Faculty

Bradley leverages his 30-plus years of leadership to help companies focus less on selling and more on the reasons their customers buy. Brad has helped transform numerous companies throughout his career by implementing unique growth methods in complex customer strategies. He has served in various roles, including a Business Developer, VP BD, BD and Capture Strategist, Managing Director, VP Global Sales and Marketing, COO, and CEO.

Bradley has coached hundreds of individuals over 3 decades to create high performing teams and productive relationships that last a lifetime. He obtained a Computer Science degree from Spartanburg Methodist College and advanced coursework from the University of South Carolina.

Nic is a nationally recognized Consultant, Trainer, and Facilitator with over two decades of experience instructing in the fundamentals of Business Development. He has partnered with thousands of individuals and many of the top 100 government contractors to improve Business Development performance.

In addition to his consulting and facilitation work, Nic has created numerous training curricula and programs related to business development, capture, and the importance of proactive customer engagements in growing Federal, State, Local, and International revenue.

Nic is a co-author of 60 Insights for Mastering Business Development. In addition, he has served as a guest columnist for Washington Technology magazine and continues to speak at various industry events. A native of Pietermaritzburg, South Africa, Nic has a Bachelor of Social Science degree from the University of Kwa-Zulu Natal and an MBA from Edinburgh Business School.

Building on 25 years of business success across multiple industries in the enterprise software and security market, Kathy provides integrated strategic marketing consulting, she is a mentor and coach for entrepreneurial incubator programs and teaches marcom strategy and storytelling workshops to help accelerate growth. Her previous leadership roles included building integrated fundamental sales and marketing go-to-market strategy plans for startups and EBC programs, creating global internet non-profit campaigns and leading industry field marketing teams and sales programs at Sun Microsystems, Verisign, Microsoft, Citrix and SAP. Kathy holds a MS in Management, a BS in Public Relations, and a Digital Marketing Professional certification from the Digital Marketing Institute in Dublin, Ireland. For more information visit www.marchitecturemarketing.com.

@Mike_Parkinson is a geek. He is 1 of 36 Microsoft PowerPoint MVPs in the world, a CPP APMP Fellow, an internationally recognized communication and presentation expert, best-selling author, and professional trainer. Mike’s keynotes, training, books (“Billion Dollar Graphics” and “A Trainer’s Guide to PowerPoint: Best Practices for Master Presenters.”), and tools (www.Build-a-Graphic.com) help companies succeed while saving money and time. He is a partner at 24 Hour Company (www.24hrco.com), a premier creative services firm, and owns Billion Dollar Graphics (www.BillionDollarGraphics.com).

Ms. Emily Harman has 38 years of service to her country as both a Naval Officer and civilian federal employee, retiring as a member of the Senior Executive Service in May 2019. A trailblazer, Emily was in the sixth class of women to graduate from the U. S. Naval Academy. Commissioned a Supply Corps Officer, Emily was the first officer on the U.S.S, Emory S. Land, AS-39 to qualify as a Supply Corps Surface Warfare Officer. Recognized as a role model, Emily served as a Company Officer and Leadership Instructor at the U.S. Naval Academy. She served on active duty for seven years and retired as a Commander from the Naval Reserves.

As a DOD civilian, Emily served in various roles of increasing responsibility as a Contracting Officer. She has extensive experience in contracting for professional services well as major weapons systems in support of Naval Aviation. Emily’s last assignment was Director of the DON’s Office of Small Business Programs (OSBP) where she served as the chief advisor to the Secretary of the Navy on all small business matters. In this role, she was responsible for policy, advocacy, execution, and advice pertaining to Small Business Programs and personnel throughout the Navy and Marine Corps. Emily is passionate about improving government – industry communication. As Director of the DON’s OSBP, she lowered barriers to entry for
thousands of small businesses by interviewing senior acquisition decision makers on Facebook live and enabling the audience to ask questions. During her tenure, she required each of the DON’s 10 major buying commands to publish and execute a Small Business Strategy and led the DON to record-setting small business awards (over $15 billion annually). Emily finds deep satisfaction in helping others achieve their goals and realize their potential. As a mentor through Veterati, Emily volunteers her time to help veterans and military spouses accelerate the path to career readiness, job leads and career opportunities. As the Founder and CEO of Emily Harman Coaching and Consulting, LLC, Emily delivers expert, customized service to small businesses in the federal contracting arena. She often serves as an accountability partner, keeping business owners on target, providing another perspective, and assisting small business leaders in addressing difficult situations with the federal
government.

