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 CFOs to Watch in 2025: SPA’s Dan Muse
Dan Muse CFO, SPA In 2025, SPA acquired four companies, expanding its capabilities across all domains. The company also purchased its headquarters building in Alexandria and announced a major investment to expand the facility and create new jobs in partnership with the governor of Virginia. In addition, Dan Muse’s team, working with HR, implemented a
Top CFOs to Watch in 2025: Amentum’s Travis Johnson
Travis Johnson CFO, Amentum Travis Johnson’s biggest recent achievement was celebrating Amentum’s first anniversary as a newly merged public company, a major milestone after a truly transformational year. The merger’s goal of creating a resilient global leader in advanced engineering and technology solutions has proven successful, reflected in strong operational and financial performance. The company
Top CFOs to Watch in 2025: SES’ Lisa Pataki
Lisa Pataki CFO, SES Lisa Pataki’s biggest achievement was leading the financial integration of SES and Intelsat following the close of the $3.1 billion acquisition in July. The merger united two global leaders in satellite connectivity and space solutions, with a combined government business exceeding $1 billion. It required relentless focus on operational alignment, realizing
Top CFOs to Watch in 2025: IEM’s John Schlegel
John Schlegel CFO, IEM John Schlegel’s biggest recent achievement has been leading a transformational growth phase at IEM built on innovation, disciplined investment and measurable results. The company launched a new $60 million sector, built a $1 billion pipeline and invested over $1 million in AI and software to strengthen its competitive edge. By modernizing
Top CFOs to Watch in 2025: RELI Group’s Vik Bansal
Vik Bansal Chief of Business Operations and Investments (including functions of CFO), RELI Group Vik Bansal built his career helping small and midsize companies think and operate like large enterprises. He has worked with multiple organizations, taking several from early-stage growth to over $100 million in revenue. As a federal CFO, he helped lead one
Top CFOs to Watch in 2025: BryceTech’s Mark Herzing
Mark Herzing CFO, BryceTech BryceTech’s biggest recent achievement was implementing a long-term strategy to scale in the aerospace, biosecurity and defense markets through focused reinvestment in growth-related functions, said Mark Herzing. That strategy was tested during periods of contract uncertainty, shifts in administration priorities and reprioritization of federal programs that affected long-standing partnerships, requiring proactive
Top CFOs to Watch in 2025: Freedom Technology Solutions Group’s Grady Lincalis
Grady Lincalis CFO, Freedom Technology Solutions Group Grady Lincalis’ biggest recent achievement was improving the transparency, accuracy and timeliness of financial reporting to stakeholders across the business. This strengthened trust among the board, executive leadership and management teams by ensuring decisions are grounded in consistent, reliable data. As a result, Freedom accelerated strategic decision-making and
Top CFOs to Watch in 2025: Core4ce’s Bryant Thrift
Bryant Thrift CFO, Core4ce Bryant Thrift has been deeply involved in evaluating key components of Core4ce’s business to support organic growth, with a strong emphasis on leveraging emerging technologies that unlock new, innovative ways to serve customers. At the same time, he’s focused on identifying M&A opportunities that align culturally and strategically with the company’s
Top CFOs to Watch in 2025: Capgemini Government Solutions’ Jim LaMantia
Jim LaMantia CFO, Capgemini Government Solutions Over the past year, Capgemini Government Solutions continued to build a strong infrastructure to support commercial innovation for the federal mission, aligning the company’s financial and operational strategy to build momentum. This foundation enables Capgemini Government Solutions to accelerate the adoption of its commercial technologies and drive impact for
Top CFOs to Watch in 2025: ITC Federal’s Josh Montgomery
Josh Montgomery CFO, ITC Federal Since joining ITC Federal, Josh Montgomery has focused on building and scaling the business operations of the company to support growth. “In just over a year Josh has completely transformed the business operations of ITC,” said Greg Fitzgerald, CEO of ITC Federal. “He’s improved our systems, processes, and people to
Top CFOs to Watch in 2025: CNA’s Christine Peterson
