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Akima Names Jean-Francois Blanc CGO; Bill Monet Quoted
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Akima Names Jean-Francois Blanc CGO; Bill Monet Quoted

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.

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AI in Competitive Intelligence Virtual Event for ArchIntel Features Deltek’s August Jackson as Event Moderator
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AI in Competitive Intelligence Virtual Event for ArchIntel Features Deltek’s August Jackson as Event Moderator

August Jackson, senior director of Market and Competitive Intelligence with Deltek, hosted the Artificial Intelligence in Competitive Intelligence Forum for ArchIntel, on Thursday, Oct. 22nd to share his first hand experiences regarding how artificial intelligence (AI), machine learning (ML) and big data are transforming business practices for how organization’s conduct competitive intelligence (CI) to gain a competitive advantage over their respective competitors. 

In case you missed ArchIntel’s Artificial Intelligence in Competitive Intelligence Forum on Thursday, visit ArchIntel Events to catch August Jackson’s comments and a full expert panel featuring Suki Fuller of Competitive Intelligence Fellows as well as Dr. Fred Hoffman of Mercyhurst University and Arik Johnson of Aurora Worldwide Development as the panelists.

“It really is up to us as a professional community to set the agenda for how AI will enable competitive intelligence, not replace us,” Jackson explained. “We need to find our collective professional voice for us to speak to the developer community to ensure that AI is an enabling tool for competitive intelligence. This event is one of the first steps we need to find that voice.”

ArchIntel, the market leading provider of open source daily intelligence, competitive intelligence reports and competitive intelligence events, launched its Competitive Intelligence Roundtable Membership for the CI and market intelligence professionals of the government contracting (GovCon) and federal market. 

ArchIntel’s CI Roundtable Membership offers a private and interactive monthly roundtable specifically for competitive and market intelligence professionals to exchange best practices, share information, and develop professional relationships as well as the opportunity to become an active member of the competitive intelligence community. 

For more information regarding the membership, visit ArchIntel.com.

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DOE to Finance Chemistry Software Projects; Chris Fall Quoted
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DOE to Finance Chemistry Software Projects; Chris Fall Quoted

The Department of Energy (DOE) intends to invest $32 million in software research and development supporting chemistry studies. DOE said Monday it will give companies, universities and national laboratories the opportunity to pursue multidisciplinary software projects under four-year awards.

Some of the awards may also finance smaller efforts to augment existing software. Chris Fall, who leads DOE’s Office of Science, said the investment will use the supercomputers at national laboratories to expand knowledge on energy-relevant chemical processes.

The department will conduct a peer review to select the awardees and will use $8 million in fiscal 2020 allotments for initial funds. Interested parties may submit pre-applications through Dec. 2nd and final applications through Feb. 8, 2021.

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NAVAIR Seeks Industry Help to Engineer Electromagnetic Environmental Effects Tech
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NAVAIR Seeks Industry Help to Engineer Electromagnetic Environmental Effects Tech

The Naval Air Systems Command (NAVAIR) wants information on potential sources of engineering and technical support services to a NAVAIR division responsible for ensuring that aircraft, weapons and ground equipment could function in electromagnetic environments.

A potential contractor would support the command's electromagnetic environmental effects division and electromagnetic compatibility branch, according to a sources sought notice posted Monday. Interested parties have until Nov. 20th to provide feedback on the requirement.

NAVAIR said its E3 team engineers and analyzes naval aviation systems' compliance with spectrum and frequency allocation policies; identifies and resolves E3 issues throughout the entire acquisition process 

The division aims to identify and correct electromagnetic interference issues in deployed platforms through its Air Systems EMI Corrective Action Program.

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Ashley Mahan: FedRAMP Sees Increase in Cloud Product Reusability Requests
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Ashley Mahan: FedRAMP Sees Increase in Cloud Product Reusability Requests

Ashley Mahan, director of the Federal Risk and Authorization Management Program (FedRAMP) at the General Services Administration (GSA), said in an interview with Francis Rose of Government Matters the volume of requests by agencies to reuse FedRAMP-compliant cloud products has doubled since March as government personnel shifted to remote work due to the pandemic.

Mahan noted that FedRAMP has received approximately 3,000 requests over the past eight months and increased collaboration with customers in efforts to address a demand for authorized offerings under the program. 

“We’ve really shifted into high gear over the past year, helping agencies work with industry to authorize these products, as well as work hand-in-hand with industry to help them navigate the authorization process,” she added. 

She also talked about automation, one of the program's four priority areas, and the efforts her office has done with the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) to create a standardized, machine-readable Open Security Control Assessment Language.

FedRAMP also aims to streamline the certification process, expand the government cloud marketplace and provide learning opportunities, according to Mahan. 

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Nand Mulchandani on JAIC’s Joint Warfighting Mission Initiative
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Nand Mulchandani on JAIC’s Joint Warfighting Mission Initiative

Nand Mulchandani, chief technology officer at the Department of Defense’s (DoD) Joint Artificial Intelligence Center (JAIC), said JAIC considers the joint warfighting mission initiative as its flagship product and is working to identify ways to transform how the country will go to war, National Defense reported Tuesday.

