In a competitive government contracting market, companies work efficiently and receptively to keep up with business needs by developing and integrating relevant pricing strategies that serve customers and growth initiatives. Strong pricing teams, led by responsive leaders, are key to success in this market. These leaders are driven by competitive market trends, internal growth goals and customer needs. And to excel in a thriving GovCon market, companies rely on a few things: strong business strategies built on accurate pricing, cost estimating, business operations and financial analysis.
For WashingtonExec’s Top Pricing Execs to Watch in 2023, we identified the best of the best in building proper pricing models for success, bringing strategic thought leadership to each opportunity, and putting long-term growth and strategy first. Based on their accomplishments, impact on business goals and vision for the near-term future, these execs bring exactly what the GovCon community needs to empower competition and success.
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Ryan Gleason
Director of FP&A and Pricing, Belcan Government Solutions
Since joining Belcan’s Government Solutions business in June 2021, Ryan Gleason has integrated, developed and implemented pricing strategies responsive to the needs of the business. In 2022, he successfully led the pricing strategy for its largest recompete.
“Ryan joined AE Industrial-owned Belcan and made an immediate impact on several acquisition integrations, driving the financial operations critical to early successes, and was instrumental in building an integrated pricing and financial operations team,” said Beth Ferris, Belcan chief financial officer. “We are thrilled to have Ryan at Belcan!”
Gleason also successfully led pricing integration activities and organizational change management initiatives, bringing together disparate pricing policies across several acquisitions, and rebuilt the entire finance and pricing team.
“Pricing is a key factor to future business success and is an often-overlooked component of business strategy,” Gleason said. “I enjoy working with leaders at all levels in the organization to align pricing to our overall strategic growth plan and bring this important discipline to the forefront of achieving our key results.”
Why Watch
Gleason has extensive experience in financial operations and leads innovative strategies in pricing, cost estimating, business operations, and financial planning and analysis. In 2023, he and his team aim to enhance their finance and pricing strategy in line with Belcan Government Solutions’ growth plan.
“We understand that meeting our key results as an organization depends on an integrated pricing and FP&A strategy that gives our operational leaders the price they need to win a competitive proposal, and also the financial insight needed for successful execution once a proposal is won,” Gleason said.
Hagen McHenry
Vice President of Pricing, Estimating & Competitive Assessment, Peraton
As vice president of pricing, estimating and competitive assessment, Hagen McHenry and his team impact every sector of the enterprise. In 2022, his team grew from 20 to a mighty force of 85 movers of business that play an integral part in Peraton’s growth engine.
They migrated to a single pricing tool; established a training program; consolidated processes, procedures and disclosures; and built an efficient and reliable governance structure to create a well-oiled machine.
Amid the migration, the team contributed to Peraton’s growth year of significant wins and an industry-leading book-to-bill ratio. The governance and approvals process provides oversight for the pricing strategy of Peraton’s continuous stream of pursuits ⏤ processing over 1,400 pricing actions in 2022.
“I have an incredibly talented and influential team who are diverse in their skillsets,” he said. “I encourage my team to always push to achieve more than we believe is possible.”
Why Watch
In 2023, McHenry seeks to further enhance Peraton’s strategic capabilities. After an influx of bids, the team will continue to effectively convey Peraton’s value to its government customers. McHenry plans to combine the team’s technical expertise with real-time data to identify strategic opportunities to enhance cost estimation and secure new business.
“Hagen constructed a strategic and reliable pricing organization that cooperates with our business sectors and coordinates amongst corporate functions to give Peraton an edge over our peers,” said Mike King, chief growth officer at Peraton. “He has built a true competitive weapon that improves Peraton’s business outcomes.”
Leslie Tillman
Vice President of Pricing, Empower AI
During the past year, Leslie Tillman and her team’s biggest achievement was successfully rebranding the company to Empower AI from NCI Information Systems through collaboration across the organization. The new name better represents the company’s focus on technology and customer success.
