Top Contracts Execs to Watch in 2026: SMX’s Laurell Aiton
Laurell Aiton Chief Administrative Officer, SMX Laurell Aiton recently led the implementation of the National Contract Management Association Contract Management Standard. This initiative has been instrumental in upskilling SMX’s contracts workforce, strengthening professional development, and continuing the company’s evolution from a transactional contracts function to a more strategic business partner. As a result, Aiton’s team
The Agentic Paradox: Reconciling Zero Trust with Autonomous AI in High-Compliance Federal Missions
Robert Groat is executive vice president of strategy and technology at SMX. The Inflection Point Federal AI adoption has reached an inflection point, shifting from generative “advisors” to agentic “actors.” Until now, AI acted as a sophisticated analyst in secure enclaves, synthesizing intelligence while humans executed the mission. But Agentic AI crosses a new threshold
SMX’s Dawn Sedgley Brings ‘Business Rigor’ to Mission-Driven Transformation
As senior vice president of solutions and innovations in the ESS Business Unit at SMX, Dawn Sedgley brings nearly three decades of guiding large-scale ERP transformations and, more recently, helping federal agencies navigate the promise and pressure of AI. From co-founding Alta Via Consulting and leading it through two decades of federal modernization work to
Top Industry Execs to Watch in 2026: SMX’s Scott Barr
Scott Barr Chief Operating Officer, SMX Scott Barr’s biggest achievement has been advancing an outcomes-based, fixed-price approach to government IT that delivers measurable mission results. By building and retaining high-performing teams and integrating leading-edge technology partners, he has strengthened client trust and driven consistent recompete and delivery success. That managed-services model, grounded in accountability and
Top CFOs to Watch in 2025: SMX’s Jeremy Koczan
Jeremy Koczan CFO, SMX In February 2025, SMX completed its seventh acquisition — and second largest to date — with the addition of cBEYONData. As part of the transaction, SMX also secured a new credit facility and transitioned to publicly rated debt through a large-scale syndicated offering in partnership with PE sponsor OSP and Goldman
Top HR Execs to Watch in 2025: SMX’s Sylvia Kilpatrick
Sylvia Kilpatrick Vice President of Human Resources, SMX Sylvia Kilpatrick’s biggest recent achievement will be successfully leading the harmonization of benefits, policies and HR systems across SMX, including cBEYONData, which was acquired by SMX earlier this year. SMX is purpose-built to disrupt the traditional consulting service delivery model that dominates government contracting. Since 2020, its
Top Contracts Execs to Watch in 2025: SMX’s Laurell Aiton
Laurell Aiton Chief Administrative Officer, SMX Laurell Aiton’s biggest recent achievement was leading her team’s response to GSA FSA’s review of federal spending. Building on SMX’s mantra of “sell outcomes, not hours,” they pushed for a shift to a firm fixed price delivery model that cut cost and risk while improving quality, scalability, security, reliability
Michael Lehr Named SVP of Space & Intel at SMX
SMX has appointed Michael Lehr as senior vice president of space and intel, bringing over 30 years of experience leading organizational and P&L growth in national security, aerospace and intelligence sectors. Before joining SMX, Lehr was senior director of space systems and advanced programs at General Atomics, where he supported satellite programs for the U.S.
Top Chief Technology Officers to Watch in 2025: SMX’s Anthony Vultaggio
Anthony Vultaggio CTO, SMX Anthony Vultaggio led the development of the SMX Elevate Intelligent Automation Platform, now central to how the company delivers secure, scalable tech in highly regulated environments. The multi-tenant platform has powered thousands of cloud migrations and helped achieve hundreds of ATOs under FedRAMP and DOD frameworks — making compliance a driver
SMX Buys cBEYONData
SMX has acquired cBEYONData, a provider of implementation, design and managed services. cBEYONData also offers proprietary budget management and financial analytics solutions, giving Defense Department and federal civilian customers real-time data visibility and transparency. “cBEYONData brings valuable scale and technical expertise to our strategic growth plan to expand our work supporting the business of government,”
Top HR Execs to Watch in 2024: SMX’s Sylvia Kilpatrick
Sylvia Kilpatrick Vice President of Human Resources, SMX Sylvia Kilpatrick’s biggest recent achievement will be successfully leading the harmonization of benefits, policies and HR systems across all of SMX, to include Outside Analytics and Creoal Consulting which were acquired by SMX in late 2023. “Sylvia is a key member of our Senior Leadership Team and
Top CFOs to Watch in 2024: SMX’s Jeremy Koczan
Jeremy Koczan CFO, SMX SMX’s Jeremy Koczan has words to live by: “Be inquisitive, humble, approachable, collaborative and responsive and most importantly, always meet your commitments.” Koczan’s most recent achievement was helping lead internal and external financial advisory teams through the necessary and highly complex due diligence processes to successfully complete two acquisitions — Creoal
