After three years at the helm, Ravi Dankanikote is leaving his role as chair of the WashingtonExec Business Development Leaders Council.
Dankanikote, who serves as senior vice president of business development at CACI International, brought in and moderated dozens of events with government speakers on topics such as customer management, effective pipeline execution and mentorship.
Further bridging public-private partnerships, Dankanikote also broadened the scope and membership of the council to include Fortune 500 companies as well as mid-tier organizations.
“I am proud of the caliber of speakers and topics we were able to expand upon over the course of three dynamic years as chairperson,” Dankanikote said. “It is important that business development and acquisition executive leaders continue to have informal dialogue forums regarding the ever-increasing challenges and opportunities of the federal marketplace.”
The Business Development Leaders Council includes members who are VPs of BD of emerging and large organizations and senior staff identified as “critical talent” to the future of the organization. The group also works closely with local academia leaders to bridge the gap between the theory and practice of the govcon business. Federal acquisition speakers lead a wide variety of agencies and tackle issues such as government and industry partnership and mentorship, pre-request for proposals solicitation, Lowest Price Technically Acceptable bids, protests and teaming restrictions.
“Ravi has been an ideal chairperson for WashingtonExec’s Business Development Leadership group, which is made of up of federal practice leaders who, in some cases, have P&L, growth and strategy responsibilities across the entire enterprise,” said JD Kathuria, founder and CEO of WashingtonExec. “He has been a wealth of knowledge and his guidance has given tremendous focus to the group and helping us execute the mission of the council.”
The mission of the Business Development Leaders Council is to provide business acumen forums at the executive level while also increasing government efficiencies through targeted dialogue. Dankanikote is handing the reins over to Yvonne Vervaet, senior vice president of growth and capabilities of ManTech.
Dankanikote last interviewed with WashingtonExec in 2018 for the Market Outlook series.