SPA Fellows represent the company’s most senior subject matter experts, advancing enterprise capabilities and delivering mission impact for national security clients. These appointments reinforce SPA’s commitment to accelerating how advanced capabilities are developed, integrated, and applied across complex, multi-domain environments.

The newly appointed fellows are:

• Ian Harding, Fellow, Software Engineering
• Steven Hernandez, Fellow, DevSecOps and Cloud
• Amy Soller, Fellow, Applied Artificial Intelligence
• Phillip Pournelle, Fellow, Digital Wargaming

Together, their expertise enables SPA to deliver mission-ready capabilities faster from scalable software systems and secure cloud architectures to applied artificial intelligence and advanced analytical wargaming that informs critical decisions.

Harding leads the design of advanced software architectures that enable data analytics, artificial intelligence, and decision-making. Hernandez architects secure, scalable cloud and DevSecOps solutions that accelerate the delivery of mission-critical systems, particularly in space and command and control environments. Soller leads the application of artificial intelligence and machine learning to advance mission outcomes, adapting and customizing emerging technologies for complex defense and intelligence environments. Pournelle leads digital wargaming and analytical approaches that advance decision-making across joint and naval operations.

Source: SPA

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SPA will deliver integrated business operations, communications and public affairs, stakeholder engagement, and technical subject matter expertise to advance coordination, transparency, and enterprise-wide decision-making across OUSW (R&E)’s critical initiatives.

“This award reflects SPA’s continued growth and our commitment to delivering trusted, mission-driven capability where it matters most for our warfighters and national security,” said Amy Mijas, SPA senior vice president and joint OSD interagency division director.

Under the contract, SPA will advance operational efficiency and strengthen stakeholder collaboration across the OUSW (R&E) enterprise. Washington Headquarters Services, Arlington, Virginia, serves as the contracting activity.

Source: SPA

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As CIO, Badhwar leads SPA’s enterprise information technology (IT) organization, including digital strategy, architecture, engineering, operations, data management, and business intelligence. He focuses on delivering secure, resilient, scalable technology, and cybersecurity platforms in close partnership with SPA’s business and mission teams.

“Raj brings deep expertise in cybersecurity, cloud, and enterprise IT that will be critical as SPA continues to grow and support increasingly complex national security missions. His leadership will help ensure our technology remains secure, modern, and aligned with both our customers’ needs and our long-term strategy,” Sawchak said.

Badhwar’s priorities include strengthening technology capabilities that support SPA’s national security customers, increasing efficiency and scalability across the IT organization, and ensuring that technology investments align with mission delivery, business growth, and acquisition activities.

“My work at SPA will center on ensuring technology directly supports mission outcomes for our national security customers. That means strengthening security and resilience, simplifying operations as we scale, and advancing our cloud, data, and cybersecurity capabilities in a disciplined and trusted way,” noted Badhwar.

Badhwar brings more than 30 years of experience leading secure technology and cybersecurity organizations across engineering, defense, financial services, and cloud platforms.

Source: SPA

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As part of its headquarters expansion in Alexandria, SPA has purchased a 239,000 square foot, state-of-the-art office building and will undertake extensive renovations to create a modern, collaborative workspace for its employees. Investments will include new technology and infrastructure, designed to foster an environment of creativity and productivity. The company plans to grow its headquarters workforce over the next five years, anticipating the creation of 500 new jobs in Alexandria, contributing to the local economy and creating new employment opportunities.

“We are thrilled to deepen our roots in Alexandria and Fairfax County, two vibrant communities that have supported our growth for more than 50 years. This expansion reflects our commitment to providing exceptional data-driven analytical insights to our clients while fostering innovation within our own organization. We are excited to welcome new talent and invest in the local economy,” said SPA CEO Rich Sawchak.

In addition to the headquarters in Alexandria, SPA is also looking to expand its operations in Fairfax County. The company anticipates growth at its existing facilities in Lorton and Chantilly, while actively exploring new locations to accommodate its expanding workforce. Similar to its Alexandria investment, SPA will invest significantly in new technology and enhanced facilities, projecting the creation of over 700 jobs in Fairfax County.

Local officials also recognized the positive impact of SPA’s expansion. “We congratulate Systems Planning & Analysis on this exciting next chapter of growth at their headquarters and across the region,” said Alexandria Mayor Alyia Gaskins. “The purchase of their office headquarters is a signal of their commitment to and investment in Alexandria, where they will grow their workforce and their community partnerships. This planned regional growth cements their place as a pillar of the defense and national security industry, and we are proud to add them to the growing list of Alexandria business success stories.”

Fairfax County Board of Supervisors Chair, Jeffrey McKay, echoed those sentiments, stating, “SPA’s expansion is yet another indicator that Fairfax County is an ideal place for businesses to grow and thrive. We are committed to providing the necessary support to ensure their success in our community.”

