WT 360: The market from all angles

Once again, the U.S. government is accusing China of being among several foreign entities that are looking to steal proprietary information on artificial intelligence models from American companies.

Edward Graham, managing editor and Veterans Affairs Department reporter at NextGov/FCW, discovered a memo the White House sent to federal agencies that warns of distillation campaigns seeking to help create knockoff versions of AI models.

Ed joins our Ross Wilkers for this episode to explain how those campaigns work and, more importantly, how they help illuminate the competition between the U.S. and China to...

Decision authority shifts, the government acting like a venture customer and data transparency being the standard mode of operations are examples of how the old formulas of GovCon business success are becoming outdated.

Davi Hayes, senior director for federal strategy at The Chertoff Group, fields any questions from industry clients seeking to understand those trends and more about how the buying behaviors of their federal customers are changing.

For this episode, Davi joins our Ross Wilkers to lay out some of the answers he found in putting together the article “The Federal Market Has Changed. Ha...

Noblis was stood up in 1996 as a science, technology and strategy organization that works with federal agencies on creating and rolling out solutions for some of their most complex problems.

Mile Corrigan, chief executive of Noblis, joins for this episode to go over the firm’s blueprint for its future beyond this milestone year of celebrating its 30th anniversary and how technology transition efforts are at the heart of that vision.

The government wants tech to get from lab to field much quicker than before. In talking with our Ross Wilkers, Corrigan explains some of th...

While the 20th century’s Space Race was strictly head-to-head, the 21st century variant is much more complex and multipolar as private businesses and nations are looking to lead in this domain.

Kevin Kelly, chief executive of Arcfield, joins for this episode to go over how this systems engineering outfit is looking at the landscape through the lens of a company that has both government and private sector customers.

In talking with Ross Wilkers, Kelly explains the art and science of managing space as it gets more and more crowded thanks to plummeting launch costs.

Cuts to contract and grant spending, including outright cancellations, were a feature of the Department of Government Efficiency’s activities during the first year of the Trump administration and some lawsuits followed from those impacted.

Natalie Alms, senior correspondent at NextGov/FCW, worked with our colleague and fellow senior reporter Eric Katz at Government Executive to watch 23 hours of testimony in one of those cases that sheds light on DOGE’s goals and the pressures to meet them.

“Nat” joins our Ross Wilkers for this episode to explain what she and Eric discovered in reporting out a st...

GovCon finds itself in a strange situation where the Homeland Security Department does not have a budget and is in a shutdown, but the three immigration agencies are still operating with some funds.

How is that possible? Stephanie Kostro, president of the Professional Services Council, joins Nick and Ross for this episode to lay out how that is and the DHS funding lapse’s myriad impacts on industry and society.

Their conversation then turns to what contractors are seeking to learn and understand from the U.S. government’s very public breakup with Anthropic, which will...

Science Applications International Corp. can move ahead on their big decision points now that it has a permanent chief executive, which presents at least one element of certainty in a world replete with unknowns.

Nick and Ross use this episode as a starting point for looking at SAIC’s next steps under CEO Jim Reagan, and the paths forward for several other key business and policy storylines in the public sector landscape.

Anthropic’s fight against the U.S. government’s push to eject it from the market has industry-wide implications to unpack, as does the fu...

The Defense Department and Anthropic are on opposite ends of a nasty disagreement, with government-wide and industry-wide implications, over what the company’s Claude large language model and other offerings can be used for.

Alexandra Kelley, our Nextgov/FCW colleague who covers emerging tech, has extensively covered the fallout from that impasse as agencies are working to comply with President Trump’s executive order to stop using Claude after the Pentagon essentially broke up with Anthropic.

“Alexa,” as we and other GovExec colleagues call her, joins our Ross Wilkers for this episode to explain how those pha...

Data labeling refers to the practice of tagging and identifying raw data in order to add meaningful context, of which U.S. government agencies openly admit they struggle with and ask industry for help in.

Peter Kant, founder and chief executive of Enabled Intelligence, started the company in March 2020 to specialize in data labeling work that also relies on continuous training and retraining of artificial intelligence models.

