The Northern Virginia Chamber of Commerce and the Professional Services Council has named Kendall Holbrook, Dev Technology’s Chief Executive Officer, the winner for Executive of the Year in the $75-$300 million category for the 19th Annual Greater Washington Government Contractor Awards.
Founded in 2002, the awards honor the leadership, innovation, and commitment to excellence of the people and businesses in the region’s government contracting community. A panel of industry and government professionals select finalists and winners from a large pool of nominees. Winners are selected from four revenue categories and were announced live at an evening gala on November 3, 2021, at The Ritz-Carlton Tysons Corner. This unique networking event draws more than 1000 industry and government leaders.
“I’m honored to have been selected as the Executive of the Year for the $75 – 300M category,” stated Holbrook. “It’s been an amazing 3.5 years leading Dev Technology. When Susie and Sanjeev entrusted the company to me, I focused on maintaining the culture and level of service that they established over 20 years ago. While it hasn’t always been easy, our incredible employees and clients and our top-notch executive team who lead centered in Dev Technology’s core values, makes every day in this job incredibly gratifying.”
Before joining Dev Technology, Holbrook spent 14 years working at a large IT integrator performing a range of roles including system engineer, project manager, client marketing executive, client sales executive, and strategy analyst. She then moved to Dev Technology as the Vice President of Business Development, a role she held for eight years before being appointed CEO on January 1, 2018, by Co-Founder and Executive Chair, Susie Sylvester Duggal.
“We are incredibly proud of Kendall’s achievements leading Dev Technology and being recognized as a GovCon Executive of the Year,” stated Duggal. “We have always known Kendall to be a unique leader with the perfect background to lead our organization with her growth focus while being a champion for our culture of integrity, quality, community, and inclusiveness. We are pleased she has received this well-deserved recognition.”
Holbrook is an active mentor inside Dev Technology and within the Government IT community with a specific focus on mentoring women. She also serves as a mentor to high school students through multiple programs in Fairfax County, Virginia. Additionally, Holbrook has owned a children’s bookstore, partnered with her teenage daughter on a skincare business, and also volunteered as a lacrosse coach for middle school girls. Holbrook serves as Chair of the Advisory Board for the After-School All-Stars, Washington, D.C, and she is a member of Delta Sigma Theta Sorority, Inc. Holbrook holds a B.S. in Computer Science from the School of Engineering and Applied Sciences, University of Virginia and an MBA from the Robert H. Smith School of Business, University of Maryland. She is also a certified Project Management Professional.
Holbrook is also the recipient of the Government Technology & Services Coalition’s (GTSC) Mid-Tier Member of the Year Award 2020. GTSC CEO Kristina Tanasichuk said Holbrook has been an exemplary member, jumping right in with ideas and actions on how to build a path for mid-tier companies in the DHS market. “She developed the ideas, a white paper, and even a coalition of companies to bring forth new, exciting ideas and reinvigorate the conversation around how the homeland security market can continue to encourage and develop excellent small businesses that – through their success – have grown,” said Tanasichuk. “Kendall was working on these issues before joining GTSC – and came aboard in part to develop her aims with GTSC’s Lion’s Den.”
In addition to providing thought leadership around this long-term market challenge, Kendall also provided all of the GTSC membership an invaluable service by representing GTSC on the U.S. Department of Homeland Security’s weekly, then monthly, calls on COVID-19 response, covering the evolving landscape for contractors, the plan to “reopen” and bring people back to the workplace, and informing everyone of their strategy and thoughts in a weekly column for GTSC members. “She carried our input to others at DHS, she shared the ideas and innovations other companies were using to navigate COVID-19 when it first hit, and she committed her time and efforts to communicate with us and work with leadership to ensure that the concerns of our members were heard by DHS,”. Tanasichuk added.
Read the announcement at Dev Technology and see Kendall Holbrook’s Profiles in Excellence interview at Homeland Security Today
