Nicole Cardenas, director of channel marketing with Pivot3, has been named to The Channel Company's 2020 list of Channel Chiefs for her demonstration of exemplary leadership, influence, innovation and growth for the IT channel, the company announced on Monday.

“Nicole has brought new energy to our Global Partner Program, bringing the insight and experience necessary to help partners thrive in the growing video surveillance and analytics market,” said Bruce Milne, chief marketing officer, Pivot3.

As Pivot3’s director of channel marketing, Cardenas has built strategic and competitive partnerships designed to help partners profit and succeed. Cardenas has 15 years of technology field experience and has served as national channel manager at Arrow Electronics, where developed channel partnerships to drive revenue and new business.

Cardenas joined Pivot3 in 2019 and led a new initiative to enhance Pivot3’s partner program, where she has maximized partner return. Her efforts led the company to the expansion of Pivot3’s Global Partner Program with optimized tiers and benefits, deeper industry relationships and enhanced tools and training for partners. 

In addition, she developed key program elements in Q3 2019. Under Cardena’s leadership, Pivot3 saw a 17 percent increase in partner-led deal registrations, resulting in a 20 percent increase in total revenue growth from the partner community over the previous quarter.

“We look forward to continue deepening our industry relationships under Nicole’s leadership as we help partners support demanding data-intensive workloads driven by the growth of video-based computing.”

About Pivot3

Pivot3 is the leading provider of intelligent hyperconverged infrastructure solutions for video surveillance, video analytics, VDI and mixed workloads. Pivot3’s solutions provide security, resilience and management simplicity at scale for customers’ mission-critical environments. With thousands of customers in 64 countries, and deployments in education, hospitality, transportation, government, defense, healthcare, gaming, financial services and retail, Pivot3 allows IT to manage complexity at scale through intelligence and automation. 

Gores Holdings III, a special purpose acquisition company, has completed the acquisition of Platinum Equity portfolio company, PAE, the company announced on Monday. 

“Through a culmination of efforts by a workforce dedicated to excellence and professionalism, PAE has reached this milestone. We’re grateful to Platinum Equity, Gores Holdings III and the investors who share our optimism in PAE’s growth value,” said PAE CEO and five time Wash100 Award recipient, John Heller. 

The consideration payable to the stockholders of the Company will consist of a combination of cash and shares of Gores Holdings III common stock. In combination with the $400 million cash held in Gores Holdings III’s trust account, additional investors participated in the transaction through a $220 million private placement. 

After the acquisition, funds managed by affiliates of Platinum Equity, the prior majority owners of PAE, hold an approximate 23% combined stake in the newly public company.

“The company now has a de-levered balance sheet and the public company currency of a listed business, which position the company well to participate in the consolidation underway in the government services sector. We are excited to participate in the company’s continued value creation through a meaningful remaining equity stake in the business,” said Platinum Equity partner Louis Samson. 

The merger was announced in Nov. 2019. The boards of directors of both companies have unanimously approved the transaction. Upon the deal’s closure, Gores Holdings III will adopt the name PAE and the latter will become a publicly listed company with approximately $1.55 billion in initial enterprise value.

Gores Holdings III has been renamed PAE Incorporated and its common stock and warrants now trade on Nasdaq under the symbols “PAE” and “PAEWW”, respectively.

About PAE

For more than 60 years, PAE has tackled the world’s toughest challenges to deliver agile and steadfast solutions to the U.S. government and its allies. With a global workforce of more than 20,000 on all seven continents and in approximately 60 countries, PAE delivers a broad range of operational support services to meet the critical needs of our clients. Our headquarters is in Falls Church, Virginia.

United Launch Alliance (ULA) has launched the Atlas V rocket, transporting the Solar Orbiter, from Space Launch Complex-41 on Feb. 9 at 11:03 p.m. EST, the company announced on Monday. 

"The ULA team is extremely honored to launch Solar Orbiter, enabling more discovery of our sun," said Gary Wentz, ULA vice president of Government and Commercial Programs. "Thank you to our NASA and international mission partners for the outstanding teamwork."

