Former DynCorp exec Paul Lombardi tapped for hall of fame at GovCon Awards event

Some of the leading lights of the government contractor community will gather this Thursday to honor top companies and executives in the market as part of the 13^th Annual Greater Washington Contractor Awards program.

Produced annually by the Fairfax County, Va., Chamber of Commerce and the Professional Services Council, the event sets itself apart from other awards programs in how it recognizes the finalists and winners each year.

While the finalists are known ahead of time, the winners won’t be announced until that night, creating an element of suspense and surprise that usually doesn’t happen at these kinds of annual soirees.

One of my favorite parts of the program is when the hall of fame inductee is recognized. This award isn’t a surprise, but it’s still a treat to see a pioneer in the industry get some time on the stage.

This year’s honoree is Paul Lombardi, best known as the CEO of DynCorp, building that company’s IT business from near zero to more than $1 billion in 10 years. He then sold DynCorp to Computer Sciences Corp. for $2.3 billion in March 2003.

I’ve had a lot of opportunities to talk to Lombardi over the years, so the honor is well deserved, and I hope when he takes the stage he tells a story or two about building DynCorp and what it takes to be a leader. If we’re lucky, maybe he’ll tell the story about how, as a good Catholic boy, he got his first job working at a funeral home with a crematorium.

It’s a funny story, and that’s one of the things I admire about Lombardi. He likes to have fun. In fact, that’s a common thread through many of the hall of fame inductees. These men – so far, all are males – are all deadly serious about business, but also have a real lust for life.

Think about people such as Phil Odeen, Earle Williams, Charles Rossotti or Jack London. They are very successful leaders, and I would argue a big part of their success is that they truly love what they do.

Lombardi is cut from that same cloth, and we should see that on display on Thursday night. Officially, he's been retired since 2003, but it's been an active retirement with work he does advising companies and executives about the government market.

The lineup of finalists this year also will showcase the quality of companies and leaders in the market today.

The finalists are:

Contractor of the Year (up to $25 million)

• Amyx, Inc.
• Atlas Research
• CollabraLink Technologies
• Defense Point Security
• Democracy International, Inc.
• Highlight Technologies

Contractor of the Year ($25 million to 75 million)

• Attain LLC
• Buchanan and Edwards
• E3 Federal Solutions LLC
• NT Concepts
• OGSystems
• Xator

Contractor of the Year ($75 million-300 million)

• Aquilent
• CALIBRE Systems Inc.
• Haystax Technology
• Millennium Engineering and Integration
• Vistronix

Contractor of the Year (greater than $300 million)

• Accenture Federal Services
• AECOM
• Bechtel Corporation
• Engility
• PAE

Executive of the Year (up to $75 million)

• Ben Edson, founder & CEO, VariQ
• Heidi Gerding, president & CEO, HeiTech Services Inc.
• Scott Goss, CEO, Preferred Systems Solutions Inc.
• Kim Hayes, CEO, the Ambit Group
• Lisa Wolford, president & CEO, Constellation West

Executive of the Year ($75 million-300 million)

• Doug Duenkel, COO, Knight Point Systems LLC
• David Fout, CEO, Aquilent
• Y. Michele Kang, CEO, Cognosante
• William Van Vleet, CEO, Haystax Technology

Executive of the Year (greater than $300 million)

• Sondra Barbour, executive vice president, Information Systems & Global Solutions, Lockheed Martin
• Marilyn Crouther, senior vice president and general manager, U.S. public sector, HP
• Mac Curtis, President & CEO, Vencore Inc.
• John Heller, CEO, PAE
• Thomas Romeo, president, MAXIMUS Federal Services
• Mark Testoni, CEO, SAP National Security Services

It’ll be fun to see who rises to the top from this group. I’m sure the judges had a tough time picking a single winner from each group.