A capacity crowd filled the Skyline Room at the Tower Club on June 3rd. Over 60 Washington area executives converged to see ExecutiveBiz’s CIO Expert Panel event in our popular Government IT Series. This event, made possible by Peter Ostrow of Technical Communities, brought together some of the leading CIO voices in the government in an interactive session which spanned wide ranging, relevant topics such as outsourcing and Web 2.0. Former CIO of the Department of Commerce, Barry West (current Executive Vice President at SE Solutions), looked right at home moderating a panel featuring Bill Vajda, CIO of the Department of Education, Linda Cureton, CIO of NASA and David Zeppieri, CIO of the Overseas Private Investment Corporation.

Today’s announcement that Stanley, Inc. has entered into a definitive agreement to acquire Oberon Associates, Inc. for approximately $170 million in cash brings together two high-fliers that have experienced significant growth and success in the past few years. Stanley, a leading systems integrator to the U.S. Federal government, has swelled to 3,500 employees while Oberon Associates, which delivers engineering, intelligence operations and information technology services, ranked #1 on Washington Technology’s 2007 Fast 50 list with a compound annual growth rate of 191.75 percent.

According to the press release, the transaction should close during Stanley’s fiscal second quarter ending Sept. 30, 2008, subject to approval by Oberon’s shareholders. (Shareholders representing approximately 67 percent of Oberon’s common stock have entered into a voting and irrevocable proxy agreement to vote their shares in favor of the proposed transaction).

Manassas, Va.-based Oberon, with 600 employees spread across the U.S. and seven countries abroad, immediately strengthens Stanley’s capabilities in the intelligence and defense community, and bolsters expertise related to biometrics systems engineering, integration and operational deployment; intelligence community support; communications engineering; and information technology and enterprise data management. Oberon employees should certainly not find a drop-off in the workplace conditions, as Stanley is a regular on the Fortune 100 Best Companies to Work For list.

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Recently retired Dr. Renato A. DiPentima can point to an established track record of eyeing early opportunities to enter fast growing markets. As President and CEO of SRA International, Dr. DiPentima (Renny) helped to steer the federal systems integrator to explosive growth past the $1 billion milestone before handing the reigns over to Stan Sloane.

So ears perked up Monday when DiPentima joined the Board of Directors at Liquid Machines, Inc., a rising star within the fast growing Enterprise Rights Management (ERM) space. According to ABI Research, the ERM market is poised to hit annual revenues of $450 million in 2013, reflecting the growing need for organizations in both the public and private sector to more effectively safeguard sensitive information. Unlike other approaches to IT security, ERM operates at the document level by attaching rights and privileges to individual files.

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“Our Good Name: A Company’s Fight to Defend Its Honor and Get the Truth Told About Abu Ghraib,” opens appropriately with the Victorian poem “Invictus” by William Ernest Henley. Experts have interpreted the work as a powerful expression of stoicism; that one must rely on his own resources and remain true to his convictions through the darkest of hours.

J. Phillip “Jack” London and the CACI team faced more than a few hours of darkness watching the Abu Ghraib prison scandal play out mercilessly on the front pages. Those who know Dr. London were likely not surprised by the choice of poems, and those who read the book - unveiled during a book signing hosted by ExecutiveBiz on behalf of Dr. London and the CACI authors last week at the Tower Club - will find a man whose conviction refused to waver during a crisis that threatened to unravel a company built over 40 years ago in a matter of weeks.

In brief but spirited remarks at the book signing, London relayed that the CACI team drew from the 1982 Tylenol scare (hence my cryptic title) in preparing its aggressive crisis response strategy - part of which included the book. During the Tylenol crisis, product tampering with Extra Strength Tylenol in Chicago led to several deaths, dropping Tylenol’s market share from 35% to 8%. But Johnson & Johnson was lauded for its quick and aggressive response to the crisis, and in short order Tylenol was dominating the market.

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As one of the government’s leading providers of innovative technologies and solutions, ManTech International’s success is apparent; this year alone, it is expected to bring in nearly $2 billion in revenue. A big part of that success comes down to its ability to recruit and retain the most talented professionals. In the following Q&A, Robert Coleman, president and COO of Mantech, talks about the future of the company, trends in A-Space and other applications, and emerging opportunities in the market space for ManTech and its collaborators.

ExecutiveBiz: Tell us the strategy of the company of where it was in 2001 and where it is today?

