Feb. 16 – Feb. 19 2016

Over the past two weeks here, we have taken different looks at Executive Mosaic’s 2016 Wash100 list of the government contracting arena’s most influential voices and pulled out some similarities between certain inductees.

First we highlighted the nine executives that have been selected in all three iterations of the list, then recognized the CEOs of General Dynamics, Lockheed Martin and Northrop Grumman for those companies’ consistent financial results and stock value appreciation to “Beat The Street.”

This week, we will single out GovCon chief executives at companies that made significant merger or acquisition deals drove the narrative of consolidation in the government services market for 2015.

You may recall that Leidos CEO Roger Krone was previously mentioned in this space as a three-time Wash100 inductee and his selection this year is in recognition of his company’s agreement to merge with Lockheed Martin’s IT segment, a deal that will double Leidos in size and scale upon closure.

Tony Moraco has led McLean, Virginia-based SAIC as CEO from its September 2013 spinout from former parent Leidos and entered the intelligence and Air Force markets in early 2015 through the the $790 million cash acquisition of Scitor Corp.

CACI CEO Ken Asbury continued his company’s notable history of M&A deals through the$550 million buy of L-3’s services segment, which adds $1 billion in projected annual sales to CACI’s bottom line and grows its intelligence market footprint much like SAIC.

Privately-held services contractors also featured in GovCon’s M&A story for 2015 as PAE made successive acquisitions of A-T Solutions and USIS’ global security business, ASRC Federal bought Data Networks Corp. and OGSystems purchased Urban Robotics.

Earlier this year, PAE itself became an investment target and the global logistics services contractor is being purchased by LA-based private equity firm Platinum Equity from Lindsay Goldberg, which purchased PAE in 2011 from Lockheed.

PAE CEO John Heller, ASRC Federal’s Mark Gray and Omar Balkissoon of OGSystems stewarded their companies through all those deals and are 2016 Wash100 inductions for leadership and vision.

Market observers may be anticipating more deals and continued reshaping in the GovCon services market for 2016, but 2015 will sure be hard to top for pace and size.

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