Ben Stinson

  Captain Tracy A. Barkhimer, USN (Ret), a native New Yorker, served 26 years in the Navy, first as an H-46 Helicopter Pilot and then 20 years as a highly accomplished Defense Acquisition Professional. She holds multiple executive and Level III Defense Acquisition University Certifications. Her resume includes successful executive assignments in Naval Aviation Enterprise Program Management; Common Avionics; Air, ASW and Special Missions Acquisition Programs; Unmanned and Weapons Systems; and Foreign Military Sales. After the military, Tracy held positions with large and small defense contractors, helping them win and manage contracts exceeding $6 billion in value, before starting her consulting practice in 2019. 

• Subject Matter Expertise: Defense Acquisition/Program Management, Business Development, Foreign Military Sales/Direct Commercial Sales, Contract Management, Executive Coaching

• Organizations: NAVAIR (including all PEOs and NAWC-AD and NAWC-WD), DCMA, Navy International Programs Office, DCMA

  Randy Mahr retired from the U.S. Navy as a Rear Admiral after a nearly 34-year career.  Randy’s military experience included Engineering Executive for U.S. Navy and Marine Corps aviation programs, assessing technical risk and acquisition plans to maintain and modernize over 3,700 fixed and rotary wing aircraft. After his retirement in 2016, Randy began his consulting practice, delivering over ten-thousand hours of consulting services to companies ranging in size from start-ups to Fortune 500, as well as to the U.S. Government. Randy has led and supported dozens of color team reviews that contributed to capture and strategic market development ranging from tens-of-millions to multi-billion-dollar contracts and has helped businesses successfully expand into the defense market. He has been a contributing analyst for data-based technical reports to inform Government decision making. Additionally, Randy led and supported strategic studies for offices across the Department of Defense, developing data capture and modeling analytics to assess areas such as investment and sustainment priorities, aircraft availability and digital tool investment strategies.

• Subject Matter Expertise: Proposal Writing and Color Team Reviews, Strategic Reviews/Assessments, Defense Acquisition/Program Management, Aviation, Opportunity/Market Assessments

• Organizations: NAVAIR (including all PEOs and NAWC-AD and NAWC-WD)

Carmen Graver is a Scaled Agile Framework Practice Consultant (SPC6) who specializes in coaching  organizations to adopt a Lean/Agile mindset, leading to higher quality products and unleashing organizational creativity. She is a founding member of the Software Engineering Institute’s (SEI) Agile Collaboration Group (ACG), a forum for Lean/Agile practices within the Federal Government. Carmen began her Lean/Agile journey more than ten years ago as a United States Marine Corps employee, where she championed the implementation of Agile practices. She discovered her passion for coaching and teaching when she led the effort to develop the first Marine Corps Agile Framework (MC-Agile). Over the years, she has delivered transformation coaching and training to nearly 4,000 participants, including more than 500 DOD Acquisition professionals. 

• Subject Matter Expertise:  Lean/Agile transformation and coaching, Defense Acquisition  

• Organizations:  Highly regulated organizations, USMC, US Army 

Jeff Stower served 30 years in the United States Marine Corps and retired at the rank of Colonel.  His career was evenly split between assignments as an Infantry Officer and as a Ground Acquisition Professional.  As a Colonel he led two of the Corps’ three major ground equipment portfolios. For his last five years, he was the Portfolio Manager for Ground Combat Element Systems, which managed the development, acquisition, and life cycle sustainment of most the Corps’ ground kinetic weapon systems and related equipment.  Jeff holds PMI’s Project Management Professional Certification as well as DoD’s Program Management "Advanced" Certification (previously known as PM Level III).

• Subject Matter Expertise:   Defense Acquisition / Program Management, Requirements Analysis, Ground Weapon Systems, Business Development   

• Organizations:   Marine Corps Systems Command, PEO Land Systems

Curtis Carlin served nearly 30 years in the United States Marine Corps and retired at the rank of Colonel.  His varied assignments included CIO/G-6 of a Marine Division, Nuclear Weapons Security Subject Matter Expert, Crisis Action Team Leader to United States Forces-Iraq and Service HQ staff.  Curtis held multiple senior positions in  USCENTCOM J6.  Within the Department of Defense, Curtis became known as the Subject Matter Expert in Data Centric operations focusing on providing real time partner and coalition interoperability while maintaining the requisite needed security.  Curtis has aggressively sought personal growth within the health and wellness sector and coached hundreds of clients through habit change and creating their optimal self in health. 

• Subject Matter Expertise:   C-Suite Operational consultant, Organizational Efficiency, Personnel / tasks assessments, Process and Procedures Standardization, Data Centricity, security (physical and virtual) and Cyber Defense.   

