Pinnacle Award Finalist Emily Roston: ‘The Emergence of Generative AI Has Changed the Way We Do Business’

The finalists for WashingtonExec’s 2024 Pinnacle Awards were announced Sept. 20, and we’ll be highlighting some of them until the event takes place live, in-person Nov. 21.

Next is Emily Roston, capture director for U.S. government procurements at BryceTech, and finalist in the Business Development Executive of the Year, Private Company, category. Here, she talks about recent achievements, her primary focus areas going forward and more.

What key achievements did you have in 2024?

I joined the BryceTech team with the assignment to help the company achieve ambitious growth and customer diversification goals, and to provide the insightful and reliable support we are known for, but on a larger scale. I started by building a multi-billion-dollar pipeline of vetted opportunities for our new Biosecurity & Health Division that align to our goals and current and projected capabilities.

Simultaneously, we built out an amazing internal team and structured ourselves to be agile enough to also take advantage of short-notice, high-appeal opportunities. I am thrilled that this year we have made huge progress towards our goals by submitting dozens of proposals, defending our recompetes, and nearly doubling our backlogged revenue for next year.

What are your primary focus areas going forward, and why are those so important to the mission?

The emergence of generative AI has changed the way we do business and solve problems almost overnight. As individuals, we now all have tools to amplify our productivity more than we ever could previously. But with these incredible tools also come a lot of undefined risks and potential pitfalls.

As a small business development team, how we can best leverage those tools to perform our roles better while maintaining and raising our overall quality, personal touch, and insights? We have an opportunity to do an even better job of aligning our delivery with our clients’ top priorities and requirements through insightful, informed, and innovative solutions.

Fun fact: What is something about you that most people do not know about?  

When I’m not working, I moonlight as a fulltime MBA student. I graduate in May of next year, at which point I look forward to spending my free time fully offline, picking back up hobbies like cooking, working on my rose garden, and getting a full 8-hours of sleep a night.

Meet the other Pinnacle Awards finalists here.