Who are the top entrepreneurs in the Washington, DC area? Ernst & Young recently announced the winners for the Ernst &Young Entrepreneur Of The Year award in Greater Washington. The group of entrepreneurs — eight in all — were selected by an independent judging panel made up of regional business, academic and community leaders, and their names were revealed at a recent gala event at the Ritz-Carlton, Tysons Corner.

“We heartily congratulate this year’s winners on their success,” said Rene Salas, Ernst & Young Entrepreneur Of The Year Program Director for Greater Washington. “The Entrepreneur Of The Year award recognizes all of the hard work, ingenuity and care these leaders have put into building and improving their businesses and communities. This group of winners is truly remarkable for all that they have accomplished.”

The Greater Washington winners for the Ernst & Young Entrepreneur Of The Year award in 2008 are: Jim Abdo of ABDO Development, Magid M. Abraham, Ph.D. and Gian M. Fulgoni of comScore, Inc., Tom Adams of Rosetta Stone, David G. Bostwick, MD, of Bostwick Laboratories, Inc., Seth Goldman of Honest Tea, Ron Packard of K12 Inc., and Dennis Ratner of Ratner Companies.

This year, the Entrepreneur Of The Year awards program celebrates its 22nd anniversary. The program has expanded through the years to recognize business leaders in over 135 cities in 50 countries throughout the world, including right here in Washington, DC. Regional award winners will be eligible for consideration in the Ernst & Young Entrepreneur Of The Year 2008 national program.

In addition to announcing several industry winners, a special Master Entrepreneur Award was presented to Ted Leonsis in recognition of his entrepreneurial endeavors and impact on the Greater Washington area. AOL Founder and former Ernst & Young Entrepreneur Of The Year award winner Steve Case presented Ted with the honor.

As most of us know, venture capitalist and entrepreneur Mark Ein spends most of his time focusing on potential technology and telecommunications investment opportunities for his holding company Venturehouse Group, LLC. But Ein is adding an entirely new element to his portfolio as head of an ownership group that has brought a World TeamTennis Pro League franchise to Washington, DC for the first time in the league’s 33-year history. In the following Q&A, Ein tells us what’s on tap for Washington Kastles this summer.

Can provide a brief history of your background?

Mark Ein: I’m a Washington DC native, went to Bethesda Chevy Chase High School and then went away for college and then got trained at Goldman Sachs, then went away to business school. I came back to Washington to work at The Carlyle Group when it was only five years old, in 1992. I worked and led a lot of their early telecom deals at Carlyle and helped get that effort started there. We had a number of investments that worked out really well.

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We at ExecutiveBiz and the entire Federal IT community were certainly affected by the news last month that CACI International Inc.’s CEO Paul Cofoni underwent coronary bypass surgery after experiencing major chest discomfort. The symptoms were so serious, according to doctors, that if left untreated could have led to a heart attack.

But the good news is that the surgery was successful and Cofoni, 59, is on a road to recovery that should have been back in the throes of work shortly. The initial estimates around the time of the surgery in early June was six weeks, so no doubt Cofoni is chomping at the bit to take the reigns back from acting CEO William Fairl.

During his downtime Cofoni could at least reflect on what had been a successful first year at the helm of CACI, a year he discussed with ExecutiveBiz in detail during an interview earlier this summer. During the Q&A Cofoni confessed to being an avid sports fan of all the local teams, occasionally sneaking out after work to a Nationals game. With his recovery on track it surely won’t be long before he’s making his way over to the ballpark again sooner rather than later.

From the ExecutiveBiz team, best wishes for a speedy recovery.

This is an interesting time for companies within the government contracting space, as uncertainties abound on the economic and political front. But AMERICAN SYSTEMS’ President and CEO Bill Hoover is up for the challenge. In the following Q&A, Hoover shares his thoughts on what is sure to be a critical time ahead for area companies. “I think it’s going to be interesting; I believe interesting means change; and I am convinced where there’s change, there’s opportunity,” he says.

How did your Navy background help you as a CEO?

Bill Hoover: In retrospect, the experience that I gained as a division officer on a U.S. Navy warship was the first general management experience of my career. As a division officer, I was responsible for managing people (the sailors in my division); for managing budgets (called operational targets or OpTars); and for managing performance. In a way, I think the Navy probably provides more general management-type experience in addition to what I’ll call leadership experience. As you might expect, I think that the Army and the Marine Corps are very focused on honing strong leadership skills. In the Navy, you get some of the leadership—perhaps not to the degree that you get in the Army and the Marine Corps, but you get more general management experience.

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It’s not easy finding a reliable list of top executive search firms. Most published lists are really compilations of the biggest firms, often in New York, Chicago, Los Angeles, London and Paris. But in reality, size doesn’t really matter in the executive search firm business. In fact, size is often a constraint, since having too many clients prevents a truly exhaustive search. So it was a welcome surprise to see that Bob Brudno, managing director of Savoy Partners right here in Washington, DC, was recently named by BusinessWeek as one of the “100 Most Influential Executive Recruiters in the World.”

