ManTech’s Debbie Thurman on what it takes to be an outstanding contracts executive

What does it take to be an outstanding contracts executive? Debbie Thurman, senior corporate vice president of contracts, pricing and procurement, knows all about it. For almost 25 years she served in the Air Force, where she began a contracting career in 1986. From there, she moved on to the NRO, and later to ManTech. In the following Q&A Thurman talks about the strengths that ManTech brings to the table in navigating an uncertain political and economic landscape, and how companies can hold on to top talent in the years ahead.

Tell us about your role at ManTech International Corporation.

Debbie Thurman: I’m the Senior Corporate Vice President of Contracts, Pricing and Procurement which also includes export control, small business, and government property — in addition to the normal contracts, pricing and procurement responsibilities typically found in a contracts organization.

How has the job changed in the last couple of years?

Debbie Thurman: Things have changed gradually in the government contract arena leading to more complexity in the process. There are many current legislative initiatives associated with acquisition policy that have or will potentially change the way we acquire, manage and report on government contracts. Contracting with the federal government has become more complex over the years, and at the same time the government’s workforce has declined in numbers as well as experience, causing issues for both government and industry. Also, this war is different than any the U.S. has been involved in before, and with contractors providing more support it takes a lot more time and effort to ensure we effectively execute and manage those contracts. Like some other companies, we have a lot of employees in the war zones and ensuring that our employees have what they need to do their job safely is our number one priority. At the same time, it’s critical that we do all that we can to adequately support the troops. Getting items to them that they need to do their job, quickly and timely while at the same time ensuring that we are fully compliant with government regulations is a must.

What hot trends will impact your customer base over the next 12 to 18 months?

Debbie Thurman: That’s an interesting question because contracting has always been paper-based; “Show me your file.” Now, we’re moving toward automated processes and electronic storage and transactions. One of my strategic goals is to get ManTech contracts to a paperless environment. I don’t know that I will see that in the near future, but we’re implementing automated tools to make that happen. Some of this is being driven by changing regulations and the customer, such as the automation of the government property tracking process and the automation of our small business subcontract reporting. We’ve been working on many initiatives to assist our business operations staff by automating and streamlining our processes. Some of these initiatives we started over a year ago and some more recently, but in the next couple of years we’re going to start reaping the benefits, which will make effectively managing and executing our contracts much easier in many ways. To help us improve internal efficiencies and reporting capability, we are implementing a contract management system that will fully automate the generation of all contractual agreements and serve as an archival database for all of our contract files. In essence it will help us manage the total business lifecycle of the contract from the beginning until we close out the contract. This project has been a huge undertaking but it’s going to significantly help in reducing internal and external data calls, allow faster data reporting to the customer, and give our program managers quicker access to data that they need to more effectively manage their programs.

Is the government requiring that or are you doing that on your own?

Debbie Thurman: No, the government’s not requiring the contract management system; we’re doing that on our own. But the government will reap many benefits as well since it will allow us to respond more quickly to internal and external data calls, prepare documents faster and other similar tasks. We’re also implementing a subcontract time entry capability to increase our ability to invoice subcontract costs quicker and reduce our days sales outstanding time. And we’re working on several other automated tools which will assist us in being able to better respond to our customer requirements. Making effective use of technology is a must in order to be able to meet the demands of today’s acquisition environment.

In today’s market what does it take to be an outstanding contracts executive?

Debbie Thurman: Knowledge of the government contracting process, of course, experience with the entire business and financial processes and good customer relationships. Contracts is involved from the very beginning in the business lifecycle of a company and we work very closely with our government counterparts. We’re involved from the time we get the RFP and we prepare the proposal, and until we win the contract, set it up in the system, perform the many contract administration activities and finally manage the close-out. That cycle and those activities in terms of how successful you are affect everything in the company especially the financial measurements, so you have to be well-rounded in all those business areas to be successful.

What is the biggest challenge in your job?