Source: SPA

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The acquisition of PRKK, combined with continued organic growth, enables SPA to further expand its commitment to the Space and Intelligence sectors. PRKK will become a key part of SPA’s Space & Intelligence (“S&I”) Division under the leadership of Bruce Phillips, senior vice president. The Company will continue to provide its exceptional capabilities to a growing list of blue-chip clients while gaining access to SPA’s comprehensive portfolio of solutions and expertise.  PRKK has operations across the U.S. including Washington, DC, Colorado Springs, CO, and Vandenberg SFB, CA.

“As SPA’s strategic expansion across the S&I domain continues, we are thrilled to fold PRKK’s highly complementary capabilities into our offerings, further enabling us to deliver specialized analytics and engineering expertise to our national security customers,” commented SPA CEO Rich Sawchak.

“PRKK is well known for providing rapid warfighter solutions and concepts, systems engineering, threat intelligence analysis, cyber concept development, and tailored analytics. We couldn’t ask for a better fit, and we warmly welcome PRKK’s highly qualified and experienced subject matter experts into the SPA family,” Sawchak said.

Phil Ryan, PRKK co-president, added, “We are excited to have PRKK become a key contributor to SPA’s strategic expansion supporting the vital missions of our customers and the dedicated professionals who serve our country. We feel that SPA’s customer and mission focus, coupled with their commitment to employees, makes them a superb home for the entire PRKK family.”

“Phil and I look forward to supporting Dave Meteyer, PRKK’s General Manager, in leading the integration of our team of space, cyber and SOF operators, along with our acquisition specialists and intelligence experts into the broader SPA organization,” said Keith Kozlowski, PRKK co-president.

David Wodlinger, a managing partner at Arlington Capital, said “SPA’s acquisition of PRKK brings cutting edge capabilities and decades of experience working on some of the most advanced space protection concepts. In an evolving geo-political environment where our adversaries may seek to hold our space assets at risk, adding PRKK’s extensive solutions and skilled employees with SPA’s own work on critical space programs will position SPA as the trusted partner of choice for the space and intelligence communities.”

“Adding PRKK’s capabilities and customer set further enables SPA to serve critical missions within the national security community,” said Ben Ramundo, a principal at Arlington Capital. “We’re excited to support Rich, Bruce and the SPA team in deepening its position in the S&I domain, a key tenet of SPA’s growth strategy.”

Source: SPA

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Muse brings more than 20 years’ experience in the government services sector to the SPA team and is extensively accomplished in merger and acquisition activity, corporate finance, and strategic planning.

“We enthusiastically welcome Dan to the SPA team as we continue to build upon our 50-year history of high quality and high impact services to our clients,” commented SPA CEO Rich Sawchak. “Dan’s extensive experience and expertise, particularly in leading complex transactions and negotiations, will serve us well as SPA’s horizons continue to expand. Dan is a top-notch leader and his financial acumen and strategic insights are a welcome addition to our executive team.”

Muse most recently served as CFO of Iron Bow Technologies, a provider of collaboration, digital transformation, IT modernization, and cybersecurity solutions to public sector and commercial customers. He earned an MBA from the Tuck School of Business at Dartmouth, holds the Chartered Financial Analyst (CFA) designation, and has been named both a Trending 40 – Rising Star in GovCon and a Rising Star in Federal Technology by DCA Live.

Source: SPA

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“The timing of Bill’s retirement was planned during the transition to Arlington Capital’s ownership last year, and we are grateful for his outstanding leadership as SPA’s President and CEO over the past seven years,” said David Wodlinger, board chairperson and a managing partner at Arlington Capital Partners. “With Bill at the helm, SPA achieved impressive performance through consecutive years of high growth while achieving excellence across each of our key performance indicators, culminating in the recently announced 2022 GovCon Contractor of the Year award, while also being named for seven consecutive years as a Washington Post Top Workplace. Over the past year, he skillfully led SPA through the integration of four companies while maintaining SPA’s culture of excellence, setting the stage for the next phase of the company’s growth.”

Among other significant accomplishments, Dr. Vantine was named the GovCon CEO of the year in 2019 and the WashingtonExec DoD Private Sector Executive of the Year in 2021.

“SPA is thriving as it heads into its next chapter thanks to our incredible team that delivers high quality, high-impact decision support that our clients have relied on for over 50 years. I have had the privilege to lead and learn from this great team as they have continuously supported our clients’ complex missions. I will always be SPA’s biggest supporter and I am filled with gratitude for my time here. I look forward to continuing to contribute to SPA’s amazing success through my participation on the board of directors, and I am confident the Company will be in great hands under Rich’s leadership,” said Dr. Vantine.

Sawchak commented, “I am truly honored and excited at the opportunity to lead SPA, a great company I have long admired. Having served on SPA’s board of directors for the last year, I have gained an even greater appreciation of SPA’s focus on mission, values, and culture. I look forward to continuing to execute on the successful strategy initiated by Bill over the last seven years. SPA has an extremely bright future ahead, and the first 50 years are only the beginning.”

