USIS President and CEO Bill Mixon: What’s next for USIS in 2010
December 24th, 2009 by JD Kathuria
Over the past five years, USIS President and CEO Bill Mixon has led the Falls Church, Va.-based company into some pretty ambitious areas of service: investigations, security solutions, training, law enforcement support, and information management. It’s a challenge he’s taken head-on. Backed by 20 years of experience in leading large professional services operations, Mixon has steered the company to become the leading provider of background investigations and security solutions to the federal government. So, what’s next? ExecutiveBiz recently took that question to Mixon. With 2010 around the corner, here’s what he’s saying.
ExecutiveBiz: USIS is known for a variety of security and training solutions. What unites those offerings?
Bill Mixon: We help our government clients reduce risk, maximize opportunities, and make sound business decisions. With the largest field investigations team in North America as our base, we are highly skilled at gathering disparate information, reviewing and analyzing this data for the purpose of finding anomalies and offering insights to our customers. We apply these skills in many different arenas to help clients make information-based decisions. We have subject matter expertise in a wide variety of security and information management-related areas and also provide a number of high-end training solutions. That’s essentially the USIS suite of services.
ExecutiveBiz: The government is navigating increasingly complex issues surrounding risk management. How is USIS chipping in?
Bill Mixon: We’re exploring a number of opportunities to help government better understand where we have risks in our society and what can be done to reduce these risks. In doing so, we’re helping our government clients make sound, cost-efficient business decisions. An example is immigration reform. We have a number of new security-oriented and technology-based solutions that help our government better understand the status of people that apply for immigration benefits.
ExecutiveBiz: Are there other areas where you are helping government customers identify risk?
Bill Mixon: The processes and solutions we’re delivering to the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) are another example. We support DHS through a number of analytical techniques, leveraging database information and providing support, in a virtual way, to help them accomplish their important work. USIS identifies the location of fugitive aliens in the country that are wanted by Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), many of whom, interestingly enough, are residents within the criminal justice system. We help identify and locate those aliens and develop target leads for ICE agents for possible apprehension.
ExecutiveBiz: Another area rife with fraud is healthcare. What role, if any, is USIS playing in that arena?
Bill Mixon: With healthcare legislation in the headlines, we see significant opportunity to leverage technology and our nationwide investigative footprint to reduce potential fraud, waste, and abuse on behalf of agencies involved in healthcare delivery. There is also risk associated with pharmaceutical diversion as the logistics chain associated with drug delivery is vulnerable to waste and abuse. This is a near adjacent market where, again, we believe a national investigative footprint combined with analytical techniques can add significant value.
ExecutiveBiz: How can industry stay relevant in 2010 and beyond? And what role will USIS play?
Bill Mixon: Industry must find ways to better partner with the government in creating efficiencies and reducing overall costs to the American taxpayer. We will continue to tailor our strategies, concentrating on the delivery of cost-efficient, value-enhancing solutions to our federal clients.
ExecutiveBiz: Lastly, on a personal level, what’s it like to mark five years at USIS?
Bill Mixon: From my perspective, having been here five years now and with military service in my background, it’s refreshing to work in an environment where there’s a sense of mission, a mission that is very focused on our nation’s security and developing a team of dedicated employees. The company was privatized in July 1996 out of the federal government, which means our history as a private sector company is fairly brief. However, we believe this a strength that differentiates us in the markets we serve. Our federal government legacy gives us a very real and deep sense of knowing how to best support the critical missions of our federal government customers. We concentrate on and support national security in everything we do. That’s something I can feel good about as I wrap up each day at USIS.
