experience in multiple fsectors of pharmacy in the ensuing years, Menighan was perfectly suited in his capacity as the CEO and well prepared to meet the organization’s primary objective of increasing and enhancing consumer access to pharmacist services.

Founded in 1852, the APhA is the oldest and largest pharmacy organization in the United States, 102

although it’s not the only one. “We’ve always seen our job as promoting patient health through access to pharmacists’ services, and thus enhancing the profession broadly,” explains Menighan.

“When I first met with my staff as the new CEO, I quoted from a book that had influenced me, It’s Your Ship by Commander Michael Abrashoff, who had been given the worst ship in the Navy and he turned it into the best ship in the Navy. He did it by empowering his crew and listening to their suggestions and showing them that when they gave good suggestions he’d use them. He essentially told them ‘It’s your ship’ and the most junior crew member knew that it was his ship, too.”

“One of the best decisions I’ve ever made was the conscious choice not to make a lot of changes when I took this job and to utilize the talents of a lot of good people and empower them to do more.”

This style of management has thus far shown excellent results for APhA. Despite the shift in the economy in 2008 during Menighan’s first year as CEO, the organization has remained healthy. Even though tough decisions had to be made, staff was retained and APhA was able to take care of its staff and members. Menighan is proud of that fact, especially in the face of an economic downturn. He believes that all of the knocks and turns that he experienced in his own past life served him well during that uncertain time. “I’m blessed with a very good staff,” Menighan is sure to point out.

Those past knocks and turns that Menighan has experienced also gave rise to his commitment to prioritizing his relationship with his family. If he could leave a legacy for them, it would be health and happiness. “I’m proudest of focusing on the health of our family. I’ve remarried, and I’m very proud of my kids, my daughter and my 15-year old nephew that we’re now raising, who has gone through some serious health challenges of his own. I’m convinced that wealth is important, but it’s just a by-product of living a good life. I want my family to be well provided for, but ‘provided for’ means having the tools to make it yourself, not just being given a bunch of money.”

Commitment is the theme that threads through Menighan’s work for the pharmacy profession through volunteer roles within the association. He served as president of APhA from 2001 to 2002 and was a member of the Board of Trustees from 1995 to 2003. Menighan has also been instrumental in developing several highly successful businesses, partnerships and initiatives in the pharmacy profession over the span of his career.

Because of this tremendous contribution, Menighan received two honorary degrees, one from his

Profiles in Success: Inspiration from Executive Leaders in the Washington D.C. Area — Volume 3

alma mater, West Virginia University, for positively impacting the health care industry in America and the other from the University of Charleston, WV, awarded in recognition of his entrepreneurial approach to the business of pharmacy and his career success in the pharmacy profession.

“My goal is to get to the point where not only are pharmacists a relevant player in healthcare, but that consumers are really using their medicines well and to their fullest benefit. We’ve got a lot of work to do, but I think staying on that path and moving that ball down the field is a big part of my legacy to the profession.”

The advice that Menighan would give to any graduating student boils down to a message he received at his first lecture in pharmacy school. The dean told the class, “You are now entering a profession where you’ll

never have to worry about making a living, so worry about making a difference.”

“That stuck with me,” Menighan shares. “And that sums it up. It’s not about making money. Even when I was building my business, it was about impacting people’s lives. Patient care was a wonderful way to spend my days.”

“As the world evolves, the dispensing function of getting the right medicine to the right patient will increasingly be automated. We believe that there is a medication use crisis in this country and that people need more information in order to properly manage the medications they get from their doctors. Pharmacists teach people how to manage their medications, that’s what APhA is about. And I am blessed and privileged to go to work every day in service to my profession. This is a dream job for me.”

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Graham Milne You Make Your Own Luck Graham Milne has led a life of self-discovery and adventure, which has lent itself well to his position as President and CEO of VIP Communications, an international telephone service provider.

Founded in 1996, VIP Communications is now one of the leading suppliers of international calling in many major markets including the United States, England, Africa, Australia, and over forty other countries, worldwide.

Milne, born in Reading, England, 40 miles west of London, the third of three children to successful physician parents, grew up in a uniquely free and independent atmosphere.

“My parents never said, ‘Don’t do this’ or ‘Don’t do that’, they just said, ‘If you do this, then this is how it is going to affect you and this is how it will affect other people’. As I made each decision, they wouldn’t step in, but would allow me to deal with the repercussions of those decisions, whether good or bad, which allowed me to learn from my mistakes.”

One of those “mistakes” helped to position Milne for the decision that would change his life forever.

In England there are two major exams, one which you take when you are sixteen-years-old called the Ordinary Levels or ‘O-Levels’, and one which you take at the age of eighteen which are called the Advanced Levels or ‘A-Levels’.

Milne recalls, “I wasn’t really interested in school, I was really into sports and was very athletic and played rugby, soccer and cricket. When I went to take my ‘A-Levels’, I didn’t study until the night before and I failed miserably. I sort of set myself up for failure and that hit me.”

Until failing the ‘A-Levels’, Milne had been taking a very relaxed stance towards his future goals including when he might enroll at University.

“It never really hit me until I failed my ‘A-Levels’.

I watched many of my friends going off to University, and I felt like I was going to get left behind, stuck in a manual job for the rest of my time.”

Milne spent a year in the equivalent of a community college and applied himself to his studies. After the year, he re-took his ‘A-Levels’ and passed.

“After I passed the ‘A-Levels’, I still didn’t feel ready to go to University, so I took time off and traveled. I don’t think I thought about my career very much, I knew I would go to university, but I was young and I wanted to go see some places.”

Milne traveled extensively around Europe and parts of Northern Africa for six months. When he returned to England, he realized that he wanted to do more traveling but that he needed to get his degree first, so he enrolled at Staffordshire University, just south of Manchester, England and studied Business Studies with a minor in International Marketing.

After graduating, Milne worked for a year and saved money so that he could travel the world. He spent two years traveling, circumnavigating the world by plane.

“I saw some unbelievable places and did some unbelievable things. I experienced an incredible array of cultures and met a lot of fantastic people. That really changed me because it gave me worldliness and it helped me to understand much better about people and issues. It is difficult to describe and put your finger on what it is, but traveling changes you in a way unlike anything else. As a life lesson, it is as valuable as any formal education I have experienced.”

Milne returned to England at the height of the economic down-turn and found a lack of job opportunities.

“It was time for me to start my career but there were no opportunities in the areas where my education had taken me.”

After working at a few temporary jobs, Milne was referred to the man who would eventually become his partner, mentor and friend, Tom McCabe.

“I remember I met him in his office and he asked me all of five questions and then stood up, put his hat on, and said, ‘Okay, you’re starting tomorrow,’ that was my first experience with him.”

Swiftcall, the company that McCabe had hired Milne to work at was a telecommunications service

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provider focused on calls being made out of the United Kingdom to the United States.

“McCabe’s company was really the first company to challenge the monopoly of British Telecom and Mercury, in the residential market, for telephone calls to international locations. McCabe had found a way to lease a fiber-optic circuit from London to New York and he had made a deal with a US carrier to take all of his calls and to send them to wherever they were going. At the time, the cost of calling in the US was significantly lower than in the UK (because the US was a more open market).”

This concept was basically illegal though, and OFTEL, which is the United Kingdom’s version of the FCC, tried to prevent it.

“The irony was that the UK portion of all the UK to US circuits at that time were owned by British Telecom.

So, on the one hand British Telecom was leasing us the circuit, knowing what we would be using it for, because they wanted to make the money on the lease. On the other hand, they were complaining to OFTEL about what we were doing on the circuit they were leasing to us.”

“Swiftcall quickly amassed a large customer base and the business grew rapidly because we were able to undercut the two large UK telecommunications companies by almost 70%. We became well-known, very quickly.”

“This created a big problem for OFTEL because it showed that BT and Mercury were drastically overcharging for their services and OFTEL, whose job it was to protect the consumer, was clearly acting in the interest of these big companies. Because of public opinion, OFTEL was unable to close us down, and this created a huge push towards changing the regulations. Eventually these changes happened and now the UK is one of the most open telecom regulatory environments in the world.”

Shortly after Milne was hired, the Managing Director of Swiftcall resigned and McCabe promoted Milne to fill the role, heading up business operations.

“I hadn’t even managed people before and within a few months I was managing the entire company. I was basically thrown into it. The only way you make it in a situation like that is to rely on people with more knowledge than you to help you succeed.”

While working at Swiftcall, Milne traveled frequently to the United States and it was on one of these trips that he met his future wife. After sustaining a three thousand mile long-distance relationship, they decided to marry and Milne spoke with McCabe about leaving Swiftcall to relocate in the US. As always, McCabe’s reaction was surprising. He immediately saw it as an opportunity to start a company in the US, and suggested that Milne go and do this.

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“I had nothing else planned, and McCabe was going to keep paying me so I thought, ‘why not?’’

Milne and McCabe took the model that they created in the United Kingdom and setup VIP Communications in the United States, utilizing many carriers to reach different countries. Initially, the company primarily handled calls originating out of the United Kingdom. Then Milne had the idea to reach out to their existing UK customers and ask them to tell their US contacts about VIP Communications. Within a year, and without any additional advertising or marketing, the company was able to realize an increase in annual revenue of $1 million.

Prior to 2000, VIP was primarily focused on the United Kingdom and Ireland but after 2000, as these destinations became more competitive, VIP began to expand into other markets like South Africa and Australia.

“We began to grow quite rapidly because we were advertising on television around sporting events such as soccer and rugby. We continued in this way until 2004 when we hit a plateau. We continued to grow and had a large threshold of customers, but most of our new business was coming from referrals. TV advertising was just not showing the same results as it had previously.”

So Milne stopped the TV advertising campaign to save the money and to build up cash reserves for the business.

“We continued this way until 2006, when we got bored of sitting around and really started looking at ways that we could expand.”

Their first big breakthrough came quickly, when they focused their attention on mobile calling.

“We realized that mobile was rapidly becoming the preferred way for many people to make calls, but the cost of calling internationally through the mobile service providers was prohibitive. We found a way to offer our international service from any mobile phone by utilizing our customers free domestic minutes within their mobile calling plans” Milne explains, “We were the first company in our field to utilize the advertising phrase, ‘international calls, even from your mobile’.”

VIP began to offer a way to make international calls from an individual’s mobile phone at a lower cost and not contingent upon the cell phone service provider.

With this new service, the company grew significantly.

By 2007, VoIP (Voice over Internet Protocol) was starting to make serious progress towards providing higher quality, and in many cases free calling services.

Skype was a relatively new, but very fast growing provider and was threatening many of the traditional international calling markets.

Profiles in Success: Inspiration from Executive Leaders in the Washington D.C. Area — Volume 3

Knowing that the paid international calling business was becoming seriously threatened by free calling options, Milne decided to focus his business in the African market.

