Hillen closes first EverWatch deal

EverWatch Solutions has closed its first acquisition under CEO John Hillen and his new management team.

The company, backed by private equity group Enlightenment Capital, has acquired Northwood Global Solutions, a company that specializes in cloud architecture and migration, cybersecurity, analytics and big data systems architecture. Northwood's primary customers are in the intelligence community.

Terms of the deal were not disclosed.

EverWatch was created in October through a roll-up of four companies it had acquired in recent months. In November, EverWatch acquired a fifth company in Dynamic Engineering Solutions.

Hillen then came on board in February. He is the former CEO of Sotera Defense Solutions. At the same time, EverWatch added Fred Funk as chief growth officer and Diane Nguyen as chief financial officer.

In Northwood, the company saw an opportunity to add more IT professionals with security clearances in areas such as cloud architecture, particularly with Amazon Web Services.

Hillen told me Northwood also brings skills in big data, systems design, software design and development, network architecture, and software and systems integration.

“They are a terrific group of experienced national security professionals that take our already strong tech presence in the intel community to the next level,” he said.

Jason Rigoli, a partner with Enlightenment Capital, called Northwood “a perfect addition” to continue the evolution of the EverWatch platform.

The company will continue to look for more acquisitions, but Hillen said they have an “ambidextrous strategy.”

“Adding a great fitting acquisition is important but so is building from within along with our key customers,” Hillen said. “We will continue to make aggressive organic as well as inorganic moves to keep building a mid-sized prime that provides technology solutions for the most mission focused parts of the intelligence community.”