ACEL360 Program Mentors

John Abeles is a management and technology visionary specializing in infrastructure security, cybersecurity, and process engineering. He has more than 30 years of experience in the Federal and commercial energy sector, both domestically and internationally. He has provided executive-level support to the White House, various Cabinet-level agencies, national laboratories, and academic institutions, and has built multi-state solutions linking government, law enforcement, first responders, and the private sector. As CEO of System 1 he has developed policy-level best practices for Federal organizations including the National Institute of Standards and Technology, Department of Energy, Department of the Treasury, Department of the Interior, and Department of Commerce. Prior to 1989, when he founded System 1, John provided management and technical services to the utility sector, helping global consultancies as well as smaller firms. As author, speaker, and media commentator, he emphasizes the integration of cybersecurity as a cornerstone of organizational risk at the executive leadership level. He earned a master’s degree at Cornell University and is a Certified Chief Information Security Officer (CISO).

Susan Acker-Walsh has served as a senior leadership “Jill of All Trades,” holding the titles of chairwoman, CEO, COO, president, senior vice president, and vice president at various points in her career. As president and COO at SciMetrika, a population health research organization, she led initiatives focused on planned growth and business execution. Prior to SciMetrika, she spent 13 years with SRA International as VP and director of health  and civilian government, playing an instrumental part in the complex integration of Constella Group into SRA’s new global health sector. She had held several integral roles on Constella Group’s executive leadership team, including responsibility for initiating and leading an acquisition strategy that brought Constella into new global markets, doubled the company’s size overnight, and set EBITDA on track for nine-fold growth to $18M. Previously she had led her own environmental health and safety start-up company. In 2015 Susan launched CREO, a consulting firm that helps companies in the health, life science, and technology services industries achieve their growth goals by turning IT into an accelerator for their business, transforming their sales processes, jumpstarting their business through innovation and entrepreneurship, developing their leadership teams, and controlling their financial destiny.  She serves as CREO’s managing partner and leverages her experience and skills to develop impactful leaders, build multi-functional teams, communicate with internal and external stakeholders, and deliver compelling leadership and board presentations. She earned her MBA from Kenan-Flagler Business School at the University of North Carolina.

Eric Adolphe has supported the acquisition of several government contracting firms and assisted many clients in building best-in-class bid and proposal and sales organizations, resulting in accelerated growth. He conceived of, co-designed, and in 2014 launched Gov.Prop.com, the first freelancing website designed exclusively to enable government contractors to connect and work with independent talent online. Previously, he was president of CSTI, an international and logistics and technology integration contractor, where he led 200+ employees in supporting both civilian and national defense agencies, doubled revenues within two years, won the company’s largest contract to date, and led the M&A effort for the company’s acquisition by VISTA Technology Services. From 2006-10, as managing director of The Adolphe Group, LLC, he helped small to mid-tier defense sector clients expand their client base and improve their performance, and provided M&A advisory services that enabled nine minority business enterprise (MBE) firms achieve strategic growth objectives. He founded OPTIMUS Corporation in 1992, recruited and led a team of 400 product managers, designers, and engineers, and successfully grew the enterprise from $0 to $80 million by 2005. Under his leadership, OPTIMUS invented NASA’s EPIC system, one of the world’s first wireless information networks, and designed mission critical systems for the Department of Defense, Federal Aviation Administration, National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, and other Federal agencies. Eric has a JD from The Catholic University of America, Columbus School of Law, and a bachelor’s degree in Electrical Engineering from the City College of New York.

Matt Dean is the founder of Markon Solutions and is responsible for its vision and strategic plan. Markon is a successful midsize government contracting business with 10 straight years of double-digit growth across a portfolio of key federal and nonfederal clients,including the intelligence community, Department of Homeland Security, U.S. Marine Corps, U.S. Army, Department of Veterans Affairs, Department of State, and District of Columbia Courts.The company’s mission is to provide a path to success for its employees and clients while maintaining its small business culture. Its focus on employees and their leadership and career development has led to five straight years of “best places to work” awards. Matt has more than 25 years of experience in providing executive management and consulting support throughout the intelligence community and the Department of Defense. Before he founded Markon Solutions, he was a director at MKI Systems, a senior manager with the national security practice at BearingPoint, and a cost analyst with the Department of the Navy.  He earned a bachelor’s degree in Industrial Engineering from Virginia Tech and a master’s in Engineering Management from University of Maryland University College.

David Kriegman is the president and CEO of Z2B, LLC, a consulting company that provides strategic and operational advice to help companies achieve their growth goals. After working for the government, David spent 30 years growing and managing companies that provide professional services to the government. He was executive vice president and chief operating officer of SRA International, a leading government systems integration company. Joining SRA when its revenues were less than $5M, Kriegman was a member of the leadership team that grew the company to over $1B and 5,500 employees. He was also president of Command Federal, a venture-backed company focused on the Internet of Things; president of Tech Team Government Services, a wholly owned subsidiary of a commercial, IT outsourcing company; and senior vice president and general manager of the Jacobs Technology Strategic Solutions Group. Kriegman is a frequent speaker at industry and corporate events and serves as a lecturer and adjunct professor at programs offered by the Defense Acquisition University and the George Mason University (GMU) School of Business Executive Education. He is the author of Zero to a Billion: 61 Rules Entrepreneurs Need to Know to Grow a Government Contracting Business (Dudley Court Press, 2013).