“Many of the African countries are almost entirely mobile. When you travel to these areas, they have virtually no fixed lines because it is so expensive to install them. So instead of putting in fixed lines, when the demand for phones came about, it was much easier and cheaper to put in mobile networks. This is a big benefit to us, because when we terminate a call to a mobile phone instead of a fixed line, it is typically a lot more expensive leading to higher revenue for us. Also, the mobile operators, who own the mobile networks, control the calls and how they terminate to the far end. That is very important because when you’re a mobile operator and you’ve invested several billion dollars putting in the network, the last thing that you want to do is let Skype terminate calls over your network for free. It’s in their interest to keep Skype out, and this gives us more stability.”

When VIP Communications moved into the African markets in 2006 they had one African country in their top ten destinations. In 2008, their top country in revenue was Ghana, and in 2010, their top twenty destinations in revenue production were African countries.

“We now have over fifty employees serving over eighty thousand customers and our 2010 revenues were $21 million. Projections for 2011 are $27 million.”

When speaking about the recent economic downturn, Milne describes his company as continuing to grow, though they have seen a contraction in the rate of growth.

“People are naturally finding new ways to communicate, not only to save money but also for convenience. Skype and other free internet calling options, along with text, video, IM and social media are creating a very tough competitive environment, especially to the more developed countries.”

Though these new communication options have created a competitive market, they have also produced new opportunities for the telecommunications industry as a whole.

“The development and improvement of these new technologies have also opened new opportunities for us. There have been massive strides forward in developing the quality of VoIP which has created a tremendous ability for companies in our sector to interconnect across the globe without any expense whatsoever.”

Milne explains these opportunities in detail when describing the changes in the way his company transmits calls to Ghana, “For example, we have a gateway in Ghana (which is a piece of equipment that changes voice from analog to digital and back), and we have another gateway

here in the United States. For our calls to and from Ghana, we use the gateway in the US to convert the calls to IP. We then send the IP packets over the public internet and then convert them back to voice at the gateway in Ghana. The recurring cost of the international transport is nothing and the cost of the call is reduced to the in-country termination charges. To do the same thing 5 years ago, you would have had to rent or lease circuit space on a Trans-Atlantic cable to Europe and then continue on a Trans-African cable, which would probably have cost about twenty thousand dollars or more per month to carry 30 simultaneous calls.

So, now, a small company like us can directly communicate and work with any carrier worldwide.”

VIP Communications is looking forward to the future and some newly developed services that they have implemented including an application (app) for mobile smart phones called VIPConnect, which allows a user to choose to have their international calls handled seamlessly by VIP instead of the user’s mobile phone provider.

Milne is also prepared for the future of the telecommunications industry and the inevitable decrease in demand for paid services with the prevalence of free calling service options. The next steps for the company include developing Mobile VoIP Peering Services.

“We want to create a service similar to Skype but which works from mobile to mobile using VoIP. If you use it from a Wi-Fi network to a Wi-Fi network or across 4G it will be free. We are also looking to create a business telephone system that is entirely supported on mobile devices, with the operations supported entirely in the cloud.”

Milne’s successes aren’t limited to the business arena; he has a wonderful family with his wife, two stepsons and their youngest daughter. ”My wife is incredibly supportive. She has given me the stability I needed to be successful. She also gave me a beautiful daughter and two incredible sons.” Milne also believes in the importance of giving back. He has volunteered as a soccer coach for over 15 years and donates to several charities that help those in developing countries.

Milne also believes very strongly in society’s responsibility to provide and maintain social services (such as healthcare and education) for all within its community.

Milne’s message to new graduates and those venturing out into the world for the first time as adults is not to worry about getting into a career in the beginning, but to go out and try things; and to travel. He also shares, “I believe that very often you make your own luck. I have been both lucky and unlucky at times in my life, but when I’ve analyzed it, the outcome is usually determined by my actions, and often I have turned unlucky things into lucky things by not giving in. There have been many Graham Milne

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occasions where something that seemed bad at the time actually turned out to be a blessing in disguise when I looked back. Not because it wasn’t bad, but because I created other opportunities from the event.”

Graham Milne’s life has been full of choice, risk, success and failure, and a great deal of self-created luck.

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That mixture has yielded a successful, driven, thorough leader who knows how to get things done, how to fall and get back up again, and how to work hard to create his own luck. Fortunately, he has never had to fall very far and, in fact, his future looks full of the promise for continued growth and success.

Profiles in Success: Inspiration from Executive Leaders in the Washington D.C. Area — Volume 3

Katie Moran Like Winning the Lottery “If you won the money, what would you do with it?” asked the woman.

Katie Moran, who had taken a break from her busy day working at the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration to join her boss in a brief excursion to the lottery ticket counter, considered the question thoughtfully. The jackpot was at $100 million, and her boss—a rather severe woman with biting criticism but a keen eye for potential—was looking at her expectantly.

“I think I would maybe start my own business,” Katie responded.

The words tumbled from her lips before she really knew whether they were true or not, but when they acquired a certain gravity as they met with the air, she suddenly realized that she meant them Katie’s father had been an insurance agent when her older brother was about to start college, and upon realizing that he couldn’t send three children to college on his current salary, he had retired and started his own business in 1958. Katie was eight years old at the time and observed with wide, assimilating eyes as her family’s lifestyle transformed. She and her two older brothers would help out in the new business, and the family achieved a comfortable lifestyle. “Growing up in an environment where you are your own boss and can make your own decisions that ultimately dictate whether you sink or swim—this created a certain expectation in me,” Katie recalls now.

Years later, recognizing this innate expectation as she stood in line for her lottery ticket, she suddenly got the feeling her life wouldn’t be the same. She didn’t win the lottery that day, but as her boss pointed out, starting one’s own business requires no such thing. Katie didn’t develop a five-year plan to peg down her vision for this entrepreneurial realization, but instead let her feet tread organically in that general direction, seizing the opportunities that came her way. Each experience contributed to that seminal moment in 1994 when, along with two business partners, she launched PerformTech, a custom training development company

serving federal government, university, and nonprofit clients in the D.C. metropolitan area.

Born in Summit, New Jersey, Katie ventured out into the business world after graduate school and spent some time working for the federal government.

Her professional career also led her to singlehandedly revive the Bicycle Federation of America, a nonprofit organization that had all but withered away. As the executive director, she honed and flexed her skills in fundraising, contract negotiation, newsletter publication, bookkeeping, and a vast array of other tasks, grossing $1 million annually for the operation in the six years she worked there.

“Make a decision, and you will find a way,” Katie’s mother had always told her.

The woman had grown up an orphan during the Great Depression, so when she spoke such inspired words to her daughter, Katie felt as though they must be true.

Neither of Katie’s parents had graduated from high school, which was perhaps why they had set their sights so resolutely on seeing their own three children finish their education and maximize their potential in life.

By building a company that values its employees as people and honors the importance of family life while balancing these tenets with a devoted work ethic that never fails to produce high-quality and unique service, it seems Katie has done all that and more.

Acting as President and CEO, Katie created a firm with the expertise to assist organizations by developing training programs that deliver messages, improve performance, and orient personnel for new roles and duties. Thus, these programs are finely targeted and custom-made, with clients owning the products from the beginning. While development remains the firm’s main focus, they have expanded to accommodate rising demand for more standardized programs as well, in which subject matter experts are recruited to deliver courses to a highly specialized and technical population, such as highway engineers, traffic safety planners, or the international law enforcement community.

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“By targeting the needs of an individual organization, we bring to the table an element of effective instructional design,” Katie explains. “We know how to take a big pile of dry content like rules, regulations, procedures, or operational instruction, and find interesting ways to present it to someone who knows nothing about it. We do so in a structured format that enables participants to perform the duties expected of them at the end of the day.”

According to PerformTech’s innovative philosophy, training doesn’t have to be rocket science, but it should carry strong systematic and creative tones.

Prior to launching the firm, Katie and her business partner, Emma Lopo-Sullivan, had done similar work for a small, privately held company called Applied Science Associates. When that operation was acquired by a large defense contractor, however, the women were thrust into a large corporate arena with a very different focus.

“The things we valued most were our customers, the quality of our work, and the creative process of taking content and infusing it with life and fun,” Katie recalls. “These things didn’t really fit into the numberschasing game that the new owners and investors put in place, so we decided to leave and start a really good company to work for that focused on delivering a great product to our customers.” Through this unparalleled commitment to the satisfaction of its clients and employees alike, PerformTech has established itself as a tremendously valuable brand in the federal sector with an excellent reputation for good work, integrity, and customer service.

If PerformTech is a cohesive whole, Katie and Emma are the opposites that complement each other to make the perfect foundation upon which it rests.

Emma started her career as a schoolteacher and has a master’s degree in instructional design. Numbers are her strong suit, and she lends a critical and proficient eye to the firm’s budgeting and cost-efficiency strategy.

Katie, on the other hand, obtained undergraduate and graduate degrees in political science. With a nuanced expertise of federal government operations after having worked with and in it for extended intervals, she knows what her clients are looking for in a proposal and a product. She also addresses the marketing aspects of the company, knowing how to raise exposure, adjust with demand, and redefine the firm to access new markets when necessary. With the background to design a world-class and award-winning business, Katie’s skill set meshes with Emma’s to cover PerformTech’s leadership needs from all angles.

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A full 90 percent of PerformTech’s work is repeat business—a true testament to the depth of the relationships it builds with its clients. “Our clients know that we’ll pull them out of any fire, and that means a lot to them,” Katie explains. “If they find out they have to give a briefing at the White House the next day and they need a PowerPoint presentation, we’ll put in the extra seven hours of out-of-contract work to make sure they have it. We always bring them a comprehensive, consultative, and reliable service, rather than just cranking out a product.” It was this level of responsiveness and accommodation that won them an impressive contract as the factory floor manager for U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) in 2006, beating out much larger competitors. PerformTech still carries out projects for CBP today.

Aside from marrying the man who has now been her husband for 31 years, following her heart and taking a gamble on PerformTech was probably one of the best decisions of Katie’s life. Surprisingly enough, selling PerformTech is ranked equally high on her List of Good Choices, which Katie and Emma agreed to do in March of 2009. “We were having a great time, but we knew we didn’t want things to stay the same forever,” Katie remarks. They secured an investment banking firm and a corporate lawyer, who did all the groundwork and ultimately helped the women narrow the potential buyers down to a company called General Physics Corporation. At the time of the acquisition in late 2009, PerformTech was grossing around $16 million annually and employed a team of 60 people, and Katie is confident that the PerformTech family will continue its legacy for many years to come.

“General Physics is made up of the nicest people you could ask for, and they appreciate the company culture we’ve invested in,” says Katie. “The future looks bright for PerformTech.” As for Katie’s own future, she has an employment agreement with General Physics through March of 2012, during which she’ll be focusing on business development and strategic planning. After that, she envisions continuing to consult with General Physics, most likely in the business-development arena.