The Solar Orbiter international cooperative mission, comprised of the European Space Agency (ESA) and NASA, will continue to support NASA's Parker Solar Probe, launched by ULA on a Delta IV Heavy rocket in 2018. With the progress of the mission, both spacecrafts will provide a new, global view of the sun.

Solar Orbiter launched on an Atlas V 411 configuration vehicle including a 4-meter payload fairing (PLF) and standing 189 ft. tall. The Atlas booster for this mission was powered by the RD AMROSS RD-180 engine. 

As a part of NASA's Launch Services Program, the Atlas V 411 launched at the agency's Kennedy Space Center in Florida. The Program selected ULA's proven Atlas V vehicle for the mission and maintains responsibility for the supervision of the Atlas V launch services.

ULA announced the final launch preparations for the Atlas V 411 on Feb. 7th 2019. The company’s successful launch marks ULA’s 82nd successful launch of an Atlas V rocket and 137th launch. ULA's next launch is the AEHF-6 mission for the U.S. Space Force in March 2020.

"We are proud to launch Solar Orbiter in support of our NASA and international mission partners," said Gary Wentz, ULA vice president of Government and Commercial Programs. "This exciting mission will allow us to further explore our universe and understand the intricacies of the sun."

About ULA

ULA is harnessing the potential of space for humanity. We are dreamers inspired by possibilities not yet imagined, believers driven to broaden horizons, and doers combining technology, innovation, expertise, ingenuity and a commitment to the extraordinary.

The technologies we enable protect our country and troops in the battlefield, enable search and rescue, provide a backbone for business and connect families across the globe. They help us explore our city and learn about our solar system and places beyond.

Axon has partnered with the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (ATF) to equip agents and investigators with the Axon Investigator suite of solutions and body cameras to support the Federal Joint Task Forces, the company announced on Monday. 

"Our federal customers serve the critical mission of ensuring the safety and security of the American people. We look forward to joining forces with more federal agencies and equipping those who serve with the latest technology to ensure officer safety and transparency," said Axon Federal vice president and general manager, Richard Coleman.

Axon will provide new digital services, including Axon Body 3 cameras for the Department of Justice Pilot Program. The company’s Body 3 camera is a FedRamp-Authorized cloud-based digital evidence management solution available to federal law enforcement.

Axon will support the ATF pilot initiative with a 12-month indefinite delivery, indefinite quantity contract. The order was received in the fourth quarter of 2019 and will ship in multiple phases throughout 2020.

As more states require the use of body-worn cameras on law enforcement, the DoJ agencies have requested body cameras to also be equipped during joint task force operations with federal government officers. To meet the demand, the DoJ announced that it would begin piloting body cameras for the first time.

"Axon is proud to support the DOJ in its body camera pilot effort," added Coleman.

The company has also been selected by the US Forest Service (USFS) to provide Body 2 camera systems that are designed to support law enforcement missions in Oct. 2019. 

USFS, which has used Axon’s Taser X26P weapons since 2018, is deploying the wearable camera technology with a company-built digital evidence management platform in multiple phases.

“We are thrilled to partner with the Forest Service, the first federal agency to deploy Axon’s ecosystem of life saving technologies across their law enforcement enterprise,” Coleman stated in regards to the USFS order. 

About Axon

Axon is a network of devices, apps and people that helps law enforcement and public safety personnel become smarter and safer. With a mission of protecting life, our technologies give customers the confidence, focus and time they need to keep their communities safe. Our products impact every aspect of a public safety officer's day-to-day experience.

We work hard for those who put themselves in harm's way for all of us. To date, there are more than 428,600 software seats booked on the Axon network around the world and more than 225,000 lives and countless dollars have been saved with the Axon network of devices, apps and people. 

The Office of Management and Budget seeks an individual capable to serve as the federal deputy chief information officer. The federal deputy CIO would lead and advise on the development of information technology policy for the federal government, USAJOBS said. The officer will operate from Washington, D.C.

Responsibilities will also include the oversight of digital services, agency engagement and IT modernization. The officer would also provide insight on federal priorities to help the White House form the annual President’s Budget Request.

The job also involves working closely with the federal CIO and OMB leaders regarding policy and governance. OMB will provide an annual salary of up to $197,300 for the role.

Interested individuals may send applications from Feb. 3 to 17.