Ben Stinson

Ben Stinson served over 27 years in the United States Marine Corps and retired at the rank of Colonel after a diverse career that included: Project Lead for Tactical Command and Control (C2), the Chief Technology Advisor to the Commanding General, I MEF in Iraq, the Program Manager for Unmanned & Air C2 Systems, the Program Manager for Robotic Systems Joint Project Office and the Portfolio Manager for the USMC Enterprise Networks. In industry, Ben gained experience in federal and commercial business development and was called on to use his technical and leadership expertise as the CIO, CISO and CDO for a technology company transitioning from a small to a large business. In 2021 Ben started Fed Sherpas and has provided business development and fractional CxO services to clients ranging from startups to the largest defense contractors.

Subject Matter Expertise: C-Suite consultant/Board Advisor, Defense Acquisition/Program Management, Proposal Color Team Reviews, Mock Source Selection Evaluation Boards, Unmanned Systems, Data Strategies, NIST 800-171/CMMC

Organizations: MarCorSysCom, PEO Land Systems, Navy PEO Digital & PEO MLB, NAVAIR, NAVWAR (including NIWC LANT), Army PEO GCS, defense contractors

Tracy Barkhimer

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

Masco Settles

Masco R. Settles is retired Civil Servant with over 30-years of Department of Defense service with the Navy and Marine Corps ending his career as a GS-15 with Advance Program Management and Engineering experience. Masco specialized in advance technology system development and integration, human capital performance enhancement, and organization startup or re-branding.

In his last assignment with Marine Corps Systems Command he served as the Deputy Director of the Marine Corps Rapid Capabilities Office, which centered on partnership assessments of emergent and disruptive technologies with the operators and industry to inform rapid acquisition decision makers.

Subject Matter Expertise: C-Suite Consultant/Board Advisor for Defense Systems Research & Development, Acquisition and Sustainment, Strategic Planning, Organization, and Technology Development. Lean Six Sigma Black Belt

Organizations: Defense R&D and Acquisition Organizations. US NAVY, US SOCOM, and US ARMY and US Marine Corps.

Randy Mahr

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)

Joe Moran

After a decade working in medical laboratories as an assistant and research technologist on gene therapies, Joe expanded his experience working with new technologies to include blockchain and Non-Fungible Tokens (NFTs), AI/ML algorithms and even has experience as a startup co-founder. As a blockchain consultant, Joe helps clients create NFT mint contracts, NFT frameworks for the Ethereum marketplace, and various bots using GPT chat for sentiment or trading optimization functions. In his role as startup co-founder, Joe created a blockchain interface (NIPoPoW) to three major gaming platforms (P2E, GameFi & DEX) as well as a prototype gaming console and touchscreen WiFi6 router using Raspberry Pi

Subject Matter Expertise: Blockchain/NFTs, GPT Chat bots, Biotech, NFT Artwork

Organizations: Startups, Gene Therapy Research, Penn & Penn State, online gaming industry

Carmen Graver

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

Paul Tice

Paul Tice is an accomplished and strategic leader with an extensive background in engineering, technology, and program management. Over his distinguished career, he has held pivotal roles in various organizations, most notably with the Marine Corps Tactical Systems Support Activity and the Marine Corps Systems Command, where he served as Technical Director and Deputy Chief Engineer. Paul's expertise lies in driving innovation and leveraging emerging technologies for tactical applications. He has successfully led multi-organizational teams; participated in many source selection efforts to include two ACAT IC programs; chaired, served as a panel member or produced dozens of System Engineering Technical Reviews up through and including Critical Design Review.

Subject Matter Expertise: Color Proposal Team Reviews, System Engineering Technical Reviews

Organizations: MarCorSysCom, PEO Land Systems, MCTSSA, NAVSEA

Jeff Stower

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

Michael Griffin

Michael Griffin served 23 years in the United States Coast Guard and Coast Guard Reserve and retired at the rank of Commander. Michael has extensive experience in maritime security, critical infrastructure protection, crisis management, security planning and training. Michael is a registered lobbyist providing representation to a focused set of clients. Michael has been a founder and owner of multiple, specialized security companies where he managed programs, delivered services, and built maritime safety, security, infrastructure protection and training models in the United States and overseas. In 2018 MJG Global was acquired by Silverseal where Michael became the COO. After four years as a corporate executive and successful diversification of Silverseal’s client base, Michael re-established his consulting services.

Subject Matter Expertise: Business Continuity, Maritime Security, Emergency Management, International Program Development and Training, Government Relations

Organizations: DHS, Ports Authority, International Ports, Coast Guard, FEMA, Local/Regional Emergency Management K-12 & Higher Education.
International: UAE (Rabdan Academy, Abu Dhabi Crisis Mgmt Center and Ministry of Education) Guinea (Ministry of Interior)

Curtis Carlin

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

Mike Fallon

A career Marine and disabled veteran with over 33 years’ service, Mike Fallon, Col (ret), served in infantry, reconnaissance, and intelligence billets. He served in five combat tours from Vietnam to Iraq. Colonel Fallon retired from the Marine Corps’ Office of Science and Innovation which oversaw the Marine Corps’ Research and Development budget. He sat as the representative on the TENCAP Program. After the military, Mike led General Dynamics’ capture efforts for nearly two decades that resulted in $1.87 billion in revenue. He has contributed as a capture lead or consultant to CAC2S, COC, OMFV, LRV, NOTM, DDS-M, MEG FoS and other programs. Mike has expert knowledge of the capture process and many Marine Corps and Army tactical vehicle and C5ISR programs.

Subject Matter Expertise: Early Stage Capture & Go/No-Go decisions, Black Hat Reviews, Defense Requirements Analysis and Translation, Military Operational Context, Concepts of Operations & Employment

Organizations: MarCorSysCom, PEO Land Systems, NAVWAR, Army PEO GCS

Strategic Sherpas

If your company needs strategic DoD consultants--retired generals, admirals, SESs and former appointees please contact us.

Subject Matter Expertise: Strategic DHS & DoD engagement.

Organizations: DHS, USMC, Army & Navy