In advising young entrepreneurs entering the business world today, Katie stresses the importance of a proactive approach to life. “Don’t expect people to just hand things to you,” she says. “If you want something, analyze what you need to be in order to achieve it, make those changes in yourself, and then present yourself for that role.” The business world requires one to deliver without drama or discord. Taking responsibility for one’s self, skills, and career, even in the face of criticism or error,

Profiles in Success: Inspiration from Executive Leaders in the Washington D.C. Area — Volume 3

is an indication of maturity and will set one apart from competitors. “Also,” Katie adds, “make sure you’re a topnotch writer and speaker. With the advent of instant messaging and the great disservice our Internet environment has done to the English language, the business world is severely lacking in good writers these days.”

In developing these skills, Katie herself is the quintessence of perseverance. “Something that most people would be surprised to find out about me is that I’m actually a very shy person,” she reveals—a reality that seems so at odds with the air of openness and amiability

with which she comports herself. “I was painfully shy as a child, but I would force myself to engage in situations that would help me get over it, like debate club.”

Indeed, everyone has something they’d like to improve about themselves, and Katie’s success is a testament to the human spirit’s ability to fill in the gaps between its innate strengths to create cultivated fortes that are just as prevailing. Developing one’s self into a stronger person in turn enables one to build a stronger company, and it is this journey that makes life, whether personal or professional, feel like winning the lottery.

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Anne Reed Transforming Government, Transforming the World Most kids want to spend their summers sleeping late, heading for the nearest cool body of water, and generally not doing anything during their long-awaited break. Anne Reed wasn’t one of them.

“I started volunteering with the Red Cross when I was 12 years old and was probably the youngest ever recipient of a five-year pin!” she laughs. A lot of the people Anne worked with during her summers were seniors. “I think there is a natural affinity between the elderly and young people,” says Anne. “I got to do arts and crafts with them. It wasn’t work. It was fun. ” Both of Anne’s parents were actively engaged in contributing to their Nashville community. Her mother, who worked at home, was a dedicated volunteer. Her father, a college professor, participated in a march in Nashville, TN organized by supporters of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. Because of her parents’ example and encouragement, Anne developed a strong desire to make things better. “Service just became a part of who I was,” she remarks.

These family values were the underpinnings of Anne’s incredible career journey, which links the sectors of government, education, information technology, and global business. “The one thing that defines my career throughout, is a belief in public service and doing good,” Anne confirms.

Now, as the Chief Executive Officer of ASI Government, she is perfectly suited to guide this preeminent research, consulting and training firm that supports over 70 government agencies in using performance based acquisition strategies and best practices.

The pathway to becoming the CEO of a multi-million dollar business may have sometimes seemed random to Reed, but from the very beginning she often found herself at that much-quoted juncture where luck meets opportunity and preparedness.

Anne’s interest in government was fueled while attending Goucher College in Baltimore. She accepted an internship in the Baltimore City Planning Office and after graduation, applied for a position in the Nashville City Planning Office. While waiting for

her desired job to open up, she worked at Vanderbilt University in Alumni Development for their business school. When the city planning job became available, Anne spent several years there getting her feet wet and honing her skills.

About that time, Anne also got married, and when her new husband was accepted into Harvard Law School, they moved to Boston. Not finding any city planning opportunities, Anne applied for work at Harvard. During the interview she was told “you’re really not qualified because you can’t type”.

However, one assistant dean was desperate for help and Anne was sent off to interview. Ira Jackson was the Assistant Dean at the Harvard Kennedy School of Government who hired the assistant who “couldn’t type.”

“It was total random chance, but could not have been better suited for me because of my passion for service,” Anne recalls. It may have been luck, but they also recognized her leadership capacity. A year later, Anne was promoted to Registrar and Admissions Officer of the School. While working at Harvard, Anne studied for and received her Master’s in Public Administration.

With Anne’s interest in public service and her husbands’ interest in a legal career, they decided to move to Washington, DC. Anne was accepted into the federal government’s Presidential Management Intern Program, for recent graduates. It consisted of two years of rotations before interns choose a job track.

“It would have been logical for me to go into the Department of Education,” reflects Anne. But that year Ronald Reagan was elected on a platform of abolishing the Department of Education and Anne ended up with the Naval Sea Systems Command in the Department of the Navy in their Office of The Comptroller. “I knew I had a lot to learn in order to be effective,” says Anne.

She was there for 12 years, promoted all the way up.

But providence was charting a new course for Anne. When former President Bill Clinton was elected, she was offered a political appointment as the Deputy

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Assistant Secretary of Administration for the Agriculture Department. Anne accepted the challenge and once there, went on to become the agency’s first Chief Information Officer.

“Being a civil servant in the Navy is a very different from being a political appointee,” reminds Anne.

But these variances taught her to adapt to vastly different management circumstances, which serves her well in her current role at ASI. After the term of the political appointment ended, Anne was hired by Electronic Data Systems (EDS) as part of the Global Government Group. “That was fascinating. I met CIO’s from around the world,” Anne reveals. Another boon was EDS’ commitment to educating their executives. Anne benefited enormously, learning about the business of business to help governments around the world. She also headed up the state and local government practice for a year, rounding out her knowledge and expertise in government on every level.

This leg of the journey clearly primed Anne for working with ASI. Despite the fact that she had never actually run a business before, ASI was willing to take her on due to her outstanding track record.

“I’ve had a pretty eclectic background: finance, general administration, CIO, but never procurement acquisition. Why me? In part because there was a need to move out beyond the strictly procurement community, and they understood that I shared their passion for transforming government,” she discloses. “They took a risk. I took a risk. It has paid off for both of us.

They have been terrific people and quite wonderful to work with.”

In a career that has garnered numerous awards and accolades, risk-taking has been a key component.

In fact, Anne’s advice to anyone just starting out reflects this wisdom. “You will always have lots of choices. Don’t be afraid to take what may look like a risk, if it really appeals to you. And be flexible.”

Risk and flexibility were also key factors in the launching of ASI itself. Like Anne, the founders came from the government sector. One, a retired military officer, believed strongly that there was a better way for the government to make purchases. Together with a colleague he wrote a series of white papers on acquisition and the overwhelming response was, “These are great ideas, you are absolutely on target. Now help us to implement them.”

Initially, ASI met the needs of its clients with a totally virtual operation, although some employees worked on-site with clients. By 2003, the owners (now 114

numbering four) decided to get help running the growing business. That’s when Anne came on as President.

She was employee #38. Having spent 20 years in large organizations, working without formal office space was a bit of an adjustment for Anne. But it worked out well.

“People met around the kitchen table or in the living room, if we needed a larger ‘conference area’. We also heavily used the local business clubs and built a strong corporate intranet. That was the glue that held everybody together,” she concludes.

Today, ASI has 200 employees and brings in $50 million in revenue. The original white papers morphed into a web-based subscription service, linked to 8,000 government desktops. In addition, the consultant practice focuses on procurement and acquisition. Consulting and training in program management, organizational development, and cultural change management, round out their professional service offerings.

As a leader of this uniquely structured firm, Anne’s management style is deeply rooted in acknowledging the talent of those around her and empowering them to be even better.

“My gift is not so much my own depth of expertise, it’s being able to assemble a team and empower them to go forth and do good.”

Her ability to appreciate others is reflective of the support she has received. Her biggest cheerleader is her husband of 35 years. Professionally, she’s had several influencers, including Kennedy School Dean Ira Jackson, mentioned earlier, and Welsh Hardman, Deputy Comptroller of the Naval Sea Systems Command. ”Hardman made an incredible difference in so many lives and in the future of government. His greatest legacy was in the people that he brought in and encouraged to go forth and do what we’ve done. I also need to acknowledge the power and influence of my partners in leadership, Ira Hobbs (my Deputy CIO while at the Department of Agriculture) and Ann Costello (a founder and managing partner at ASI who is now Chair of the Board). Ira and Ann both inspire those around them to greatness. It has been my privilege to share in leadership with them.”

Anne’s legacy, handed down from her parents and exemplified in her life and work, is the conviction to always work toward a greater cause. She is especially excited about her work with a small foundation, LaBECA, which funds the education of women and girls in Latin America. LaBECA grew out of mission work she and the other co-founders engaged in with their church.

“Whether I’m helping girls in Latin America get an education, or whether I’m working professionally, I’m going to try to leave the world a better place.” These are

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values that my husband and I have sought to instill in our own three children.

With career connections that read like a Who’s Who in Government, Anne is most proud of the fact that she tries to make a difference wherever she is. And

she has left her mark on a multitude of governments across the globe. By following her life’s calling to “do good works” and be of service, Anne Reed has made her mark on transforming the world through the government systems we all live under.

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Travis Reese Combating the Silent Siege In a world where technological complexity is escalating with unprecedented momentum, Americans are coming to terms with the startling reality that we are under a silent siege. Veterans of the digital age, we are well versed in the threats of virtual assailants, and there is an expansive IT security industry focusing its firepower on prevention.

The prevalence in firewall utilization, intrusion detection, and access management in corporate compliance requirements testifies to the gravity of IT security threats, and such software has become imperative in the fight to maintain the privacy and security of data.

But what happens if this first line of defense fails? Or, as the constant flux of the virtual atmosphere would beg us to rephrase, what happens when this first line of defense fails? In 2009, cyber crime ousted the illegal drug industry as the most costly high-profile criminal activity threatening the U.S., and its menace has only escalated with time.

Travis Reese, President and COO of MANDIANT Corporation, is among the lone voices posing this question today.

Though the incident response industry is in its burgeoning stages, the crises it mends are far from uncommon. “The case studies are countless,” Travis reports.

“A Federal Law Enforcement agent hands a company the papers saying they’ve been penetrated by a foreign country and that they’re losing data. The company then spends weeks, even months, trying to identify how their security was breeched, the extent of that breach, what’s been lost, and if their networks are still compromised.”

And Travis isn’t referring to the smaller scale retail hackers that breach companies like WalMart. The companies and banks that turn to MANDIANT for help have generally fallen prey either to Eastern European organized crime targeting tens of millions of dollars, or to nation state sponsored threats. The latter, known as the Advanced Persistent Threat, is most often associated with the Chinese Government and is geared at breaching the intellectual property of different companies or countries to gain economic advantage—an emerging trend MANDIANT has observed with grave misgiving.

“In recent years, we’ve responded to dozens and dozens of Fortune 500 companies building technology for the U.S. government that have been breached

by China,” Travis explains. “We’ve seen just about every major U.S. technology targeted, so you can bet that the Chinese are either trying to break in or already in.

Alternatively, companies engaged in mergers and acquisitions negotiations with Chinese corporations are also victimized. The attackers go in to determine what the deal will look like, the negotiation tactics you’ll use, your price pressure… It’s the next generation of economic espionage.”