“Our early products … were really focused on kind of starter AI projects when it came to things like predictive maintenance and humanitarian assistance and disaster relief,” Mulchandani told the publication in an interview. “The algorithms were not that hard. … [However,] joint warfighting is the hardest problem at the DoD for us to take on.”

He said JAIC is starting with decision support and human-machine teaming, among other technologies, and noted that the joint warfighting mission initiative will contribute to the U.S. Air Force’s Advanced Battle Management System program, joint all-domain command-and-control concept and other DoD programs.

He also discussed the impact of a continuing resolution on JAIC’s joint warfighting programs and “new starts,” the center’s relationship with industry, efforts to advance rapid acquisition and work on an acquisition initiative called Project Tradewind to establish connections with small businesses.

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Agency CDOs on Connecting With Federal Employees With Data Science Skills
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Agency CDOs on Connecting With Federal Employees With Data Science Skills

Chief data officers said they were able to establish connections with federal employees with skills in data science driven by recent visibility into their mission, Federal News Network reported Tuesday.

“You tread a little bit lightly, but fact is these groups have been looking for greater guidance and greater alignment. The establishment of a centralized CDO office provides them with a place to go with respect to questions,” said Jamal El-Hindi, interim CDO at the Department of the Treasury.

Daniel Morgan, CDO at the Department of Transportation, said the agency helps empower a group of employees to gain access to data and make connections with other individuals through his office. 

“At least in my agency, what I have is a bunch of folks who are really dedicated to managing high-quality data sets, and they’re just never satisfied with how good they are,” Morgan said. 

“And if you can harness that kind of energy and transform the disappointment into a positive direction, and equip them with the tools and the policies and the practices that will help them succeed, that’s the way to find the quick win – to get the data set that they never had before, to connect the data that they weren’t able to previously connect.”

Jim Rolfes, CDO and chief information officer at the Consumer Product Safety Commission, said at the American Council for Technology-Industry Advisory Council’s ReImagine Nation ELC virtual conference the growth in the number of agency CDOs has provided an informal community of federal data scientists with greater visibility.

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OFPP Chief Michael Wooten Issues Memo to Boost Involvement of People With Disabilities in Federal Contracting
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OFPP Chief Michael Wooten Issues Memo to Boost Involvement of People With Disabilities in Federal Contracting

Michael Wooten, administrator of the Office of Management and Budget’s (OMB) Office of Federal Procurement Policy (OFPP), has issued a new memo outlining five measures agencies should take to boost the participation of people with disabilities in federal contracting through the AbilityOne program.

OFPP directs senior procurement executives at agencies to designate an AbilityOne (ABOR) representative that promotes federal procurement in compliance with required source contracting procedures and engages with personnel to advance the use of the program, according to the memo released Friday.

The OFPP will establish and oversee a cross-agency team of ABORs to support the work of the AbilityOne Commission by advocating and sharing best practices for increasing opportunities for people with disabilities and assisting with the development of legislative changes and regulations that promote job opportunities for persons with disabilities, among others.

Other measures are making a pledge with the commission by Dec. 15th to boost the percentage of spend on services and products from the procurement list, identifying hiring opportunities for people with disabilities within their acquisition workforce and announcing a call for ideas to identify employment opportunities for people with disabilities in the federal contracting field.

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Navy Fields USS Marinette Littoral Combat Ship
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Navy Fields USS Marinette Littoral Combat Ship

The U.S. Navy has deployed a Freedom-class littoral combat ship manufactured by Fincantieri Marinette Marine Corp. to the Menominee River.

Dubbed LCS 25, the future USS Marinette is the second vessel to bear the name and the first to be commissioned by the Navy, the service branch said Monday.

The ship is built to perform anti-submarine, mine countermeasures and surface warfare operations. The Navy can also integrate new technology into the LCS to adapt to current and future mission requirements.

Eleven LCS units under the Freedom and Independent classes are currently undergoing construction. Lockheed Martin supervises the production of Freedom-class units.

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USCYBERCOM Opens Integration Office for Unified C2, Analytics Platform
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USCYBERCOM Opens Integration Office for Unified C2, Analytics Platform

U.S. Cyber Command (USCYBERCOM) has opened a new integration office for its Unified Platform that works to consolidate cyber, data analytics and command-and-control operations as part of the Joint Cyber Warfighting Architecture (JCWA), C4ISRnet reported Monday.

UP operates as a subset of JCWA and integrates parts of the Big Data Platforms under USCYBERCOM, the U.S. Army Cyber Command, U.S. Marine Corps and Defense Information Systems Agency (DISA). The U.S. Air Force operates UP on behalf of other cyber mission forces and USCYBERCOM.

“UP is the single unifying cloud-based infrastructure connecting disparate cyber capabilities within the JCWA to enable full-spectrum cyberspace operations,” a spokesman for the Air Force told C4ISRnet in an email.

JCWA is comprised of joint C2 systems, a sensor network, a suite of common firing technologies, cyber tools and the Persistent Cyber Training Environment.

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