Bob Coleman: In 2001 we developed a strategy to focus on the high-end intelligence segment of the DOD community. That strategy, and our execution of it, has put us in an excellent position. Going forward, we will continue to broaden our base in Intel and DOD, staying focused there, but stretching those lanes a little to include the civilian agencies. For example, historically when we looked at acquisitions we would have only done an acquisition that was pure Intel or DOD. Now we are considering acquisitions, and McDonald Bradley was a great example, that have a strong Intel and DOD focus, but also a civilian component. We believe there are significant synergies between our DOD and Intel efforts, and a civilian agency business. With McDonald Bradley, for example, we have taken their civilian sector and merged it with our IT organization and have created a civilian IT component that we believe has significant growth potential. Diversifying our base to include civilian business will help to position us if the markets shift in that direction. It also helps us balance our resources and workloads. The current demand for our skills and services is very high – we have approximately 700 openings, most of them for cleared personnel. A civilian agency business would give us a mechanism to bring into the company non-cleared personnel who are highly skilled, allow them to work on non-cleared programs while they go through the clearance process, and then later when they get their clearance, to transfer to classified work.

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What often makes it challenging for investors and stakeholders to identify a market bottom is that the signs of rebirth can be invisible to the naked eye. And then you have deals like the one announced last week that whacks you like an ice cream migraine. Carlyle Group’s purchase of a majority stake in Booz Allen Hamilton’s U.S. government consulting business for $2.54 billion was a big deal - not only in size but for what it might signal about the credit market’s attempt to pull itself out of the abyss.

In a Wall Street Journal article (subscription required), Carlyle co-founder David Rubenstein offered that, “We think that the bottom has been hit in terms of private-equity investing activity and you’re now beginning to see the upward swing.” If that is in fact the case then the M&A specialists may be in for a busier summer than anticipated as, on paper, it will go down as the biggest buyout deal since last July.

McLean, Va.-based Booz Allen, will separate the corporate consulting unit into a distinct company, while CEO Ralph Shrader will run the government-focused unit now owned by Carlyle in a transaction expected to close later this year assuming it receives shareholder and regulatory approval. Booz Allen’s government consulting unit (one of the largest private government contractors) currently employees 18,000 worldwide and has experienced significant growth post 9/11 relative to the commercial unit - which some suggest led to the deal.

Booz clocked in with $2.4 billion in prime contracting revenue last year, and Shrader - CEO since 1998 - has orchestrated steady double-digit growth for much of that time. In pre-buyout comments to Washington Technology regarding the rumored deal Shrader stated firmly that it would only happen if the best interests of the firm were served.

Brian Lustig is co-founder of Lustig Communications, a Rockville, MD-based communications firm that works with growing technology and government IT firms. Lustig is also a contributor to local business and industry publications.

Successful executives and leaders will often, upon reflection, cite choosing the career path less traveled as a key to their success. In looking back on her accomplished – and admittedly unexpected – 28 years at AMS (now CGI) during remarks at the ExecutiveBiz “Been There Done That” lunch series, Donna Morea took that adage one step further.

(L to R) Donna Morea of CGI, Carole Brown of Northrop Grumman, Jim Garrettson of ExecutiveBiz, and Rich Klimoski of GMU

Morea, president, U.S. operations and India, CGI, suggested that trailblazers do not necessarily follow a well-marked path at all, and instead forge their own trail that only becomes visible once they turn around to see it where it has led.

In speaking to a packed room of business and government executives at the Tower Club yesterday, Morea offered herself as the quintessential example of someone who embraced an unpredictable and unmarked path that led a Studio Arts degree graduate (and race horse owner) with aspirations in photography to the executive suite of a multi-billion dollar IT services leader.

Accepting the path not marked was one of several nuggets Morea focused on during her lunch remarks. With a disarming, conversational manner, Morea breezed through heady accomplishments during her AMS/CGI tenure that included helping to lead three merger transactions, while offering attendees key tenets to her success.

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This week’s resignation of General Services Administration (GSA) chief Lurita Doan is the latest chapter in what has been a dynamic yet turbulent career spanning high profile work in the private and public sector.

Though the White House ended Doan’s tenure this week, it appears that the saga might continue for at least a few more days. Doan was a guest on Federal News Radio this morning, where she provided some additional detail on how her curtain call went down. Also, according to Federal Computer Week’s Christopher J. Dorobek, there may be some other interesting elements to the story as well.

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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.

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