In August 2025, AMERICAN SYSTEMS acquired Epsilon, Inc., completing the integration in January 2026. The deal added over 400 employee-owners along with capabilities in advanced digital transformation and proactive data infrastructure management.
A 100% employee-owned company, AMERICAN SYSTEMS delivers high-end mission engineering and information engineering solutions to the nation’s priority programs.
Steckel, president and CEO of AMERICAN SYSTEMS, is a finalist for WashingtonExec’s Chief Officer Awards in the Private & Public Company CEO of the Year (Annual Revenue Greater than $500M) category. The event takes place live June 2.
Here, he discusses the Epsilon acquisition, his focus areas going forward, and the unconventional career path that took him from the Naval Academy to the C-suite.
What key achievements did you have in 2025/2026?
The key achievement for us in 2025–2026 was our acquisition of Epsilon, Inc. in August 2025 and the successful integration of Epsilon into AMERICAN SYSTEMS in January 2026. Epsilon brought us over 400 new employee-owners and unique capabilities in advanced digital transformation and proactive data infrastructure management. A major part of the acquisition is a specialized service offering for specific customers, where we apply commercial best practices and a multi-tenant infrastructure in secure data centers across the country. That combination of mission focus, technical depth, and secure, scalable infrastructure will be a major differentiator for us going forward.
What are your primary focus areas going forward, and why are those so important to the mission?
As we move forward, we are heavily focused on providing high-end mission engineering and information engineering solutions to our nation’s priority programs. In doing that, we emphasize bringing cutting-edge technologies like artificial intelligence, machine learning, and model-based systems engineering to our customers when and where it truly makes sense. The goal is not “technology for technology’s sake,” but using these capabilities to improve outcomes, reduce risk, reduce cost, and accelerate mission success. Underpinning all of this is our culture of personal accountability and ownership as a 100% employee-owned company, which keeps everyone aligned around our customers and their missions.
What is your best career advice for those who want to follow in your footsteps?
I have taken a fairly unconventional career path: I graduated from the Naval Academy, served in the active-duty Navy and Naval Reserves, earned a master’s from UNC–Chapel Hill, worked in operations at PepsiCo, served as a brand manager for FedEx and in several smaller B2B and B2C companies, and then moved into the defense industry in business development roles at BAE Systems, Raytheon, Vencore, Perspecta, and now AMERICAN SYSTEMS. The common thread through all of that is simple: always strive to have fun wherever you work. If you are genuinely enjoying what you do, you will put more of yourself into it, do great things, and those great things will create the next set of opportunities and successes.
What is something about you that most people do not know?
I like to think of myself as an avid cyclist and supporter of cycling as both recreation and sport. I have been riding seriously for over 40 years, and while I still have dreams of “winning the big race,” I know that is probably best left as a dream—but I am not ready to stop dreaming. We also support the Armed Forces Cycling Classic as an event sponsor and as a sponsor of the CCB Women’s Professional Cycling Team, which is a great way to connect my passion for cycling with supporting the broader community.