Emily is the host of the Onward Podcast featuring authentic conversations on facing adversity and moving forward. She’s also the founder of the Onward Movement which seeks to inspire at least 10,000 people to release fear of judgment and confidently move forward to pursue their dreams. The Onward Movement is an engaged, compassionate community that offers
tools, resources, and support for its members as. They embrace their authentic selves.

As a keynote speaker, Emily covers a range of topics from federal contracting and leadership to overcoming adversity and embracing authenticity. When speaking about overcoming adversity, Emily shares her personal story as she believes our stories serve as connectors, enabling us to gain strength from our common experiences.

Emily received her B.S. in Physical Science from the U.S. Naval Academy and earned her M.S. in Acquisition and Contract Management from the Florida Institute of Technology. She attended several Executive Level Courses at the University of North Carolina’s Kenan-Flagler Business School. She’s Department of Defense Certified Level III in Contracting and Small Business and a Certified Professional Contract Manager through the National Contract Management Association. 

Brian Chidester is an award-winning, industry marketing executive and is currently leading global public sector GTM strategy at OpenText. He is responsible for growing OpenText’s Public Sector practice while also ensuring the success of our public sector customers. He is also the Host of “The Government Huddle” podcast series on GMarkU. Formerly, Brian served as the Industry Marketing Lead for Public Sector at Appian. He also has held product marketing roles with Monster Worldwide, Arrow ECS and IHS Markit, where he was awarded Best in Show – Lead Generation from MarketingSherpa. He holds a B.S. in Communications Studies from Liberty University.

A natural relationship builder and business accelerator, Janet Waring is a strategic marketing leader with a focus on data-driven solutions and brand cultivation. As Vice President, Janet brings more than 20 years of marketing, strategy and business development experience to Model B. Janet’s work creates dynamic digital campaigns that generate measurable results, surpass expectations, and positively impact client revenue.

In her free time, Janet enjoys sharing her knowledge and experience to mentor and educate others. Janet is an official member of the Forbes Business Development Council where she a contributing author and is often featured on their expert panel. She has also been featured in The Pulse of GovCon, Association Trends and other publications. She is a certified Google Partner, offering insight and advice to small businesses on Google AdWords and Google Analytics by holding educational workshops. Additionally, Janet is a member of Women in Technology and is on the Industry Advisory Group supporting Indigenous tourism and related issues.

Previously, Janet was responsible for business growth and marketing development at Ironistic, an integrated marketing and website development consultancy. A natural entrepreneur, Janet developed additional revenue streams and led strategic digital marketing and sales efforts which contributed to the company doubling in size and tripling their revenues. Prior to Ironistic, Janet worked as Director of Business Development and Marketing at ArtForm Business Solutions, where she was the architect behind ArtForm’s Internet Media and Marketing Division, increasing revenue for the organization by over 90 percent.

A purveyor of client confidence and trust, Janet is widely recognized for her ability to understand and execute client needs when they themselves may not even know what they need. Janet emphasizes relationship building, ensuring her ability to serve as a strategic consultant and guiding partner for her clients.

A mother of six with a passion for the outdoors, Janet resides in Rockville, MD.

Rebecca is an established marketer in the public sector and enterprise marketplace. She started her career marketing to the federal government when there were very few companies actively pursuing federal business. She has worked for startups, medium and large companies in enterprise software marketing cybersecurity, business intelligence, enterprise integration, Windows management, information management, data protection, and cost estimating tools and solutions.

As a mentor with Government Marketing University she shares her passion and expertise in the marketplace with others. Rebecca has experience in a wide variety of roles primarily supporting public sector. She has held numerous senior management roles where she helped build several federal marketing practices. Her expertise is in team strategies, field and vertical event marketing, public relations, integrated campaign marketing (media, thought leadership, demand gen), and most recently global marketing. She is results driven and a strong believer in teamwork and cross functional collaboration.

During her career she has been with public and private companies, through several mergers and acquisitions and with every move she has advanced her career to take on added responsibility. Rebecca became a life coach in 2014 where she uses her skills to build and inspire her team and support her community.

