Competitive Intelligence, the Defense Industry and COVID-19

Department of Defense Deputy Undersecretary for Acquisition and Sustainment Alan Shaffer believes the actions his agency had taken in response to the COVID-19 pandemic has helped defense companies stay afloat despite the crisis. Speaking at the NatSec 2020 conference on July 13, Shaffer noted how the $3.3B in advance payments released by the Pentagon to the defense industrial base helped many companies stay open even as businesses in other industries shut down either temporarily or permanently. Nevertheless, Schaffer expects challenges to emerge moving forward, particularly in the areas of clothing and textiles, soldier systems, space and aviation. Subsequently, even as the Defense Department moves to petition Congress for additional stimulus funding, it behooves players in the defense sector to remain alert to the changing landscape of the industry. Having business and competitive intelligence specialists is helpful in that endeavor. The following are the profiles of BI and CI executives working for some of the biggest names in the defense industry.

Deborah Danish, Senior Competitive Analyst at Northrop Grumman

Deborah Danish serves as a senior competitive analyst and facilitator of customer and competitive Black Hats at Northrop Grumman. 

She has also been performing competitive analysis to capture opportunities within the civil sector since June 2009 as part of Northrop Grumman’s civil systems division. 

Danish has more than two decades of progressive experience in providing market research and competitive analysis to support strategic planning, decision-making, mergers and acquisitions, captures and Black Hat activities and in-house training.

She joined the defense contractor in January 2007 as a senior competitor analyst, responsible for supporting capture opportunities, developing competitor profiles, providing competitive analysis training and services and assisting the business development team in conducting competitive analysis, according to her LinkedIn profile.

Prior to joining Northrop Grumman, Danish served as a strategic planning and competitive market analyst at General Dynamics’ Advanced Information Systems division. 

In this role, Danish provided market and competitive analysis to support business opportunity captures, M&A activities and long range strategic planning and managed the procurement of analytical tools for market and competitive analysis in the defense and government marketplace. 

The competitive intelligence professional holds a bachelor’s degree in sociology from Russell Sage College and a master’s degree in public and international affairs from University of Pittsburgh.

Leslie Kalan, Northrop Grumman’s VP and Chief Strategy Development Officer

Lesley Kalan works for Northrop Grumman as its corporate vice president and chief strategy and development officer, putting her in charge of the company’s public policy, regulatory and government affairs activities.

Kalan provides executive guidance on the company’s engagements with the executive branch, members of Congress and state and local officials. She also leads the development and execution of corporate strategy in support of customer needs and continued business development, according to her leadership profile posted by Northrop Grumman.

Most recently, Kalan served as Northrop Grumman’s vice president for government relations. She was also responsible for guiding the company’s relationship and strategic interactions with government officials during her tenure as vice president for legislative affairs.

Concurrently, Kalan is a board member for the National Defense Industrial Association, the Air Force Association, the Public Affairs Council and the Wolf Trap Foundation. 

Kalan joined Northrop Grumman following her departure from The Cohen Group, where she served as vice president. She also previously served on the Senate Committee on Appropriations Defense Subcommittee as a professional staff member and the Office of the U.S. Secretary of Defense as a presidential management fellow. 

She holds a bachelor’s degree in political science from the University of South Florida and a master’s degree in public administration and policy from the Askew School of Public Administration and Policy at Florida State University.

Candy Quinn, Business and Competitive Intelligence Director at CACI International

Candy Quinn has been serving as the business and competitive intelligence director at CACI International for over five years. Since taking on the role in June 2015, Quinn has supported CACI’s business growth by performing business and competitive analysis.

Backed by decades of industry experience, Quinn is an expert in market intelligence and research, budget analysis, strategic planning, strategic and tactical analysis, account planning and black hat facilitation, according to her LinkedIn profile.

She transitioned into her current position after four years as a business and competitive intelligence director at L-3 National Security Solutions, prior to its acquisition by CACI on Feb. 1, 2016. At L-3 NSS, Quinn focused on driving business development through efforts like opportunity identification, pipeline development, competitive assessments, teaming analysis and planning research. She was also credited for creating actionable Black Hat processes that helped the company improve its achievement of strategic pursuits by 70 percent.

Previously, Quinn worked for SAIC as a senior market research analyst. For two years, she conducted market research and analysis that improved the company’s Army pipeline by 50 percent. Additionally, she established an internal Competitive Intelligence Community of Practice at SAIC, improving internal business development collaboration on major bids.

During the early 2000s, Quinn served as a federal market intelligence director for Federal Resources and a senior analyst for HP.

Quinn graduated from the University of Colorado Boulder before earning her master’s degree in librarianship and information management from the University of Denver. She also holds a master of business administration degree in market research and competitive analysis from the Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute at Hartford.

Paul Henke, Director of Corporate PTW, Competitive Strategy at Raytheon

Paul Henke is a 20-year industry veteran who serves as a director at Raytheon Technologies. 

Since taking on the role in March 2013, Henke has been leading and creating price-to-win methodologies and business development best practices and integrating competitive intelligence, capture management and competitive strategy across the company.

Henke is also responsible for advising business leadership on PTW and competitive strategy, overseeing the company’s Corporate PTW/CI Development Program and teaching BD 600 series classes.

His other roles include leading the business development process improvement, managing the PTW Community of Practice, spearheading the International PTW mentor program and managing the Enterprise Capture Management Excellence PTW website, according to his LinkedIn profile.

Henke joined Raytheon in October 2011 as senior manager of strategy and business development within the company’s space and airborne systems division. Henke was responsible for providing strategy and business development PTW and competitive strategy support to vice presidents and the president of Raytheon Space and Airborne Systems. He also oversaw cost estimation, NBI efficiency initiatives and PTW training for the division. 

Prior to joining Raytheon, Henke spent more than 14 years at Northrop Grumman where he held various positions such as project manager, chief engineer, engineering manager and PTW lead. 

Henke is a graduate of Marquette University.

John Colley, Senior Director of UAS Business Development at Aurora Flight Sciences

John Colley is the senior director of the unmanned aircraft system business development at Aurora Flight Sciences, a Boeing company based in Manassas, Virginia, that specializes in developing smarter aircraft using advanced autonomous systems.

Prior to taking on his current role in November 2017, Colley served as the UAS director for Aurora Flight Sciences. Colley joined the company after serving over five-and-a-half years as the intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance advisor / senior capture manager of Leidos, according to his LinkedIn profile.

Colley entered the private sector following a career with the Air Force, where he started as the chief of the geospatial information and services branch. From June 2006 to June 2008, Colley was deployed at Ft. Meade in Maryland as the commander of the 22nD Intelligence Squadron. Subsequently, he was tapped to serve as the director of intelligence of the Combined Joint Task Force Troy. He also spent two years serving as the deputy of the ISR collection capabilities division from 2009 to 2011.

Colley is a seasoned defense sector executive with industry knowledge on government contracting, operational planning, systems engineering, requirements analysis, information assurance and program management.

He graduated from the Air Force Academy with a bachelor’s degree in science and engineering before completing his master’s degree in aerospace management from Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University.

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