Christine Peterson EVP, CFO & Treasurer, CNA CNA is in the midst of an enterprisewide modernization, transforming its financial, operational and technological infrastructure to strengthen agility and long-term sustainability. Working alongside the CIO organization, these initiatives already increased efficiency, transparency and financial accuracy across the organization, said Christine Peterson. As always, CNA is focused on
Top CFOs to Watch in 2025: RealmOne’s Pearce Lantzy
Pearce Lantzy CFO, RealmOne When Pearce Lantzy joined RealmOne, the company’s financial operations were spread across five separate systems, creating silos, inefficiencies and inconsistent reporting. He led the design and integration of a new unified financial system and data lake that connected all five entities within eight months. The result was streamlined processes, measurable cost
Top CFOs to Watch in 2025: Redhorse Corp.’s Jill McFarlane
Jill McFarlane CFO, Redhorse Corp. Jill McFarlane’s biggest recent achievement was successfully integrating a strategic acquisition while simultaneously executing a full finance modernization, from indirect rate alignment to transitioning Redhorse to a calendarized month-end close and semi-monthly payroll, with zero disruption to contracts, compliance, or employee trust. She also restructured the company’s insurance and advisory
Top CFOs to Watch in 2025: Two Six Technologies’ Bob Kwaja
Bob Kwaja CFO, Two Six Technologies Bob Kwaja’s biggest recent achievement was leading Two Six through another year of exceptional financial performance while expanding the company’s product portfolio and advancing its strategic focus on scalable technologies. Through smart capital deployment, he fueled innovation that resulted in 15 new internally funded product launches in 2025. This
Top CFOs to Watch in 2025: Harmonia Holdings Group’s Darla Moon
Darla Moon CFO, Harmonia Holdings Group Darla Moon believes her biggest achievement is still ahead — and it will happen at Harmonia. The company is poised for smart growth and the finance and pricing team is fueled by core values of excellence, curiosity, collaboration and integrity to redefine what “best in class” looks like. “Darla’s
Top CFOs to Watch in 2025: Agile Defense’s Bill Luebke
Bill Luebke CFO, Agile Defense Bill Luebke’s biggest recent achievement was buiding Agile Defense through a pivotal period of transformation following the IntelliBridge acquisition. The integration doubled the size of the company. Over the past 10 months, Luebke and his team unified the company’s financial systems and strategies to create a stronger, more agile foundation
Top CFOs to Watch in 2025: QinetiQ US’ Donna M. Wilson
Donna M. Wilson CFO, QinetiQ US Donna M. Wilson joined QinetiQ in August to architect the financial infrastructure underpinning the company’s next phase of strategic growth. She brings over 30 years of experience in federal contracting and international markets to the role. Wilson is leading the modernization of QinetiQ’s financial operations through automation and digitization,
Top CFOs to Watch in 2025: Thomson Reuters Special Services’ Chuck Hicks
Chuck Hicks CFO, Thomson Reuters Special Services This year, Chuck Hicks brought his financial and business acumen directly into Thomson Reuters Special Services’ go-to-market strategy, helping shape how the company positions and prices its products — even during a challenging fiscal year. The company successfully developed and implemented an indirect rate structure fully compliant with
Top CFOs to Watch in 2025: Siemens Government Technologies’ Liz Larson
Liz Larson CFO, Siemens Government Technologies Liz Larson’s team is embracing the opportunity to accelerate its business strategy, anchored in standardizing the data it relies on for critical financial planning across the portfolio. Financial data transparency — something Larson is passionate about — will be key to SGT’s future success. “Since joining our team less
Top CFOs to Watch in 2025
Today’s mission-driven firms serving federal agencies may differ in size and solutions, but they share one constant: strong financial leadership grounded in mission and customer needs. The most successful companies grow through mergers and acquisitions, strategic investments, efficient operations and seamless integrations, but none of that happens without steady financial direction. For WashingtonExec’s Top Chief
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