From a pricing perspective, that transition included working very hard to find the right pricing models for AI products and services, not only to become even more competitive within the industry, but also to show Empower AI’s differentiated AI-as-a-service model is cost effective for new and existing customers.
It required a lot of effort, but Tillman is very proud of the company’s progress as it begins a new year full of new opportunities.
“While it may seem strange to some, I find the world of federal pricing to be exciting each day. It’s not just spreadsheets and numbers; far from it,” she said. “There’s always something new and different, and finding creative ways to be competitive in an industry that is very competitive is a challenge I enjoy.”
Additionally, from a business perspective, Tillman was very pleased the team achieved a 97% win rate on recompete contracts last year, which was no small task in a highly competitive environment.
“Leslie is one of the most pragmatic leaders I’ve had the privilege to work with, which is exactly what you want and need in the competitive world of federal pricing,” said Chuck Hicks, Empower AI chief operating officer and chief financial officer. “Her leadership, experience and wise counsel, as well as her ability to collaborate across the organization to get things done quickly and accurately, are impressive to everyone on our team. Leslie has created and developed the best pricing team I have worked with in the last 20 years.”
Why Watch
Tillman and her team are focused on a strong pipeline of new work and partnerships in 2023 as prime contractors and strategic partners. They are preparing for a competitive year and aligning pricing strategies to show the value of AI-enabled programs.
By highlighting and pricing the AI effectively within bids, the company can help customers use AI to remove the repetitive tasks machines can do for them, enabling them to focus on the tasks that require critical thinking.
“When that happens, agency leaders achieve more of their missions, and that’s what it’s all about for us. It’s very rewarding,” Tillman said.
Kim Schoenauer
Vice President of Pricing, Cognosante
Kim Schoenauer’s biggest recent achievement was establishing a robust pricing and estimating system to scale with Cognosante’s rapid growth.
She built a suite of tools and processes that ultimately feed back into the data gathering and analysis required to optimize their future decisions.
“Kim has been instrumental in building and leading the pricing organization,” said Steve Hamric, chief financial officer for Cognosante. “She is the consummate professional whose leadership and experience are invaluable in positioning the company to meet or exceed its growth objectives.”
Schoenauer is a huge believer in a systematic yet flexible approach to business systems. Analysts and estimators need to have a solid framework to operate within, but also be agile and respond to the ever-evolving needs of the company, their customers and the competitive landscape.
“I always strive for the ultimate balance of competitiveness and compliance without all of the red tape, bureaucracy and limitations that typically accompany it,” she said.
Why Watch
In 2023, Schoenauer is focused on balancing the need for growth with the internal cost efficiencies necessary to stay competitive in the long term. As a central leader in the organization, she is well-positioned to influence many interrelated functions, such as financial and accounting systems, risk and contracting systems, and the growth engine.
“A major move in one area has a huge impact on all others at an organization of this size, which is thrilling and deserves the respect of our attention and finesse,” Schoenauer said.
George Sawabini
Vice President of Pricing, DMI
At DMI, George Sawabini is particularly proud of his team for having so quickly integrated with and supported all the new business unit personnel who joined the company.
“They have become a trusted resource that can be relied upon to strategize, solution and guide opportunities to completion,” he said. “As a result of the collaboration and trust, opportunities have been won, customers are pleased, and long-lasting relationships built.”
Why Watch
In 2023, DMI is heavily focused on leveraging the platforms, knowledge and skills it has grown and secured through its recent acquisitions.
“With the realization of these synergies across the organization, we’ll continue to drive opportunity and growth,” Sawabini said.
In addition, Sawabini and his team will pivot both commercial and government practices and solutions to demonstrate to customers the potential for innovation and efficiencies, while bringing value at a competitive price. DMI is in a great position to capture market share in the coming years.
“I’ve worked with many pricing executives, but George is unique in his ability to bring strategic thought leadership to every opportunity,” said Michael Altshuler, DMI chief financial officer. “He is not just a pricing exec, but a trusted partner to the business as we solution new opportunities and grow DMI.”
