The 2024 Wash100 Popular Vote Top 10 Winners

The government contracting field hosts numerous accomplished leaders across a variety of business and technology areas. Each year, Executive Mosaic’s Wash100 Award has taken on the task of identifying the strongest GovCon players from both the public and private sectors. Winners of a Wash100 Award are those who have excelled in leadership roles and repeatedly demonstrated the ability to influence the direction of the industry.

Announcing the list of winners is just the beginning of each Wash100 season. Once each class is posted, Wash100 gives you the opportunity to weigh in on which winners have made the most significant impacts on the GovCon space in the annual popular vote contest. Keep reading to learn more about the 10 executives who claimed the top spots in this year’s competition.

1. Judi Dotson

Judi Dotson, president of Booz Allen Hamilton’s global defense sector, took the crown as the winner of the 2024 popular vote competition. She won her second Wash100 Award this year for empowering innovation and repeatedly advocating for digital transformation. Her successful endeavors earned her the top spot in the popular vote contest. Here are just a few of her insights and accomplishments from last year:

• Calling upon the Intelligence Community to take “smart risks” to keep up with adversaries’ technological advancements
• Growing Booz Allen’s Pax River Mission Systems Integration Facility, which supports the rapid design, development and testing of novel warfighting technologies
• Helping secure a potential $919 million Department of Defense task order to help develop a new soldier-as-a-system concept

To learn more about Dotson’s achievements, check out this video detailing her path to victory. 

2. Jill Singer

Jill Singer, vice president of federal solutions at AT&T, earned her seventh Wash100 Award this year and took second place in the popular vote contest. She was selected to this year’s Wash100 class for promoting network modernization and driving innovation in 5G technology. Some of her most notable moves last year include:

• Sharing her thoughts on national security challenges and 5G opportunities in an Executive Spotlight interview
• Pushing the IC to embrace network modernization using zero trust principles, agile acquisition methods and other new approaches
• Exploring the relationship between 5G and Internet of Things devices

3. Karen Dahut

Google Public Sector CEO Karen Dahut, a four-time Wash100 Award winner, came in third place in this year’s popular vote competition. Dahut was recognized for her efforts to transform Google Public Sector and inspire innovation through partnerships with fellow government contracting organizations. Here are some of her 2023 highlights:

• Helping to launch a new Google Workplace Practice with ManTech to enable the exchange of best practices for progressing the adoption of secure workplace productivity and artificial intelligence for federal organizations
• Leading the creation of a new Cybersecurity Center of Excellence with Accenture Federal services that incorporates the latter’s cybersecurity capabilities with Mandient’s Threat Intelligence Platform to boost cyber threat response for government agencies
• Establishing Google Public Sector’s board of directors

4. Craig Abod

10-time Wash100 Award winner Craig Abod, president of Carahsoft, landed the fourth spot in the popular vote ranks. This year, he was honored for continuing to encourage software innovation and collaboration with other contracting companies. His 2023 accomplishments include:

• Fostering a partnership between Carahsoft and SandboxAQ that enabled the former to distribute the latter’s offerings, such as cryptography management, quantum sensing and more
• Teaming up with Interos to widen the availability of the latter’s supply chain intelligence products for public sector customers
• Joined forces with Applied Insight and VMware to make cloud services more easily accessible for federal clients

5. Steve Escaravage

Steve Escaravage, executive vice president of Booz Allen’s analytics practice and AI business, won his third Wash100 Award this year and came in fifth in the popular vote contest. He was chosen for spearheading investments in AI and drawing attention to its important role in evolving national security initiatives. Here are some of his 2023 achievements:

• Being appointed chair of Executive Mosaic’s 4×24 AI Group, a role in which he guides the exchange of ideas between AI executives in the GovCon industry
• Leading investments in smaller AI companies, including Second Front Systems and Latent AI
• Supporting the DOD’s backing of dual-use technology companies

6. Gen. Charles “CQ” Brown

Joint Chiefs of Staff Chairman Gen. Charles “CQ” Brown received his first Wash100 Award this year. He assumed his current role in September, leaving his previous position as chief of staff of the U.S. Air Force. His steadfast commitment to supporting national security earned him the sixth spot in the popular vote contest ranks. Some of his successes in 2023 include:

• Setting his top three priorities as head of the Joint Chiefs of Staff: enhancing the skills of military forces, empowering collaboration between the service branches and deepening relationships with allies to address modern threats
• Pushing the DOD to project a steady demand signal to the defense industrial base to help meet requirements for missiles, munitions and spare parts
• Presenting the Air Force Future Operating Concept, which is centered around five core functions intended to upgrade air power capabilities

7. Kim Lynch

Kim Lynch, executive vice president of government defense and intelligence at Oracle, attained her first Wash100 win this year and came in seventh in the popular vote contest. She was selected for widening the company’s presence in the federal market and promoting cloud technology innovation. Here are some of her 2023 accomplishments:

• Gaining IC and DOD approval for Oracle’s cloud offerings
• Obtaining approval from the Defense Information Systems Agency and Federal Risk and Authorization Management Program’s Joint Authorization Board for eight cloud service products
• Driving a $22.3 million National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency task order win

8. Susan Wedge

Susan Wedge, managing partner for U.S. federal market at IBM, is another first-time Wash100 winner who excelled in the popular vote contest. She claimed the eighth spot after being recognized for her dedication to technological innovation within a variety of areas, including AI, supply chain security and more. Some of her successes in 2023 include:

• Calling on AI users to strengthen their understanding of data, which serves as the basis for these tools
• Guiding IBM to a $2.6 billion contract win from the Internal Revenue Service
• Helping IBM gain the Trusted Supplier accreditation from the Defense Microelectronics Activity for its security services

9. Dr. Kathleen Hicks

Deputy Secretary of Defense Kathleen Hicks is a four-time Wash100 Award winner. She returned to the ranks this year for spearheading the implementation of emerging technologies throughout the DOD, a push that also landed her ninth place in the popular vote competition. A few of her top achievements last year include:

• Leading the creation of the department’s 2023 Data, Analytics and AI Adoption Strategy
• Supporting the Replicator initiative, which aims to field thousands of attritable, autonomous systems across multiple domains by conquering the “production valley of death”
• Introducing the DOD’s Small Business Strategy to set standards for small business programs and drive engagement with these providers

10. Lt. Gen. Telita Crosland

Telita Crosland, director of the Defense Health Agency, received her second Wash100 Award for her work to advance technological change and collaboration within the agency and wider Military Health System. For these efforts, she took the 10th spot in the popular vote ranks. Some of her key accomplishments in 2023 include:

• Launching the DHA’s strategic plan for fiscal years 2023 to 2028, which is built on three major goals: enabling combat support for military forces, modernizing the health care delivery system and uplifting teams working to transform military health
• Developed the DHA Organizational Advancement plan to integrate 20 direct reporting medical markets into nine Defense Health Networks
• Promoting and cultivating partnerships with other federal organizations, such as the Veterans Health Administration

To learn more about the Wash100 Award and view the full list of this year’s winners, visit Wash100.com.