The Founder’s Circle: A Second Act in Government Contracting

We’ve kept our to-do lists fairly occupied this summer launching two new blog segments — the WashExec RollCall and WashingtonExec Whispers — in order to keep our readers abreast of all the shakeups at the top levels of government and industry.

But as summer winds down and we look ahead to autumn and the start of a new fiscal year come October, we’re excited to introduce you to our newest group: The Founder’s Circle.

One phone call last November with Haresh Bhungalia, former 2020, LLC Co-Founder who sold his company to Acentia, asked me to pull together a group of future Circle candidates.

Bhungalia successfully exited the government contracting industry by selling his company in April 2012 and was looking for a forum that would allow him to easily collaborate and interact with industry executives who shared his unique background.

And while F. Scott Fitzgerald might’ve told us “there are no second acts in American life,” we’ve found that that might not be entirely true.

After nine months from the launch of the initial Founder’s Circle concept and a host of gatherings later, we’re excited to announce WashingtonExec’s 25-person Founder’s Circle—a forum showcasing that there is such thing as “life after the CEO exit.”

This exclusive network is comprised of those in the government contracting space who have founded or co-founded and then sold their organization. The group is for executives, like Bhungalia, who have exited the industry through a successful acquisition on the seller side — and who seek a space within which to share war stories, discuss the future projects and give back to local communities through nonprofit or charitable work. Many regulars of the group serve on multiple boards, are adjunct professors or are leaders in their respective communities.

We believe that this high-powered group greatly benefits from exchanging ideas and collaborating in an informal but distraction-free setting.

Moving forward, the Circle will meet about four times a year in formal and informal settings to build trusted relationships, coordinate their continued involvement within industry, and to leverage the distinctive clout of the group.

So, it would appear that in fact there are second acts in American life.

Related: Haresh Bhungalia’s bio. Haresh and Alpha Bhungalia are Chairs for the American India Foundation to Host Annual Washington, D.C. Gala, Nov. 7, 2014.