PSC Council Spotlight

Defense and Intelligence Council

The Defense and Intelligence Council (D&IC) leads PSC’s efforts with the intelligence community (IC), Office of the Secretary of Defense, military departments, and defense agencies. D&IC is the principal PSC forum for members to engage with federal government decision-makers and provide input on acquisition policies and programs. This group aims to:

• Facilitate productive dialogue between defense and intelligence officials and the industry partners that support them.

• Improve the acquisition environment within the DoD and the IC by reducing procurement cycle times, improving requirements processes, and dissuading inappropriate use of Lowest Price, Technically Acceptable (LPTA) evaluations and labor rate tripwires.

• Shape business opportunities to support a healthy vibrant defense industrial base that has the capabilities and capacities to help the DoD and the IC achieve their national security missions.

Key Accomplishments

• Analyze and make recommendations on shared challenges, such as recruitment, retention, training, and promotion of a capable workforce, impacts of higher-thanexpected inflation, and accelerating as appropriate acquisition timelines to support surge requirements (e.g., Ukraine).

• Promote the services industry’s contributions and value through PSC thought leadership (e.g., op-eds, speaking engagements, congressional testimony).

• Planned and hosted the Defense Conference, with keynote addresses from Hon. Carlos Del Toro, Secretary of the Navy and Hon. Chris Lowman, Assistant Secretary of Defense for Sustainment.

• Led several multi-association sessions that involved DoD’s senior-most acquisition executives (e.g., Under Secretary of Defense for Acquisition & Sustainment, Under Secretary of Defense for Research and Engineering, military service acquisition leaders) in constructive dialogue and information-sharing on priorities, policies, programs, and practical experiences.

• Participated in frequent meetings with DoD’s Office of Industrial Base Policy, regarding COVID-19 responses, security assistance to Ukraine, small business programs, and other timely procurement, regulatory, and policy issues.

• Engaged with Defense Contract Management Agency and other DoD leaders on cybersecurity contractor assessments and policy implementation issues across DoD, specifically Cybersecurity Maturity Model Certification-related rulemaking and updates for federal contractors.

• Established a PSC-led industry forum with U.S. Naval Sea Systems Command (NAVSEA) and engaged government and industry officials on defense industrial base support for NAVSEA requirements.

• Engaged with DoD on international cooperation issues; supported multiple meetings/events on foreign military sales reform efforts and other OSD engagements on Ukraine and U.S. defense industrial base support.

• Facilitate a productive dialogue between defense and intelligence government officials and the industry partners that support them.

• Improve the acquisition environment and innovation ecosystem at DoD and in the IC (e.g., help to streamline requirements for emerging technologies, monitor acquisition lead times).

• Suggest improvements to acquisition approaches as early as possible in the cycle to help set up opportunities for success.

• Contribute to effective training of the DoD and IC acquisition workforce by facilitating industry participation and input in Defense Acquisition University and National Defense University courses.

• Promote the industry’s contribution and value by building on PSC thought leadership through research, op-eds, speaking engagements, testimony, and social media.

• Refresh D&IC’s focus on critical, timely defense and intel issues and re-structure its task forces and working groups to reflect those new emphasis areas.

2022 Executive Advisory Board

Chair: Ronald “Fog” Hahn, Amentum

Vice Chair: Babs Doherty, Solerity

PSC Staff Lead: Ryan McDermott, Stephanie Kostro, Lauren Ayers

PSC Staff Support: Christian Larsen

Executive Advisory Board:

• Neil Albert, NFA Consulting, LLC

• Waymon Armstrong, Engineering and Computer Simulations Inc.

• John Cooper, AAR Corp

• Dan Corbett, Valiant Integrated Services, LLC

• Mark Fialkowski, Parsons

• Ryan Hebert, Intrepid Solutions & Services

• Nuhad Karaki, StellarPeak Corp.

• Jerry Parker, CACI International

Task Forces / Working Groups:

• CMMC Task Force

• Cybersecurity Working Group (moved to Technology & Innovation Council mid-year)

• Sustainment & Readiness Working Group

• Workforce Working Group (multiassociation)

• Richard Pineda, CALIBRE Systems, Inc.

• Jon Rucker, SAIC

• Jenness Simler, The Boeing Company

• Tina Wilson, T47 International, Inc.

PSC Council Spotlight

Technology and Innovation Council

The Technology and Innovation (Tech & Innovation) Council is PSC’s principal arm for developing PSC’s positions and taking action on crosscutting technology issues, from cybersecurity and cloud computing to “as-a-service” acquisition and beyond. With technology issues increasingly permeating the professional services sector, the Tech & Innovation Council helps PSC members better navigate the market and policy landscape with reports and events such as the biennial Federal CIO Survey.

The Tech & Innovation Council engages in thought leadership and high-level dialogue with officials from federal government agencies and Congress on critical technology and innovation issues that could support existing and emerging U.S. Government requirements.

Key Accomplishments

• Reinvigorated PSC’s Technology Council as the Tech & Innovation Council.

• Established a new Tech & Innovation Council Charter outlining scope, objective, and structure.

• Renewed the Tech & Innovation Council’s Executive Advisory Board Committee.

• Established an Emerging Technologies Working Group, which provides federal executives and industry partners on how the federal government can better access cutting-edge technology and innovative solutions.

• Established an Acquisition Approaches Working Group, which discusses flexibilities within acquisition that already exist, and what, if any, need to be created.

• Moved PSC’s existing Cybersecurity Policy Working Group from its Defense & Intel portfolio to the Tech & Innovation Council.

• Submitted detailed comments to NIST, CISA, SEC, and DoD on technology and cybersecurity issues relating to NIST’s Cybersecurity Framework and resources; cybersecurity incident reporting and disclosures, and Noncommercial Computer Software.

• Published the 13th edition of PSC’s Federal CIO Survey on January 25, 2022.

Feature: Federal CIO Survey

The Federal CIO Survey aims to gain an understanding of federal IT leaders’ top challenges and priorities, the forces that are driving change in government IT, and trends that reflect shifts in how agencies are developing and delivering tools and systems to deliver their missions to the nation’s businesses and citizens.

Read

• Shape procurement approaches and opportunities to facilitate federal government access to innovation.

• Advocate for, and influence, federal government policies to improve technology acquisition efforts, including but not limited to “as-a-service” acquisitions, technology modernization, Zero Trust, and digital transformation.

• Facilitate mutually beneficial discussions among U.S. Government and private sector entities on cybersecurity and support common-sense efforts to leverage commercial best practices and minimize potentially burdensome reporting requirements.

• Increase the familiarity and understanding of key U.S. Government legislative and executive branch officials on contracting, regulatory, legislative, business process, and business development issues of importance to Tech & Innovation Council members.

• Publish the 14th edition of PSC’s Federal CIO Survey.

2022 Executive Advisory Board

PSC Lead Staff: Stephanie Kostro, Christian Larsen

• John Cyrus, Deep Water Point, LLC

• John George, Leidos

• Tim Gilday, GDIT

• Joel Hinzman, Oracle

• Tom Lash, AWS

• Sanjay Sardar, SAIC

• Simon Szykman, Maximus

• Brian Thamm, Sophinea

Task Forces and Working Groups:

• Acquisition Approaches Working Group

• Cybersecurity Working Group (moved to Technology & Innovation Council mid-year)

• Emerging Technologies Working Group