Jackie Chewning
Executive Director of Proposal Pricing, Axient
Jackie Chewning was instrumental in integrating the pricing functions for all four companies that merged into Axient. “[This] was my most recent, great achievement,” she said.
A comprehensive analysis and best-of-breed integration of the corporate policies and procedures relative to growth and business development facilitated the development of scalable, consistent, accurate and complete pricing submissions, including standard pricing templates.
While Chewning and her team accomplished a significant amount in a short period of time, it was imperative to the company’s continued growth and scalability.
“Jackie Chewning is a strategic thinker and a calm, efficient leader,” said Dan Deans, Axient chief growth officer, who has worked with Chewning for 14 years. “Under her leadership and dedication, she and her team have taken our pricing processes to the next level of efficiency and optimization. There is no one else I trust more to deliver the winning price in the heat of the proposal battle.”
Why Watch
In 2023, Chewning and her team aim to support corporate growth by providing pricing strategy and excelling in price-to-win efforts. They aim to add value to proposals by being actively involved in the entire process, ensuring consistent pricing with the technical approach.
Additionally, they will continue to refine standard practices and tools to offer optimal solutions across customer-focused teams at Axient.
“Pricing is not a mushroom to be left in the dark and isolated from the technical and management approaches,” Chewning said. “The best results occur when pricing is fully integrated into the business development process, and the entire proposal team stands together in the sunlight.”
Patrick Gardill
Vice President of Strategic Operations, CGI Federal
Patrick Gardill’s experience spans more than 10 years with CGI Federal, and his role enables him to coordinate the integration of several strategic pricing organizations.
Gardill’s career, which includes experience as a software developer, network manager, contracts manager, and business development executive at government contracting firms, allows him to understand all aspects of opportunities and solutions, essential for pricing strategy.
“Coordinating these organizations and getting them to work as one cohesive unit allows us to be more aligned and get an early start on opportunities,” Gardill said.
CGI’s investment in organizational integrations allows Gardill and his team to understand who the competition is on opportunities, how competitors are coming to market, what their financial models are, what the customer needs are and how to best respond to those customer needs.
As a team leader, Gardill manifests entrepreneurial spirit and encourages transparency and equal opportunity for everyone to have a say.
“It is very heartening to come to work every day and be able to collaborate with a great, diverse team that isn’t afraid to say things, act out and take chances,” he said. “Through the organizations’ integration, CGI members can work more closely together and have fun while doing it.”
Why Watch
In 2023, Gardill will focus on integrating several CGI organizations related to competitive intelligence, pricing, and estimation. He and his team will work on providing valuable financial and competitive information to stay competitive and fulfill CGI’s goal of being a company stakeholders can be proud of.
Abhneer Vashishth
Strategic Pricing Executive, Salesforce
Abhneer Vashishth’s biggest career achievements have been positioning companies he has worked for to win deals in the commercial and public sector space.
“I have been successful in assisting companies I have worked for on large procurement ($1 billion-plus) and have achieved over 60%-win rate based on effective pricing strategies,” he said.
Why Watch
In 2022, Vashishth led a huge team and managed deals for billion-dollar businesses for Verizon and now Salesforce. He leads a team of professionals supporting the pricing and strategy function, and his mission is to provide value to internal and external customers and drive profitable and quality business decisions.
Looking ahead, his team is heavily focused on pricing deals and leading price-to-win to ensure cost competitiveness and competitive positioning.
“Successful pricing is not about charging the highest price; it’s about understanding the value of what you provide and communicating that value to your customers,” Vashishth said.
Charlene Bargiel
Vice President of Corporate Pricing & Estimating, Booz Allen Hamilton
Charlene Bargiel, with over 30 years of experience in government contracts, leads Booz Allen’s pricing and cost estimation efforts, focusing on developing effective strategies for proposal and performance success.
Her work aligns pricing capabilities to the complexity and VoLT (Velocity, Leadership, Technology) growth strategy of the firm, focused on developing and expanding next-generation technology and solutions for clients. She leads a team of pricing professionals and advocates for the advancement of the pricing profession.
