Akima has appointed Jean-Francois Blanc as chief growth officer (CGO) to lead the company’s corporate development efforts, grow revenue and expand market share, Akima reported on Wednesday. Blanc will report to 2020 Wash100 Award winner, Akima president and CEO, Bill Monet.
“Jean-Francois is a hands-on leader with experience winning large contracts in both the Department of Defense and civilian agencies,” said Monet. “We are pleased to add him to our leadership team, and we expect his knowledge of the market and his past success winning strategic contracts will serve him well in this growth-focused role.”
Before his new role with Akima, Blanc served a seventeen year tenure with IBM, serving in a variety of leadership positions, increasing in responsibility. Most recently, Blanc served as sales leader of IBM’s US Federal division. In the role, he led U.S. federal sales efforts for large and strategic contract pursuits.
Blanc was responsible for supervising the entire deal process, from competitive analysis and win strategy to solutioning, teaming, pricing and proposal development. In Blanc’s previous roles with IBM, he served within the defense and intelligence markets, with a strong focus on the U.S. Army and the U.S. Navy.
He was trained as an industrial and nuclear engineer, and began his career in the shipbuilding/repair industry. Blanc held a nuclear engineering position with the Norfolk Naval Shipyard before providing consulting services to Navy commands.
“Akima has rapidly achieved a significant status in the federal market, with excellent customer and partner relationships,” said Blanc. “I am thrilled to be joining the company at a time when it is poised to build on a record of driving superior outcomes to expand into new customers and markets.”
About Akima
Akima is a global enterprise with more than 7,500 employees, delivering agile solutions to the federal government in the core areas of aviation, construction, facilities and logistics, IT and mission support, protective services and detention management, and systems engineering.
As a subsidiary of NANA, an Alaska Native Corporation owned by more than 14,000 Iñupiat shareholders, Akima’s core mission is to enable superior outcomes for our customers’ missions while simultaneously creating a long-lived asset for NANA consistent with our Iñupiat values. In 2019, Washington Technology ranked Akima #38 amongst the top 100 government contractors.
