Human capital, tech and operations leadership moves across the market

Citizant

Pamela Schoppert is moving up to the newly created position of chief people officer after 14 years at the government services company.

Schoppert has worked for the past five years as vice president of human experience and quality, a role focused on elevating stakeholder interactions to support Citizant's performance.

In this new position, she will be responsible for evolving the company's talent acquisition and human capital functions.

Cohesity

Dr. Craig Martell has re-entered the private sector after having left his former role as the Defense Department's first-ever chief digital and artificial intelligence officer in April.

Now as chief technology officer at Cohesity, Martell will be responsible for shaping the data security company's tech vision and roadmap. 

Cohesity develops software for IT teams to backup, manage and gain insights from their data across multiple cloud environments.

Martell joined DOD as its digital and AI leader in the spring of 2022 after two years as head of machine learning at Lyft. His career also includes machine learning and AI leadership roles at Dropbox and Linkedin.

Fearless

Joe Paiva has joined the digital and professional services provider as chief operating officer and will come out of retirement to take on the role, as written in a company blog post on his hire.

The three-decade public and private sector veteran's career includes executive roles at Salesforce and HireVue. He also is a former chief information officer for the International Trade Association and a retired colonel in the Army Reserves.

Paiva will be responsible for implementing a strategy and process structure at Fearless, which hired Alka Bhave in the fall to lead its Fearless Digital business.

Fearless also announced tech sector veteran Jacob Hsu as executive chair for its board of directors. Hsu is a former CEO of companies such as Catalyte, Symbio and Epitome Software.

General Dynamics IT

Aaron Bedrowsky has joined the defense company's tech systems integration business as senior vice president of its intelligence and homeland security division.

Bedrowsky most recently spent 10 years at Leidos including the last two as senior VP for enterprise transformation and performance excellence. Prior to that, he worked as senior VP for cyber and signal intelligence solutions.

He started his career in the Navy as a cryptologic technician and intelligence specialist.

Integral Federal

Amanda Windle has joined intelligence and national security solutions provider as chief growth officer to succeed Michele Cook, who is retiring from the company on June 1 and support the transition.

Windle is a 25-year market veteran and most recently a senior account executive at Amazon Web Services. Her career also includes business development and capture leadership roles at Novetta, Blackbird Technologies and ManTech.

Integral Federal also has also stood up a new office of technology that will be led by Ben Johnston, current senior vice president of operations.

The company hired three-decade veteran John Humphrey to take the position formerly held by Johnston. Humphrey most recently worked as VP of federal growth and strategy at Oteemo

IPTA

Hector Collarzo has joined this this federal IT and professional services provider in the newly-created role of chief technology officer.

Collarzo's 15-year career also includes CTO stints at Agile Defense and Sev1Tech.

Now at IPTA, Collarzo will be responsible for aligning its technological investments with business goals and focusing on a workplace culture that encourages innovation.

IPTA is a service-disabled veteran-owned small business whose full name is Interactive Process Technology Associates.

Lightridge Solutions

Lorin Hattrup has joined this satellite-defense technology maker as president and general manager of its Trident Systems business unit.

Trident makes electronics for various types of military space systems. Lightridge unveiled itself to the market in the spring of 2023 and acquired Trident later that summer.

Hattrup is a 23-year defense industry veteran whose career includes roles such as executive general manager of the F-35 avionics division at L3Harris Technologies, a major subcontractor for that fighter jet.

Lightridge describes its focus as on “the development, design and production of small, affordable, high-performance space and airborne sensors and payloads for vital national security needs.”

SixGen

The cybersecurity technology provider's board of directors has added a pair of new members in Andrew Boyd and retired Air Force Lt. Gen. Charles Moore, both former cyber leaders in the intelligence community and military.

Boyd most recently served as director of the CIA's center for cyber excellence, while Moore retired in 2022 after a three-decade career that culminated with two years as deputy commander at Cyber Command.

They join SixGen's board approximately one month after the appointment of new chief executive Jack Wilmer, the former Defense Department chief information security officer.

SixGen is owned by the private equity firm Washington Harbour Partners, which purchased the company in late 2023.