Kant joins for this episode to explain how Enabled Intelligence tailors large language models for use in national security environments where the out-of-the-box tools are not quite ready...

Humans in the loop are, in theory, supposed to be as much a part of all conversations surrounding the use of generative artificial intelligence tools as a way to safeguard against major mistakes.

But as GovCon attorney David Timm has found out, errors showing misuse of the technology are starting to come up in bid protests and other legal rulings that show what can go wrong when relying on the tech too much.

David, a partner at the law firm Burr & Forman, joins our Ross Wilkers for this episode to share his findings from those...

Consolidation and “common goods and services” dominate the discussion around how the federal government wants to revamp its contracting functions, including moves to put the General Services Administration at the center of it all.

Leo Alvarez and Dylan Schreiner, respectively principal and GovCon senior manager at Baker Tilly, are fielding many questions from industry clients on what this landscape looks like and how to map their business strategies to it.

In this episode, Leo and Dylan walk our Ross Wilkers through some of the big-ticket vehicles to watch in 2026 and how they help illustrate the gove...

Pressure points on defense companies from their Pentagon customer to invest more and do business differently than before are coming from multiple levels of leadership, including President Trump himself.

Lauren Williams, business editor at our partner publication Defense One, canvasses the perspectives and opinions of industry pros on that matter to help put together the Defense Business Brief newsletter that goes out every Monday.

Lauren joins our Ross Wilkers for this episode to break down those different pressure points, including Trump’s executive order barring companies from stock repurchases and issuing dividends until they invest mo...

Commercial technology is front-and-center of everyone’s mind across the public sector ecosystem these days, but history shows that agencies have moved slow on the acquisition and adoption fronts here.

Sheila Duffy, founder and chief executive of Greystones Group, views these efforts as grounded in collaboration as customer and contractor both have to agree on the roadmap for development and implementation.

Duffy joins our Ross Wilkers for this episode to go over keys for good collaborations with agencies on rolling out modern tools and how Small Business Innovation Research programs can be a pathway to ac...

Post-shutdown recovery is one item carrying over from calendar year 2025 into 2026 and the chance of another funding stoppage happening on Jan. 30 is not zero percent.

That here-and-now is the starting point of this episode where Stephanie Smith, GovCon industry senior analyst and valuation services director at RSM, takes us through some of the major themes and talking points that will shape the ecosystem in 2026.

How do we define the “non-traditional contractor” and what do their prospects look like? As Steph tells our Ross Wilkers, technical definitions and terms for talking about these companies are moving targ...

The spring of 2024 was a turning point for Nightwing, when the business separated out of its then-parent RTX to become a standalone company focused on cybersecurity and intelligence solutions.

Chris Jones joined Nightwing later that fall as chief technology officer following service as the CIA’s associate deputy director for science and technology. Jones joins for this episode to put into perspective how Nightwing has sought to carve out its own path in the market and priority areas for the company going forward.

In talking with our Ross Wilkers, Jones also explains the role of co...

Most years of a presidential transition result in some adjustments by the government contracting community as a new administration settles in, but 2025 presented more variables to GovCon than ever before.

Stephanie Kostro, president of the Professional Services Council, fields many questions from PSC’s member companies about what is happening across the ecosystem. Kostro joins Nick and Ross for this episode to unpack some that were answered in 2025 and others that remain unanswered for 2026, including the prospects of a second shutdown following the last one.

How the Department of Government Efficiency’s influence remains over GovC...

American Systems opened for business in 1975 and transitioned to an employee stock ownership plan 15 years later, a model that makes it one of the market’s largest 100% ESOP companies.

CEO John Steckel joins for this episode to help mark American Systems’ 50th anniversary and explains some moves it has made this year to set the company up for the next 50, including its largest-ever acquisition.

In talking with our Ross Wilkers, Steckel lays out what the purchase of Epsilon brings to American Systems and larger trends in managed services that led to the transaction. Secured data cent...