Deepak Hathiramani has more than 25 years of experience with privately funded and venture-funded high tech start-ups. He was the founder of Vistronix Intelligence and Technology Solutions, a national security solutions provider until its acquisition by Arctic Slope Regional Corporation (ASRC) Federal Holding Company in August 2016. With revenues exceeding $170 million, Vistronix was a 700+ employee middle-market provider of cyber, analytics, signal processing, cloud computing, and big data management software and systems solutions to the Department of Defense, intelligence community, Department of State, multiple federal civilian agencies, and the commercial sector. Deep served as chairman, chief executive officer, and president of Vistronix and was a member of its audit and compensation committee. Prior to Vistronix, he worked with high-tech start-ups including Nx Networks (Netrix Corporation) through its initial public offering and with Cinnabar Software until its acquisition by publicly traded KMW Systems. Deep earned a B.A. cum laude from the University of Texas at Austin and a B.S. with honors from the University of Bombay, India. He holds a Diploma in Business Management and Industrial Administration from and has completed business executive programs of the Amos Tuck School, Dartmouth College. He serves on the advisory board of George Mason University’s Volgenau School of Engineering, the University of Texas at Austin Department of Computer Science, the Northern Virginia Technology Council, and several government contractors, as well as on the boards of the Professional Services Council and the Virginia Technology Alliance.

Mike Raymond is chief strategy officer at Dynanet, a firm that delivers IT engineering and management services to state and federal government. Dynanet has grown to have more than 125 key personnel, partnerships with industry leaders including Booz Allen Hamilton, IBM, and Lockheed Martin, and major clients including the United States Air Force, General Services Administration, Office of Personnel Management, Food and Drug Administration, and Department of the Interior.  Prior to joining Dynanet, Mike was chief strategy officer at OCTO Consulting; executive vice president and chief strategy officer at Acentia, where he led the strategic direction of new business development and corporate market offerings; and chief strategy officer at 2020 Company, LLC, where he was instrumental in winning three major health IDIQs with ceiling value exceeding $10B. Previously, he spent 28 years at Computer Sciences Corporation (CSC) where, as vice president of federal healthcare, he was responsible for building a business portfolio of $100 million with a 900-person staff, managing all of CSC’s federal healthcare contracts, and developing new business opportunities. His other federal customers during his career at CSC included the Departments of Veterans Affairs, Health and Human Services, Labor, and Defense as well as the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) and National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA). In 1995, he managed CSC’s first contract with the Health Care Financing Administration, now known as Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS). Mike attended the University of Maryland in College Park.

Craig Reed’s 30+ years of experience in government and government contracting span national security, homeland security, intelligence, energy, foreign policy, and public policy. Craig is the founder and managing member of Growth Strategy Leaders LLC, a strategy and transaction advisory consulting firm he established in 2011. He is also a member of the board of directors, and was formerly president and chief operating officer, of NT Concepts, a woman-owned IT and professional services government contractor. Responsible for transforming the company into a top-tier government contractor, he led operations, business development, and strategic growth activities at NT Concepts. Previously, Craig was senior vice president for Engility Corporation, where he led strategic planning, mergers and acquisitions, business development and proposals, market intelligence, corporate communications, marketing, investor relations, and government relations. He helped lead the spinout of Engility as an independent, publicly traded company from L3 Technologies, the acquisition of Dynamics Research Corporation, and the merger with TASC. Prior to Engility, he held similar roles with DynCorp Intenational, as well as senior leadership roles at Northrop Grumman and Lockheed Martin. He has served on the board of directors of Bartlett Nuclear Holdings Inc., the board of advisors of QED, LLC, and the boards of several associations. He holds a PhD in Public Policy from The George Washington University, a master’s in International Affairs from Columbia University, and bachelor’s degrees in Political Science and Psychology from the State University of New York at Albany.

Karl Williams has more than 27 years’ experience as an executive and entrepreneur in growing both commercial and government services businesses (Vodium, Harris Corporation, Engility, PAE); in private equity portfolio management with an emphasis on M&A (Cerberus Capital Management, Lindsey Goldberg, Platinum Equity); and in world-class business process engineering (General Electric, Lockheed Martin). Recently he served as president of PAE, a $2.6B, 20,000-employee government services company providing global logistics and stability operations, technical services, and national security solutions to customers in 60 countries on all seven continents. Previously, as PAE’s chief operating officer, he oversaw the P&L of the company’s three business units. Before joining PAE Karl was vice president and general manager at Engility, running the P&L of its largest ($620M) business segment. As Engility’s business controller he played a key role in structuring the company after its spinout from L3 and was responsible for the financial management of operational assets worldwide. As a senior executive with Harris Corporation, Multimax, and Vodium, he played a key role in M&A for both public and private equity owners, driving over $2.5B of M&A events. Prior to his roles in private industry, Karl served as a commissioned officer in the United States Army. He earned his bachelor’s degree from the United States Military Academy at West Point, a master’s in Systems Engineering from Virginia Polytechnic and State University, and an MBA from the McDonough School of Business at Georgetown University

Art Lehrer is a business leader whose more than 40 years of healthcare experience is focused on improving health payers’ cost-effectiveness and enhancing the interaction between users and information technology systems. He participated in and directed the growth of top-line revenue and bottom-line margins for ViPS, resulting in the sale of the company four times. He has formed Encore Associates, LLC to be able to bring his broad experience to bear on the challenges facing healthcare companies today. Art served as president of ViPS until May 2011. He had responsibility for the entire ViPS organization, including P&L, overseeing ViPS corporate software and business solutions development, and setting strategic direction for both government and commercial sectors. In 2008, he led the ViPS management team through the successful sale of the business unit to General Dynamics Information Technology. Able to address data processing and public program issues with equal comfort, Art has a unique and extraordinary history of effective communication with all aspects of the healthcare industry and is a frequent speaker on healthcare topics at national conferences. He brings to ACEL360 intensive involvement with payer personnel from end users to executive management, extensive relationships within CMS as well as national associations, and long expertise within the data processing industry.