Manager Customer

Kelly N. Ralston

Reston, VA • adj68o@r.postjobfree.com • 703-***-****

SUMMARY: Experienced executive, customer-driven, hands-on leader with a proven track record developing and executing successful growth strategies, managing large-scale P&Ls, building organizational capacity, and effectively building, training, motivating and engaging teams of high-performance professionals. Thrives on tackling complex challenges, stretching to achieve ambitious goals. Highly capable of assimilating complex and abstract information, identifying the root causes and creating innovative action plans that are solution oriented. Solid command of Federal contracting rules and regulations, labor laws, and IT/business protocols and best practices. A skilled communicator and writer, at ease presenting at the executive level. Strong customer-facing skills with demonstrated ability to enhance business execution through innovation, stakeholder engagement, and thought leadership campaigns.

Executive Leadership

Financial Management

Growth Strategy

Coalition Builder

Data Analytics and

Visualization

Strategic

Communications

Organizational

Effectiveness

Change Management

Post-Merger Integration

OBJECTIVE: To bring my 20+ years’ experience to develop and drive strategies to accelerate growth and productivity by simplifying processes, improving performance, and optimizing solutions to support Syms Strategic Group’s leadership to achieve and exceed their desired business outcomes. PROFESSIONAL EXPERIENCE

T-Rex Solutions, LLC 2018 - 2021

Vice President, Strategy and Growth

T-Rex is a next-gen IT consulting firm providing IT modernization and cloud adoption, cybersecurity, and data analytics services to commercial, Federal Civilian and DoD marketplace. Winner of 2020 AWS Most Customer Obsessed Mission Based Win – Federal Civilian for its work supporting the modernization of systems supporting the US 2020 Census. Responsibilities:

As the VP of Strategy and Growth, responsible for building organizational capacity to keep pace with customer growth, moving from a $39M business in 2016 to a $450M+ consultancy in 2019. In this capacity, developed and implemented the corporate business strategy, led the marketing, research, and bid and proposal functions, and ensured the strategy drove innovation and captures. As a corporate officer, led the development and implementation of strategic initiatives to support business goals.

Accomplishments and Results:

Developed a 5-year corporate growth strategy, including key success factors necessary accelerate growth and productivity. Collaborated with senior stakeholders across business functions to validate strategic investments and key sales support mechanisms necessary to meet growth objectives. Results: Developed strategic and tactical roadmap to achieve and sustain rapid revenue growth. Built and qualified $1.8B pipeline aligned with IT transformation/cloud adoption market.

Conducted customer engagement campaign to capture feedback on market challenges, key considerations, and needs shaping their cloud adoption strategy. Based on the feedback gained, developed thought leadership papers on acquisition strategies, approaches to IT modernization/cloud adoption, cybersecurity in the cloud, data security and transformation, and organizational change management. Results: By focusing on and addressing customer needs, greatly improved our market position for pursuit of future business. Top Cloud Provider 2017-2019 (GovWin, Bloomberg), GovCon Finalist (2018, 2020), BGov 200 (2019), among others.

Identified strategic partners, capitalized on SBA Mentor Protégé Program, and initiated an acquisition strategy to address market gaps and bolster and expand account planning/capture activities. Results: Built a cadre of trusted partners with exceptional technical expertise tailored to the specific business needs of customer base. Collaborated with team members to develop a simple yet innovative methodology and framework for cloud adoption. Kelly N. Ralston • Page 2

Led corporate rebranding strategy and implemented a multi-media campaign. Engaged senior stakeholders and customers to understand market drivers, customer needs, and our corporate value proposition to inform brand messaging. Results: Utilized industry media outlets, e.g., FedNews Network, FedScoop, and Government Matters, to collaborate with customers and build the corporate brand, sharing use case stories, best practices, and lessons learned when making an enterprise move to the cloud.

Revamped and then continuously improved the corporate business development framework, processes, tools, and metrics, including account plan, capture plan, and proposal development process, focusing on customer engagement, intimacy, and needs assessment. Results: Provided a structured approach to guide business development, customer engagement and growth; organized, optimized, and drove BD efficiencies throughout the organization.

Capitalized on numerous industry awards and programs to accelerate business growth. Recognized as an industry leader in Washington Executive, Oct. 29, 2018: https://washingtonexec.com/2018/10/t-rex-solutions-named-finalist-in- 2018-govcon-awards-2/. Results: Garnered client and industry recognition as a leader in the IT modernization/cloud adoption market.

ICF Inc. 2010 – 2018

Vice President/Director of Sales and Delivery Operations ICF is a global advisory and digital service provider with more than 7,000 professionals focused on providing clients with strategic planning and consulting, comprehensive end-to-end program implementation, and integrated data analytics services.