Since joining the firm, Bargiel has been instrumental in transforming the firm’s pricing organization and driving new technology and innovative capabilities within her function to keep pace with the environment. She recently launched a collaborative cloud-based pricing solution that scales to meet the needs of the business. Bargiel is particularly proud of her team, its consultative approach and quality delivery.
“In addition to Charlene’s depth of expertise in government acquisition and compliance, she has brought a fresh perspective to transformation and evolving our pricing and estimating capabilities aligned to our VoLT strategy,” said Linda Asher, senior vice president and head of contracts, procurement and pricing at Booz Allen.
Why Watch
“Looking ahead to 2023, I am very excited about the Booz Allen VoLT strategy, which is focused on building greater velocity, leadership and technology for the firm,” Bargiel said. “As the firm continues to expand into advanced solutions and capabilities, we will be focused on strategy, data analytics and proposal excellence. Our pricing team is committed to making VoLT a success and is ready for the challenge.”
Fritz Beuker
Pricing Manager of Public Sector, Maxar Technologies
At Maxar Technologies, Fritz Beuker’s biggest recent achievement was the consolidation of pricing systems and procedures from the multiple companies that were the origin of Maxar’s business entity for its Earth Intelligence unit focused on government customers.
“Fritz is a tremendous asset in supporting our strategic pursuits within Maxar’s Government Services line of business,” said Chad Ware, senior director of contracts management at Maxar Technologies.
Why Watch
In addition to providing critical support to the company’s strategic pursuits, Beuker and his team’s focus for 2023 will continue to be the enhancement of pricing systems to meet Maxar’s expanding operations.
“The role of pricing has never ceased to intrigue me,” Beuker said. “It’s a great job!”
John Peacock
Senior Vice President of Strategic Pricing, ASRC Federal
In his nine years at ASRC Federal, John Peacock has seen the company exceed financial goals every year. In his role, he makes sure his team is in sync with existing and new business opportunities to better position the company for continued success.
Peacock places a strong emphasis on relationship building across the organization. His oversight has led to best-in-class win rates. He also supports involvement in initiatives across the organization including leading both a compensation system implementation and re-engineering the Competitive Intelligence and Price-To-Win practice.
Peacock prioritizes leadership and has maintained a 100% employee retention rate in the pricing team for the last five years. He supports his colleagues and was a sponsor for the company’s veteran employee resource group in 2022.
“Our organization values the crucial business insights John provides through his extensive market knowledge and understanding of industry trends,” said Jon Taglieri, chief financial officer of ASRC Federal. “John also understands the priority we place on people. He thinks holistically when he hires someone, and places emphasis on developing members of his team through advancement of their skills and careers.”
Why Watch
For 2023, Peacock’s team is focused on driving continuous improvement for clients to ensure they have every advantage in advancing their respective missions. He encourages his teammates to assess and evaluate the best pricing strategy at each step in the process ⏤ from initial customer conversations to gathering data and requirements to the final proposal.
“As we move forward in the new year, we will keep in mind that collaboration, interactions and a sense of responsibility across all team members are the foundation of a successful business,” Peacock said.
Jon Yobs
Vice President for Pricing, SAIC
Drawing on his long-term experience in government contracting, Jon Yobs is focused on providing innovative and transformative approaches for delivering sustainable and profitable pricing strategies in the company’s diverse core business and across defined growth and technology accelerant arenas: enterprise IT, secure cloud and systems integration and delivery. The acquisition challenges in these and other growth areas require a team of diversely talented pricing specialists.
“As trusted advisors to the senior decision-makers in the company, we must have a deep understanding of the acquisition landscape in order to submit winning, profitable proposals,” he said. “As pricing professionals, we must align as partners with our business leaders to ensure we collectively achieve successful outcomes. That objective should guide everything we do.”
Why Watch
This year, Yobs and his team are working on building what he calls a “culture of strategy” to unlock untapped potential throughout his department and drive positive outcomes.
