April 21-25 the SBA celebrated National Small Business Week with a series of events capped by a trip to the White House. Award winners from each state joined SBA sponsors, staff, and supporters along with the DC Area business community for this spectacular week of events celebrating small business.

Of the many awards presented during the week, Shawn Boyer of Glen Allen, Virginia’s SnagAJob.com walked away with the top award of Small Business Person of the Year. Award winners were treated to the sites of DC including the White House event with President Bush as well as a reception in the Dirksen Senate Office Building where they were joined by a number of Senators who have shown strong support for the small business community.

The week also included forums at the Mandarin Oriental Hotel on the pressing small business topics of healthcare, energy, government procurement, and global business. Current and former government leaders such as Former Speaker Newt Gingrich, Secretary Michael Leavitt, and Ambassador Susan Schwab headlined the event along side Tyson’s very own Shiv Krishnan of Indus and Tien Wong of Opus8. (Pictured Above)

The events moved to New York on Thursday and concluded with the honorary closing bell of the NASDAQ. This event caps the tenure of SBA Administrator Steven Preston as he will soon join the Presidents Cabinet as Secretary of Housing and Urban Development.

Jack Hughes recently retired as CFO of Alion Science. Well, sort of. While Hughes officially stepped down from his position, he’s still supporting the company he has helped build up over the past five years. In the following Q&A, Hughes talks about what’s next on the horizon, and what other executives can learn from his career trajectory. Hint: Networking is key.

Recently we all learned that you retired as CFO of Alion Science. What are you doing now?

Jack Hughes: I didn’t actually retire from Alion; I’m too young to retire. And, I’m still supporting the company in an advisory role to help with the transition to the new acting CFO, and perform other tasks as assigned by the CEO. This interim role will continue until mid-August. I am hopeful that I can continue to contribute to Alion’s success during this transition period.

Alion has grown significantly since its formation in 2002. What do you want your legacy to be at Alion?

Jack Hughes: Yes, we enjoyed significant growth over the past 5 years. I think I’d like the employee-owners to be able to look back on my tenure there and believe that I contributed to the growth of the company, to its outstanding reputation in the Government Technology Solutions business, and to the company’s increased shareholder value.

What does it take to be a successful CFO in the government contracting space?

Jack Hughes: One part industry knowledge, one part leadership, and three parts being just north of crazy.

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I felt like the paparazzi with my trigger happy digital camera snapping photos of Hollywood as they gracefully posed on the red carpet.

Stars of MTV show, “The Hills,” Heidi Montag and Spencer Pratt

The Jonas Brothers                                Rosario Dawson

Rob Lowe and his wife, Sheryl

On Thursday, May 22nd, ExecutiveBiz will host a cocktail hour and book signing for CACI Chairman Jack London, who will be on hand to discuss and sign copies of “Our Good Name,” a book London co-wrote with members of the CACI team about the company’s effort to defend its honor against accusations surrounding employee conduct at Abu Ghraib.

The book offers unique perspective from a number of different fronts, not only a fact-based response to Abu Ghraib accusations, but also must-read insight on a crisis communications case study unlike any other. What was the decision making process in deciding if and how to fight back against the allegations, rather than let the media coverage determine a verdict in the court of public opinion?

Attendees will have the chance to meet and mingle with Dr. London (a former ExecutiveBiz “Been There Done That” speaker) - and others - at this special ExecutiveBiz event. Those interested in registering can do so here, and your admission will include a copy of the book. Event details below:

When: May 22, 2008 - 6:00 pm to 8:00 pm (PLEASE NOTE DATE CHANGE)

Where: Tower Club - Tysons Corner

ACG announced the following winners last night that included: (Capital Provider) Thomas Campbell of D.C. Capital Partners, (Investment Banker) Daniel Cornell of Stifel Nicolas; (Corporate Executive) Thomas Mutryn of CACI; (Emerging Growth Company, Under $100M) Morgan Franklin; (Emerging Growth Company, $100M- $500M) M.C. Dean; (Deal of the Year) Dimension International Acquired by Honeywell; and (Lifetime Achievement) Jack London

Bill Dean

Plenty of books have spawned from the Iraq war – authored by reporters on the ground, former State Department officials and, of course, legions of critics to name a few. The most recent publishing effort may be one of the most surprising, that is unless you know Dr. J. Phillip (Jack) London, chairman of CACI.

