Former Stanley and ECS exec George Wilson starts a third chapter with cyber-focused acquisition

With George Wilson’s resume, one would think think he would be retired and living the good life.

After all, he helped take Stanley Associates from about 25 employees to 6,000 and $1 billion in revenue. CGI Group acquired Stanley in 2010.

His second chapter was at Electronic Consulting Services, where he became CEO and led that company for 10 years. ECS Federal reached $1 billion in annual revenue before he retired in 2021. He also led the sale of ECS to ASGN in 2018 for $775 million.

But retirement was not a long-term plan for Wilson. He wanted back in and in April 2024, he signed on with Bluestone Investment Partners. Wilson was joined there by Tom Weston, ECS Federal’s former CFO.

The plan was to help the private equity firm find companies to acquire, and one of those companies would be the platform for Wilson's return as a CEO.

Wilson just didn’t expect it to be the first company they identified for Bluestone to buy.

Bluestone completed its acquisition in November of Valiant Solutions, a cybersecurity firm focused mostly on civilian agencies.

“This just happened to be our first one and they needed a CEO,” Wilson said.

A second acquisition is in the works, but Wilson said he won’t be the CEO of that company. He will join its board, however.

Valiant's founder Matt Raydo is stepping down as CEO, but will stay with the company for at least 18 months working on business development. In keeping with Bluestone’s investment strategy, Raydo retains a financial interest in the company and will remain on its board.

A fun fact about Raydo is that he was a guard on the University of Maryland men’s basketball team from 1993-to-1997. (As a life-long Duke fan, I sure miss the Terps being in the ACC. Those were some great games.)

The rest of the Valiant management team and employees are staying. Many will have “skin in the game” as investors, Wilson said.

Valiant is 20 years old and currently posts around $70 million in annual revenue. Wilson said Valiant's biggest customer is the General Services Administration, but also does work at the Treasury and Education departments,

The company’s focus is primarily on cybersecurity solutions, which is a platform Wilson said they will build on as they make future acquisitions.

He wants the company to move into the defense market and add cyber capabilities around operational and industrial control systems.

“Think about any critical infrastructure, there are vulnerabilities that can be acted on,” he said.

With Bluestone’s backing, they will look to acquire other small to lower mid-tier companies that might escape the attention of larger private equity firms.

Wilson wouldn’t predict whether he’ll have a third $1 billion story as he had at Stanley and ECS, but it sounds like he’s going to try.

NOTE: This story has been updated to correct the name of the company. It is Valiant Solutions, not Valiant Systems.