William McCormick
Doug Kumbalek, chief strategy officer and executive vice president at System High Corporation, recently spoke with ExecutiveBiz regarding the critical attributes of his role with the company since his promotion in June as well as a look into his latest growth initiatives and emerging technologies as they continue to influence the federal landscape in unexpected ways during the latest Executive Spotlight interview.
“System High has grown significantly over the last three years, as we continue to expand our presence, customer base, and capabilities. Our teams provide meaningful proactive protection services and solutions for our customers and mission partners. I feel great about where we are today and the opportunities before us, what our teams are doing to protect National Security, our agility as a company with a great ability to scale and to do more.”
You can read the full Executive Spotlight interview with Doug Kumbalek below:
ExecutiveBiz: Congrats on recently being promoted last June! What were the attributes of the company’s mission that attracted you to the role and what impact do you feel you’ve made since joining in 2019?
Doug Kumbalek: “It has been enjoyable and highly rewarding working with System High Corporation – in so many ways a dream job with a dream business. I’m reminded frequently that I made the right decision as we are a focused company providing essential capabilities, within multiple security disciplines with a proactive and enhanced protection mindset and approach to provide services necessary to protect missions that cannot fail.
Joining System High has provided me the opportunity to be part of a like-minded group of operationally focused, innovative, and growth-minded leaders and professionals.
We put our customers and our employees first and are committed to operational success – out of our core values: System High is dedicated to delivering exceptional experiences to our customers and employees.
I’ve witnessed this firsthand and joined this winning team where my responsibilities include developing the company’s strategy and growth planning. I can say it has been a humbling and very rewarding experience.
My contribution and the (potential) impacts made over the last three years include bringing other perspectives and sets of experiences, with a common goal shared among the leadership team to implement efficiencies and repeatable processes for strategic growth, business development, and opportunity capture.
Building upon highly successful processes that were already in place for years at System High has enabled us to successfully scale and handle multiple parallel priorities.”
ExecutiveBiz: What can you tell us about the company’s recent growth initiatives and what do you hope to accomplish and are any new markets that you’re keeping an eye on in the federal sector?
Doug Kumbalek: “Over the last 15-18 months our business has been in a critical phase where of our largest prime programs were being recompeted. We’ve been extremely busy engaging our customers validating our understanding of what keeps them up at night while working together with our exceptional teams in the field to deliver the innovation needed to better protect their missions and activities.
Solidifying high-performing teams that we’ve assigned to meet and go beyond compliance and maximize secrecy, and protection, and provide tailored lifecycle protection solutions for our mission partners continues to be our cornerstone of success.
System High has been expanding our partnership with our existing customers including the F-35 Joint Program Office where our team provides professional security support services that are essential for this highly complex weapons system program.
This win, among others, is essential for our company. This most recent contract award follows the previous contract awarded in 2016. We feel honored to have this opportunity and continue the close collaboration with our government leadership, subject matter experts, and engineers on the F-35 program. It’s a program that protects the development and integration of this fifth-generation joint strike fighter on a global scale.
In addition, System High was recently awarded the third consecutive contract with DARPA where our security professionals serve the agency’s projects by meeting lifecycle program and technology protection demands. We’re very proud of our DARPA partnership with Government leaders and other stakeholders and the work that our SMEs are performing for the agency every day.
Another example of our targeted growth initiatives we’ve recognized is providing even greater security and cybersecurity support to the Missile Defense Agency. We previously had a relationship as a subcontractor supporting MDA that evolved with the acquisition of four MDA programs in a deal that closed at the end of 2020.
Since January 2021, System High has been performing as the prime contractor in support of an MDA enterprise security and program protection contract as well as the MDA’s cybersecurity management and computer network defense contract among other programs acquired at that time.
We’re thrilled to build upon our mission partnerships with Government leaders at MDA and our engineer’s and security professionals’ ability to best protect those missions. We continue to build from a strong base of engagement and collaboration across the enterprise.
System High’s primary objective is for the Defense and Intelligence Communities to adopt and integrate (P2) lifecycle protection as the standard in protecting U.S. National Security to achieve and sustain global warfighting and intelligence dominance.
We’ve implemented multiple initiatives to expand our capabilities and enable market penetration where the need is greatest and National Security demands are the highest for the levels of protection services and solutions that System High’s teams provide. Targeted growth and markets include Strategic Space, the IC, Special Access Programs, International Security, and across the Special Operations Forces community.”
ExecutiveBiz: With the influence of emerging technologies impacting every aspect of business, how has your company been able to drive digital transformation efforts to stay ahead of innovation in the federal landscape for yourself and your customers?
Doug Kumbalek: “The System High Analytical Research Center performs as a think tank and incubator to evaluate solutions for the most complex protection challenges being faced by the National Security Community.
SHARC is instrumental in the continual development of comprehensive and innovative lifecycle protection solutions (e.g., agency tailored P2 Training, technology protection engineering, and providing Enhanced Protection Methodologies). Priority focus areas currently address Supply Chain Risk Management, Insider Threat risk reduction, SAP/SCI IT material destruction, and numerous other lifecycle security challenges.
Our recognition of unique capabilities, innovation gaps, and willingness to proactively engage our customers with potential solutions, serves as a discriminator for our customer’s protection missions, and as a tenet of System High’s offering and mission partnership.
Our commitment as a key element of our differentiated offering is to never cease identifying and elevating the awareness of emerging threats and other protection challenges that face National Security. As a proven integrator, we continue to develop solutions where none exist to mitigate current and emerging threats, risks, and vulnerabilities.
SHARC accomplishes this by continuing to create and maximize partnerships, and technologies and formulate new enterprises designed to proactively deliver game-changing protection solutions and services.”