Mr. Zoellner brings more than 30 years of proven leadership and expertise in federal contracting, corporate strategy/operations, market due diligence, and business development. He has delivered strategy and solutions to the federal government and Fortune 1000 companies on contracts totaling more than $5 billion. He is an active member of many of the federal contracting associations and has been a speaker/panelist at various summits and conferences in the past on market due diligence, capture, pricing, and business strategy.

Guy Timberlake is an experienced veteran of federal contracting with three decades of insights and instincts developed supporting mission-critical and daily business operations for civilian, defense and intelligence agencies.   As employee, owner or advisor, since 1988, he has been instrumental in helping small federal contractors:

• Manufacture critical systems supporting intelligence and military operations;
• Provide solutions and key personnel for agency infrastructure operations;
• Acquire knowledge for using real-world tactics, tools and resources resulting in more efficient decision-making and lowered opportunity costs, and;
• Develop better intelligence and relationships to identify opportunities, adding to the billions in revenues already realized by members and clients.

His leadership, knowledge, relationships and competitive spirit are recognized as essentials in aiding members and clients of The American Small Business Coalition and The Competitive Intelligence Community in the capture of initial and expanded contracting and subcontracting opportunities.   Guy is honored to serve on the Board of Directors for American Freedom Foundation and AFCEA International and as a Technical Advisor and Subject Matter Expert (SME) to the Maryland Defense Network, a collaboration of the Department of Defense, Maryland Department of Commerce and Towson University.

Trezza Media Group was formed in January of 2006 with Tom Trezza, Jr. as President to provide Executive Thought Leadership Programs to support the Mission Information Technology Programs of the Federal Government. For the last 14 years, Trezza Media Group has produced a 1 hour-monthly radio and video program on Federal News Radio (1500am in Washington, DC.) called The Federal Executive Forum. TMG also produces quarterly CIO, CISO, CTO & CDO Executive Breakfast Roundtables bringing together Subject Matter Experts (SME) to discuss solutions on mission critical programs. TMG also produces a series of Digital and Print Publications called “On the Frontlines” which focuses on mission critical government needs and major contract awards guides with GSA-NASA and NIH. Prior to forming Trezza Media Group, Tom spent more than 16 years with Government Computer News and was former Group Publisher (February 2002- August 2005) of Government Computer News-Government Leader and Washington Technology, part of Post Newsweek Tech Media Group, which was a division of The Washington Post Company. Before joining GCN and Post Newsweek Tech Media, Tom spent 8 years with Hayden Publishing, publishers of Personal Computing Magazine. He was East Coast Sales Manager and then Associate Publisher. Prior to joining Personal Computing Magazine, Tom worked for Hearst Publishing from 1979-1982, working on Popular Mechanics Magazine and with Branham Newspapers from 1978-1979.

Tom has 41 years experience in journalism – print, online and on the air. In 17 years at Reed-Elsevier’s Cahners Publishing unit and 10 years at the Washington Post Company, Tom wrote for and edited publications for electronic components, industrial purchasing, systems integration and federal information technology. For the past 11 years Tom has been with Federal News Network conducting thousands of interviews. Listen daily 6-10 a.m. on 1500 AM in Washington or stream Tom’s show, Tom Temin’s Federal Drive, online at www.federalnewsnetwork.com.  Tom has written white papers, blogs and other content covering the federal channel, acquisition, virtualization, cybersecurity, data center optimization, mobile computing, and cloud.

