Tech, finance and operations leadership moves across the market

Advanced IT

Martin Mackes has joined the provider of IT, cybersecurity and training services as chief delivery officer following three decades in similar roles across the industry.

Prior to Advanced IT, Martin worked as chief delivery officer at Jefferson Solutions Group and Avantus Federal.

His career also includes leadership roles at Dependable Global Solutions, Unisys Corp. and Booz Allen Hamilton.

Agile Defense

Edward “Ed” Drolet has joined the digital transformation and cybersecurity company as a vice president and customer executive focused on the defense landscape.

The two-decade defense sector veteran’s career includes senior civilian roles at the Air Force and Defense Information Systems Agency, and more recently a vice president post at CACI International.

Agile Defense announced its hire of Drolet following the closure of integration activities stemming from its combination with IntelliBridge in January.

American Systems

Srinivas Rautwar has moved up to chief information officer at the employee-owned provider of engineering and other professional services.

Rautwar has been with the company for 18 years and most recently worked as director of IT operaitons. He succeeds Brian Neely, who retired after two decades as American Systems’ CIO.

The CIO’s duties at American Systems involve the overall vision, planning, and management of all technology, security, and information management-related resources.

Anduril

Matthew Kaplan has moved up to chief administrative officer at this poster child of venture capital-backed defense technology startups.

Kaplan has been with Anduril for five years and now leads its functions related to talent, security, revenue operations and post-acquisition integration activities. He will also work with Anduril’s finance team on corporate planning.

He joined Anduril after a two-year stint at Kayak, a travel search engine.

Applied Signals Intelligence

Azhar Haq has joined the provider of radio frequency sensors and other related solutions as chief financial officer, a role he brings two decades of experience to.

He most recently worked as CFO for six years at Antenna Research Associates.

Haq’s career also includes a decade at DRS Technologies’ signal solutions business, mostly concentrated on financial leadership roles.

Harmonia Holdings

Kirstin Shelton has joined the software development services provider as chief human resources officer, a newly-created role for the Madison Dearborn partners-backed company.

Her responsibilities cover all aspects of HR and talent acquisition functions such as employee engagement, company culture, recruiting, total rewards, and training and development.

Shelton most recently worked as chief HR officer at Evoke Consulting and is a veteran of companies such as Octo, ICF and Science Applications International Corp.

Halcyon

The anti-ransomware software provider has stood up a new practice focused on the federal landscape and hired two new executives to lead its push in the market.

Mitchell Plonski is now president of the Halcyon federal practice following six years in senior roles at Shift5, while Julie Starnes has joined as vice president of federal and is also a former Shift5 executive.

Halcyon designs its software to detect and disrupt attacks, aid in recovery and use threat intelligence to anticipate problems.

HII

Eric Chewning is now executive vice president of maritime systems and corporate strategy at the shipbuilding and government technology company, which he joined in January 2023 as EVP for strategy and development.

Chewning’s expanded responsibilities now cover HII’s overall strategy around maritime and advanced technology development, which include both manned and unmanned systems.

He is a former deputy assistant defense secretary for industrial policy.

Invisible Technologies

Sharon Woods has joined the artificial intelligence software provider as senior vice president of enterprise accounts for its global public sector business following two decades at the Defense Department.

She most recently served as director of the Defense Information Systems Agency’s J6 Command, Control, Communications and Computer Enterprise Directorate.

Woods is also a former general counsel for the Defense Digital Service.

QinetiQ US

Donna Wilson has joined the defense technology company’s U.S. subsidiary as chief financial officer, a role she brings three decades of business experience to.

Wilson most recently worked as CFO at Top Aces Corp., a Montreal-headquartered defense company that specializes in training services for armed forces. Top Aces’ primary customers are the militaries of Canada and Germany, plus the U.S. Air Force.

She is also a former CFO for ST Engineering iDirect and before that worked in financial leadership posts at Unisys Federal.

Red Cat Holdings

Barry Hinckley has joined the drone and robotic technology maker as president of Blue Ops, a newly-formed division of the company focused on building unmanned surface vessels.

Red Cat stood up Blue Ops as a further foray into the maritime autonomy market and to integrate different offerings in sensors, kinetics and other technologies into the USVs.

Hinckley is a veteran entrepreneur and technology executive who is also a former Senate candidate.

Red River

David Raffeto has joined the digital transformation provider as senior vice president and general manager for the technology solutions business unit, a role that involves leadership over the federal and commercial sales teams.

Raffetto most recently spent 16 years at Cisco and led that company’s Defense Department sales team of 80 people.

He is also a veteran of the Coast Guard.

Tria Federal

Murali Mallina has been promoted to chief technology officer at the digital services company, which he joined in 2024 via its acquisition of Softrams.

He was CTO of Softrams prior to the transaction and will oversee Tria’s work on developing and testing emerging technologies, including work out of the Tria Labs innovation hub.

Tria touts his 25-year career as including experience in cloud computing, serverless architectures, and enterprise-level artificial intelligence and machine learning applications.

True Anomaly

Sarah Walter has joined the small satellite and defense system maker as chief operating officer, a newly-created role for the venture-backed startup.

The two-decade aerospace veteran most recently worked as vice president of engineering at York Space Systems. Her career also includes 11 years at Rolls-Royce.

True Anomaly closed a $260 million Series C capital raise back in the spring.

Voyager Technologies

Paul Tilghman has joined the now-publicly traded space and defense systems maker as chief technology officer to lead its innovation roadmap and overall tech strategies.

The 15-year defense sector veteran most recently worked as chief engineer for connected warfare at Anduril. He has also held business and tech leadership roles at Microsoft and Lockheed Martin.

Earlier in Tilghman’s career, he established and led the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency’s research area focused on wireless artificial intelligence.