“In college science classes, you would have both a lecture and a lab,” he said. “These are inter-dependent experiences used to enrich the student and solidify the learning concepts. Here, we’re going to take a similar approach. You can’t teach pricing strategy and financial acumen on a Zoom call using a PowerPoint approach alone.”
In 2023, he’s excited to challenge his team in both “strategy labs” and real-world environments where they can experience the pricing journey by looking at the interdependencies of financial engineering pre- and post-award, including the establishment of partnerships with all areas of the company.
“Jon and his team must balance the strategic as well as tactical aspects of bidding in this highly competitive environment,” said SAIC Sandy Hinzman, senior vice president of business enablement. “We are focused on increasing the expertise of our pricing team and affording opportunities for them to grow and learn across multiple market areas.”
Robin Menefee
Pricing Director, AMERICAN SYSTEMS
A pricing and contracts professional with over 30 years of experience, Robin Menefee’s biggest recent achievement was joining AMERICAN SYSTEMS as an employee-owner and taking over from a long-time and successful pricing director who retired.
She selected AMERICAN SYSTEMS from multiple offers for several reasons ⏤ primarily, the company culture fostered from 100% employee-ownership and its focus on quality and collaboration. Menefee immediately felt a part of the company and was impressed with its talent and offerings.
“In her relatively short time with AMERICAN SYSTEMS, Robin has embraced our culture and the principles of our pricing process, while at the same time bringing new perspectives and fresh ideas to bear,” said Peter Whitfield, AMERICAN SYSTEMS chief financial officer. “I look forward to her leadership as we grow our pricing prowess.”
Why Watch
In 2023, Menefee is focusing on building upon the department’s success and maturing the cost-estimating system, capabilities and processes to support the pricing efforts for continued growth.
Through knowledge sharing, teamwork, mentoring and procedures, Menefee and her team will elevate the team’s total skill level, expand price-to-win capabilities, and increase capacity as trusted partners. Pricing is an integral part of the business and ensuring everyone understands their part in the pricing process is essential.
“It’s exciting to be a part of AMERICAN SYSTEMS’ warm culture of engagement and a record-breaking contract award year in 2022,” Menefee said. “There is an energy and synergy that keeps us focused on the customers’ needs. We know what’s at stake.”
Scott Widlake
Corporate Pricing Director, Leidos
As corporate pricing director, Scott Widlake built a team of pricing professionals who help Leidos win smart business every day.
“Every day, I’m thankful for the tireless efforts of our Pricing Team,” he said. “Their focus on supporting the estimating process, developing detailed estimates, and authoring cost proposals results in winning bids. This helps Leidos continue to grow. I’m humbled by their dedication, and their ability to thrive in a fast-paced environment.”
It’s through their efforts, attention to detail and ability to get the job done that Leidos submits thousands of compelling and compliant proposals annually, Widlake said.
“We’ve enjoyed remarkable stability within our financial team for many years,” he said. “This provides our team with the experience and necessary skills to add a great deal of value to capture efforts.”
Why Watch
In 2023, Widlake and his team are focused on continuing to drive innovation into the services they provide to internal and external customers. They plan to build on the initial successes they have automating some processes through the standardization of methodologies across multiple environments.
This provides Leidos the flexibility to effectively respond to the unique requirements of customers. It’s important to remain agile and innovative as they continue to enhance processes to address the complexities associated with the opportunities Leidos pursues as the company continues to grow.
“For Leidos, it’s not possible to win and grow and have the success we’ve had without the exceptional work of our pricing team,” said Chris Cage, Leidos chief financial officer. “As the leader of that talented and dedicated organization, Scott is the key reason it all gets done, and gets done exceptionally well. For Scott, it’s always about the team first, and that is what makes him a great leader.”
Mike Harper
Senior Pricing Principal, Jacobs
Among Mike Harper’s biggest recent achievements was retaining and motivating a streamlined pricing team to balance support for the ever-evolving pipeline of opportunities amid dynamic changes in the government acquisition process, as well as effective organizational changes within Jacobs.
