If there’s one thing that drives Venkatapathi “PV” Puvvada in government contracting, it’s passion — a passion for making a difference and serving citizens by providing valuable services and technology.
“I’m more passionate about not technology for technology’s sake, but technology as solving real business and mission problems,” he said. “Otherwise, it’s interesting, but it’s not impactful.”
Puvvada is the president of Unisys Federal. He started with Unisys’ commercial side in Pennsylvania. In the early 1990s, the company’s Washington, D.C., area office was working on a government proposal and needed somebody from its commercial organization to help.
“I came here for a three-month proposal. And in those days, deals used to take a lot longer than three months,” Puvvada said. “We won that deal, and I was asked to come and help deliver. That’s how I moved to Washington, D.C.”
From 2005 to 2010, Puvvada was managing partner and chief technology officer for Unisys Federal, overseeing the company’s federal solutions portfolio and service delivery excellence.
In 2010, he rose to group vice president for the company’s federal civilian agency business. Puvvada was named president and elected as corporate senior vice president by the board of directors in 2015.
As president, Puvvada is responsible for driving company growth in the federal marketplace and providing customers with solutions such as cloud computing, artificial intelligence, data analytics, agile application development, cybersecurity and enterprise IT as a service.
And he’s experiencing success. In the third quarter of 2019, Unisys Federal reported growth of 54% compared to the same quarter in 2018. Unisys Federal is projecting 20% growth in federal for this year. As Puvvada told Washington Technology, “It is a combination of strategy, being in the right areas of government transformation, and having a team that really knows how to execute.”
The work he’s been doing at Unisys as well as in the industry is about understanding the potential of technology to bring the outcomes in significant and dramatic ways, Puvvada said. It’s about securing the country, providing citizens with faster access to government services, or even securing commercial enterprises.
And he’s an advocate for using technology to help federal agencies serve U.S. citizens in several ways — through his career, as part of collaborative organizations, and holistically, in terms of his mindset.
“It’s really a privilege to work in the government contracting world,” Puvvada said.
Because growing up in India, Puvvada didn’t always know he would end up in America, let alone be sitting in an executive office for a government contractor.
Where it all Started
“I’m not sure coming to America was a part of my plan growing up,” Puvvada said. “Growing up, the plan was to educate yourself so you could have a career. It just happened that I came to America.”
Puvvada grew up in a small town in southeast India to a family of farmers and businesspeople. He was the first person to go to college in his entire family and did so in India.
“I was very fortunate to go to really good engineering school. It’s one of the best engineering schools in the world,” Puvvada said. He has a master’s degree in engineering from the Indian Institute of Technology and entered industry as an engineering subject matter expert for a joint venture in 1986, which ultimately led him to Unisys.
And according to Puvvada, Unisys provided opportunities to foster talent, which is how he grew within the company.
“Unisys is open to people who are pushing at the edges of technological passions,” Puvvada said.
During the earlier part of his career, the company provided an after-hours educational program. For someone with an engineering background rather than computer science, this was extremely helpful for Puvvada and allowed him to expand his technological knowledge.
Puvvada used that knowledge to become more familiar with Unisys’ solutions, and found opportunities to really engage with clients.
“What I found is clients really want technical talent that is directed at helping them achieve their goals,” Puvvada said. And he was able to work for many clients, learn about their business and how technology solutions could make a difference.
“It’s about learning. If I were to think about what was the navigation compass that really helped, it is dedication — commitment to doing what you believe in,” Puvvada explained. No matter the project or company, he is driven by a passion to make a difference wherever he is.
“A lot of technology modernization programs fail,” Puvvada said. “It is about making those successful.”
So, as he got better at leading teams and applying his domain knowledge to clients’ business missions and modernization initiatives, opportunities opened.
“Populate yourself with people who share the same passion and the talent,” Puvvada said.
He took advantage of those opportunities and dedicated himself to what he wanted to achieve for the clients. The rest, he said, then fell into place.
Leading with Passion
Though Puvvada always had a passion for technology, it was developing the passion for making clients successful that really brought him to the top.
“In our GovCon business, or any business, it’s about people. It’s making our clients successful. That brought me to leadership positions — a lot of successful modernizations,” Puvvada said.
He learned how to manage and motivate teams, shift his engineer’s mindset to be more people-centric and scale his leadership accordingly.