A respected thought leader in the Federal IT community, Tom Suder is the Founder and President of the Advanced Technology Academic Research Center (ATARC), a non-profit organization that introduces innovative technology from academic research labs to the Federal government and private industry with the goal of commercialization. Through a partnership with the MITRE Corporation, ATARC holds collaboration sessions featuring industry thought leaders and subject matter experts in the areas of mobility, cloud computing and big data and the group has published research documents featuring best practices, lessons learned and recommendations to the government. Tom is a Strategic Advisor for the University of Central Florida’s Institute for Simulation & Training (IS&T), an internationally-renowned center of excellence that focuses on advancing modeling and simulation technology, including the integration of mobile, games and virtual worlds for learning. Tom is also the Founder and President of Mobilegov, a mobile integrator he spun out of UCF’s Mixed Emerging Technology Integration Lab (METIL). Tom is a past winner of the Federal 100 Awards, a prestigious honor that recognizes government and industry leaders who played pivotal roles in Federal IT and made a made a difference in the way technology transformed the government. He serves on several technology advisory boards, including the Professional Science Master’s Advisory Board, which is a part of the Telecommunications Management graduate program at the University of Maryland University College (UMUC). Tom is an active member of the American Council for Technology-Industry Advisory Council (ACT-IAC), a prominent professional organization dedicated to the improvement of Federal IT through government and industry collaboration. From 2011 to 2013, he served as Co-Chair of ACT-IAC’s Advanced Mobility Working Group (AMWG), an influential committee that helped shape the mobility component of the Digital Government Strategy. ACT-IAC honored Tom’s substantial impact in mobility by naming him the 2012 Industry Contributor of the Year. Tom has held leadership positions on numerous ACT-IAC committees including: Advanced Mobility Working Group (Co-Chair, 2011-13); IAC Executive Board Nomination Committee (Committee Member, 2010); Management of Change Conference (Industry Vice Chair, 2008); and Program Committee (Vice Chair, 2007). In 2008, Tom won the IAC Chair’s Award for outstanding service and dedication to the organization. In addition to his ACT-IAC committee work, Tom has been a lead contributor on several high-profile government collaboration initiatives within the organization. In 2011, he served as ACT-IAC Working Group Leader on the Myth Busters campaign, which was Point No. 25 in Federal CIO Vivek Kundra’s 25-point IT Management Reform Program. In 2010, he served as the ACT-IAC Working Group Leader for the Better Buy Project – an idea he proposed – which had a goal of helping make government acquisition more open and transparent by using social media tools and collaboration. While the project started out as an experiment by the General Services Administration, it has now become a new way of doing procurements by GSA.

In my career I’ve experienced first hand dramatic changes in communication technology.I was the marketing director at the Cellular Telecommunications Internet Association (CTIA) during the explosive industry growth that followed the 1996 Telecom Act.  Later I served as vice president of corporate communications at Advertising.com, the company that invented pay-per-click online advertising. In 2004 the company was purchased by AOL/Time Warner for $435 billion. I also served as senior communications manager at VeriSign, the operator of the .com and .net TLD extensions. I’ve worked on both the corporate and agency side of the fence.   There has never been a better time for companies to tell their own story, put that story directly in front of their target audience and prospects and empirically track how that effort is performing. It involves not just using new tools but also adopting a new outlook and culture. I help clients move from interruption marketing to conversational marketing.  I practice what I preach. I’ve written and published articles on these issues for over eight years. I’ve maintained my own personal site since 2008. My work has appeared in MarketingProfs, E-Commerce News, CommPro.biz and Social Media Today. I publish a monthly column for WashingtonExec.com, and served on the marketing committee of the Association for Corporate Growth, National Chapter.  I  hold degrees from the University of Connecticut and The American University in Washington, D.C. StoryTech Consulting LLC is based in Alexandria, Virginia.

Bob Dix serves as President of RBD Associates, a consulting firm that provides government relations and public policy support focusing on subjects primarily in the information and communications technology sector including cybersecurity, critical infrastructure protection, supply chain risk management, full and open competition in federal procurement, and more. Dix has compiled an impressive career in senior executive roles in industry and government. Most recently he served for 11 years with Juniper Networks as Vice President- Global Government Affairs & Public Policy. During the 108th Congress, Dix served as the Staff Director for the House Committee on Government Reform Subcommittee on Technology, Information Policy, Intergovernmental Relations and the Census. Among its oversight responsibilities for the Subcommittee was the implementation of the Federal Information Security Management Act ( FISMA ). Mr. Dix also served as President of two smaller technology companies and prior to that served 12 years as an elected representative in local government in the Northern Virginia area. Dix has served in leadership roles of a number of strategic public – private partnerships and represented Juniper Networks with the President’s National Security Telecommunications Advisory Committee. Dix was honored with a Federal 100 Award in 2007 & 2009 and was the honoree for the prestigious Industry Eagle Award in 2010. Dix attended Virginia Tech and is based in Vienna, Virginia. In his volunteer time, Bob is a volunteer youth sports coach.

Rita currently serves as the Federal Field Marketing Director at Snowflake. Previously, Rita Walston oversaw strategic programs for Arrow ECS’s commercial business units and the immixGroup public sector channel marketing team. Her team provided strategic and tactical marketing planning, logistics, management, and support to IT manufacturer suppliers and solution provider partners. She also lead immixGroup’s annual Government IT Sales Summit, the industry’s preeminent event delivering market intelligence, expert content from industry and government leaders, and unparalleled networking opportunities for its 900+ attendees. Walston’s 25-year career includes IT business development and sales, publishing, and media market research. She has a master’s degree in creative writing from Queens University of Charlotte and a bachelor’s degree in communications from Wayne State University in Detroit. Walston was selected by CRN as a 2018 Chiefs of the Channel and the 2017 Women of the Channel.

