Chvotkin set to leave PSC

Industry associations are often best known by their leader, generally the president or executive director. But for the past 19 years, Alan Chvotkin, the Professional Services Council’s executive vice president and counsel, has been as synonymous with PSC as any of its leaders.

But the Chvotkin era is coming to a close at PSC. He’ll serve out the rest of 2020 and then he’ll be off on another adventure and most likely he will continue to be active in the government contracting arena.

“I’ve been doing this a long time,” he told me, and he knows that he can continue to contribute to the policy and legal issues impacting contractors.

It is a sentiment shared by PSC President and CEO David Berteau. “It is my great hope that he will remain fully engaged with the industry,” Berteau said.

The end of this chapter of his professional life came down to a business decision as PSC and Chvotkin failed to reach an agreement to extend his employment contract.

“There is no animosity and no hard feelings,” Chvotkin said. “I wanted a different outcome but I’m OK with it.”

Berteau declined to comment on the contract negotiations but also described pending departure as amicable.

“We honor and thank Alan,” Berteau said. “PSC wouldn’t be what it is without him.”

Chvotkin’s departure also creates an opportunity for PSC to work on long-term leadership planning and bolster the advocacy and policy efforts that Chvotkin led.

“He’s giving us the time to wage a really good search,” Berteau said. “I’m looking forward to a very successful transition.”

Chvotkin said he is proud of the remarkable change the industry has gone through since he joined in 2001. At that time, PSC had 90 members and the federal market for professional and technical services was about $70 billion. Today there are 400 members and the market is $250 billion.

“I can’t take credit for that but PSC has been a player in the market and on policy issues,” he said. “We’ve had an impact on how the government view contractors.”