To combat these assailants, who often have no audible footsteps and leave few visible tracks, MANDIANT serves as the premier advanced threat detection and response company, discretely responding to the breaches we read about in the headlines and providing technologies to solve those problems. Founded in 2004

by Kevin Mandia, MANDIANT began as a high end consulting practice, dispatching its incident responders around the world to aid companies whose preventative measures had failed. Travis was hired in 2006 to build the company’s Federal practice, but the industry’s terrain was evolving rapidly under the small company’s feet. MANDIANT soon recognized that the market was burgeoning such that, even if it could hire people fast enough to meet demand, there weren’t enough specialists in the field to hire. Thus, they automated the entire human capital problem into a technology called MANDIANT Intelligent Response.

“What once took three dozen people three months’ worth of time to accomplish could be done in three days with the new software,” Travis explains. “We can now simultaneously turn over every rock and ask the same questions to every computer a company has at the same time, get their responses, and tell our clients exactly which computers were compromised, exactly what the attackers did, and exactly what they stole. This minimizes that window of exposure time, which can in turn limit the damage.”

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With the company immersed in rapid growth mode, Kevin found himself pulled in a million directions, and Travis’s skill set and expertise quickly propelled him into the COO role, followed closely by a promotion to President. The two had met in 1996 in the academy of the Air Force Office of Special Investigation (OSI), with Travis and Kevin finishing at the top of their class. Their experience at the academy sparked a competitive streak—and a strong mutual respect—between them that contributes to MANDIANT’s success today.

Travis grew up in upstate New York in a family of modest means. His parents, a woodworker and a hairdresser, put in long and grueling hours, and Travis followed suit at an early age. “I’ve had a job for as long as I can remember,” he remarks, describing his days working a paper route as among his earliest memories. His work never interfered with his schoolwork, however, as he was always an A student and found time for sports as well.

On high school graduation day, Travis had the United States Air Force slogan “Aim High” inscribed on his cap, and he certainly did. He had enlisted in the USAF, and ten days after graduation, his Air Force boot camp commenced. “I was attracted to the structure and the allure,” he laughs now. “I loved James Bond, and I was fascinated by the idea of an intelligence or investigative career path.” Travis’s own career path began in general investigations and law enforcement, followed by a transition over to the Air Force’s Joint Drug Enforcement Team. It was then that OSI recruited him to join the academy, where his path crossed with Kevin’s for the first time.

Kevin left the Air Force shortly after OSI to accept a position at Sytex and then Foundstone, where he spent several years working in hardcore computer forensics, intrusion, and penthouse training with the FBI. Travis found himself at a crossroads as well in 2000, when he felt compelled to choose between staying in the Air Force another ten years to earn an early retirement or striking out on his own.

It is often said that timing is everything, and Travis’s astute instinct in deciding the appropriate moments to instigate life transitions has proven impeccable. “It became very apparent to me that I needed to get out because things in the Air Force weren’t moving fast enough such that I could see myself having the impact I wanted to have,” he recalls. “I was conducting some very significant investigations and I loved every minute of it, but I realized I wouldn’t be able to impact the organizations around me as fast as I wanted to.” With that, he left to join Aegis Research Corporation, a company that built security around government classified programs to safeguard them from leaking.

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Travis, along with another former OSI agent, founded the Computer Forensics and Intrusion Analysis (CFIA) arm at Aegis, and they soon built it up into one of the fastest growing classified components in the defense industrial base. They then continued to build computer forensics labs for various intelligence agencies, providing tools and technologies for the government to use in its computer network operations side of the house. “In a relatively new industry with few leaders, I really had to learn business acumen on my own, and I found building a company to be relatively common sense,” Travis explains. “Make more than you cost, focus on quality execution, and follow the fundamentals. By eliminating bureaucracy and focusing on the mission, I accomplished more for the U.S. government in those six years working for a commercial defense contractor than I could have done in three military careers. From our impact to the war on terrorism, to our impact via the tools and capabilities we provided to government agencies, I found that career transition to be extremely rewarding.”

Aegis was later acquired by ManTech International, and when Travis completed the integration, he exercised his perfect timing intuition again and made the difficult choice to move on. “That was among the hardest career decisions of my life,” he remarks. “When you’ve built a team from the ground up like that, your level of commitment to it is unbelievable, and it’s hard to leave it behind. Looking back, though, I really identify that decision as necessary and life changing.”

Indeed, it was that choice that propelled him into his career with MANDIANT, where Travis has begun to witness the spread of the kind of impact he had always envisioned. Today, he and Kevin form a strong and complementary leadership presence, with Kevin laserfocused on technical quality and the company’s reputation while Travis remains sharply attuned to growth and forward momentum—a skill he continues to hone primarily through experience as opposed to academic training. “There are a lot of people emerging from business programs today who are so focused on strategy, and there’s certainly an important place for that,” he concedes, “but you don’t learn execution until you’ve done it, and from my experience, execution is the most important aspect of business.”

In advising young entrepreneurs today, Travis drives home the importance of passion, capacity, and humility, the three principles he examines in every hire he makes. “When you’re passionate about your work, you’re more committed and dedicated to the mission, and it’s a win for everyone,” he remarks. This couples with capacity, or the foundation and fundamentals that

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allow a person to succeed in a given position. Add humility, and you have the winning alchemy of traits that has allowed Travis to build the dynamic teams that, by his account, have made his success possible. His leadership style, which focuses on the success of those around him, underscores this sentiment. “You have to recognize that you’re part of something bigger than yourself,” he points out. “I have always seen myself as an enabler and a support resource for my staff. My philosophy is asking myself how I can take my 150-person team and make all of them more successful today than they were yesterday.”

Thus, for Travis and the team at MANDIANT, success is not some end goal. Rather, it’s something that is worked for, achieved, assessed, and reevaluated on a daily basis. That’s why, if you were to ask him today if

he’s successful, the answer wouldn’t necessarily be yes. “I think I’m doing well,” he explains. “I’ve been fortunate, I’ve been lucky, and I’ve made good decisions. I’m very happy with where I am, but I’m nowhere near finished.”

Indeed, as the company continues to revolutionize the market that protects the innovation and economic advantage the U.S. has been creating since its earliest days, it also stands poised to transform corporate compliance requirements. With revenues forecasted to double and then triple their current amount over the next several years, Travis aims to make MANDIANT’s managed service offering the global incident response team for corporate America, combating the silent siege and offering an unprecedented line of defense when companies are at their most vulnerable.

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Kathy Roberson The Bold Make the Best Kathy Roberson will never forget the day one of her professors announced in class that Combined Properties Incorporated (CPI), a real estate management and development firm operating in the DC metropolitan area as well as southern California, was looking for second year MBA interns. “At the time, I was a starving student working a hodgepodge of jobs to pay my bills while going through grad school,” Kathy reminisces. “I remember walking out of the class, down the hall, and making the decision that I was going to apply.

I was only a first year student, but something made me go back and grab the application anyway.”

As luck would have it, her background in information systems consulting was perfectly suited for the internship.

Her self-confident and bold approach couldn’t have hurt her interview either, and she got the job. “It paid $18 an hour, which was a fortune to me at the time,” she laughs. Now serving as CPI’s President and CEO, following her intuition and believing in herself that day so many years ago changed her life in ways she couldn’t have imagined at the time.

CPI was a family owned business founded in 1984 to serve as the management company for the family’s portfolio of retail shopping centers. CPI and the real estate were owned by five members of the Haft family at the time Kathy joined CPI in 1990. She helped the current owner, Ronald Haft, pull the company out of bankruptcy and buy out the other family members in order to settle difficult family litigation during the late ‘90’s. Afterwards, she helped to recapitalize the company and commence its growth in Southern California. “Ron’s always been the external face of the company and more involved in strategy, capital allocation decisions, and networking and development, whereas I’m more of the internal face of the company,” Kathy explains today. “Ron is the brand, and I am the culture. It’s been a wonderful opportunity to work for him all these years, growing the business into what we’ve wanted it to become.”

With 42 properties totaling five million square feet and an asset valuation of over $1 billion, CPI’s midsize status is actually becoming quite rare in the commercial real estate marketplace, which is polarizing toward big players and small local developers. Ronald, Kathy, and their team of around seventy employees focus on managing their existing portfolio, but also maintain an active presence in the development world, which has included the major redevelopment of several shopping centers and several new mixed-use properties in California. “Most of the work we do involves redeveloping and transforming existing projects, although we have done some ground-up development as well,” says Kathy. “Our strategy going forward will be to bring in joint venture partners for our new value-add and development deals.”

Growing up in Vienna, Virginia, Kathy’s first job was stacking shoes at a retailer called Shoe Town. She held several waitressing jobs, and in the summers during college she interned with the Federal government. She was able to get loans to put herself through college, but she knew she’d need a job as soon as she was through. Though she thought she’d go into marketing or sales, she instead landed a job with Arthur Andersen doing management information consulting. Two years in that capacity was enough to convince her that her path lay elsewhere, so she accepted a position with Omni Offices in commercial real estate. “My mother tried to dissuade me, and the market was tanking at the time, but I knew it was the right thing for me,” she affirms. “I had always liked real estate and was intrigued by it in college, and though I had no commercial real estate experience, I sent my resume out to every single commercial real estate company in the Washington market, which ultimately led to the opportunity with Omni Offices.”

At that time, the real estate market was going through a major recession, and Kathy knew there was no way she could get the kind of job she wanted without an MBA. “I spent a year working in the marketing and leasing side of commercial real estate but didn’t like

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it, so my whole reason for returning to school was to get involved in the finance side of the business,” Kathy explains. “I was convinced that commercial real estate finance was what I wanted to do.”

When she was then hired by Ronald Haft, it was at a time when he was letting people go and bringing on new talent. She was tasked with selecting the software that would run the entire business—a mission for which she felt drastically under qualified for but readily assumed anyway. “I remember sitting in meetings where they’d use all these acronyms and real estate terms,” she laughs now. “I didn’t understand a thing, but I used my systems background and training and began reading the source documents. I tapped personnel in the organization to train me, and I taught myself the business.”

There were two software products on the market at the time to choose from—the industry standard and the new kid on the block. Perhaps because she herself was that new kid, she assessed each product’s capabilities and decided to take a risk by recommending the new software. “There I was, this 25 year old recommending this major investment by the company,” says Kathy. “They went with it, and twenty years later, it’s the gold standard in PC-based retail real estate software.”

Her internship was a phenomenal success, and once she finished her MBA, her goal was immediately realized when she was hired on as a full-time financial analyst.

After serving a year in that capacity, she accepted an opportunity to transition into a position as Manager of Acquisitions. Through the following year, she and a colleague completed two acquisitions sourced by cold calling owners. She then seized an opportunity in the capital markets area to help the company refinance its debt and place new debt on its properties. “Again, I worked really hard, and I was able to learn how to finance successfully,” she remarks. She then moved from Director of Capital Markets to Assistant VP of Capital Markets, and then to VP. That was followed by Senior VP of Capital Markets, and then CFO. Kathy then ultimately had the opportunity to run the company as Executive VP before she was made President at age 35 in 2000. The title of CEO was added in 2011.