Responsibilities:

As the Vice President and Director of Operations for the Enterprise Modernization and Management Division (2010-2015) and Enterprise Cybersecurity and Resilience Division (2016-2017) (each comprised of 200+ FTEs and $70M in annual revenue), responsible for end-to-end Division operations including development of the annual business plan, program delivery/client satisfaction, financial management, human resource planning, performance management, implementation of strategic initiatives, and internal liaison to HR, Recruiting, IT, and BD functions. Accomplishments and Results:

Worked across lines of business and collaborated with C-level stakeholders to develop Division’s annual business strategy/plan, identifying key support mechanisms needed to meet market objectives and revenue growth goals. Results: Ensured strategy addressed customer needs and aligned with vision and goals of stakeholder/leadership community, represented coordination of efforts across the company, and sharing of best practices to achieve customer outcomes. Achieved/exceeded business plan in 5 of 7 years.

Managed and analyzed Division financial performance, ensuring work performed was within established budgets; identified potential issues, conducted root cause analysis, and developed and implemented mitigation strategies to bring forecasts in line with budget. Results: Ensured customer requirements were achieved within authorized budget. Consistently delivered revenue within +/- 3% of forecast and received high customer satisfaction ratings for fiscal responsibility/management on consulting contracts.

Developed and led Division-wide, 360-degree program management review process of 60+ contracts annually, including regular customer service calls and annual customer satisfaction survey. Results: Identified and mitigated dozens of program/customer challenges annually, shared best practices across programs, improved quality of service, and met established customer performance measures. Achieved 96% year-over-year customer satisfaction ratings across project portfolio.

Served as strategic pricing lead for 20+ multi-million-dollar bids, as well as reviewer of all price proposals submitted by the Division. Results: Confirmed customer success criteria could be met within the price offered, ensured price realism and consistency with Division financial performance goals, and minimized corporate risk. Achieved 45%+ win rate on new business, with 85% win rate for repeat customers.

Led the integration of ICF’s first global acquisition comprising 200+ employees, operating in 20 countries and four continents throughout the world. Collaborated and coordinated across functional units to ensure alignment; facilitating C-level engagement and buy-in. Brought independent review of issues encountered and applied best practices to simplify, optimize and improve business processes and address problems encountered. Results: Aligned policies, processes, and systems related to HR, IT, recruiting, finances, capture, bid and proposals, and employee engagement/training, considering regulatory, legal, and cultural differences in each country.

Served as Transition Manager for numerous multi-million-dollar contract start-ups, working with the Program Manager and across functional organizations to meet customer recruiting, contracts, business process, and financial transition- Kelly N. Ralston • Page 3

in requirements. Results: Served as first face of the company establishing customer engagement and ensuring start- up expectations were met. Identified, recruited, and onboarded dozens of employees per engagement. Provided metrics/tools for customer to determine real-time status against performance criteria, critical in multi-million dollar engagements.

ICF Inc. 2001 – 2010

Vice President (2007-2010)

Program Manager (2001-2007)

Responsibilities:

As the Program Manager for a $10M/year contract, managed delivery of work to ensure state and local government’s ability to respond to nuclear power incidents; conduct financial analysis/forecasting necessary support user fee assessment; and conduct policy and regulatory analysis to support regulatory overhaul. Accomplishments and Results:

Developed training and mentoring program to ensure proficiency of evaluators and first responders alike; successfully supported over 700 emergency preparedness exercises, deploying thousands of evaluators to assess state/local preparedness. Results: Raised the technical ability of state and local emergency responders, who performed capabilities with 99%+ regulatory compliance, and instilled public confidence in client’s ability to protect the public.

Despite annual COLA, achieved decrease in average hourly rate of delivery throughout tenure as Program Manager through creative staffing strategies and operational efficiencies/innovations. Results: Enabled the customer to accomplish additional work scope for strategic initiatives without the need to seek additional funding.

Built trusting customer relationships at FEMA HQ and across its 10 Regions, regularly meeting with each stakeholder community to facilitate customer engagement, capture feedback, and demonstrate commitment to continuous improvement. Results: Consistently receiving customer performance rating of 5 out of 5 throughout my tenure as program manager over three consecutive contracts for helping the customer achieve its program objectives. SUMMARY OF ADDITIONAL EXPERIENCE

Fifteen years of additional experience of increasing responsibility both as an individual contributor and as a program/task order manager for customer engagements ranging from $100,000 to $2,000,000 in annual revenue. S. Cohen & Associates 1992 – 2001

Program Manager

SC&A is a small business, providing environmental and energy consulting services. American Management Systems 1987 – 1990

Senior Systems Analyst

American Management Systems (AMS) was a high technology and management consulting firm, implementing accounting systems for state and federal government customers. KPMG 1986 – 1987

Programmer Analyst

KPMG. is one of the big four accounting firms offering tax, financial audit, advisory services and employing 189,000. EDUCATION: George Mason University – Master of International Transactions (1992) George Mason University – Master of Business Administration (1991) University of Virginia - Bachelor of Science – Marketing and MIS (1986) CERTIFICATIONS: AWS Certified Cloud Practitioner

Project Management Professional (PMP)

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