Brudno’s appearance on the list surprised him. “I have always worked discreetly,” he says, “leaving the publicity surrounding a client’s key new hire to them.” In Brudno’s case, those “key new hires” have included CEOs of area companies like SAIC, SRA, and CACI. Brudno has also performed many searches for CXOs, partners and VPs for many of the leaders in major market segments.

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What does it take to be a successful CFO in today’s marketplace? Bob Murphy knows all about it. As senior vice president and chief financial officer of BAE Systems, Inc., Murphy helped this global aerospace and defense company generate about $15 billion in sales in 2007. And he expects to see even more growth this year. In the following Q&A, Murphy shares his vision for the months ahead, and what he sees as one of a CFO’s most valuable assets: flexibility.

ExecutiveBiz: Tell us what your role is at BAE Systems.

Bob Murphy: I am the senior vice president of finance and chief financial officer of BAE Systems Inc., which is the headquarters for the U.S.-led businesses of BAE Systems plc, which is headquartered in London. BAE Systems Inc. generated sales of just under $15 billion in 2007, which accounts for about half of the overall revenue and profit of the company. We expect to see significant growth again in 2008.

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Six months ago IT veteran Jim O’Neill was managing more than 18,000 employees as Northrop Grumman Information Technology sector’s corporate vice president and president. Three months ago that number dwindled to zero after O’Neill stepped down from his position at Northrop on the heels of a long and successful career in the industry. Today, however, O’Neill seems to have opted for a happy medium; recently settling into the role of CEO at CompuDyne, an industry leader in advanced technology integration for the Homeland Security market with more than 900 employees worldwide.

There is a popular saying from Irish-born playwright George Bernard Shaw: “Man can climb the highest summits, but he cannot dwell there long.” Perhaps O’Neill, also born in Ireland, had those Irish countryman’s words in his thoughts when deciding to join CompuDyne and lead a company that has continued to grow impressively both organically and through acquisition since its founding in 1952.

Roughly one year ago, CompuDyne announced it would go from public to private after agreeing to be acquired by a group of private investors for $59 million and change. As O’Neill eases his way into the new position (he recently spoke at a “Visionaries in IT Lecture” at UMBC), it is safe to say that we will be hearing more from CompuDyne. O’Neill, an ExecutiveBiz “Beltway Game Changer,” remains an active and influential member of the Federal IT community: he served as the 2007 chairman of the Professional Services Council; is on the Board of Directors of Lee Technologies; and is a board member of the Northern Virginia Technology Council and the Security Affairs Support Association.

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.

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From increased energy efficiency requirements in Federal data centers to the need for better insight on Agency energy usage, government decision makers are turning to IT management and consulting firms to get a better handle on energy and environmental risk factors, as well as opportunities to realize cost and efficiency gains.

This has translated into opportunities for Project Performance Corporation (PPC), an IT and environmental consulting firm founded in 1991 that works extensively with the public sector. PPC provides services to roughly 20 U.S. government agencies in the areas of of energy and environmental consulting, information technology and program and project management.

To enhance its ability to go after these opportunities, PPC announced last month that it entered a conditional agreement to join forces with AEA Technology plc (AEA), a UK-based climate change and energy consulting business seeking to extend its US footprint and IT and data management capabilities. Michael J. Nigro, CEO of PPC, was named President and COO of US Operations for the combined entity and joined the Board of AEA reporting to CEO Andrew McCree.

The new organization boasts 1,000 global employees, and will remain focused on its mission to “simplify complex problems for top government and Fortune 500 decision makers.” For PPC, the move advances its ability to tap opportunities in EU government markets and the UK.

For Nigro, who joined Project Performance Corporation as President and COO in 2003, the agreement with AEA helps push forward his goal to expand the company’s presence in the federal management and IT consulting arena. Over the last few years, PPC has already tripled in size, growing organically to nearly $50 million in annual revenue.

This is an exciting time for Perot Systems. Susan Nolan, the company’s CIO, knows all about it. Her team just celebrated the company’s 20^th anniversary and launched the its newly redesigned public website, www.perotsystems.com. In her position Nolan oversees these initiatives and more, while making sure everything launches smoothly and on time. So, how does Nolan, one of the few women CIOs in the industry, manage to stay up to speed? In the following Q&A, Nolan talks about her background, upcoming ventures for Perot Systems, and how she manages to find time amid her busy schedule for a little piano practice alongside her kids.

Q: Tell us a bit of your background and what led you to your current role today at Perot Systems?

Susan Nolan: Unlike many, when I selected my first career field, I chose to remain there. I have a Bachelor of Science in computer science from Virginia Tech and a Master of Science in engineering from the University of Tennessee. I grew up working for Bechtel in various analyst and technical supervisory roles. Following that I came to run Soza & Company’s internal IT. Perot Systems made several acquisitions in 2002-2003, including Soza, to create their Government Services division. Prior to being named CIO for the entire company I was the Vice President for Government Services’ Corporate Information Technology group.

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