• Organizations:   Fleet Marine Forces, HQ Marine Corps, Strategic Systems Programs US Navy, Joint Forces and US Central Command 

Brigadier General Max Stitzer, USAF (ret.), is an Ogden, Utah native with four decades of leadership and technical experience in military, federal government, private sector, and non-profit organizations including expertise in enterprise-level supply chain management; aircraft & weapons systems; component and spare parts repair and life-cycle sustainment; facilities, physical security, and infrastructure. Max served in tactical, operational, and strategic environments, including multiple combat deployments. He has seven years of service at The Pentagon on the Air Staff (Headquarters, United States Air Force) and two tours with the Joint Chiefs of Staff in the Directorate for Logistics where he served as a principal advisor on global operations, organic and private sector industrial base policy, and global force employment and campaign planning. The resulting enterprise and global executive perspective informs his mission to bring critical technology to market and operational viability into the hands of warfighters for the defense of the United States and its allies and partners and to enable a prosperous economy and viable industrial base..

• Subject Matter Expertise:  National Security and Defense Strategy and Planning; Major Weapons System Sustainment; Maintenance, Repair, and Overhaul (MRO); Defense Industrial Base and Organic Industrial Base Policy; Building and Leading High-Performance Teams; Organizational Performance Optimization; Strategic Alignment, and Executive Coaching 

• Organizations:  Joint Staff J-4, Air Force Headquarters, A-4, Air Force Aviation Maintenance & Depot organizations, Major programs (C-17, KC-135, F-16, F-22 & E-3 AWACS) 

 Josh Powell is a retired USMC command and control SME and an experienced Business Development and Solutions Architect with over 20 years of proven expertise in developing innovative tactically relevant solutions within the defense and communications sectors. His background includes successfully managing high-value programs for Navy, USMC, and other DoD customers, with a focus on Tactical Data Links, Command and Control systems, and advanced network solutions. He has a strong track record of driving growth through cross-functional collaboration, strategic alignment, and innovative solution development.

• Subject Matter Expertise:     Integrated Air and Missile Defense, Joint All Domain Command & Control, Tactical Data Link Interoperability, Networked Communications, Radar, Counter UxS. Project Management, Unmanned Ground Vehicles, Unmanned Surface Vehicles, Edge Computing, Rapid Prototyping, Technical Proposal Writing, Systems Integration. 
• Organizations: PEO-LS PM GBAD, PM Radars, MAGTF C2 and Sensor Networking, HQMC Aviation Expeditionary Enablers Branch / Cunningham Group, MAWTS-1, VMX-1, MCTSSA, MCWL Rapid Capabilities Office, OSD Strategic Capabilities Office, ONR Code 31, DARPA STO, Aberdeen Proving Grounds

  Ty Schieber is a Senior Executive Leader with over three decades of sustained engagement and impact in the national security domain.  In the USMC, he served in Operation Desert Shield/Storm as air command and control officer before transitioning to an acquisition assignments at MARCORSYSCOM.  He transitioned to industry in 1998 and has led business operations for a range of large, mid-tier, small, and start-up companies providing training, cyber, engineering and technology services for Federal, State, Local government and commercial clients. He has led two companies to acquisition, successfully integrated multiple business elements and operations of acquired companies into cohesive and high performing teams.  He founded his consultancy in 2013 focusing on tailored strategies and processes to enable organizational growth.   His contributions in the non-profit space includes the National Medal of Honor Institute, as well as recent service as the founding Board Chairman for the Cybersecurity Maturity Model Certification Accreditation Body (CMMC-AB). 

• Subject Matter Expertise:  Strategy Development & Execution/Business Development/Capture /  Proposal/Marketing & Communications/M&A/ Organizational Leadership & Staff Development/ Facilitation  

• Organizations:   Commander, Joint Special Operations Command (JSOC), Assistant Secretary of the Navy for Research, Development and Acquisition (ASN, RD&A), PEO Strategic Submarines, Direct Reporting Program Manager, Maritime Industrial Base, Deputy Assistant Secretary of the Army (Procurement), Undersecretary of Defense (Comptroller), Defense Counterintelligence & Security Agency, Defense Contract Management Agency, Marine Corps Systems Command, PEO Training Systems, PEO Land Systems, DoD CIO, Deputy Director, Chief Digital and Artificial Intelligence Office (CDAO), Program Executive Officer for Air, Anti-submarine Warfare, Assault, and Special Mission Programs, Naval Reactors, Naval Sea Systems Command, Department of Homeland Security, Customs & Border Protection, Transportation Security Administration