Intel's government hires and more leadership moves across the market

Intel

The computer chip maker has hired two new executives for federal-facing functions, with one overseeing the U.S. government business and a second involving dialogue with key stakeholders.

James Chew has joined as vice president of Intel Government Technologies, the business unit housing work for the federal customer. Chew most recently worked as a senior director Cadence Design Systems, where Intel CEO Lip-Bu Tan was previously chief executive.

Robin Colwell, deputy assistant to the president and deputy director of the National Economic Council, has also joined Intel as senior vice president of government affairs. She leads Intel’s engagements with policymakers, regulators and industry leaders.

Over the summer, the U.S. government became Intel’s largest stockholder with 9.9% ownership of the shares.

Aqua IT

Bill Cloin has joined the technology integrator as chief operating officer and managing partner, following his service as director of the National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency’s GEOINT services office.

Cloin’s responsibilities at NGA included leadership over modernization efforts and other transformation initiatives aimed at facilitating greater collaboration across government.

Prior to NGA, he worked as senior vice president of operations at NJVC.

Amentum

Jim Blankenhorn, senior vice president of the company’s North America energy and environment business line, will become chief executive of an Amentum-Honeywell joint venture operating at the Energy Department’s Oak Ridge, Tennessee reservation.

UCOR is the lead contractor for an environmental remediation effort at Oak Ridge, where the 2,200-employee venture is deactivating and demolishing former nuclear facilities. UCOR took over the work in 2011 and booked the current $8.3 billion contract in 2022.

Blankenhorn is a 38-year nuclear industry veteran and will start as UCOR’s CEO on April 1. Ken Rueter is retiring from the CEO role after 11 years in it and four decades in the nuclear industry.

In November, Amentum CEO John Heller appeared on our WT 360 podcast and highlighted nuclear engineering as a key priority for the company in that interview.

American Systems

Lauren Kilcoyne will join the employee-owned company on Jan. 5 as chief operating officer, a role she brings two decades of experience to.

American Systems has tasked her with driving cross-functional collaboration across the company, plus the development and implementation of business plans and procedures.

Kilcoyne’s career in the industry includes senior roles at Astrion, Empower AI, Capgemini, Leidos and Lockheed Martin.

American Systems CEO John Steckel appeared on the Dec. 8 edition of our WT 360 podcast to help mark the company’s 50th anniversary and how it is positioning for the next 50 years.

GRVTY

Tom Jackson has joined the Arlington Capital-owned defense tech integrator as chief growth officer, a role he brings nearly three decades of experience to.

Jackson will oversee GRVTY’s business development and market expansion efforts, which center around the company’s vision of an automated intelligence enterprise for its national security customers.

His career includes roles of increasing responsibility at Sierra Nevada Corp., Aeryon Defense USA and Kymeta Corp.

M1 Support Services

Todd Andre and Martin Craft now both hold president titles at the Cerberus Capital Management-owned provider of aviation services.

Andre leads M1’s portfolio of Air Force and Navy programs, while Craft does the same but for Army and special operations forces efforts. Andre first joined M1 in 2024 and is a three-decade defense sector veteran, while Craft has been M1’s chief business officer since 2005.

Cerberus acquired M1 in the spring of 2024 and subsequently brought in George Krivo as chief executive. Krivo previously led DynCorp International from 2017 to 2020, when Cerberus sold the company to Amentum after 10 years of ownership.

Palladyne AI

Doug Dynes has joined the artificial intelligence software developer as president of Palladyne Defense, an operating division formed during the fall in the wake of three acquisitions.

That string of transactions included Crucis, which Dynes helped co-found in 2020 and subsequently led as chief executive.

Palladyne describes his three-decade background as including experience across national defense, political, military, industrial and financial operations. He is a former special assistant to the Navy undersecretary and national security adviser to Sen. Orrin Hatch (R-Utah).

Parsons Corp.

John Martinez, chief legal officer and corporate secretary at Maximus for the past two years, will join Parsons on Feb. 16 in the same capacity as current CLO Mike Kolloway prepares to retire.