Positioning the pricing team as instrumental strategic partners supporting business development, finance and operational connections has been the key to rewarding functional success.
“Jacobs is poised for an exciting future, and I am thrilled to be a part of the journey,” Harper said. “Borrowing a quote from a colleague, ‘I’m proud to be part of an epic team,’ I’m reminded of the team sport aspect of our business development process which includes highly effective proposal teams designed to maximize our win potential from proposal inception to final delivery. Like any successful team, the collaboration and partnership, as well as the full support of leadership, is critical to continued success.”
Why Watch
In 2023, Harper and his team are heavily focused on supporting the evolving Divergent Solutions entity within Jacobs. Divergent Solutions is chartered with delivering creative, innovative, next-generation cloud, cyber, data and digital solutions across the company to enable customers and partners globally.
With significant growth goals and atypical opportunities designed to accelerate global connectivity and operational efficiency through speed and agility, the pricing team will need to be forward-thinking and preemptive to sustain the exceptional support entrusted to it.
“Mike has proven himself to be a bold, innovative and empathetic leader, consistently highlighting the necessary attributes needed in this transformative and innovative shift that Jacobs is making within the government space,” said Nicole Purnell-Davis, Jacobs vice president of finance, cyber and intelligence. “It has been exciting to see how Mike has navigated and led his team to be agile during this formative shift.”
Dona Evans
Vice President of Pricing, LMI
When starting at LMI in 2017, Dona Evans said her goal was to create a strategic pricing department with a well-defined pricing process. She started as a one-person pricing department that grew into a highly valued team of employees who have supported proposals submitted in the billions over the last year.
“I define my success, and therefore my biggest achievement, by the growth and success of the team around me and the contributions to LMI,” she said.
In the spirit of continuous improvement and commitment to customer service, she last year implemented a department evaluation process that involved a random sampling of leaders throughout LMI to assess the level of support and performance of the pricing department. The overwhelming consensus was that the pricing department provides timely and professional responses while also regarded as a strategic partner throughout the organization.
“During her time at LMI, Dona has consistently proven herself to be an inspirational leader,” said Tamara Jack, LMI’s chief financial officer and corporate secretary and treasurer. “She not only motivates her team, but she also encourages the wider organization to deliver incredible and impactful results. Due to Dona’s ability to effectively execute on our organizational strategy, we are able to successfully continue upon our growth trajectory.”
Why Watch
The labor market continues to evolve and recent emphasis on the employee experience has impacted pricing. Compounded by business conditions, inflation and a looming recession make the balance of strategic pricing versus execution an even bigger challenge.
In 2023, Evans and her team are focused on being proactive and introducing innovation into pricing strategy. They are working to bridge the gap with more efficient pricing models that consider external market expectations and internal margin pressures.
“This applies to my personal and professional life ⏤ to stay relevant, you have to be able to adapt to change,” she said. “As we’ve seen with the pandemic, life can change pretty quickly, and how you handle that change can have an impact on your future success. Embrace the change!”
C.W. Etzler
Senior Vice President of Strategic Pricing, ManTech
According to C.W. Etzler, 2022 was a banner year for ManTech, building on its capabilities for national security. The company’s biggest recent achievements have been enacting additional capabilities the corporation has invested in and offering them to customers per the market and the acquisition strategies for continued growth.
“Alignment with the current market environments can be challenging both in competition and customer budgets,” Etzler said. “That said, we did really great work for our customers in all sectors including the Intelligence Community, where ManTech continues to expand our business.”
Why Watch
In 2023, Etzler and his team are heavily focused on winning new business, integrating new capabilities into ManTech’s solutions, understanding the market environments/trends and expanding the company’s performance in national security.
“During my 23-year career at ManTech I’ve seen a lot of success and change,” he said. “We’ve been able to influence, adjust and help expand the company’s objectives in support of National Security. Being a part of this company’s leadership, strategy, history and future has been a great honor.”
