Robbins Goia's new COO sees new capabilities, new opportunities ahead
By
Nick Wakeman
Andrew Robinson, a former ICF executive, is joining Robbins Goia as COO and was drawn to the company by its team and its expanding slate of capabilities that are ripe for the next administration.
Andrew Robinson, the new chief operating officer of Robbins Goia, was looking for something different when he left his job at ICF International in the Fall.
His plan was to take some time off and then take a look around. He had been a senior vice president at ICF and was chairman of the Institute of Innovation at ACT-IAC.
As he started looking around, he talked with a lot of companies. “But I was surprised and impressed by Robbins Goia and the capabilities they were working on,” he told me.
Robbins Goia made its reputation in program management, but in recent years, they’ve added new capabilities and markets such as financial services, cybersecurity, IT management and modernization, and human capital management.
“I said, Geez, I need to get out there and help tell that story,” Robinson said.
The position of COO is a new for Robbins Goia, and Robinson coming on board is part of a reorganization at the company.
“There are a lot of good people there, so this is more just restructuring the team to take full advantage of our opportunities,” he said.
Some of those opportunities will be driven by the new administration. “Whenever there is a new administration, there is a lot of change” Robinson said.
More than ever, there is a need for contractors to be wise managers of government resources.
“We need to be very accountable and very careful with how we spend those dollars,” he said. You only get so many chances so we need to be incredible stewards of the government and taxpayer dollars.”
Helping agencies manage change and take advantage of new technologies and modernize their infrastructure is the sweet spot for Robbins Goia, he said.
Robinson starts work on April 4, and the company is expected to make its official announcement of his hiring later this week.
Defense is one market area the company will continue to focus on. The new administration – whoever takes the White House – will need to refresh technologies and infrastructure across the globe, Robinson said.
“Robbins Goia has a long storied history of doing great work across all branches of the military,” he said.
There will be new opportunities but also the so-called long tail of logistics and engineering. “Robbins Goia has tools and expertise and methodologies in those areas that few can compare to, so that’s solid,” he said.
He also expects opportunities to modernize and take older systems to new platforms such as shared services, the cloud, or a combination of existing code and new code. “Robbins Goia has a lot of expertise in that area as well,” he said.
Don’t expect Robbins Goia to be taking on large development projects, but the company will stick to its strength in the areas of advice and consulting.
“If a CIO wants someone to come in and help them innovate and help manage the project to fruition, that’s the kind of project we’ll play a role in,” Robinson said.
The company has been relatively quiet thus far, but expect that to change, he said.
“It’s an impressive organization with a lot of great people,” he said. “They’ve been diligently applying their trade, but the story has been built.”
Robinson said he feels like he is coming into the middle of something. “This is not a turnaround,” he said.