Innovation, finance and operations mark the week in leadership moves

Agile Defense

This enterprise IT- and digital transformation-focused company brought in both a new CEO and chief growth officer during the fourth quarter of 2023.

Agile Defense's newest senior leadership appointment sees Razwan Raja move into the role of chief innovation officer, a role he takes up after previously founding and leading XOR Security through its sale to Agile Defense.

That transaction closed in the spring of 2023 and evolved Agile Defense into a 1,000-employee company.

Government market investment firm Enlightenment Capital acquired Agile Defense in fall of 2022

DCS Corp.

This employee-owned government services company ended 2023 by folding its Infoscitex subsidiary into the rest of the enterprise as part of efforts to offer a more complete portfolio of aerospace and defense technologies.

DCS' next step for this iteration of its strategy involves the promotion of three-decade company veteran Bill Protzman to president and chief operating officer, a role he started on Jan. 1.

Protzman's key responsibilities will include financial management, bid decisions, business development, compliance and process development.

Now-former COO Larry Egbert has stepped down from the role after 10 years at DCS.

ECS

Ryan Garner joins the government technology segment of ASGN as chief financial officer after nearly two years as CFO at Navistar Defense.

Garner is also a two-decade veteran of CACI International, where he most recently was CFO for that company's national security and innovative solutions sector.

He will oversee all of ECS' accounting and finance operations, contracts, legal, pricing, procurement functions, financial planning and analysis, facilities management, and compliance activities.

Nokia Federal Solutions

As 2023 came to an end, this global telecommunications and IT company unveiled its new U.S. government-focused subsidiary on the heels of an acquisition focused on the defense market.

Nokia Federal Solutions has followed those moves with the promotion of Gerardo Marcor to chief operating officer after 25 years in the telecom industry, a career that includes roles such as CFO for the parent company's Americas market.

The NFS business touts its core focus areas as including 5G, Internet Protocol routing, microwave, optical networking and tactical private wireless.

NFS acquired Fenix Group in December to add wireless offerings for defense agencies.

SixGen

With a new private equity owner now in place, this offensive cyber solutions provider has made an initial pair of C-level executive hires to help chart this phase of its strategy.

Amanda Lambert has joined SixGen as chief people officer after one year in that same role at fellow cyber company Shift5. Ashequel Hoque is moving into the chief financial officer role following a one-year stint as CFO at DMI.

Lambert's career also includes human resources leadership roles at Bully Pulpit Interactive and Team Rubicon, while Hoque is a former CFO and co-CEO for The Ambit Group.

In November, Washington Harbour Partners completed its acquisition of SixGen to add a company that designs its products to help enterprises discover vulnerabilities in their own IT systems.

Two Six Technologies

The board of directors for this defense- and cybersecurity-focused company has added a new member in Teresa Shea, a former director of signals intelligence at the National Security Agency.

That role placed Shea as the principal signals intelligence adviser to NSA's director, the director of national intelligence, many senior U.S. military officers and high-level civilian leaders.

Shea retired from NSA in 2014 and her subsequent private sector career includes executive roles at In-Q-Tel, the intelligence community's venture capital arm, and the Raytheon space and intelligence business.

Two Six is owned by global investment firm The Carlyle Group.