The Defense Department announced the winners of the 2018 Nunn-Perry Awards today, recognizing excellence in the DOD Mentor Protégé Program.
The nomination review process, completed during the second quarter of fiscal year 2019, evaluated 21 submissions. The competition was rigorous and the results incredibly close, with ten awardees who support three military departments and two defense agencies among them.
The DOD Mentor Protégé Program was established Nov. 5, 1990, in response to concerns raised by DOD prime contractors regarding their inability to meet Small Disadvantaged Business subcontracting goals. At the time, many SDBs did not possess the technical capabilities to meet DOD subcontract requirements.
Today, DOD Mentor Protégé Program participants deliver capabilities across major defense programs in support of the warfighter. Named for the contributions of Sen. Sam Nunn and the former Defense Secretary William Perry, who both played critical roles in the implementation of the DOD Mentor Protégé Program, recipients of the Nunn-Perry Award excel in technical assistance, protégé growth, and impact on protégé development.
Shannon Jackson, acting director of the Small Business Programs within the Office of Industrial Policy, recently congratulated the winners and discussed the important collaborative roles that the mentors, protégés, and historically black colleges and universities (HBCU) play in the nation’s small business economy and the defense industrial base.
“As our nation continues to face new and increasingly dynamic threats from across the globe, it must leverage the talents and capabilities of large and small businesses and HBCUs within the defense industrial base. These small businesses and universities not only include some of our nation’s brightest innovators but are major contributors to the American workforce and our economy,” Jackson said.
“Just as they have been key to the technological advancements that have fueled our past successes, today and in the future, we lean on them to lead in innovation and to help bring the latest in conventional and unconventional warfighting technology to the warfighter,” he added.
The program looks forward to celebrating the accomplishments of the winners, listed below, at the upcoming Nunn-Perry Award Celebration in September.
Air Force: CACI, Crystal Clear Technologies, Morgan State University
Air Force: IBM, Redhorse, Morgan State University
Army: Leidos, Time Systems Inc., George Mason University
Army: Perspecta, CSCI, Morehouse College Entrepreneurship Center
Army: CACI, Athena Technology Group, Morgan State University
Missile Defense Agency: Parsons, Trident, Alabama State University
MDA: Tec-Masters Inc., ITSC Secure Solutions, Oakwood University, University of Alabama Huntsville
MDA: Tec-Masters Inc., People, Technology, & Processes, Oakwood University, University of Alabama Huntsville
Navy: Raytheon, EEI, Bethune Cookman University
National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency: Booz Allen Hamilton, Darkblade, Virginia State University, Howard University, Elon University