It’s no secret that Kathy wouldn’t have arrived where she is today without that bold attitude that has always characterized her approach to life. “This boldness really stems from intuition, which I think I’ve always had and have never been afraid to listen to,” she points out. Intuition, however, would be nothing without a strong work ethic, which Kathy has in spades. “I was always known as the person who gets it done—on time, on budget, and well,” she reports.

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This trademark stems from a somewhat troubled family background. Her alcoholic father was ill for most of Kathy’s childhood, and her mother had become emotionally detached as a result. Learning to care for herself as a child, Kathy became fiercely independent at a young age. She excelled in school and athletics. “I knew I would go to college,” she reports. “I didn’t know how I’d pay for it, but I knew I’d go. I had learned at an early age that there wasn’t much I couldn’t do. From the dysfunction of my family situation came a lot of strength, and I’m thankful for that.”

In advising young entrepreneurs entering the business world today, it comes as no surprise that Kathy emphasizes the importance of listening to the voice that speaks within the confines of one’s own head—that voice which may be little, but has the most important things to say. “I applied to that internship not because I knew they’d hire me, but because in my gut I knew it was the right thing to do and I had nothing to lose,” she points out. “All through my career, I’ve been very confident and unafraid to ask for what I want as I plan and implement my vision. That voice in my head is the reason why.”

Still, however, Kathy readily acknowledges that there is a fine line between brashness and rashness. She was relatively young as she ascended the corporate ladder at CPI, and as such she had a lot to learn. “I may have been confident and effectuating, but I also made a lot of classic leadership mistakes,” she confesses. “It’s important to do your research and homework while you’re listening to that inner voice.” Once she felt she had assembled a rock solid team at CPI, Kathy addressed this issue head on three years into her presidency by hiring an executive coach to help hone her leadership skills. “I knew how to put a strategic plan together and how to tactically implement, but I didn’t know how to lead people,” says Kathy.

“My coach really helped me put the mirror up so I could see how other people were experiencing me.”

What does it mean to be a natural leader? For Kathy, learning to be a better leader meant learning to be more herself—to let go of the persona of perfection she was emanating and instead govern without a mask.

“Today, I am very much myself,” she remarks. “Interestingly enough, allowing myself to be myself has actually shifted the focus away from me. The biggest fundamental shift I’ve made in my leadership is to no longer ask what people can do for me, but what I can do to serve my people. It’s not about me, it’s about them—making sure they have the tools, techniques, training, support, guidance, and direction they need to be successful.”

This transition in her focus also links directly to another message Kathy passes on to young people, which is

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the importance of having a support system. “The friendships and relationships you develop in your mid- to late twenties are extremely valuable,” she points out. “The next thing you know, you have this network of people who have become senior VPs or presidents in their companies,

which is exceedingly helpful and exceedingly fun.” When the voices of peers and mentors can supplement that internal voice in helping one navigate one’s professional journey, that same audacious spirit that saw Kathy through hers might be discovered in all of us.

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Shehraze Shah Burning the Candle at Both Ends Today Shehraze Shah is a veteran of the federal contract space in IT, telecommunications, logistics, and more, as President and CEO of ICS, the Vienna-based, certified 8(a) Small Disadvantaged Business. However, it didn’t start off this way. He and his twin brother, Khurram, who co-owns ICS today, were born in Pakistan in 1978, and later moved to the States with their parents and two older sisters in 1994. “In retrospect, it has been quite a journey. We have come far, but we’re still growing,” Shehraze explains. “ICS wasn’t just our idea; rather, it was my family, mentors and friends that supported the idea, and eventually contributed to where we are today.”

In Pakistan, Shehraze’s father had been very successful in running a leather tanning business, which ultimately flourished into an import-export business.

Political unrest in Pakistan only escalated his urge to provide stability and a worldclass education to his children, compelling Shehraze’s father to bring his family to the United States. The family moved to a college town in Florida where Shehraze and Khurram were the only foreign-born students at their high school. “It was very tough being the only two foreigners,” says Shehraze.

Some people have challenging first days at new jobs, but as a Pakistani-American engineer working for Sprint in the DC area who happened to report for duty on September 11, 2001, Shehraze’s was especially unusual. He didn’t just stay to work his first shift through 11 pm; in fact, he volunteered to stay through the next shift as well, helping the company through one of its most demanding and chaotic 24-hour periods as the nation dealt with the terrorist attacks that struck that morning. “When they saw I was committed, everyone relaxed,” Shehraze says. “They understood I was a team player, and that I was not going to go home until I got the job done.” This attitude earned him a lot of respect and acknowledgement, both at work and in home life.

The twins graduated in 1996, and after two semesters as Pre-Med students, they switched gears, and fields. “We saw a close relative experiencing success in

the IT business,” Shehraze remembers, “and he insisted that we should get the required certifications to learn more about IT.” The twins went first to community college in Virginia and then to George Mason University, and it was in Virginia that the family finally felt as though they had truly found home.

Shehraze graduated from George Mason in the fall of 2001 with an IT minor. He then received his Cisco certification and interviewed at Sprint, where Khurram was already working. “Taking the Cisco course was a huge thing,” Shehraze says.

“I walked into the interview, and the guy said, if you answer this one question you’ll have the job. It was a tough question, but I had done my preparation. I ended up getting that job in seconds.”

After working his way up several rungs at Sprint, Khurram had became a Systems Manager, yet the brothers decided that the two of them could put their heads together and provide IT services on their own. They got their first big business deal in 2003 with a private company. Shehraze and Khurram then worked with a friend to build internal IT solutions, and after rendering their services for the company for a year, the owner wrote them a $50,000 check. “We brought the check over to my father and our cousin,” Shehraze says, “and they said straight away, ‘You should incorporate and this will be the seed money.’ So we incorporated ICS on December 13, 2003, and that check went straight into ICS’s bank account.”

Shortly after ICS was formed, Shehraze went back home for his wedding preparation. His twin brother joined him there, and they celebrated their hard work and good fortune. But when they returned to the States, they dove full-throttle back into growing their company while still working full-time. Shehraze was working days at Sprint and nights at ICS, and Khurram was at one point working three jobs. After experimenting in the commodities market, they found themselves working through a transitional period, refining their business model through the end of 2005, when they landed their breakout contract with Fannie Mae. “The

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company needed support in building a new environment,” Shehraze remembers. “Since Khurram had done consulting with Fannie Mae, it made sense to take it to the next level by leveraging that relationship. Luckily, Khurram’s boss asked him to find 50 people for a job, and to bring him resumes.” That’s when Shehraze seized the opportunity and contacted every associate he knew at Sprint—from networking engineers, to system administrators, to any other qualified IT professional in his contact database—and finally had the pile of resumes assembled.

The efforts paid off. The contract with Fannie was growing, but their own business demanded their full attention. ICS had grown from $50 thousand in revenues in 2003, up to $250 thousand by 2005. By 2006, they had $6.1 million in billings from a single client managing up to 78 employees full-time, doing executions of Linux boxes, backups of core clusters, and managing restatement operations. What began as a move by ICS to find new clients as a matter of survival had become the beginning of a cascade of growth and new contracts and expansions into new areas of federal contracting.

This required new management positions, which led to the twins bringing on one of their sisters to help with recruiting and finance, as well as a full-time recruiter that Shehraze had hired straight out of Home Depot after the man had sold him some hardware. “He had no skill sets relevant to recruiting, but he was amazing in sales, and today he is one of the best at recruiting, staffing and hiring in the entire Washington district,” Shehraze affirms.

Since growing from $250 thousand to $6 million practically overnight, ICS expanded to $33 million in 2010. This growth has not come from mere repeats of the kind of work they did in IT, but rather from venturing into new frontiers and pursuing new horizons. Their first prime contract came with ATF in 2007, and then the game-changing contract for the US Census Bureau came in 2008. ICS was then instrumental in the successful management and completion of the 2010 Census, receiving wide praise for saving the bureau $1.87 billion in costs. ICS will be returning to work on the 2020 Census, and by then Shehraze has trended ICS to grow from a small business to a medium- or large-sized enterprise.

“It’s going to be organic growth,” he says. “Khurram and I have a plan in place. In a way, our success in the Census was the end of our business as merely IT.”

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Although IT remains the core bread-and-butter business line for ICS, it has expanded to be able to handle many complex areas across the federal government as their expertise has grown into telecommunications, transportation, and shipping. Furthermore, their employees have security clearances that allow ICS to win very sensitive contracts with the US Navy and other intelligence areas.

Today, Shehraze credits his success not only to his parents for their upbringing, support, and contribution to their success, but also to his relationship with Khurram. “Twins have their own dynamic,” he affirms.

“When you have a twin it’s a competition every day.

If I can’t produce as much as he’s producing, then I’ll step up my game.” When Shehraze was featured in the SmartCEO May cover story, he wanted Khurram to be on the cover with him, but they couldn’t put two CEOs together. “Both of us have a vision,” Shehraze says, “but today it’s my turn to be acknowledged. We were always together, learning together, taking classes together.” The twins taught each other what it takes to be successful in their industry, and Shehraze loves to take those lessons and share them with other people. “I love to talk to people,” he says. “I love working, especially when it’s with people who inspire me.

In advising young entrepreneurs entering the business world today, Shehraze says he knows that students are vulnerable to taking shortcuts, especially when they can Google the answers to certain problems.

But he emphasizes that one should instead strive to learn the concept, and be able to apply that knowledge.

“We’ve seen the shortcuts,” he says. “But you need a map. Firstly, build a list of what you want to be or do in life, or what you think is achievable with what you have, and then focus on how to get there.”

Considering this advice, it makes sense that the twins have been recognized for their talent and unique working style. The respect came because they dared to invest themselves fully, and dared to burn the candle at both ends. “To me, the double flame is sure to cast more light and, simultaneously, to garner greater success,” says Shehraze. “I have been working together with Khurram to make ICS known as a standout, reliable federal contractor, and much more. We will continue these efforts to attract more work, and ICS will soar to great heights, building on its alliances and actually making a difference.”

Profiles in Success: Inspiration from Executive Leaders in the Washington D.C. Area — Volume 3

Win Sheridan Beginning with the End in Mind Beginning with the end in mind.

This timeless adage has been put into practice by entrepreneurs throughout the ages, yet few have implemented it to quite the tee as Win Sheridan and his partners, Brian Callaghan and Jeff Veatch, have.

The three fraternity brothers, only a year or two out of college at the time, had been working at Aerotek (now Tek Systems), an IT recruiting firm in Reston, VA. It was an era of rapid growth for Aerotek, and the company was sending out its employees to help open offices in St. Louis and Portland. The urgency and drive of this effort seeped into the very core of these three young men, and after just a few months, they felt as though their skills and expertise would best serve in launching an IT staffing company of their own.

