Horace Blackman
Senior Vice President of Defense, Intelligence and Space, CGI
Horace Blackman’s recent work centered on two key priorities: expanding the Marine Corps Platform Integration Center more broadly across the Defense Department and incorporating capabilities from CGI’s merger with Aeyon into the company’s offerings.
The MCPIC Total Asset Visibility platform supports inventory tracking through digital tagging of mission-critical equipment, allowing system users to access real-time data by leveraging automated identification technology and Internet of Things sensors.
MCPIC now tracks over 1.1 million assets across the Navy-Marine Corps’ operating areas. CGI has incrementally improved and enhanced the system, with new features enabling a complex ecosystem of interconnected virtual platforms. MCPIC has enabled the U.S. Marine Corps to become the first military branch to pass its annual financial audit with no modifications, Blackman said.
In 2024, MCPIC implemented an interface with the Defense Property Accountability System Warehouse Module in the Consolidated Storage Program at Camp Lejeune, North Carolina. The interface automatically updates DPAS whenever an asset’s location changes, enabling a 40 percent increase in accuracy.
Also under Blackman’s leadership, CGI integrated artificial intelligence, drones and robotics into MCPIC, enabling autonomous inventory tracking.
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The basic strategy behind MCPIC has much broader potential application, Blackman believes. He envisions a productized TAV solution that CGI can implement in other defense agencies, military organizations, civilian government agencies and even in the commercial sector.
This year will also bring more progress on CGI’s work with the Defense Intelligence Agency, developing and implementing advanced data analytics tools under a Data Transformation of Foundational Military Intelligence task order.
“We just made the first milestone with DTMI, [enabling DIA]to simplify the processing of intelligence information. It improved the speed of information analysis so leaders can make quick decisions based on actual intelligence,” he said.
CGI’s 2024 merger with Aeyon brought a new layer of AI and robotic process automation into CGI, along with Small Business Innovation Research contracts that expand the company’s contracting options.
After the merger was finalized, Blackman moved quickly to begin integrating the new technological capabilities and to take full advantage of the SBIR program. “We leveraged the SBIR as the main contract for MCPIC, and now we expect to have all the MCPIC work on SBIR through the Defense Logistics Agency by the end of June,” he said. “That’s a big, big deal for us. From a contractual perspective, we’re giving the client an ‘easy button.’”
Fun Fact: A proud George Mason University alum, Blackman spent eight years on the university’s board of visitors — a gubernatorial-appointed role — including terms as rector and vice rector. His son is currently a student, and he remains active in supporting GMU athletics. “I have the dubious distinction of holding every single leadership role on that board,” he said. The board has five standing committees and, “I was chair or vice chair of every single one of them, at one point or another.”