Applied Insight expands leadership team, moves HQ

Applied Insight announced on April 4 it has taken key steps to support its continuing growth, with a strengthened leadership team, including Mehdi Cherqaoui asCFO, and a headquarters move from Ashburn to Tysons.

“Following our recent acquisitions, these are important steps in our process of intelligent integration,” said John Hynes, CEO of Applied Insight. “We’re in the business of delivering exceptional support to our customers, leveraging the expertise we have across the company to drive new solutions to complex problems. With this new leadership team, we benefit from the diverse ideas and experience of people who’ve worked in our sector for a long time, including those who’ve recently joined through acquisition, along with some new additions. Together, they provide the mission understanding, technical expertise and operational excellence required to deliver for our customers, inspire our people, drive growth through innovation and develop the talent we need for the future.”

Led by Hynes, the new executive team is structured to drive focused customer support, collaboration on next-generation innovations and integrated corporate support. New members of the AI executive team include leaders from across the company who are being promoted into new roles, as well as leaders from businesses recently acquired.

Business Unit Leaders

• James Rainey, senior vice president, intelligence. Rainey joined AI through the acquisition of ATG, where he was co-founder and president. In this new role, he leads all aspects of AI’s support to the U.S. intelligence community. He is an experienced entrepreneur and specialist in software engineering and information technologies. Before joining AI, he was part of the startup of CyberCore Technologies and played a major role in growing it to become a leading IT managed services company.
• Nathan Rickman, senior vice president, federal civilian. Rickman has been with AI for more than 12 years, and in this new role he leads on all aspects of AI’s support to federal civilian agencies. Previously he was AI’s vice president of civilian and IC programs. With close to 20 years’ experience in enterprise architecture and program management on complex government projects, he has a strong track record of leading complex IT programs to successful outcomes.
• Bill Kodzis, senior vice president, defense. Kodzis joined AI through the acquisition of Stratus, where he was instrumental in building a strong defense business. In this new role, he leads AI’s support to customers across the Department of Defense. With more than 18 years of experience developing impactful solutions for the federal government, Kodzis has led programs supporting the U.S. Cyber Command, the U.S. Air Force and the U.S. Army, as well as customers within the intelligence community.

Corporate Support Leaders

• Mehdi Cherqaoui, chief financial officer. Cherqaoui joined AI this month and brings extensive financial management and M&A experience to the role.He is responsible for all aspects of financial operations across the business and supports the CEO in driving AI’s growth strategy. Cherqaoui formerly was CFO and COO of Phacil and earlier held senior finance and M&A roles with PAE, URS, PwC and KPMG. During his career, he has been involved in more than 60 M&A transactions and several financing deals.
• Kim Parker, vice president, contracts, ethics and compliance. Parker joined AI in 2018, and leads its contracting team to ensure adherence to federal acquisition regulations and the highest standards of integrity. She has worked in federal contracting and compliance for more than 20 years, previously serving with Leidos as acting director of contracts and subcontracts for its Defense and Intelligence Group and as its associate director of policy and functional development.
• Randy Carr, vice president, human resources. Carr joined AI earlier this year and leads the experienced team of HR human resources practitioners across business units. His many years of HR experience in the government contracting sector included serving as senior HR director at LMI for seven years and directing talent management strategies for SAIC.
• Mike Grasso, senior vice president of business development. Joining AI last year, Grasso leads its business development team coordinating strategy, capture, proposal and solutions development, and leveraging extensive technical and program expertise from across the organization. Before joining AI, he was senior vice president for business development and strategy at Engility and has held senior BD roles with Lockheed Martin and GE Aerospace.

Innovation Leaders

• Dede Dascalu, chief technology officer. Dascalu joined AI through the acquisition of Stratus, where he was CEO. In this new role of CTO, he leads AI’s work on technology innovation. As an engineer with expertise in cloud infrastructure, cloud security and the design of network systems, he has worked as the technical lead on a number of Department of Defense research and intelligence community programs in his 20-year career.
• David Boyd, chief product officer. Boyd joined AI through the acquisition of Stratus, where he was COO. In this new role as CPO, Boyd will lead AI’s IT product strategy, development and implementation. He is an expert in software development, network modeling, simulation and architecture, and has worked as a senior technical specialist on a number of defense and intelligence programs.
• Giuseppe “Junior” Crisafulli, chief information officer. Crisafulli has been a principal systems architect with AI for over 10 years. In the role of CIO, a newly created position, he will drive AI’s IT strategy and continue to work with a number of government customers in a lead technical role. With more than 25 years of government consulting experience, he is an accomplished leader of engineering teams on complex IT programs across the federal government.
• Purvesh Patel, senior solutions architect. Patel is new to the AI family, joining in January 2019. He leads the company’s experienced team of solutions architects. He joined from Cloudera, where he was a senior systems engineer supporting customers in the intelligence community, and has worked with SGI, Lockheed Martin, SAIC, Symantec and BAE Systems. Throughout his career, Patel has served as a trusted advisor to customers and partners on machine learning, advanced analytics and cloud technologies.

AI’s new Tysons headquarters is located at 1850 Towers Crescent Plaza, which will serve as a collaborative hub for the business as it ramps up its research and development strategy around new innovations in big data, cybersecurity and cloud infrastructures for federal customers.

“Our move to Tysons is about convenience and collaboration,” added Hynes. “It’s a more central location for the leadership team to come together when we need to. We spend a lot of time with customers, and Tysons works well as a hub for us. The new space also has great facilities for bringing our people together for training and collaboration on new projects, particularly in technology development and business development. It’s part of fostering the creative culture that will be key to our long-term success.”

Source: Applied Insight