James “Jimmy” Baker is a noted speaker, author, marketing consultant and strategist on the public sector technology marketplace. Baker has spent his career in the Washington, DC Metropolitan Area as well as California consulting for technology companies that focus on the public sector marketplace. Baker has consulted for many technology companies, from Fortune 500’s to small businesses, such as: Microsoft, Adobe, Unify, Hewlett Packard, vmWare, CA Technologies, Salesforce, Unisys, Avaya, Intel, Akamai, Proofpoint, Cisco, Gigamon, Dimension Data, and Electric Lightwave. A graduate of the University of Maryland, Baker currently resides in California. Baker is very active in his local community. In 2017, Baker coauthored the book “Freedomshift – Restoring God’s Purpose for your Life.” Baker donates his time as well as books to various ministries and organizations that work with youth in the juvenile detention facilities throughout America.

Mark Amtower is a consultant, speaker, business best-selling author, columnist, adjunct graduate professor, and radio host. He has advised over three thousand large, medium and small companies on all aspects of marketing to the federal government since starting Amtower & Company in 1985.  He was selected by BtoB magazine as one of the Top 100 Business Marketers in the United States 2008 and his LinkedIn profile was selected as one of the seven best (out of 50 million) in the 2009 contest, Rock the World with Your Online Presence. In November of 2018, he was awarded the inaugural Government Marketing University Lifetime Achievement Award for Excellence in Government Marketing. Amtower is recognized as one of the top LinkedIn trainers in the world and the only trainer focused on the U.S. federal market. He specializes in helping companies develop thought leadership positions in a defined niche and leveraging social media to gain targeted visibility in the government contracting market. His books, Government Marketing Best Practices (2005) and Amazon best seller Selling to the Government (2011) are industry standards. He has been quoted in over 250 publications worldwide and speaks at 20+ industry events each year. His radio show, Amtower Off Center, is in its twelfth year on Federal News Radio and was the first radio show in the country to address issues concerning issues impacting the government contracting community.  Amtower is the founding partner of the government market advisory firm Amtower & Company, of Columbia, Maryland. He founded the company in January, 1985.  He is widely known for all black attire, dry wit and candor in his articles, books, consulting, radio interviews, presentations and keynotes.

PS Partnerships supports technology firms in developing meaningful relationships and alliances with the Government Systems Integrator community to generate pipeline and revenue through the development of these alliances and business development efforts.

Scott W. Lewis has more than 25 years of experience in public sector information technology.

As a Vice President at INPUT, a public sector market research company, Lewis supported numerous technology firms in the development of their strategic and tactical business plans. As Group Publisher of Government Computer News and Washington Technology, Lewis worked with systems integrators and technology vendors to help develop meaningful alliances, craft their messages and establish their brands in the government IT market. Lewis also has served as Vice President Partner Development for Micro Warehouse’s Gov/Ed division.

Tim Karney has spent more than two decades in marketing to the public sector. He was on the launch team for Federal Computer Week as their VP of Sales. He was the Publisher of Washington Technology and became Group Publisher of Post Newsweek Business Intelligence. He spent twelve years in the state & local segment with Government Technology and while there; he created and launched Emergency Management Magazine. He is currently the Editor of The All Hazards Emergency Network, a shared learning platform with a website, newsletter, podcasts, and live events that he has developed in cooperation with All Hazards Consortium. The Consortium is a network of over 20,000 federal, regional, state, local and private sector stakeholders that are in operational relationships before, during, and after large disasters. He is also the co-host of “Disaster Resilience For America,” a weekly radio show on Federal News Radio.

Matt Langan is the Founder and CEO of L&R Communications, a specialized PR and Content Marketing and Social Media firm that offers creative strategies for helping companies selling to government to achieve brand awareness and realize true sales enhancement.  Prior to starting L&R Communications in 2008, Matt held leadership positions with a number of tech agencies in New York City and Washington, D.C. throughout his 20+ year career.  Matt holds a master’s degree in communications from Syracuse University’s Newhouse School of Public Communications and a BA from Washington College.