Rich Sawchak will succeed Dr. Vantine as CEO on 21 November and brings over 25 years of leadership experience within the government services and technology industries to SPA, where he will continue driving its success as a pure-play technical advisory services firm focused on a people-first culture and commitment to its customers’ missions. Sawchak served most recently as the CFO of Hypori, Inc.  Sawchak has been a senior executive for four private equity or venture-backed companies, where he successfully completed many acquisition, integration and financing transactions to drive stakeholder value.

Prior to joining Hypori, Sawchak was the CFO of Novetta for nine years until the successful sale of the company to Accenture Federal Services. He was previously employed by Schafer Corporation, where he served as executive vice president and CFO. Before that, Sawchak served as senior vice president and CFO of Paradigm Solutions until the successful sale of the company to CACI International. He serves as a board member of SPA, Gunnison Consulting, and Cydecor as well as a trustee of the University of Valley Forge.

Source: SPA

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After closing, Jeff Monroe, Coni Ratonel and Matt Norton will continue to manage ORCA as a division within SPA’s Naval, Nuclear and Critical Infrastructure sector, led by Vice Admiral (Ret.) Terry Benedict.

Dr. William Vantine, CEO of SPA, said, “We are thrilled to join forces with Jeff, Coni, Matt and the rest of the ORCA team as part of SPA’s strategic efforts to further expand and strengthen our leadership in model-based systems engineering, operations research, modeling and simulation, and wargaming, and I’m honored to welcome the primarily San Diego-based employee base to the SPA family. ORCA and SPA’s capabilities are highly complementary and will allow the combined organization to efficiently deliver continued innovation to our national security customers. We have long respected the technology resident within ORCA, including Cyber Assassin (CA) and Naval Simulation System (NSS), and are excited to capitalize on these tools and ORCA’s highly talented team to deliver high quality, high impact solutions to SPA’s broad customer base.”

Van Gurley, CEO of Metron, stated, “This sale of our government advisory services reflects Metron’s continued commitment to being the premier mid-tier innovative solution provider for our national security and commercial partners and clients. When we began looking at options to move out of the advisory space, SPA was the obvious choice. Their commitment to employees, focus on the government advisory mission, and deep technical excellence was the perfect culture match. This is a true win-win-win for all three organizations. SPA provides the scale and opportunities to grow ORCA in ways Metron could not, and the transaction provides Metron the resources to be more nimble, accelerating our R&D business growth as we develop solutions for our customer’s toughest challenges. I want to thank ORCA employees for their past service to Metron and congratulate SPA for completing this strategic transaction.”

David Wodlinger, a managing partner at Arlington Capital, said “ORCA is a key component of SPA’s overall strategy to solidify its position as the elite technical advisory partner to the national security community. SPA and ORCA both solve customer challenges within missions of strategic importance by pairing highly skilled employees with innovative tools. This shared business model will facilitate a smooth integration and accelerate the delivery of further innovation to each set of customers.”

Ben Ramundo, a vice president at Arlington Capital, said “With critical mass in an important geography and access to a new cadre of national security customers, ORCA will drive SPA’s organic growth trajectory even higher. We thank Metron for being a good transaction partner and look forward to continuing the stewardship of ORCA’s accomplished employee base, technology and mission impact.”

Source: SPA

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SPA President and CEO Dr. William Vantine said, “Arena aligns extremely well with our strategic inorganic priorities and provides access to new, dynamic customers for SPA’s mission-proven, data-driven advisory tools and capabilities. The addition of Arena also strengthens our positioning in the fast-growing space domain, and we are excited to partner with Arena to share the SPA story and our cutting-edge capabilities with this critical customer set as a part of our broader corporate objective to build the premier trusted advisor for our customers. Consolidation has created a void in the technical advisory market, and this transaction marks the first of many investments we are making to fill it.”

Arena cofounder and CEO John Pollard shared, “This transaction is an exciting time for Arena as we now have the weight of SPA behind us to expand our suite of capabilities and service offerings to meet the needs of our Intelligence Community customers and partners. Joining the SPA team will provide our employees with expanded career opportunities, and it will also establish a platform that prioritizes advisory work and the highly technical employees who are seeking an unconflicted home from which to continue serving the mission. With access to SPA’s corporate infrastructure, credentials, and past performance, we are poised to rapidly expand in our current customer base and further support their mission. We are also better able to deliver differentiated capabilities to adjacent customers responding to similarly critical and complex threats and challenges.”

Source: SPA

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During a 37-year government career, Stewart, a former member of the Senior Executive Service, held a variety of senior technical and executive leadership positions. In addition to MCSC chief engineer, positions included technical director at Naval Surface Warfare Center (NSWC) Panama City, deputy technical director at NSWC Headquarters in Washington, DC, and other technical assignments within Naval Sea Systems Command (NAVSEA).

In his new position with SPA, Stewart will be responsible for developing and executing a strategy to expand SPA’s Navy, Marine Corps, NAVSEA, and Warfare Center business.

“We are very pleased to welcome Ed to SPA and to benefit from his deep understanding of our customers’ requirements,” said SPA President and CEO Dr. William Vantine.

Source: SPA

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