Top 25 Execs to Watch in 2020

Mark Testoni, CEO, SAP National Security Services

When asked about his toughest competitor, SAP National Security Services CEO Mark Testoni doesn’t name names. Instead, he says he competes against the status quo.

“Overcoming inertia is the way to get ahead in this business,” he said. “The government contractor arena that’s been built over the last 50 years has to evolve, and it needs to have new players.”

Testoni has signed on a legion of new players in recent years —the result of three M&A deals since 2016, when NS2 acquired Volume Integration, a data analytics company in the national security market. In 2018, NS2 acquired Technology Management Associates and Apex Expert Solutions, reinforcing its commitment to delivering innovative solutions to the federal government, expanding its position across the intelligence community and bringing additional depth to NS2’s Mission Solutions offerings.

A philanthropist at heart, Testoni is the driving force behind the creation of NS2 Serves, a nonprofit that offers training and employment assistance to recent veterans.

“Our responsibility as business leaders is to make a difference in society — it’s the foundation of our mission,” Testoni said.

Why Watch:

With his future-focused, nimble workforce in place, Testoni has big plans for 2020. He sees opportunities in cloud, product development and NS2 Labs — the organization’s latest investment, expected to be unveiled in early 2020.

“NS2 Labs will be a high-functioning open forum where we will collaborate with customers, partners, and other stakeholders to implement leading-edge innovation,” Testoni said. “Labs will be the incubator for rapid change in areas like biometrics, facial recognition and applications for artificial intelligence and machine learning.”

Prior to assuming his position at NS2, Testoni served as president of SAP Public Services. Before SAP, he spent more than nine years at Oracle, where he was an architect of some of the company’s most significant business systems wins, including the largest ERP project in the company’s history.

Testoni has more than 23 years of IT industry expertise and 30 years of public sector experience. He served for 20 years in the U.S. Air Force, where he specialized in financial management, IT and logistics.