Marcus Lopez runs Belcan’s aerospace and defense strategy and sales as president and chief growth officer, helping deliver mission-focused solutions to aerospace and defense customers. He’s also the president of government solutions.
With over 28 years of experience — including a career as a naval officer — Lopez spent most of his life close to the defense mission.
“I grew up attending the annual airshow at Quonset Point, RI and was always in awe of the Blue Angels flight demonstration team,” he told WashingtonExec. “Through determination, my aspirations for flying jets came to reality throughout a Naval Aviation career before transitioning to government contracting.”
That same drive and discipline continue to shape his work in industry. Lopez now brings a sharp focus on high performance, adaptability and team success to Belcan, a Cognizant company.
“My heart is always in the Defense mission, and don’t think that will ever change,” Lopez said. “My role in Belcan, a Cognizant Company, is broader, but a day does not go by that I don’t think about how I can help improve the success and safety of the warfighter through our work with the federal sector.”
Below, Lopez shares insights on current priorities, growth strategies, the role of mentorship and more.
What are your current top priorities and responsibilities? How do these relate to your company’s overall mission/growth strategy?
With the acquisition of Belcan by Cognizant, my focus is aligning our collective service lines for growth opportunities in Aerospace & Defense. Belcan has been a great engineering firm for over six decades, and now Cognizant brings digital scale and prowess to expand our capability with a range of automation, AI, and accelerators that are key not only in the Aerospace market, but to the success of our future government operations. Bringing commercial enterprise software and digital modernization expertise from Cognizant, with the government experience of Belcan, and my experience crossing the barriers of both, brings to the market a model that is highly efficient and effective in the current acquisition environment.
Where do you and your team see growth opportunities in your current field or portfolio you support, or what do you anticipate to be your customers’ top pain points?
Our government customers are trying to solve business problems that are unique to them, but not unique to the commercial business environment. On the surface, these seem like growth barriers for government contractors, but for companies that focus on efficiency in business processes through technology innovation, and those that thrive on agility and problem solving, this is a great time to help our government run better in the future.
How are you and your team planning to address/prepare for these opportunities?
We are focused on helping government acquisition leaders understand that better, proven business models exist that focus on performance and service delivery, rather than the previous status quo of adding more people to solve problems. The government can run more leanly, but absolutely needs new toolsets to do so, else they will fail in both near and long execution. We are showing them through experience what it takes to succeed in this manner.
How important is mentorship & networking in GovCon? Were they influential to your career?
My transition from military to industry was seamless due to the gracious help of several mentors and friends who helped guide and educate me. I am happy to return the favor and mentor and assist military transitions with several active at any given time.
Mentorship is integral to professional growth, and I turn to my network of several mentors often to understand approaches or gain perspective. I feel like I continue to learn from them almost daily and that it fuels my career and elevates success.
What is something most people don’t know about you personally?
There was a fork in the road as a teenager when I thought I was going to be a Chef and had trained and been accepted to a culinary school. Fortunately, I proved my high school guidance counselor wrong and had the opportunity to attend the U.S. Naval Academy to pursue flying and chose that fork instead. I still love to cook gourmet meals, and when I am not doing that, I am usually on the tennis court burning off those extra calories.