Thus, beginning with the end in mind, Win and his partners met in their living room one night to set the vision and division of their new enterprise. Among the most pivotal decisions made in that first meeting was in regards to the intended scope of their endeavor: it would not be a local or regional company, but instead a national presence. Thus, Apex Systems was incorporated in September of 1995 and opened its doors in the first week of October, committing to filling the IT placement needs, both project-based and permanent, of Fortune 500 and larger midsize companies throughout the United States.

Honoring a noncompete agreement with Aerotek, they were not permitted to do business within 50 miles of Aerotek’s office in Reston within their first 18 months of operation. Happy to abide by that mandate, Win and his partners opened Apex’s first office on the south side of Richmond. Indeed, their experience with sales, recruiting, and all other front office services and considerations was strong enough to realize the broad ambition they had set their sights on, and the company began to take off. Enjoying immediate and rapid growth, however, presented unforeseen challenges to the firm’s back office responsibilities such as payroll, accounts receivable, collections, and cash management. With success coming faster and faster, their cash was draining rapidly.

In fact, Win recalls with a shudder a period in May of 1996 when Apex’s checking account fell to about fifteen thousand dollars, which could only realistically sustain them for another week. “When you’re growing that fast and running that hard, the business is like a rocket ship, and you feel that turbulence,” he describes now. Fortunately, the company’s integrity and strong client relationships yielded an influx of cash that could sustain the operation, and Apex was able to pull itself out of the danger zone. But this served as a vital lesson, and Apex vowed to restructure its back end effectively so that it could quickly scale to handle the rapid growth the company continued to enjoy.

“Banks are not keen on supplying startups, and what few people realize is that rapid growth can actually kill a company quicker than no growth or slow growth can if it’s not managed properly,” he says today.

“We had very ambitious growth plans from the very outset, and this required equal performance in the front- and back-offices.” In large part, it was Apex’s strength in personal relationships that helped them overcome these early challenges with cash flow. “It’s very important to establish relationships with a client’s back-office people as much as with their front office people,” Win acknowledges now. “We cleared that hurdle, we learned from it, and we haven’t looked back.”

After this initial learning experience, Apex really hit its stride, and at eighteen months to the day of their noncompete, the firm opened its Fairfax office. Apex hired its first 50 employees from a pool of first-degree past associates and acquaintances, yielding a close-knit and enduring network that made for a tenacious, driven, and cohesive team.

This strong foundation paid dividends, and through plenty of referrals from proven hires, the company continued to experience strong growth. New offices opened rapidly in Baltimore, Raleigh, and Atlanta, and today—true to their original vision—Apex has 49 offices spanning the entire United States. In the first year, its sales broached the million dollar mark. In the next, that figure rose to $5 million. Sales then rose annually to $15 million, followed by

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$28 million, followed by $37 million, followed by $60 million. Last year alone, Apex drew $550 million in revenues, and for 2011, their sights are set on $700 million. This marks halfway to their billion dollar milestone—a target they’ve had their sights on since day one, and which they hope to realize in 2012. Yet, with characteristic ambition, Win is quick to emphasize that this is only a milestone, not an end goal.

Such an insatiable and ambitious drive is rarely displayed, and even more rarely realized—evident of an inner fire lit by a unique flame which we all might like to ignite in ourselves. Success is certainly integral to the equation, but Win’s example highlights the fact that setbacks play a role that is perhaps just as vital. As an English major in college, he certainly experienced his fair share of rejection letters before landing at Aerotek after his classmate, fraternity brother, and now business partner, Jeff Veatch, referred him. Despite its status as an IT recruiting firm, the job did not require skills in technology, but rather a rare personality with an eye for talent and a mind for the strategic pairing of talent with need.

Though he accepted his position at Aerotek thinking he would later attend law school in the tradition of his father, who had owned his own law firm for 40 years, it quickly became clear that his path lay elsewhere. His partners were finance and psychology majors, and this robust set of skills and backgrounds is a true testament to the unique and far-reaching nature of the industry in which Apex operates.

“This is very much a business about building great relationships,” Win notes today. “It is a great asset to be extroverted, and to be able to communicate with people effectively. It’s not the kind of talent that can be captured solely on paper. You’ve really got to know people. Our people are our number one competitive advantage, and one of our top goals is to create a winning culture where they can be highly successful and have fun with their career along the way.” Forming strong bonds both internally and externally in this manner has played a pivotal role in Apex’s success thus far, and promises to remain a major building block in the future expansion of that success.

While the ability to form strong, genuine relationships with others is indeed a tremendous asset in the IT staffing realm, Win also emphasizes the importance of that inner drive that compelled him to set such a lofty bar the night Apex was born. “You have to want to win, and it’s got to burn you to no end if you don’t,” he explains passionately. His partners mirror Win’s spirit in this regard, and it is perhaps for this reason that their personalities harmonize so effectively to strike that ideal pitch of compelling and effective leadership that companies so often 128

strive for. “We all feel that sense of urgency to get out there, grow the business, ensure our people are always improving, and do the right things,” Win explains. “We are an ever-evolving work-in-progress.” He and his partners emphasize these ideas to their employees through their expectations and through positive reinforcement, and it is this leadership philosophy that drives Apex today.

The roots of Win’s professional savvy and leadership style have certainly been honed through his experience in the IT staffing realm, but they actually extend far back to the earliest days of his youth. Growing up in Alexandria, VA, his first job was delivering the Alexandria Gazette in the sixth grade. As a child, he had observed older kids doing the job of wrapping and banding the papers before putting them in bags if it was raining, and he would even help out. When he actually assumed a position of his own, however, he learned about the behind-the-scenes aspects of the business, including collections and customer complaints. The importance of back office management and of developing relationships with clients was underscored even at this early age and foreshadowed the lessons Win would learn from Apex many years down the road.

His entrepreneurial flair was also evidenced early in life when he decided to start his own lawn mowing service after working the summer of his sophomore year of high school for a company that paid him ten dollars an hour to do 25 to 30 lawns per day. “After one summer of that, a partner and I decided we could do it on our own, so Fannon and Sheridan Lawn Service was born,” Win laughs now. “Taking that small step and having that experience at an early age was a great lesson in entrepreneurship.”

In advising young entrepreneurs entering the business world today, Win advocates for choosing passion over a paycheck. “Don’t be a slave to the almighty dollar,” he warns. “Too many people focus on this, and it’s a mistake. If money is your only motivation, you will ultimately fail one way or another. Find something you’re great at and passionate about, and then put together a business plan. Have fun with it. Money should not be the end goal, but a byproduct of doing what you love to do. Today, I certainly have my sights set on goals, but it’s never about what’s going into my pocket. Money is just the byproduct of what we’re accomplishing as a company. The better payoff is the satisfaction you get from seeing your people get rewarded as they grow with the company.” By keeping your sights on goals in this manner, and on the passion that truly inspires the inner will to win, one can truly begin with the end in mind, setting the course for success from the very first step.

Profiles in Success: Inspiration from Executive Leaders in the Washington D.C. Area — Volume 3

Marc Slavin Along for the Ride “Car washes, body shops, and gas stations. That’s how I grew up,” says Marc Slavin. “I’ve been in this industry for 55 years, and I’m 55 years old!” Now the president, CEO and founder of MarcParc, a business dedicated to designing, building, and managing parking lots and garages, he can still recall when he was a toddler and his father would put him on his lap as he’d drive around the garages. It’s not just his line of work; it’s his bloodline. And just as family was an integral aspect of his experience in the beginning, it remains, above all else, his motivation and top priority today.

“Life has been one crazy ride, and it’s the people who ride along with you that make all the difference,” he affirms.

This bloodline dates back to the end of World War I, when Marc’s grandfather returned from the battlefields with a fifth grade education level but with a mastery of mechanics and a special proficiency with Packard engines. He planted himself in Washington and morphed his practice into a repair shop, and the government paid him to train veterans in the trade. He began charging for parking for the cars he was fixing, and he subsequently sold the lot to Pepco, which brought in substantial revenue that was then fed back into the business. His parking business embarked on a marked escalation through the 30s, 40s, and 50s as cars became more prevalent, and he invented several parts for Ford Motor Company, which afforded him extra capital for purchasing real estate for more lots and garages.

Marc’s grandfather’s enterprise, Atlantic Garage, later became a family business as Marc’s uncle became involved, and when Marc’s mother married Alan Slavin, Alan joined the business as well after returning from the Korean War. Alan then split off to find a partner and develop his own parking company in the 60s, with Marc’s grandfather and uncle continuing to run Atlantic Garage.

Marc and his twin brothers were certainly troublemakers as children, riding their bikes all around town and getting into mischief, yet Marc never missed an opportunity to go to the garage with his father. “In the summer or on days off, I remember just parking cars with my dad,” he says.

Everything changed in young Marc’s life, however, when Alan was tragically killed in a plane crash in April of 1967. In June, his mother packed everything and relocated the grieving family down to Florida to start a new life. She met a doctor in the airport several months later that she later married, and they built a good life together. Marc’s grandfather had semi-retired to Florida as well, and day in and day out, Marc would both work and fish with him. “I have a lot of him in me,” he explains now. “I grew up in Florida, but I really had a love for the business that kept bringing me back to Washington. It was in my blood, and I was traveling back and forth to visit my uncle, who was still running Atlantic Garage.” Marc’s grandfather also had a body shop that he loved to work in through the summer, and Marc actually ran it for him the summer he was nineteen years old.

Marc’s passion and natural proficiency for the business couldn’t be denied, and he ended up leaving college to work for his uncle full-time in 1977, starting as a supervisor. He had parked cars since he was 12 years old and continued to do so until he was 30, when his uncle made him Vice President. Marc took that role and ran with it, evolving it into a marketing and business development position and growing the company to between 60 and 70 locations. They were doing $12 to $15 million in revenue with admirable margins. His uncle had expanded the company into a real estate empire as well.

As the years went on, however, Marc saw the writing on the wall and realized he was unhappy with the business philosophy his uncle had developed, resolving to submit his resignation in 1995. “I knew I had to go out and try things on my own,” he remembers. “I couldn’t continue without ever knowing whether I had the ability to succeed independently, my own way. With that, on April 15, 1996, I settled into my own office with an old computer and chair. I had one telephone, and I began making calls to people in the industry I knew who might give me a chance. Lo and behold, there actually

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were people out there who trusted me to come in and operate some of their parking facilities.”

It started with one client, and then another, and before long, Marc added staff so he was able to go out and meet with new business to nurture the company.

By 2000, MarcParc had 10 to 12 facilities. Now, in 2012, they have 50 facilities and around 200 employees. He also founded MarcParcValet, a professional valet concierge, in 2004, which is projected to do 1,500 events this year with 800 part-time employees and 50 fulltime employees.

