Jim Garrettson, Executive Mosaic President & Founder
Uncertainty, the budget environment, sequestration and government shutdown became all-to-familiar terms in 2013 for everyone in the GovCon sector, from federal employees to the executive leaders at agencies and contracting firms.
The year ended with some relief for all industry stakeholders in the form of a two-year budget agreement and more positive vibes could be felt with an omnibus spending bill currently in the works on Capitol Hill.
Against that backdrop, GovCon firms made moves to focus their businesses around budding and established growth markets in next-generation technology and strategic programs, while others sought out the M&A market in their effort to grow amidst the public sector’s new financial realities.
CACI International Chairman Jack London said the company sought out “highly specialized” national security capabilities with its $820 million acquisition of Six3 Systems – the largest in CACI’s history – as it looked to further push into the cybersecurity and C4ISR markets.
The convergence and proliferation of technologies came to GovCon’s forefront in 2013, which Marilyn Crouther, SVP and GM of HP Enterprise Services’ U.S. Public Sector told GovCon Exec was causing a “tectonic shift” at the intersection of cloud, mobility, cyber and big data.
“Emerging technologies and dramatic changes in the marketplace have resulted in tremendous opportunities,” Crouther added.
Greg Wenzel, an SVP within Booz Allen Hamilton’s strategic innovation group, told ExecutiveBiz his firm is positioning itself to capture analytics and enterprise integration opportunities as fewer resources combined with improved capabilities drive up the benefits of integrating systems.
We covered it all this year across Executive Mosaic’s media properties.
At the end of this column, you’ll find 10 of our top stories that captured industry leaders’ perspectives and drove the GovCon Exec conversation.
The government’s intelligence operations and the role of the private sector in those functions was one of the GovCon industry’s main talking points in 2013, with many thought leaders from both sides of the public-private intersection weighing in on this topic.
The Potomac Officers Club is excited to continue
this conversation by kicking off its 2014 series of collaborative forums for leaders in business and government with the “Federal Intel Summit” onJanuary 16, featuring four of their executive peers from the executive and legislative branches.
House Intelligence Chairman Mike Rogers and National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency Director Tish Long will revisit the POC and address the executive-only forum.
David Shedd, the Defense Intelligence Agency’s deputy director; and Stephanie O’Sullivan, the country’s principal deputy national intelligence
director, are also confirmed to speak at the summit.
Executive attendees will also hear directly from Juan Zarate of the Center for Strategic and International Studies, former assistant treasury secretary, and Al Taraiuk, CIO at ODNI.
Ten of Executive Mosaic’s Top Stories From 2013