William McCormick
Executive Mosaic is pleased to announce that Ellen Lord, undersecretary of defense for acquisition and sustainment at the Department of Defense, was selected to the 2019 edition of the Wash100 — Executive Mosaic’s annual selection of the most influential voices in the government contracting arena — for her vision to transform the department’s acquisition policy, update F-35 program strategy and establish a Space Force. The latest honor represents Lord’s third Wash100 win.
During the 2018 Special Operations Forces Industry Conference, Lord advocated for reform of the department’s acquisition process addressing information technology modernization programs. Her goals are to develop acquisition policy “a little differently†by establishing an “agile acquisition framework†to replace the current set of policies.
Lord said another of her goals for 2019 is revising the DoD Instruction 5000.02 policy. Her plans call for creating an intellectual property policy for implementation, and she expects the Defense Innovation Board to release its report on software development by the end of March.
“We are going to invert that approach and take a clean sheet of paper and write the absolute bare minimum to be compliant in 5000.02 and encourage program managers and contracting officers to add to that as they need for specific programs,†she said.
In July 2018, Lord announced a “handshake agreement†had been reached between Lockheed Martin and the DoD to produce 141 F-35 jets and both parties were in final negotiations over lot 11 of the F-35 contract. Lord and other DoD leaders are seeking to reduce the aircraft’s production and sustainment costs.
Lord defended the U.S. government plan to establish a Space Force, explaining that it would help organize the country’s space programs. Developing a unified strategy would improve focus and clarity of future investments in space. Lord noted the department is accepting the challenge to develop the strategy, and her office is working very closely with the Trump administration and Congress.
Prior to her tenure at Defense, Lord served as the president and chief executive officer of the Textron Systems Corporation from 2012 to 2017. Earlier in her career, she served as vice president of Integration Management for Textron Systems and vice president of Intelligent Battlefield Systems in addition to various other business and operations positions. She has worked in the defense industry for more than 30 years.
Executive Mosaic congratulates Ellen Lord for receiving this award.
About the Wash100:
The Wash100 award, now in its sixth year, recognizes the most influential executives in the GovCon industry as selected by the Executive Mosaic team in tandem with online nominations from the GovCon community. Representing the best of the private and public sector, the winners demonstrate superior leadership, innovation, reliability, achievement and vision.
Visit the Wash100 site to learn about the other 99 winners of the 2019 Wash100 Award. On the site, you can submit your 10 votes for the GovCon executives of consequence that you believe will have the most significant impact in 2019.
