A lifelong resident of Knoxville, Tennessee, I have over 30 years of practical experience, primarily in the information technology industry. I also have two degrees from the University of Tennessee:
- Bachelor of Arts in Technical Writing and Editing
- Master of Business Administration with concentration in Management
Most of my work experience is with companies that serve as US Government Contractors. I started out as a Technical Writer with one of these firms, and then advanced to be the Contracts Manager and Proposal Coordinator. Later, I would serve for several years as the Chief Operations Officer for a medium-sized government contractor.
During my career, I have developed a unique set of skills and expertise, including the following areas:
- Government Contracts: I have extensive experience with all phases of government contracting from bidding contracts through contract administration and budget development/tracking through contract closeout. I estimate that I have been responsible for more than 500 proposals in my career with a win rate of over 60 percent.
- Cybersecurity: My experience in cybersecurity began with managing systems and software to protect classified information from disclosure. More recently, I was the owner of a business that helped small businesses to secure their networks against cyberthreats. The businesses I helped had no significant cyber incidents.
- Compliance: I have developed programs to ensure compliance with many different types of regulatory requirements. Whether it is compliance with cybersecurity requirements such as CMMC or NIST 800-171, protection of classified information under the NISPOM, or protection of health data under HIPAA, the best approach is the same: You need to understand the regulatory requirements and then develop a documented program to make all required changes to ensure compliance.
- Strategic Planning: The art of strategic planning is identifying the best ways for a business to achieve one or more competitive advantages in the markets they operate in. Once the competitive advantage is identified, the strategic plan is the means by which the business will develop, maintain, and take advantage of its advantage. I have extensive experience working with executives to develop all kinds of strategic plans based on this approach.
- Sales and Marketing: While I am not a typical salesman, I do have extensive experience writing the types of documents that salespeople need to close sales. Whether it is proposals, brochures, websites, white papers, or plans, I can write the documents that your sales team needs.