Dawne Hickton

Executive Vice President & Chief Operating Officer, Critical Mission Solutions, Jacobs

For Jacobs’ Dawne Hickton, 2021 was another year of achieving cultural, strategic and aggressive financial targets. Under her leadership, Jacobs’ Critical Mission Solutions business continues expanding the company’s aerospace, nuclear and cyber and intelligence business and driving significant growth through contract awards.  

Growing Jacobs’ cyber business is a key part of the CMS business strategy. The company’s recent acquisitions of advanced cyber and intelligence leader The Buffalo Group, high-performance software provider BlackLynx and its strategic investment in geospatial analytics company HawkEye 360 are integral to advancing Jacobs’ development and deployment of innovative solutions across an ever-expanding client base.

Jacobs also reinforced its position as a nuclear lifecycle services provider, particularly in the area of environmental cleanup, with major contract wins for the Energy Department’s $6.4 billion Idaho Cleanup Project and $8 billion Oak Ridge Reservation Cleanup Contract.

As NASA’s largest services contractor, the company continues to provide integrated, full life cycle solutions in support of the agency’s Artemis Program including processing and stacking the Artemis I flight hardware in preparation for the first flight test of the most powerful rocket NASA has ever built.

“Today, Jacobs is a high-value solutions provider that is solving our clients’ most complex challenges,” Hickton said. “Our resilient business, passionate and innovation-focused culture, and commitment to performance excellence make us a partner of choice for customers who share our mission-oriented mindset.”

With the release of PlanBeyond 2.0, Jacobs’ updated sustainability strategy, Hickton and her team are challenging current conventions to positively contribute to the UN Sustainable Development Goals and foster a culture of sustainability that promotes economic prosperity, environmental benefit and social value.

Why Watch

Under Hickton’s leadership in CMS, the team is reinforcing Jacobs’ commitment to healthy and safe working environments, particularly related to returning to offices, new and changing COVID-19 protocols, and vaccine mandates. Jacobs’ BeyondZero Culture of Caring puts the safety and wellbeing of employees first and empowers everyone to speak up and act when they identify a potential risk or observe an unsafe practice, she said.

Looking ahead to 2022, Jacobs’ deep domain knowledge and cutting-edge digital solutions uniquely position the company to capitalize on emerging transformational opportunities within global infrastructure modernization, climate response and industry digitization.

“We continue building on a long and proud tradition of excellence while keeping our eyes on the future to prepare for what’s next,” she said.

Read the entire Top 35 Execs to Watch in 2022 here.