Priya Raheja Dalwadi built her career by moving from maintaining systems to building them. She started in Lockheed Martin’s Financial Leadership Development Program, where she learned how to influence leaders at every level. A move to a small business gave her the chance to stand up a finance function from scratch and later exposed her to the private equity environment that reshaped her trajectory. She joined B/CORE when the CEO sought more than a traditional finance leader.
In this Q&A, she discusses how that vision led her to focus on predictive finance, forward-looking analytics and building a function that drives value creation across the company.
Can you provide a brief overview of your professional background and career progression? Please include what ultimately landed you in your current role.
I began my career at the foundational level of the defense industry, joining Lockheed Martin’s Financial Leadership Development Program while completing my MBA. I’m grateful for that experience as it gave me the chance to rotate across the organization and learn how to influence and navigate leaders at every level.
Over time, I realized I didn’t just want to maintain a machine; I wanted to build one. That led me to a small business where I stood up the finance function from the ground up. When the company was acquired, I got my first exposure to the Private Equity environment, and that became a pivotal moment in my career.
I ultimately joined B/CORE because the CEO saw that, at this stage of growth, the company needed more than a traditional finance function. He wasn’t looking for a scorekeeper to simply report the news; he wanted a strategic architect to help shape the future and drive value creation. That alignment in vision is what brought me here, and it’s been the guiding force behind my role ever since.
Why was this the path you chose, and how influential was it to your career?
I grew up around my family’s CPA business, so I always saw the direct link between numbers and organizational success. I chose this path because Finance is the unique function that sits at the intersection of every single department. This includes Operations, Delivery, Business Development, and Strategy.
To me, Finance isn’t just math. It is the language of problem-solving. This path has been influential because it allows me to translate raw data into actionable advantages. I don’t just tell the team what we spent. I tell them what we can achieve if we optimize our resources correctly.
Do you have a personal connection to the current mission you support? If so, please explain.
Some may see Finance as far from the front lines of national security, but I view it as the foundation that allows our mission to thrive. If we aren’t financially strong, we can’t invest in the people, technology, and capabilities our customers rely on.
My personal connection is a deep sense of responsibility. I see my role as ensuring our house is always in order so our technologists and mission-facing teams can stay focused on advancing national security. They should never need to question the stability, resources, or backing of the company behind them.
What are your current top priorities and responsibilities? How do these relate to your company’s overall mission/growth strategy?
My top priority is moving our organization from reactive to predictive. In today’s volatile market, reporting last month’s numbers means we’re already behind.
I drive Financial Clarity, pushing the team to look ahead. We’re building financial infrastructure to enable faster, more confident investment decisions—be it adopting AI, deploying new tech, or acquiring talent—than our competitors.
This aligns with our growth strategy: winning by being the most agile player. My role ensures our clear data and insights let us capitalize when the right opportunities emerge.
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?
2026 is exciting for finance. LLMs are transforming baseline functions, increasing the quality and speed of routine work. This shift allows my team to redirect energy toward higher-value analytics and decision support, not transactional reporting.
Our biggest growth area is anticipatory insight. We launched an initiative to equip business units with forward-looking analytics that influence positive outcomes before issues emerge. Delivering this foresight creates greater external value: faster solutions, stronger financial stewardship, and predictable outcomes for the government, meeting their key pain points through disciplined capital allocation and clear ROI.
How are you and your team planning to address/prepare for these opportunities?
We’re doing the hard work now so we can scale with precision later. My philosophy is simple: the system should work for us, not the other way around.
We’re transforming Finance into a true force multiplier for the business. That means shifting from transactional tasks to equipping our teams with the insights they need to drive value. For example, instead of simply asking Project Managers to track budgets, we’re arming them with ROI data and actionable financial intelligence so they can clearly articulate value to the client. This approach not only improves internal decision-making, it positions us to deliver stronger outcomes for our customers as their needs become more complex.
How important is mentorship & networking in GovCon? Were they influential to your career?
Mentorship has been critical, yet the least helpful feedback was “You’re doing a good job.”
The mentors who truly shaped me were transparent and direct, pushing me into challenging situations where I struggled but ultimately saw capability I didn’t recognize. This high-accountability mentorship is invaluable in the GovCon space, where the mission transcends individuals.
This is the culture I build at B/CORE. I partner with my team, offering support but challenging them to achieve more than they think possible. Real mentorship isn’t about comfort; it’s about growth.
What is something most people don’t know about you personally?
I live by the concept of discipline as a release. I also have a deep passion for cooking from scratch. There is a strong parallel between cooking and being a CFO. You have to source the best ingredients (data), understand how they interact, and execute with precision to create something that satisfies the people you serve. Whether it’s a financial model or a family meal, I love the process of creating something valuable from raw inputs.