NCI appoints new CFO

NCI Information Systems Inc. said Tuesday it has hired nearly 25-year federal market veteran Chuck Hicks as executive vice president and chief financial officer.

The Reston, Virginia-based company touted Hicks’ experience in merger-and-acquisition deals, post-close integration activities and partnership development.

Hicks joins NCI from commercial real estate firm Cresa Global, where he was its CFO. His most recent role at a federal contractor was as CFO and chief operating officer at SC3, a defense technology services firm that General Dynamics acquired in 2017. He also held leadership roles at ASRC Federal, Science Applications International Corp. and the former USIS.

Within the past two years, NCI has ramped up its push to be a leader in artificial intelligence across the federal market through formations of partnerships with three AI firms in the commercial arena.

NCI’s first partnership came in 2017 with Olive Inc. (CrossChx at the time). Tanjo, a company based in North Carolina’s Research Triangle, linked up with NCI in April of this year. The most recent collaboration with Atlanta-based Holonic Technologies was announced in June.

Through those partnerships, NCI integrates their AI offerings with its own “Shai” platform.

NCI has seen some success in its strategy so far as it landed a spot alongside 56 other companies in May on a potential $49 million Health and Human Services Department contract to integrate AI and other automation contracts in back office functions.