Martinez’s 25-year legal career includes also includes senior positions at GE Aerospace and Raytheon. Before entering industry, his government career included service as deputy general counsel for the Office of the Director of National Intelligence and as a senior associate general counsel at the CIA.

Kolloway’s formal departure from Parsons is planned for the second quarter.

REI Systems

Eric Olson has joined the technology integrator as chief corporate development officer, a role that involves the development and execution of a mergers-and-acquisition strategy.

REI has tasked Olson with leading efforts to expand across defense and national security markets, plus building a platform for longer-term growth.

The 30-year market veteran most recently led Buchanan & Edwards as chief executive for the past six years. His career also includes senior leadership roles at ECS Federal and InfoReliance.

In October, BE hired former Hexagon executive Chris Bellios as CEO.

ShorePoint

The federal cybersecurity company has given three executives new roles in its C-level leadership team roughly one month after private equity firm CM Equity Partners invested in it.

Rob Palmer is now chief operating officer at ShorePoint, which he first joined in 2017 as chief technology officer after a five-year period in federal service. He is a former deputy CTO for the Homeland Security Department.

Ryan McCullough has moved over to chief growth officer from his prior role as chief strategy officer, which he has worked in since joining in 2017.

James Pittiglio was named chief technology officer and first joined ShorePoint in 2020 as an executive director.

Spectro Cloud

Matthew Heideman has joined the Kubernetes application developer as vice president of public sector, a role he brings 26 years of experience to.

Spectro Cloud designs its offerings to help IT teams manage clusters and other tech stacks, whether they reside in data centers or cloud environments.

Heideman most recently led the public sector practice at Mattermost and announced his new role in a LinkedIn post.

Slingshot Aerospace

Hannah Spellmeyer has rejoined the space data software provider as chief people officer, a role that encompasses the entire human resources function.

Spellmeyer spent six months outside the company prior to her return, Slingshot said in a LinkedIn post on her hire.

Her 11-year business career includes leadership roles at Yuga Labs and Chainalysis.

Socure

Matthew Thompson, who first joined the digital identity verification tech provider in 2021, has moved up to president and chief commercial officer with public sector growth part of his responsibilities.

At Socure, he first held the role of senior vice president and general manager for public sector over three years. Thompson then moved up to chief revenue officer for the entire corporation.

Thompson is also a former senior vice president for Idemia’s North America business and co-founded ID.me in 2010.

ThinkTek

Stephen Forgue has moved up to vice president of growth at the technology and management consulting company, which he first joined in the spring of 2024.

ThinkTek has tasked Forgue with leading its enterprise growth strategy and expansion efforts, including the company’s partnership and business development functions.

His 15-year career in industry includes stops at Booz Allen Hamilton, Grant Thornton and Deloitte.

True Anomaly

Rob Aalseth has joined the venture-backed maker of small satellites and autonomous technology products as chief growth officer, a role he brings 26 years of government and industry experience to.

True Anomaly has tasked him with leading its business development, go-to-market and partnership functions as the company focuses its strategy around space superiority initiatives.

Aalseth most recently worked as senior vice president of space solutions at Parsons Corp. and in a similar role at BlueHalo before that. His career also includes senior roles at Northrop Grumman, Raytheon and Anduril.

He is also a former Air Force officer and later served in civilian leadership roles, both there and at the Defense Department.

VATN Systems

MJ Thomas has joined the venture-backed maker of autonomous underwater vehicles as vice president of security, risk and compliance following service as a senior leader at the FBI.

VATN’s LinkedIn post on the hire describes Thomas’ FBI career as including a leadership role over its Counterproliferation Center, a stint as senior liason to the Pentagon and being key in the creation of the National Counterintelligence Task Force located at the Applied Research Lab for Intelligence and Security.

Thomas will lead and develop VATN’s internal risk programs, security procedures and processes, and other compliance initiatives.

Xpect Solutions

Chris Stoner has joined the engineering and network infrastructure services provider as vice president of technical solutions, a role he brings 16 years of Justice Department experience to.

Xpect has tasked Stoner with building methodologies, solution playbooks and a capability practice as part of efforts to bring together the company’s offerings.

He worked in increasing roles of responsibility at Justice, where his most recent role was as a unit chief.