In his Nov. 7 address to industry, Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth laid out what the U.S. military wants from its contractors and wholesale changes the Pentagon is carrying out to make agile acquisitions a reality.

Lauren Williams, senior editor at Defense One who covers the industrial base, was there in-person and joins our Ross Wilkers for this episode to walk through those structural changes that prior Defense Department leaders have spoken about for years.

One major theme of that dialogue has been DOD’s desire to have more commercial technologies, which has been easier said th...

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 companies must watch out for and ways for responding to them.

As Williamson tells our Ross Wilkers, there is much excitement across the entire ecosystem to get back to work and understanding there...

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 doctors and nurses.

No image describes the current difficulties health care providers face in their data collection and management practices than the fax machine and clipboard, on which every new patient fills ou...

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 explains, nuclear engineering expertise is becoming more sought-after as artificial intelligence drives demand for power generation at scale.

The company is also focused on space-based infrastructure for working and living beyond Earth, along with potential opportunities in the...

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 detail what operations are still ongoing inside government, who is still working, the impacts of the shutdown and key checkpoints to watch out for ahead of the eventual re...

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 for contractors on how to navigate the shutdown and stay ready for the reopening of government, plus thrive afterward.

The GovCon ecosystem has gone through about 10 months of stress testing befo...

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 health and public safety.

During the conversation with our Ross Wilkers, Kanthamani also explained why he felt both the timing and buyer was right for the company he started in 2007.

Also on their ag...

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 stop work and wait for the directive to resume.

From there, Kostro takes our Ross Wilkers through some of the basic action items that the trade association is recommending for its member companies and more...

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 and James overview how TBR is monitoring the situation and how federal contractors may have had some early practice amid the Department of Government Efficiency’s pushes for cuts.

The conversation with o...

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 after the investment.

As they tell our Ross Wilkers, technologists at both Booz Allen and the startups it invests in collaborate closely to develop the solutions for usage by federal agencies...

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 remains unsettled in how the Trump administration is looking at the federal workforce, but the theme of needing talent will always remain paramount.

One key concept Gupta lays out in the conversation with our Ro...

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 practices into the federal market.

He calls 2025 the “year of the rebuild” with new opportunities accelerating in 2026 as agencies increase demand for solutions that help them use their resources more effectively.

Beyond reseller pacts: How gover...

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 company and some fundamentals that remain the same.

Mapping technology implementations to workforce trends will always be crucial for one. In talking with our Ross Wilkers, Birken lays out ICF’s approach to...

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 Blauzvern, a managing director at CSG Partners and a specialist in these transactions, joins for this episode to explore all it takes to go down the ESOP path after a company decides on it.

Blauzvern...

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 them to bring their technologies into government missions.

As Hauser explains to our Ross Wilkers, the SAIC Ventures team acts as a business model scout in addition to playing its role in the parent co...

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 full story of ODRG’s hard pivot to being a national security and geospatial technology specialist. She also describes how that positioned ODRG to eventually be r...

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 America and use new advanced technology to do it.

Much of their discussion is informed by Lauren’s attendance of a mid-July conference in Detroit called the Reindustrialize Summit, which sought to bring together tech...

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 there is the bigger picture theme for Frank and Ross to talk about: how GSA views it as fitting into the agency’s OneGov strategy for more consolidated buys of common tech goods and services.

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 Katie Helwig.

Compliance remains core to the business of GovCon in an environment where Diversity, Equity and Inclusion initiatives are on the way out. But core values and communicating those remain very much in, as...

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 important choices.

Delivery models, strategic priorities and customer sets all feature in the conversation between Aaron and Ross, which takes place against a market backdrop wher...

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 defense industrial base is also on notice for potential intrusions on their systems, as David explains to our Ross Wilkers.

David also provides an...

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 that process and efforts to get more transparency into what unfolded.

ProPublica broke the story first on June 6 and published a follow-up June 10.

VA is far fr...

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 collective wants all the latest and greatest tech tools, but also sounds picky about where they want to get them from. Nick and Ross highlight the different kinds of rol...