Debbie Thurman: Finding the right people, hiring those people and then retaining them. Particularly in the Washington, DC area trying to find talented contracting people is difficult. There is a small group of skilled contract professionals and a lot of companies out there who need them; so we’re constantly competing for that talent. We’ve been fortunate to attract a number of highly talented contract professionals at ManTech and we work hard to provide training and professional development activities for our employees, which in turn helps retain those employees and makes them more productive. People are always the biggest challenge and the greatest opportunity, and something we put a lot of focus on.

Have you seen any kind of changes in requirements to small business and or do you expect any in terms of increased demands?

Debbie Thurman: We have seen some changing requirements, but we have always placed a pretty healthy focus on small business participation and we’ve been very successful in meeting the goals for subcontracting to those small companies. In fact, we’ve met or exceeded all of our goals across the company and we received a highly successful rating in our last review from the Small Business Administration.

There is a lot of talk in the government that there is a shortage on the government side of contracting people and the shortage is getting even more drastic. Do you see that on your side?

Debbie Thurman: Yes, we see that on both sides, there’s just a shortage of talented contracting individuals who can effectively manage in this ever more complex career field. The government has had a real shortage of contracting people since about the mid to late 90’s when they offered early-out programs. That gap hasn’t been adequately filled in some cases so the government continues to seek ways of attracting people, keeping them trained and, as I said, the industry is experiencing similar issues.

Isn’t there some recognition of that in the government, are they hiring more people now?

Debbie Thurman: The government has been hiring more people and it depends upon the agency as to how many they have hired. I believe DOD still has a rather significant shortage of contracting staff but they have made progress. Some of our intelligence community customers, where we have quite a bit of business, have made good progress. Training is the second part of it though; some of those hires, particularly those straight out of college have to be trained. Training them and getting their skill sets where we want and need them to be is the next big step.

What is something people don’t know about you personally?

Debbie Thurman: That I served in the active duty Air Force for almost 25 years — 24 years, 11 months and 12 days to be exact. I retired from the NRO in 1997 here in the DC area.

How has the Air Force experience helped you in your current job?

Debbie Thurman: Tremendously. When I joined the Air Force I was in the enlisted ranks for the first 13-plus years and then I got my commission and that’s when I started my contracting career in 1986. My first assignment was to a depot in San Antonio, Texas where I was issuing hundreds of RFQs and purchase orders a day, buying many things but mostly airplane parts. Then I moved to Wright-Patterson in Ohio to the F-16 program and then some classified programs, another assignment to Langley AFB in southern Virginia where I supported the Drug Enforcement Agency and ultimately to the NRO. These experiences gave me a broad perspective of purchasing and contracts — from those small piece parts, or aircraft parts, all the way up to the satellite systems at the NRO. To understand what government contracting officers have to go through, really helps in terms of being able to give the customer what they are looking for in our proposals.

Are you expecting any changes with a new administration?

Debbie Thurman: Regardless of what happens in November I believe we’re going to continue to see changes – that’s expected. I anticipate some of the current legislative changes may make their way through to approval as well as others that we haven’t seen as yet. We have seen more acquisition proposed legislation in the past year than we have seen in many years. Some of that is being passed, some of it’s on hold, but regardless of what happens with the election that legislation and more is going to be under consideration. I think we’ll see legislation regarding Organizational Conflicts of Interest, or OCI, and more related to time and materials contracts, which the government appears to be limiting the use of, as well as other actions related to ethics and compliance areas. It’s going to be interesting to see what happens in the fall after the election and when Congress comes back in session.

What is your favorite restaurant?

Debbie Thurman: That’s a tough one since I eat out often so I have many. I really like Capital Grille but 2941 is also a great place.

What is the last book you read?

Debbie Thurman: Last year I started re-reading some of the classics that I read either in high school or college, so I recently re-read Watership Down.

Interview with Debbie Thurman conducted by JD Kathuria

Read more interviews here: http://blog.executivebiz.com/category/interviews/

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