Joe Kehoe
Vice President, Defense Market Leader, Maximus
As an industry leader, Joe Kehoe has dedicated his career to driving innovative problem-solving solutions and delivering digital transformation to advance the missions of the Defense Department.
Since joining Maximus in late 2020, Kehoe has shaped the company’s strategy for DOD with an emphasis on integrating emerging technologies within IT environments, advancing cybersecurity efforts and delivering more information more rapidly to servicemen and servicewomen deployed around the world. He cites the missions of DOD customers as the driver for the company to produce the solutions with the necessary range and depth.
“Our business starts with our clients, their mission, and who they serve,” he said. “We’ve aligned our defense business with DOD’s priorities because we understand what’s needed and we have developed the strategic alliance partnerships that allow DOD to use technology to gain a competitive advantage.”
Maximus and Kehoe implemented their ideas through the development of the Deployment Readiness Education for Servicewomen virtual app. Created in collaboration with the Defense Health Agency, the app demonstrates how the military can use emerging technologies to significantly enhance readiness across service branches. The app covers three deployment phases for all women: preparation, activities during deployment, and post-deployment.
“What separates Maximus from competitors is our ability to innovate, deploy, and quickly scale programs that meet specific DOD challenges,” explained Kehoe. “We believe innovation starts with our people and Maximus’s ability to provide a platform for their continuous development. This approach allows us to stay in front of emerging trends, such as cloud, cybersecurity, and artificial intelligence. As a result, Maximus develops solutions in response to or in anticipation of our defense customer needs.”
Why Watch
As Kehoe and Maximus look to the future, there will be an added emphasis on bolstering the company’s already-robust cybersecurity offerings.
“It’s reality that our adversaries are becoming more sophisticated with their attacks, and we must maintain a resilient security posture,” Kehoe said. “They now have deeper insight into data, which means there are new pathways of vulnerabilities within endpoint systems, cloud environments, networks, and third-party tools.”
One way Maximus has pushed cybersecurity forward for DOD is through strategy and implementation of a zero trust environment that complies with the 2027 deadline for deployment.