Top Contracts Execs to Watch in 2024: SMX’s Laurell Aiton
Laurell Aiton Chief Administrative Officer, SMX Laurell Aiton led the contracting team to evolve into a core strategic partner within the business. Today, the department is an integral part of the organization by being present throughout the entire contract lifecycle, from initial capture of the contract through award and scope execution. Working closely with internal
Top Cloud Execs to Watch in 2024: SMX’s Sandeep Dorawala
Sandeep Dorawala President of Digital Solutions Group, SMX The SMX Digital Solutions Group Sandeep Dorawala leads pioneered solutions for pivotal missions across the public sector. Successfully serving clients at the federal and state levels and Fortune 500 commercial customers affirmed his team’s role as transformation leaders in cloud enablement, data analytics, systems modernization and software
Top Execs to Watch in 2024: SMX’s Peter LaMontagne
Peter LaMontagne CEO, SMX In 2023, led by Peter LaMontagne, SMX purchased two companies, Creoal Consulting and Outside Analytics. These acquisitions brought new clients from the public sector, commercial industries, state and local governments and space sector to SMX. They also enhanced SMX’s skills in digital transformation, data analytics and software engineering. “SMX is truly
Top Chief Technology Officers to Watch in 2024: SMX’s Anthony Vultaggio
Anthony Vultaggio CTO, SMX Under Anthony Vultaggio’s leadership, SMX made significant strides in integrating AI to revolutionize business processes. This year, he led an initiative using AI to curate development intellectual property, and to generate custom solutions and content rapidly for both internal and external clients. This strategic move has not only enabled SMX to
WATCH: SMX CEO Peter LaMontagne on Acquiring Creoal Consulting, Outside Analytics
WashingtonExec’s Amanda Ziadeh sits down with SMX CEO Peter LaMontagne to discuss the company’s recent acquisitions of Creoal Consulting and Outside Analytics. LaMontagne explains the significance of these acquisitions for SMX, provides insights into the integration process and highlights the new capabilities, talent and market opportunities they offer to the company.
SMX’s Laurell Aiton Receives WashingtonExec’s Longevity Award
WashingtonExec has awarded SMX Chief Administrative Officer Laurell Aiton with the Longevity Award, which recognizes executives who made outstanding contributions to their companies throughout the years. Aiton has been with SMX for just over 20 years. As CAO, she works with the executive leadership team to develop strategies that support SMX’s mission of accelerating clients’
Top HR Execs to Watch in 2023: SMX’s Sylvia Kilpatrick
Sylvia Kilpatrick Vice President of Human Resources, SMX Sylvia Kilpatrick’s biggest achievement with her team this year was the creation and launch of a job architecture and career pathing program. Through the organic and inorganic growth the company experienced in recent years, this initiative was identified as a top priority to better support the development
Top CFOs to Watch in 2023: SMX’s Jeremy Koczan
Jeremy Koczan CFO, SMX Through the efforts of Jeremy Koczan and his team, SMX has a new suite of powerful analytical tools to help gain tremendous efficiencies as the company continues to scale and provide a strong foundation for future platform expansion and acquisition integrations. Koczan spearheaded a 2-year project, leading a team of over
Top MarCom Execs to Watch in 2023: SMX’s Amanda Thornhill Morrison
Amanda Thornhill Morrison Chief Marketing Officer, SMX Upon joining SMX in 2021, Amanda Thornhill Morrison immediately immersed herself in a major rebranding initiative aimed at unifying four previously separate companies. In 2019, SMX’s private equity investor, OceanSound Partners, fused four acquired companies to form the current SMX. Morrison actively helped shape the rebranding, introducing a
Top AI Execs to Watch in 2023: SMX’s Anthony Vultaggio
Anthony Vultaggio Chief Technology Officer, SMX Instrumental to SMX’s launch into the cloud services market in 2009, Anthony Vultaggio brings over 25 years of experience in designing, developing and delivering market-leading technical products and services to the company. Since pioneering the way into cloud for the government, Vultaggio has been an advocate for innovation, leading
Daniel Dant Says SMX’s Space Market Strengths Lies within Command and Control
At SMX, Daniel “Sphinx” Dant is looking to the stars. “We are seeing more and more traditional terrestrial capabilities move to space, because of the benefits that you get in that operating environment: the ability to be unmolested when you are flying around the Earth, to either collect intelligence, to communicate, to have precision navigation
Top 35 Execs to Watch in 2023: SMX’s Peter LaMontagne
Peter LaMontagne CEO, SMX An accomplished private equity executive, Peter LaMontagne has over 20 years of experience leading technology solutions companies that serve U.S. government and commercial markets. Under LaMontagne’s leadership, SMX successfully grew the business and advanced its strategy in 2022, honing its focus on providing digital solutions for mission-oriented clients. The company grew
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