The finalists for WashingtonExec’s 2023 Pinnacle Awards were announced Sept. 25, and we’ll be highlighting some of them until the event takes place live, in-person Nov. 16.
Next is Cybersecurity Executive of the Year finalist in the category for Private Company with an annual revenue greater than $250M Alex Burkart, who is vice president of strategic IT and cyber solutions at Koniag Government Services. Here, he talks about shaping the next generation of leaders and proud organizational moments.
How do you help shape the next generation of government leaders/industry leaders?
At Koniag Government Services, raising the next generation of industry leaders is very important to me. As Vice President of Cyber Solutions, I instituted the Cyber Security Community of Practice which is built through common interest to fuel growth, develop leaders and strengthen expertise for KGS staff and our government customers. Our Cyber Security COP is a central hub for the KGS Cyber community, a place staff gather for education and mentorship, access to lectures and conferences, the latest cyber news and threat intelligence and guidance on cyber security best practices and expertise. Our COP’s mission is to raise the bar and build future leaders as we tackle some of our customers’ and the nation’s most demanding cyber challenges.
We develop leaders primarily through networking, education, and mentorship which all starts at our COP Cyber Training Portal. This is where KGS staff can find free high-quality cybersecurity training to increase their knowledge and awareness.
KGS staff who want to enter the Cyber Security field or enhance their skills first undergo a knowledge assessment and work hand in hand with our cyber training experts to develop a personalized program that integrates their annual goals and education spending.
As part of this COP cyber leadership program, we also offer career mentoring. We pair our junior level staff with established industry experts to provide guidance and mentorship throughout the employee’s career progression.
Another key component to developing cyber security leaders is fostering an understanding of the threat actors, who they are targeting and how we can help protect our customers’ networks and systems. To facilitate this, we host monthly briefings on the latest in cyber threats, actionable intelligence and recommendations our staff can take directly to their customers and provide immediate benefit.
We also host a portal that is continuously updated with the latest threat intelligence, vulnerabilities, mitigations, and best practices as a resource our staff can use for delivering cutting edge solutions. Members of our COP are serving today as cyber leaders, providing zero trust architecture to Department of Education, leading computer incident response for USAID, providing cyber security cloud architecture for Department of State and many other key positions across the federal government.
Through our Community of Practice, we work together to build leaders and solve tomorrow’s toughest cyber challenges today.
What are you most proud of having been a part of in your current organization?
Koniag Government Services is an Alaskan 8a corporation working in support of our shareholders, the Alutiiq people in Kodiak, Alaska. In July of 2023 I had the honor of taking part in a trip to Kodiak to serve and learn more about the Alutiiq tribe and their culture.
During my visit, we met with the Alutiiq people who run the Kodiak Museum and learned about ongoing efforts to sustain the culture and preserve the language. They imparted to us that our support of their tribe was critical to their efforts to educate people about their history and maintain their culture. The Alutiiq people were the first known inhabitants of Woody Island in the Kodiak Archipelago.
Also known as the Tangirnarmiut, the tribe made Woody Island their home for many generations and called themselves the “people of Tangirnaq”, the Alutiiq name for Woody Island. They fished and hunted for thousands of years before the Russians established an agricultural colony and engaged in brutal subjugation of the people, resulting in epidemics, forced relocations, and extermination of those who resisted. While the island is currently uninhabited, it contains many prehistoric sites and is still important to and in use by the Alutiiq people.
I was honored to be able to perform a service project on Woody Island to better the lives of the Alutiiq people. While there, we worked side by side with our Koniag brothers and sisters to remove over 9,000 pounds of debris, build a walking path from the beach to the cemetery and beautify the gravesite of a Vietnam War veteran.
The veteran, Daniel Lee Harmon, is an Alutiiq hero who died in an act of valor saving his friend Ron Coon in May 1967 during the Vietnam war. For his act of valor, Dan was posthumously awarded a Bronze Star with the “V” device for Valor and oak leaf clusters. At the completion of this project, alongside Dan’s family we got to take part in a Russian Orthodox memorial service honoring and remembering Dan’s life.
The opportunity to visit Kodiak, learn more about the Alutiiq tribe that we support and work side by side in service to our Alutiiq brothers was something I’m very proud of and an experience I’ll never forget.