The finalists for WashingtonExec’s Chief Officer Awards were announced April 15, and we’ll be highlighting some of them until the event takes place virtually May 27.
Next is Chief Financial Officer Award finalist Kathryn JohnBull, who’s CFO at DLH Corp. Here, she talks professional achievements and risks, proud career moments, primary focus areas going forward and more.
What key achievements did you have in 2019/2020?
2019 and 2020 were tremendously successful years for my team and DLH as a whole. In addition to strong financial results — and a key victory on a major recompete — the company bolstered its leadership team by adding accomplished, dynamic executives recognized throughout the government contracting industry for their innovation and expertise.
We also followed up on the acquisition of Social & Scientific Systems, Inc. in 2019 with the purchase of Irving Burton Associates, LLC, a leading provider of innovative healthcare solutions to the Federal government, in 2020.
Specializing in artificial intelligence, IT and program management support, application modernization and digital transformation, IBA expands upon our health technology capabilities and increases our reach into the military healthcare community.
These two strategic acquisitions signified the full execution of the first phase of our acquisition roadmap, strengthening the company’s presence in our defense and veterans health solutions and public health and life sciences market focus areas.
This acquisitive growth, supplemented by significant organic growth, has resulted in a decade of consecutive annual revenue growth for DLH.
What are you most proud of having been a part of in your current organization?
I am most proud of DLH’s growth over my tenure with the company, both in terms of financial performance for our investor and the breadth of health services we are able to provide our federal customers. When I joined in 2012, the company’s stock price hovered around $1.00 and over 90% of our work was concentrated with one customer.
By stabilizing our financial performance and working with our executive leadership team and board of directors to develop and implement a long-range strategic plan, we have been able to enhance shareholder satisfaction.
Our EBITDA-as-a-percentage-of-revenue stood at 9.8% in fiscal year 2020, a CAGR of 63.6% since 2013, the first year DLH returned to profitability following the decision to restructure as a pure-play government services provider in 2010.
For much of the past year, the company’s stock price has remained above $10.00 a share — a real source of pride for myself and the rest of the leadership team.
What are your primary focus areas going forward, and why are those so important to the future of the nation?
My focus as CFO is to ensure DLH has the platform it needs to grow moving forward. As we initiated our acquisition program in 2016, we envisioned our company as a highly trusted provider of technology-enabled business process outsourcing and program management solutions, as well as public health research and analytics for the federal government. We believe that our actions over the intervening years have successfully transformed DLH into the well-rounded, advanced technology enterprise necessary to fulfill this vision.
Federal agencies are increasingly looking to improve and expand their online services, with the COVID-19 pandemic only heightening the urgency to innovate. As such, exceptional technology differentiation is the key driver of future growth for our company.
We have made significant investments in the development of secure IT platforms, sophisticated data analytics tools and techniques, additional software development credentials for our technical staff, the implementation of Lean Six Sigma environment, and the introduction of our Infinibyte secure cloud computing offering to ensure our teams have the tools they need to be competitive in such a competitive marketplace.
How do you help shape the next generation of government leaders/industry leaders?
Those currently in leadership positions can help shape the next generation by affording less-experienced colleagues the opportunity to try their hand at new tasks and missions. By rewarding collaboration and encouraging a culture of continuous positive change, leaders in our industry can foster an environment that is ripe for growth.
This is particularly true in periods of transition, such during a post-acquisition integration. We aim to build accountability by setting clear goals for the transformation of the company through integration. We promote leadership from the recently acquired company and strive to continually demonstrate their influence in developing solutions in support of growth for the full enterprise.
What’s the biggest professional risk you’ve ever taken?
Joining DLH as a “turn-around and build” opportunity was a risk — but an opportunity that I am tremendously proud to have taken advantage of. This was a chance to join an executive team that was building from essentially the ground up.
At the time, DLH had only recently divested its primary commercial position (which accounted for 95% of top line), so as to re-focus solely around the government services space. Job No. 1 was to stabilize that sub-$40 million business.
Leveraging the depth of professional expertise that I’ve been blessed to develop over 25+ years with leading government services providers and the business know-how of my brilliant colleagues, today, we’ve built DLH into a $250 million-dollar enterprise.
Whereas a decade ago we only maintained a foothold in one of our company’s three defined market focus areas, now DLH has a credible leadership position in each of those markets: defense and veterans health; human services and solutions; and public health and life sciences.