To say that Marc and his team have an eye for detail is quite the understatement. They work with engineers to build garages, and they use an eye for detail with decades of experience to assess the condition of garages. From the equipment, to the lighting, to the drainage, to the concrete, Marc can do visual analyses of these garages, identify problems, and coordinate solutions. “This is what we do,” he explains. “It’s what we live and breathe in this business.” And, though there have certainly been challenges along the way as a result of the financial strains put on developers through the recent economic crisis, Marc remains optimistic that many new opportunities remain, and it is on these new opportunities that he keeps his sights set when he’s not focused on the minutia of garage inspection.

The hard times have not been limited to financial woes, either, as Alan Slavin’s death was far from the last familial loss Marc would need to weather. He’ll never forget the early morning hours of August 7th, 2002, when the phone rang as he was tying his shoes. “Your brother’s dead from a heart attack,” came his mother’s broken voice over the receiver. She had to bury a child at age 42, and she never got past the despair. Shortly thereafter, she was at his house in Ocean City when she reported that she hadn’t been feeling well. She was diagnosed with stage four colon cancer, and Marc took a significant amount of time off work throughout that final year of her life to be at her side.

In the aftermath of his mother’s death, Marc found himself once again on a plane down to Florida to be with his twin brother, whose heart was failing due to an ailment he had suffered since birth. Making the necessary decision to later take his brother off life support was the hardest thing Marc has ever had to do, and cultivated in him an awareness of true priorities that continues to shine through his leadership style today. “My life’s been an unbelievable roller coaster for the past few years now,” he says. “I was dealing with all of that while running the business, and I will admit, I lost some of my drive and zest for the company for a while. It was certainly regained, but 130

with a nuance of wisdom it hadn’t possessed before. My perspective shifted a bit after losing my father, two brothers, a mother, and later my stepfather.”

This perspective permeates the company culture of MarcParc, placing the wellbeing of Marc’s team members at the forefront of his consideration at all times.

“Be good to the people that work for you,” he emphasizes. “Hire good people and take care of them, because they’ll take care of you too. Let them enjoy the fruits of their successes, and be sympathetic to their needs and personal lives. These are the things you have to deal with in business everyday—the real, hard aspects of not only your own life, but the lives of your employees as well. You have to understand their problems and give them the freedom and support to deal with them as constructively as possible.”

Beyond this awareness and empathy for others, Marc stresses the importance of a basic foundation of perseverance and hard work in advising young entrepreneurs entering the business world today. “Be dedicated, and don’t let anyone tell you that you can’t do something,” he avows. “My high school English teacher once told me I’d never be able to read or write, yet today, I write proposals and letters as eloquently as any graduate scholar can. If you believe in something with your heart and your gut, go for it with all you have. And never think that someone’s better than you, because you don’t know what happens behind closed doors.”

An integral aspect of perseverance, however, is having a clear concept of what one is working for or toward, so he remains a staunch advocate of the simple practice of putting ideas on paper and writing up a plan. “What is it that you’re trying to do or develop? What do you want the end result to be?” he challenges. “Decide what you want the end result to be, and then back into it. That philosophy holds, whether you’re designing a garage, playing a football game, or trying to achieve a life goal. Keep it simple and get advice from people who have been through it.”

More important to Marc than mentors, however, are family and friends, and while his commitment to MarcParc is evident in the company’s success, his commitment to those closest to him far surpasses all else.

Indeed, of all his accomplishments, he remains most proud of his two sons and daughter, and strives to stay in close contact with his friends on a daily basis. “It’s really important to me to be there for them,” he acknowledges. “If they need me, I’ll drop whatever I’m doing.”

Perhaps it was growing up and watching the compassion that radiated from his stepfather, who was a physician for the Fountain Blue Hotel in Miami. He wouldn’t force his patients to pay in cash, but would

Profiles in Success: Inspiration from Executive Leaders in the Washington D.C. Area — Volume 3

rather accept virtually any form of barter—a true testament to his love and acceptance of people for who they were, in every sense of the word. Every time a slab of Nova Scotia salmon would appear at their door, or a Senator would treat them to dinner, Marc knew his stepfather valued his patients more than any paycheck and was willing to put his relationship with them before all else.

He sees the same kind of compassion today in his wife, Brigid, who has been his biggest supporter

for fourteen years now. “She’s the quintessential woman and wife,” he muses. “She sticks by me—even if it means going to Africa with me to hunt the Big 7, or going fishing 70 miles offshore, or riding in the back of my airplane at a dizzying 50 degree angle.” Indeed, it’s the friends and family who stay with us despite—or because of—life’s unpredictable twists and turns that make it worthwhile, and it is for those people that he truly committed his business to a standard of excellence, integrity, and resilience.

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Lynette Spano The Explorer In what was at that point a relatively brief tenure as a receptionist for an early software marketer called Lifeboat Associates, Lynette Spano had already become a keen observer of the office and the comings and goings of its management and staff. Through a nearby window, she could observe the bullpen where all seventeen salesmen worked, and she quickly noted that the executives and every interesting visitor would always go straight to the fifth floor. “I loved the constant movement and the hum of the typewriters,” Lynette says today. “Before there were keyboards brought in, there were typewriters.”

Lifeboat Associates was the first software distributor with a business model much akin to McGraw-Hill, the book publishing company. It takes products from various software authors and creates markets and commerciality for those products.

Lynette would sometimes spot pioneers in early computers such as Bill Gates come through its doors to meet with company executives. Soon, she became determined to see the top floor with her own eyes. One night after everyone had left the office, she walked into the elevator and hit five. When the doors opened up to polished mahogany floors, oriental rugs, antique paintings and other elegant furnishings, Lynette was awestruck. When she spied a library through an open door, she had to slip in and pick up a book.

“I walked through that library,” Lynette says, “looking through books and at photos, and trying to figure this all out.” It was at that moment that she suddenly heard a man softly clearing his throat. Turning around she came face to face with Lifeboat co-founders Tony Gold and Dr. Edward Curry.

Lynette froze, and in trying to come with an explanation for why the receptionist would be paging through volumes in the library after hours, she couldn’t help but flash back to another time that she had found herself very unexpectedly among books.

Over a decade before she started working for Lifeboat, she was growing up with her Puerto Rican mother and Italian stepfather in a poor and crime-riddled area of Brooklyn. In considering early childhood influences,

Lynette can’t help but remember gang wars and drugs.

“The mean girls didn’t just pick on you—they ganged up on you in the bathroom,” she explains. The neighborhood, the demands of taking care of her six siblings, and a distant stepfather had left Lynette feeling frustrated and angry. But in the 4th grade, a teacher of Lynette’s, Mr. Pendergraff, came to her house and asked her parents permission to take her to a local bookstore.

“Pendergraff used to say,” Lynette explains, “that I should really explore when I go into bookstores.

So when I was found by Mr. Gold in the library at Lifeboat, all I could say was, ‘I’m exploring!’ I went right into the whole reason I was there.”

Lynette expressed her great curiosity at how information was moving from physical records to what she had come to understand were floppy disks and computers. She desperately wanted to understand it. When she was asked why she wanted to understand, she said, “Because I work here and I need to know what we’re doing.”

Thus marked a pivotal moment in the life of “The Explorer.” Dr. Curry mentored her several times a month after work to teach her how the business worked, and about digital computers and software.

“I said I wanted to be in sales,” Lynette says. “I said that our people didn’t understand. They weren’t hungry. They would come in and smoke their cigarettes, put their feet up, read the newspapers, then hit the clock at 5pm and leave. They weren’t hungry!”

Dr. Curry called this a “sense of urgency,” but whatever it was called, Lynette had it, and it quickly rocketed her into a position in sales support. Lynette flourished there for two and a half years in the face of opposition from some who were intimidated by her aggressiveness and the rapid success she was seeing even without a degree.

Toward the end of the two and a half years, Lynette discovered a sales opportunity with Sperry Rand before it would become a part of Unisys, who was trying to land the largest US Air Force contract of the time. But managers at Lifeboat, including Dr. Curry, refused to

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take seriously her idea to expand Lifeboat to Washington, DC to handle this possible contract. With that, she left Lifeboat. Sperry Rand secured the Air Force deal, and Lynette started SCI Consulting Services to serve as its consultant, with a twelve-year contract working out of her new offices in Washington, DC. “In our first year, 1983, we started at $1.7 million in revenue,” Lynette says, “and then continued to grow by a million each year. Eventually we started to take on more clients.”

Today the result of Lynette’s boldness and vision is a 29-year-old company that has evolved into a federal integrator of IT services working with several government clients, including the US Departments of Energy and Homeland Security. With 350 employees, their revenues will exceed $50 million this year, and they are poised to be a major mid-sized player in the federal marketplace. “I love to walk around our facility,” Lynette says, “to poke my head into various conference rooms and hear that buzz of activity. People will look up to say good morning, and then they’ll just look at me as if to say, ‘Do you need something?’ It’s great to feel the company have a life of its own that carries it forward without my constant involvement at every level.”

It’s not only Lynette’s management style that keeps her from micromanaging. Several years ago she experienced a head trauma that was initially life threatening and required four years of therapy. Even though she had to temporarily take a step back from day-to-day operations of SCI, she was still able to see her company continue to grow. Since then she has worked to channel the energy of her triumph and survival in the face of both a childhood steeped in a rough, threatening environment, and later illness, into efforts to help others in need.

“When I try to understand how I survived that environment as a child,” Lynette says, “I think a lot of it was anger. I had a tough exterior, from my step-father being tough on me, and I had no fear.” When she saw the chaos of business, she found that she could thrive in it. “I loved that chaos because I came from chaos,” Lynette says.

It was in the climate of gang culture and a tough neighborhood that Lynette first expressed her entrepreneurial spirit, when she gathered friends to work for her shining shoes at certain street corners. One day she came home from school at 3 o’clock in the afternoon to find a heroin addict on the staircase to her house. “That was a catalyst,” Lynette says. “These things said, ‘You have to be all you can be and escape this.’ You have to maneuver yourself around these minefields, avoid the traps that force you to stay here and live on welfare in the ghettos and on drugs.’”

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Some of her friends never made it out. One got 25 years in prison for cocaine trafficking. Another was shot and killed. One more died from a heroin overdose. “It was Pendergraff who exposed me early on to those bookstores,” Lynette says, “where I had discovered the world that existed outside of the ghetto.” Pendergraff gave her an “injection of influence” that told her there was more out there. By high school she was alone, but she was made tough by those lessons. By the time she graduated, it was clear she was not going to college. She got the receptionist job at Lifeboat Associates, and the rest is history.

