Dennis Kelly, COO of A-T Solutions
Recently Dennis Kelly joined A-T Solutions as its chief operating officer. The offer was too good to pass up, he says. “The more I learned about A-T Solutions and the kind of work they do for DOD, Department of Homeland Security and Department of State — and the focus they have on defeating the weapons that terrorists use — the more I believed it’s perhaps the most important mission of our government,” says Kelly. In the following Q&A, Kelly talks about his passion for A-T Solutions, and many of the goals he sees for the company over the coming year to 18 months.
ExecutiveBiz: Why did you leave Tech Team to join A-T Solutions?
Dennis Kelly: There were really two main drivers. First and foremost, my introduction to A-T Solutions was through Joe Kampf at CoVant. A lot of what I learned in this business I learned from Joe and the team at CoVant. So when you get a call from those guys, and they say, “Hey, we’ve got this neat opportunity,” you really listen — and I did. Second, the more I learned about A-T Solutions and the kind of work they do for DOD, Department of Homeland Security and Department of State — and the focus they have on defeating the weapons that terrorists use — the more I believed it’s perhaps the most important mission of our government. Being a part of a team that is front and center on that war on terrorism is really important to me. I sum it up in the company’s mission — if you are doing government work, I don’t think that there is a more compelling role in the entire industry. That is what really attracted me to the company.
ExecutiveBiz: What will your role be in the company?
Dennis Kelly: Chief operating officer. I’ll be responsible for day to day operations for the delivery of our services to our customers and ensuring we meet their needs everyday. So, if I was attracted to A-T Solutions because of their compelling mission, then having the opportunity to be the chief operating officer in an environment where the rubber meets the road is kind of a two for one deal, as far as I’m concerned.
ExecutiveBiz: How involved is Joe Kampf in this business?
Dennis Kelly: Joe is the chairman of the board and he is the private equity investor behind A-T Solutions. His role is one of what you would expect a non-management chairman to be. He believes wholeheartedly that the day to day operations and business dealings of the company are within the purview of Ken Falke, our president and CEO, and the management team, of which I am part. I think Joe appreciated that relationship when he ran Anteon, where he was CEO. We had a great board at Anteon. The board had a fiduciary responsibility, so Joe will have a fiduciary responsibility, but there is also the strategic guidance and counsel that they’ll provide. So, I expect that Joe and the rest of the board will provide similar oversight and guidance to us at A-T Solutions.
ExecutiveBiz: What would you say are the top two or thre goals are for the next 12 to 18 months?
Dennis Kelly: One would be getting the proper elements of our infrastructure in place. The company has realized tremendous growth and we are projecting that to continue. When you are growing that fast you need scalable infrastructure that can grow with you. Right now, we are in the process of implementing a new accounting platform. That is probably the epitome, if you will, of infrastructure. There are other items ranging from human resource information system to an applicant tracking system for our recruiting. There is a people element too, as we are going to add to this team. For example, we are looking for somebody who can really drive our recruiting process. I think a second area would be making sure that we’ve got the processes in place so that business can continue to grow. What used to work in a small business, now that we are larger and will continue to grow, may not work. So we are taking a good hard look at the processes to make sure that they are the most efficient and the most responsive to the needs of our internal and external customers. Third, I would call managing what is going to be just some tremendous organic growth and being selective about the opportunities that we go after. There is a great demand out there for the services that we provide right now and we have to make sure that, with our resources and bandwidth, we are pursuing the most relevant opportunities for our skill sets and ones that we can really excel in. So those are a few items that I would put on that list.
ExecutiveBiz: What is the one thing that you learned from Joe Kampf before that will help you again in your new job?
Dennis Kelly: That’s a hard one because I have learned so much from Joe. If I had to pick one, I would say that it’s in the area of mergers and acquisitions. In that, I do believe that mergers and acquisitions are in our future, and what I learned from Joe is that integration is key. You can’t just have a plan to buy a company; you have to have a good plan to integrate that company into your existing business. If you can’t do that, you’re really not creating the value and synergy that you need to really propel the business. I learned that from Joe while I was at Anteon and I applied that while I was at Tech Team. It served me very well and I think it will serve me well here at A-T Solutions.
ExecutiveBiz: Is there anything you want to talk about that our readers might find of interest?
Dennis Kelly: I would want them to know the mission of the company — that we are very engaged in the training and support of the counter-IED mission in Iraq and Afghanistan and wherever that threat exists. Additionally, the support we provide our customers to conduct threat assessments and critical infrastructure protection is a core offering of AT Solutions. These are the key elements of our company’s core competencies. To support these core competencies, our technology-based solutions are designed to give our customers the tools they need to combat the terrorist threat. Additionally, we have a growing intelligence division that supports what we call “left of boom” intelligence gathering so that we can hopefully disrupt a terrorist network before an attack ever occurs. If you think of “boom” as being the event, “left of boom” is basically before the event ever happens. It’s trying to prevent an attack by having good intelligence about the devices, about the terrorists, and hopefully having our forces intervene before the event even happens. A good example of that is all of these weapons caches we are finding in Iraq right now. Having the intelligence and the forensics from previous incidents and using that information to track down the bad guys is really important and really relevant. So that is why we have a growing intelligence division as well to help with that aspect. We’d like the readers of ExecutiveBiz to be aware of all these activities.
Interview with Dennis Kelly conducted by JD Kathuria
Read more interviews here: http://blog.executivebiz.com/category/interviews/
Posted by Staff Writer
on Tuesday, July 8th, 2008. Filed under Executive Spotlight.
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