WT 360: The market from all angles

The 2025 government shutdown is on-record as the largest ever at 43 days, which means the recovery period will last well into the spring and presents a risky environment for contractors to operate in. Christine Williamson, a partner in the GovCon industry advisory practice at CohnReznick, joins for this episode to walk through five risks she and her colleague Kristen Soles identified as ones compa...

Commence is a newish company looking to help federal agencies, state and local governments, and private sector entities harness technology with the goal of helping care providers make better decisions. Ian Checcio, chief growth officer at Commence, joins for this episode to go over how the company has come together over 12 months with Pleasant Land’s backing and that vision of further enabling doc...

Amentum is marking one year since its merger with Jacobs' government businesses to create a $14 billion-annual revenue company whose strategy centers around engineering and technology. CEO John Heller joins our Nick Wakeman for this episode to discuss how Amentum has positioned for opportunities in high-growth markets including space systems, nuclear energy and multi-domain defense. As Heller expl...

The government shutdown is now in week number four, which gives us a checkpoint to gauge the impacts so far and those to come for federal agency operations. Part one of this two-part episode sees Carten Cordell and Edward Graham, respectively managing editors at WT’s partner publications Government Executive and NextgovFCW, join Nick and Ross to go over the shutdown from every angle. Carten and Ed...

The business of federal contracting does not entirely come to a halt during government shutdowns, and arguably picks up in other ways, but financial concerns certainly remain paramount for all companies. Phil Poliquin is a market executive for J.P. Morgan Commercial Banking’s aerospace, defense and government services team. He is our guest for this week’s episode to go over some general guidelines...

Tria Federal’s acquisition of Softrams back in the spring transformed the acquirer almost overnight into a 1,500-person team that looks to blend technical offerings and knowledge-centric work . Tim Borchert and Atchut Kanthamani, respectively chief executive and president of Tria, join for this episode to overview the strategy for being a more formidable midsized competitor in its core markets of...

Stop-work orders from government agencies to their partners in industry do not, in fact, entirely pause the business of federal contracting as companies have plenty to do as they prepare for the eventual reopening. This episode featuring Stephanie Kostro, president of the Professional Services Council, begins with a guide of what typically happens next after contractors receive those orders to sto...

All government shutdowns do end at some point, no matter how dark and gloomy things may feel, and all businesses are charged with navigating both today’s environment and positioning for tomorrow’s opportunity set. But the shutdown is where we had to start this episode featuring John Caucis and James Wichert, public sector analysts at the market intelligence firm Technology Business Research. John...

Booz Allen Hamilton has invested in 17 startups since the launch of its venture capital fund in 2022, which initially had $100 million to work with and is now tripled in size to $300 million. Matt Calderone and Brian MacCarthy, respectively chief financial officer for Booz Allen and its VC organization leader, join for this episode to explain why the firm expanded the fund and all that happens aft...

Government workforces absolutely have been disrupted here in 2025 through layoffs and other exits of employees from agencies, but there is a future to talk about and especially when it comes to technology. For this episode, NobleReach Foundation’s chief executive Arun Gupta helps us take that conversation forward with ideas and solutions for bringing more talent into the public sector. Much remain...

In his first year as CEO, Ron Ash of Accenture Federal Services has been positioning the company for growth opportunities that focus on Trump administration priorities for artificial intelligence and other technologies that foster efficiency.  Ash tells our Nick Wakeman about how these changes in the market have impacted partnerships, fostered new business models and brought more commercial practi...

Needless to say, the 2025 presidential transition has put technology higher on the agenda when talking about the business of government and how those tools can be a lever for changing how agencies operate. David Birken, senior vice president for digital modernization and experience at ICF, joins for this episode to explain how federal tech modernization has been a long-term growth priority for the...

Government contractors struggle with exit and succession planning for multiple reasons, while the majority of transaction activity in the market these days has some level of private equity involvement on either side. But companies that want to remain independent, the employee stock ownership plan can be an alternative transaction that creates liquidity and incentives for the shareholders. David Bl...

For technology startups, the closure of an external investment round should be considered only the beginning of a new cycle in their strategies to grow the business and accelerate adoption of their products. Michael Hauser, managing partner for Science Applications International Corp.’s venture capital arm, joins for this episode to explain how SAIC Ventures works with startups after investing in...

Every founder of a company faces this quandary: What does our next phase look like? How do we get there? Who can help us get there? Sophia Harris and her leadership team at ODRG, which she founded in 2013, faced those questions head-on as they plotted out the company’s next steps and that led them to partnering with Advantage Capital. This episode begins with Harris telling our Ross Wilkers the fu...

Reindustrialization is a catch-all description of moves by government and industry to reinvigorate domestic manufacturing amid other countries’ investments on that front, especially China. Lauren Williams , our Defense One colleague and a senior editor there, joins our Ross Wilkers for this episode to explore how the industry they cover is a part of that larger push to build more systems in Americ...

Uber is the newest example of a consumer technology company entering into a government-wide arrangement with the General Services Administration, which negotiated the pact on behalf of every federal agency. Frank Konkel, editor-in-chief for all GovExec publications including WT, joins for this episode to break down the finer details of that agreement and how contractors are a part of it too. Then...

Government contractors are under a different sort of microscope for not just how they do their work supporting agencies’ missions, but also how they talk about themselves out in the public. The direct connections between external messaging and communications with government customers are the focal point of this episode featuring Dustin Siggins, founder of Proven Media Solutions, and Mild Red CEO K...

Companies in the government market have to make big “Sliding Doors”-type decisions all the time on which paths to choose for themselves and those to turn away from. Aaron Myers works with contractors in those situations as a partner for aerospace, defense and government advisory at Aprio. He joins our Ross Wilkers for this episode to provide key questions for them to answer when it is time to make...

Iran is known to be one of the world’s major nation-state actors in cyberspace and that fact has returned to the forefront since its war with Israel started on June 13. David DiMolfetta , who covers cyber for our partner publication Nextgov/FCW, joins for this episode to break down how Iran typically operates in cyber and what U.S. government agencies are watching out for as the conflict continues...

The Veterans Affairs Department is coming under heightened scrutiny after it emerged that artificial intelligence likely played a role in VA’s decisions on which contracts to cut as part of the Trump administration’s purported efficiency push. Edward Graham , who covers VA for our partner publication Nextgov/FCW, joins for this episode to break down what is known so far about VA’s use of AI in tha...

Each annual release of the Top 100 also provides a jumping-off point to start pondering what the next year’s rankings could look like and how today’s macrotrends shape it. For this second part of their 2025 Top 100 conversation, Nick and Ross pick up where they left off by looking at the Trump administration’s spotlight and scrutiny of GovCon five months after moving in. The government customer co...

Edition number 32 of the Washington Technology Top 100 rankings is now live for all to use in researching the federal market's largest technology and services contractors, and mapping the numbers to the industry’s macrotrends. For this first in a two-part episode (the second goes out next week), Nick and Ross go over the companies and numbers that feature up and down the rankings’ 2025 edition. He...

The U.S. defense landscape has a few mainstays whose corporate headquarters are in another country and the reverse is very much true as well regardless of geopolitical and economic conditions. But the ongoing tariff turbulence stemming from the Trump administration does pose questions about why international companies are still looking at the U.S. as a key market to grow their defense businesses....

As Trump’s White House sees things, the General Services Administration should take on substantially all of the responsibility for managing the federal government’s acquisitions of goods and services. Frank Konkel, editor-in-chief for GovExec’s publications including us, and WT’s editor Nick Wakeman broke the story on May 21 of how GSA is planning to absorb major IT contracts run by the National I...