As a result of her triumph over adversity, Lynette has become determined to improve the lives of people who have struggled as she has. She is involved with nonprofit organizations that foster the development of underprivileged children, and she has launched an organization called Stars, Stripes, & Hearts in support of Latino Hispanic veterans. In her latest venture, she is expanding into the entertainment industry to raise money for nonprofits. She has produced an album of her own work, made up of 12 tracks, released under the name of her mother, who died of cancer. “My legacy is about never giving up on someone,” Lynette says. “Life is about truly having a love for living in every aspect. SCI as an institution is growing, and it will live on without me.”

Lynette has a 21-year-old daughter, and she has tried to impart her wisdom upon her daughter as she starts a company of her own. “Both as managers and as parents,” Lynette says, “we have the responsibility to provide guidance, direction and leadership. This is one of the most important jobs a person can have, and I take it very seriously.”

Recently, Lynette went out to Osbourne High School in Manassas, Virginia, to speak to about two hundred students, almost half Latino or Hispanic. She exhorted them to have integrity, to tell the truth, to work hard, and to dream and have an imagination—words of wisdom she would pose to any young entrepreneur entering the business world today. They identified with her history and asked her many questions.

After her visit, and with nearly thirty years as a businesswoman under her belt, she saw messages over Twitter expressing great gratitude for her visit and her enthusiasm. “They respected me for being a woman of my word,” Lynette said, “and that I showed them what was out there in the world. It meant everything to me.” By continuing to lead her company and her life with the characteristic passion and commitment that have led her to where she is today, Lynette’s story continues to infuse the stories of those around her with that same energy, such that we might all come to explore the world around us as she once explored that library so many years ago.

Profiles in Success: Inspiration from Executive Leaders in the Washington D.C. Area — Volume 3

Judy York Clearing the Comfort Zone “No!” Judy York proclaimed.

Naturally, the teenage girl was sick of her father’s crazy notions.

“But you’re so good with computers! Going into a field like that would be so natural for you, honey,” he insisted.

Already taunted by her classmates for her dark Romanian skin tones and painfully aware of the limitations imposed by the shyness that had evolved from early childhood, she refused to entertain the idea of a career that would most certainly, in her seventeen-year-old mind, condemn her to a lifetime of nerdiness. Even though she had always enjoyed writing programs for the Commodore 64 her father had brought home when she was twelve years old, coding the machine to sing songs or play cartoons, a career in technology most certainly wouldn’t do.

Now the President and CEO of NETCONN Solutions, Inc., a multi-million dollar company specializing in providing IT services to the Department of Defense (DoD), it would seem that Judy has come around somewhat to her father’s advice. However, it was only after getting her English degree and realizing that she would have to make a living on her own that she discovered he may have had a good point.

“Still, my first dream had been teaching,” Judy explains now. As a young girl, she would draw up worksheets for her little brother, sitting him down in their playroom and giving him lessons on a little easel.

Though she got a sales job as a baby photographer right out of college, she then transitioned into a sales training position, which allowed her to explore her teaching passion. “I then wanted to go back to school for corporate development and training, but my dad told me to get my MBA instead because it would open more doors,” she recalls. “He said my passion for teaching could be expressed in other ways. Thankfully, I listened that time.”

Thus, after six years of job experience and moving into a District Manager position, Judy’s employer

paid for her to attend night classes toward her MBA. She then went to work for Vanguard Cellular Systems, Inc., which was acquired by AT&T Wireless in 1999.

Working her way up from sales to training to project management, she also earned a Masters in Information Systems and a Certificate in Project Management to supplement her MBA. Ultimately telecommuting to Redmond, Washington, things were going well until AT&T ordered all off-site employees supporting the corporate headquarters to relocate.

With that, Judy launched an intensive and proactive search, identifying companies she believed she would be able to provide value to. “I knew I had to just go out there and work it, and I found this little company in Hagerstown, Maryland,” she explains. “I sent them my resume even though there were only openings listed for technical jobs. I figured that, with the diverse technical skill sets advertised for, they were bound to need someone like me to help them plan, coordinate, and engage resources.” That company just happened to be NETCONN Solutions.

NETCONN is a woman-owned organization founded in 1997 by engineers and program managers who worked for the Army Information Systems Engineering Command (ISEC), which operated out of Fort Ritchie in Maryland. After the installation’s closure in 1995, the founders left their civil service positions and went their separate ways. Then, in 1997, the Defense Information Systems Agency (DISA), which had taken over some of the functions previously supported by Army ISEC prior to Ft. Ritchie’s closure, wanted to do another round of data center consolidations in anticipation of Y2K. As a result, NETCONN was formed so the founders could continue to support data center consolidations, migrations, and design work within this infrastructure they had come to know so intimately. DISA later blossomed into NETCONN’s primary client, with additional services provided to other DoD agencies.

Today, NETCONN provides a full life cycle of support for DISA, supplying engineers that design solutions

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for other DoD agencies looking to obtain capabilities from DISA. Then, once these agencies purchase the services, NETCONN supplies full implementation, operations, and maintenance support.

Linda Frakes was the company’s first President and CEO and oversaw Judy’s education and assimilation when she started with the company as General Manager in 2003. At that time, NETCONN was 80 employees strong and drew revenues of $10 million.

Acknowledging that it was a small and privately held firm, Judy knew the company presented a greater risk than other job offers she had received, but she believed it would afford her greater learning experiences and opportunities in the future. In retrospect, her analysis couldn’t have been more accurate.

Judy had no idea that Linda had already announced to her partners her intentions to retire, which speaks volumes to her natural aptitude and enthusiasm for the work, considering she was offered a job she didn’t even realize was on the table after only six months of observation. “When they pulled me aside to ask if I was interested in the position, I knew the company had tremendous potential,” she says. “We were running very lean with strong margins, and they wanted me to get into strategic planning immediately. What’s more, I’ve always loved the small business atmosphere. Being able to get your hands involved in the various aspects of an organization was a key driver for me.” Four months later, Linda departed, and Judy officially filled her shoes.

At that point, Judy had acquired considerable experience leading cross-functional teams for three or four years—a primary reason why NETCONN had seen such potential in her. Touching on engineering, marketing, legal issues, and customer matters, her strong business background also came as a tremendous asset in light of the fact that most of NETCONN’s founders boasted engineering-only expertise. Her first act as President and CEO, then, was the implementation of a new accounting system, a critical step towards positioning NETCONN to pursue additional prime contracts with the Federal government. Beyond these skills, NETCONN had targeted her for her background in sales, marketing, training, managing, and notably for the potential she exhibited as a spokesperson.

At the time Judy assumed her position, NETCONN had been doubling in size each year even though DISA remained their primary customer. Still, it wasn’t all smooth sailing for the young CEO. Just as Linda had never run a company before, Judy was learning as she went along—a process that was not easy with the birth of her first child shortly after she assumed the presidency, 136

and later with a serious hospitalization for septic shock.

“I had been feeling invincible … like I could and should do everything, especially as a woman proving myself in a male-dominated industry,” she explains. “But after a week in the ICU, it hit me that I needed to slow down a little bit.”

Part of this realization was implemented in the team building initiatives Judy launched in 2005 and 2006, replacing and reorganizing the predominantly administrative staff with people who were experts in their field. “I wanted individuals who were passionate about and committed to the role they were hired for,” Judy says. “I had to get my hands around all the pieces, then get the right people in place, and then hand those pieces out, which allowed me the time to dive into strategic planning.”

She also seized a tremendous opportunity for professional growth in 2006 when she joined Vistage, a results-oriented coaching program for CEOs specializing in strengthening leadership and decision-making skills. Prior to joining, Judy had adopted the company’s reigning mentality that growth was best achieved through a diversification of services and customer base.

NETCONN had thus committed a tremendous amount of time, energy, and resources to winning contracts in Maryland, Federal civilian agencies, and the commercial space. It took only one Vistage meeting, however, to show her that gaining more market share in the areas a company already excels in can oftentimes ensure a much smoother and stronger pattern of growth.

In truth, the contracts they had been so thrilled to win in Maryland were paltry compared to those held with the DoD and entailed significantly more negotiating, as their reputation and accomplishments were unknown in this new market. “When we finally got to the table, we were just one of thousands of small businesses without a competitive advantage in a new arena,” she reports. “After that Vistage talk, though, it was like everyone on the executive team saw the light simultaneously. We immediately shifted our entire focus back to DISA and other unexplored agencies within the DoD that DISA touches and supports.” As a result, NETCONN maintains its perfect track record of annual growth, currently at 160 employees and drawing $30 million in revenue.

So how exactly does someone transform from an introverted young girl, too shy to attend Girl Scouts without the company of her mother, into the powerhouse spokeswoman who singlehandedly introduced herself into a company and won over its leadership? “I always tried to push myself out of my comfort zone,” Judy explains. Whether it was the adventurous cave exploring of

Profiles in Success: Inspiration from Executive Leaders in the Washington D.C. Area — Volume 3

her Girl Scout days or her choice to major in English because she knew it would draw her out of her shell more, she didn’t sit idly by as a victim resigned to circumstance.

“Still, I would urge someone to take care that they don’t push themselves away from what might very well be their natural core competency,” she advises. Had Judy refused to push herself, it is unlikely she would have developed the confidence, advocacy, and public speaking skills necessary to serve as a President and CEO. Likewise, had she then refused to allow herself to gravitate back toward her natural skill set, she would have missed out on her opportunity with NETCONN as well.

In further advising young people entering the workforce, Judy stresses the importance of gaining experience through internships or other methods, as the knowledge that results will assist in discerning what is and isn’t right for each person. “For people who don’t know what they want to do, I feel that experience is the number one factor in helping to sort things out,” she says. “Many people who are further along in their careers will take the time to speak with you and help you figure out your path. So later on, when you’ve progressed down that path, don’t forget to pay it forward and take the time to offer advice as well.”

The most compelling piece of advice she offers, however, is quite fittingly a lesson she learned from that wise and patient mentor whose guidance shines through Judy’s story at its most pivotal moments—her father. After starting college at Virginia Tech with a scholarship that demanded passing grades, she found herself midway through a notoriously impossible Calculus course with a D average. When she called her father in despair, however, he told her to pull out her syllabus. After a brief calculation, he pointed out that, if she received A’s for the rest of the semester, she would pass the class with a C. Unconvinced that she could do it but willing to try, Judy did her homework over and over again each night and went into her next test sick to her stomach with anxiety. The result of all her very literal bellyaching, however, was a 97 percent, and once she had cleared that hurdle, achieving A’s for the semester’s remainder proved infinitely easier. “Just dig in and do it and don’t get scared over something just because it’s challenging,” she says, echoing her father’s words. Regardless of what our comfort zones are built to ward off, venturing beyond the boundaries with this courage of conviction promises a stronger character and brighter future with each step.

Judy York

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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 Emanual 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 riderless 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.”

From Gifford to Hickman

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“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 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.

©2012 Gloria J. Bernhardt. All Rights Reserved.

Reprinted by permission.

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Profiles in Success: Inspiration from Executive Leaders in the Washington D.C. Area — Volume 3