Axiologic names president as it moves out of small biz realm

Every company goes through different inflection points and one of the most critical is when a small business government contractor starts to grow its way into the world of full-and-open competition.

That’s where Axiologic Solutions finds itself. It is grown past the $50 million a year revenue threshold and its small-business contracts are becoming fewer and fewer.

Company founders Tom Stauber and Michael Chavira described to me how they have been preparing the company to leave small business opportunities behind and move into competitions with midtier businesses as well as much larger government contractors.

This morning they have announced a major step in that transition by naming Andy Baratta as president of the company, a new position for Axiologic.

Baratta is a former ManTech International executive who ran that company’s intelligence business. He joined ManTech in 2011 when they acquired Worldwide Information Network Systems, where he was an executive.

Baratta’s experience in the intelligence market fits well with Axiologic’s focus on that market sector. The Defense Intelligence Agency was the first and remains the company’s biggest customer.

As president, Baratta will focus on business development and the company’s growth strategy, which will free Stauber and Chavira to be more externally focused, including looking for acquisition. They hope to close their first deal before the end of the year.

“We needed help getting to that next level,” Stauber said.

The company will continue to build its internal infrastructure to pursue more full-and-open competition and Baratta brings the experience of having done that at WINS and then at ManTech.

Axiologic’s roots are in providing systems engineering services to defense and intelligence agencies but in recent years it has moved into areas such as DevOps, data science and artificial intelligence.

“The key is to stay central to our customers’ mission,” Stauber said. “We either have to deliver something no one else can or we deliver it better than anyone.”

“With Baratta we’ll have the capabilities we need to attack the marketplace,” Stauber said. “He’s not just a good executive but he’s a good person.”

Baratta was an executive at WINS when Axiologic launched in 2009. “We were in that two guys and truck phase,” Stauber said. And Baratta gave the company one of its first contracts when he was at WINS. The working relationship continued including during Baratta’s time at ManTech.

In addition to the hiring of Baratta, Axiologic has also been building the infrastructure it needs to grow in the broader full and open market. The company has built a stronger business development organization, human resources, recruiting and finance organizations.

“We’ve taken our infrastructure to the next level,” Stauber said.