Fred Avila
Vice President of Pricing Solutions, HII Mission Technologies
Fred Avila recently led the integration of the pricing teams from HII’s Mission Technologies division and Alion Science and Technology, which HII acquired in 2021. Integrating disparate policies, procedures and systems while overseeing a team responsible for over $10 billion of proposals made for a very busy, yet highly productive year.
In fact, Avila said the volume of proposals they had to price was intense, and at times, overwhelming. Throughout the year, much change happened organizationally and culturally, yet the standard of delivering compelling and compliant priced proposals never wavered.
“Simplify the complicated,” Avila said. “In my role of briefing senior executives at HII on challenging and/or complex opportunities, it’s important that I make their job easier by simplifying the complicated when it comes to proposal pricing. I aim to present information in a consumable fashion so decisions and buy-in are easier.”
Why Watch
In 2023, Avila and his team are heavily focused on core business function in pricing and price strategy, which is to deliver differentiated priced proposals. Moving on from the integration efforts, Avila has a deep desire to continue to grow and develop the talent of HII Mission Technologies’ world-class pricing team.
HII’s Mission Technologies division is laser-focused on building the nation’s leading partner for advanced mission technology solutions,” said Rich Fisne, Mission Technologies’ senior vice president of contracts, pricing and procurement.
“Our success is dependent on a pricing team that lays the foundation for a ‘best-in-class’ customer experience by delivering compelling and compliant price proposals,” he said. “Fred’s leadership throughout our integration was critical to our financial performance in 2022 and, more importantly, sets us up for continued success well into the future.”
Stephen Kehoe
Vice President of Pricing, SMX
Stephen Kehoe’s biggest achievement has been harnessing over 25 years of pricing experience with a variety of companies, to develop pricing techniques and a thorough understanding of how to create winning proposals.
Through these techniques, Kehoe has helped government companies from small to large understand industry-leading pricing strategies and how to achieve significant cost reductions. Kehoe understands that pricing and compliance is a critical piece of the proposal process.
In his role at SMX as vice president of pricing, Kehoe leads his team to ensure deadlines and pricing parameters are clearly identified and defined.
The role of the pricing department has completely evolved over the past two decades throughout the GovCon industry, said SMX Chief Financial Officer Jeremy Koczan.
“Originally relegated to the ‘back office’ with a focus on compliance, pricing teams have evolved to become a critical component of a company’s successful bid/capture/proposal process,” he said. “We rely heavily on the pricing team to bring strategic insights, creative solutions, and technical financial expertise to each bid, and they actively engage with the Growth Office throughout the lifecycle of the capture process.”
One of Kehoe’s most notable recent achievements was being an integral part of the SMX team that successfully defended and won the competitive recompete award of the estimated $2.3 billion task order titled AFRICOM Reconnaissance Intelligence Exploitation Services. This win is a crucial contract for SMX and an opportunity to continue to support the critical missions USAFRICOM executes. The analysis tools and procedures developed through this proposal will serve as a foundation for pricing and contracts in the future.
“Steve and the team of analysts under his purview are an integral part of shaping capture strategy and improving our ability to win across various and complex addressable markets, and their influence has helped SMX successfully capture billions of dollars of awards over the past few years,” Koczan said. “We couldn’t have done it without them.”
Why Watch
In 2023, Kehoe and his team are heavily focused on partnering with the chief growth office to enhance and refine the proposal process as well as ensuring a timely and compliant proposal submission. Kehoe will focus on leading his team with an emphasis on continual development and enhancement of pricing models and tools to drive processes for the proposal teams and clients.
These enhancements will provide a clear and concise understanding of pricing and the proposed solution. The updated process will also require implementation of new policies and procedures, to ensure adherence to government regulations and internal policies. This will serve as a key part of the SMX operations, given the heavily regulated and complex environments in which supported clients reside.
“At SMX, we believe the enhancements we create will provide our clients with a faster and more effective analysis of cost realism,” Kehoe said. “Achieving these improvements while working alongside a company known for their knowledge and understanding of government regulations.”