This past September London spoke at the ExecutiveBiz “Been There Done That” lunch event series. As he chronicled his professional and personal life and the challenges he faced, I was struck that he was willing to address head on the events at Abu Ghraib and subsequent allegations against CACI employees for their interrogation practices.

It would have been perfectly understandable for London to pass over the controversy, and it is doubtful any of the audience members would have brought it up during Q&A. But one of London’s most enduring marks on the CACI culture is a commitment to honor and integrity – traits carried with him from time serving in the U.S. Navy.

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For all its transformative potential, future adoption of Web 2.0 within the Federal government rests on the same business case requirements as any other product or service. And while enterprise wikis and secure video sharing applications are gaining converts in civilian, intelligence and defense organizations, decision makers in the upper echelons are still looking for strong cost and efficiency arguments to turn Web 2.0 applications from “nice to have” to “need to have.”

This point was made matter-of-factly by Tim Schmidt, CTO at the Department of Transportation, at last week’s Advanced Learning Institute Social Media for Government conference. Speaking April 16th at the Advanced Learning Institute’s Social Media for Government conference in Alexandria, Va., Schmidt hinted that a certain level of fear will always exist when it comes to high level decision makers embracing unfamiliar technologies. This was true in the early days of email and the Internet, and is once again playing out with Web 2.0.

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Over the last few years, GTSI — an enterprise solutions and services provider to the government — has been a company in transition, moving from its old role of being a traditional government reseller of IT products into a total solutions provider. Today, the company is well-positioned to go out and grow the services business. A big part of that growth can be credited to Joe Ragan, and his leadership as CFO. Ragan recently talked with us about the joys and challenges of his new role as CFO, how he’s help turn GTSI around, and what hot trends might very well shape public companies in the DC area and beyond.

How did you get to be CFO at GTSI?

Joe Ragan: I started in the Deloitte practice office in Washington, D.C., with Deloitte and Touche. I worked for several large local companies, but the largest local company was the AES Corporation. I had an opportunity to live and work abroad in Buenos Aries, Argentina, then came back to Northern Virginia. I also worked for other public companies as well as ventured capital-backed companies and, ultimately, today I am the CFO of GTSI in Chantilly.

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Now five years old, the Federal Information Security Management Act (FISMA) elicits varied reactions among Federal agency decision makers and the contractor community. While some rightly argue there is ample room for improvement in terms of how well the directive is protecting the government’s information assets, there is also no questioning it has led to tangible security improvements to date.

Beyond improving government-wide awareness and accountability, what many find extremely valuable is the fact FISMA has standardized the way information security is measured. It is this benchmarking function that some are looking to extend to Federal Green IT practices. Jill Aitoro of NextGov, the online spin-off of Government Executive Magazine, posted yesterday a summary of comments made by Raymond Cline, vice president of the infrastructure service line at IT contractor EDS, at a panel discussion at the Interagency Resources Management Conference in Cambridge, Md.

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Are you trying to learn the best way to partner with the large prime contractors? Well check out this year’s National Small Business Week. It’s an event hosted by the SBA focused exclusively on small business. Come hear Shiv Krishnan, President & CEO of INDUS Corporation, along with other experts talk about the “Secrets of Building Alliance Partnerships with Prime Contractors” and network with policy makers as well as successful small business executives on April 23^rd at the Mandarin Hotel in Washington DC.

The event will also offer sessions on energy, healthcare, international business, and more. More than 100 Small Businesses of the Year from each state will be honored, with the announcement of the National Small Business Person of the Year. Additional awards will be given for disaster recovery, federal procurement, lending, and entrepreneurial development.

Click Here to register and learn more about the event. There is no cost to attend the event.