And from there, Puvvada used his passion for helping solve hard government services problems to helping solve business problems.
“I think the bigger transition to an executive was a challenging one,” he said. “How do you go from just a client-focused technology heritage in your background to thinking about business?”
He leaned on mentors, peers and general management training — but it was the focus on the client that drove him further.
“If there is a secret sauce to publicly share, I think the passion for client success and delivering what you promise will always get you places,” Puvvada said. “It isn’t about how much business you win; it is about what you do for the client.”
Client service remains part of his leadership ethos, but belonging to a community and giving back as a leader is just as important.
“I have been extraordinarily fortunate to be part of this government IT community. I learned from several people, several mentors in the community, and had the benefit of that to expand my horizons, and understand a lot more outside the boundaries of the company, and be a part of the larger community,” Puvvada said.
“Build that community and give back, mentor people. That’s just a part of leading.”
Gratitude and Advocacy
When Puvvada first came to America, he wasn’t sure if he was even going to stay.
“There weren’t a whole lot of immigrants of my type 33 years ago,” he said. But the friends he made, mostly colleagues from Unisys, embraced him.
Now, years later, leading Unisys Federal was something Puvvada never expected.
“People here put a lot of trust in me and what I could do, and gave me a lot of support,” he said. “The success here is mostly not because of what I have done. It is mostly because of the things those people have done.”
Puvvada is a four-time winner of the FCW Federal 100 Award, and in 2015, received the Fed100 Eagle Award — a private-sector leader selected from each year’s Federal 100 as the best of the best.
“I would have never thought that 25 years ago when I came here, I would be recognized as somebody that’s making a difference for this community. But it’s again, the generosity of the community of embracing me and embracing the ideas that I have, that’s more to do with it than what I have done,” Puvvada said.
And that’s part of the reason why Puvvada feels so strongly about bringing people in industry together. He just finished serving as the chair of the board of directors of the Professional Services Council, a group that advocates on behalf of the federal professional and technical services industry. He has been with active with PSC for nearly 10 years.
From 2007 to 2008, Puvvada served as chair of the Industry Advisory Council, a public-private partnership organization dedicated to advancing government through the application of information technology.
And what Puvvada has been focused on at PSC is bringing CEOs and industry executives together to solve acquisition, technology and policy problems by providing information to stakeholders in the executive branch and on the Hill.
He wants to remove barriers for people to solve these problems and attract investments into the community that can enable innovation and growth — for small, medium and large businesses.
And at the heart of both organizations is a combination of government executives participating and collaborating with industry executives, and that collaboration is key.
“We can solve problems and address challenges as a company, one company at a time, but it’s much more powerful when you get 500 companies together for a common purpose,” Puvvada said. And though it’s hard at times to form a common purpose, Puvvada said people will collaborate when a platform for collaboration is established.
Plus, he thinks collaboration is crucial for executive development, regardless of executive status — and this means collaborating with others outside of your company.
“Opportunities for personal growth in a company, is at some point, limited. But the opportunity for a growth in the ecosystem is unlimited,” Puvvada said.
He also feels strongly about giving back the benefits he received throughout his career and fostering mentorship.
“I think it’s important for everybody to share their success. You don’t need to give your company’s trade secrets away, but you can still share,” Puvvada said. “I would like to see more and more people participate.”
So, for the remainder of his time in industry, Puvvada hopes to give back by enabling members of his team and colleagues to grow, thrive and do bigger things — while working toward organic growth for Unisys Federal.
Back to His Roots
Outside of work, Puvvada is continuing to learn through travel, and has found an interest that connects him to his family’s heritage in India.
“I got into gardening; it’s in my blood. I’m a farmer’s son and grandson,” Puvvada said.
He didn’t realize he had a green thumb until he began using it for his backyard vegetable garden.
But with his wife and two young adult sons, Puvvada loves to travel.
“We have a family of travelers, and we’re very passionate. We have been to six continents,” Puvvada said, the remaining seventh being Antarctica — which is already in the planning.
This passion has taken Puvvada and his family to a safari ride in South Africa, to learning about the ecosystem in the Galapagos Islands, to spending weeks in New Zealand and touring iconic places in Asia and Europe.
And that’s not the end of it. The goal? All seven continents and 50 states.