The chapter hosted its 47th annual New Horizons Symposium in March at the Marriott Hotel in Newton, Massachusetts. Over 700 participants attended the annual scholarship fundraising event that provides industry partners a preview of upcoming new federal business opportunities. Chaired by Michael McGinley, second chapter vice president, Google Cloud, and Chapter President Pat Hamilton, Booz Allen Hamilton, New Horizons' transition back to an in-person event was a resounding success.
McGinley began by thanking the many symposium sponsors, including Double Diamond sponsors Booz Allen Hamilton, CACI, GDIT and SAIC. New Horizons 2023 sought to answer, "Is our national security ecosystem ready for the high-end fight?" The event focused on the missions and requirements necessary to ensure the primacy of the U.S. Air Force over all adversaries.
Gen. Mike Holmes, USAF (Ret.), The Roosevelt Group, and Assistant Secretary of the Air Force Andrew Hunter, Acquisition, Technology and Logistics, delivered consecutive keynotes, discussing the operational imperatives demanded by the shifting threat environment and how those operational imperatives are served by and challenge the national security ecosystem.
New business opportunities were presented by Hanscom Air Force Base; Air Force Life Cycle Management (AFLCMC); Program Executive Officer (PEO) Maj. Gen. Anthony Genatempo, USAF, and staff from Command, Control, Communications, Intelligence and Networks; and PEO Steven Wert, Senior Executive Service, and staff from Digital, AFLCMC; as well from the Air Force Nuclear Weapons Center; and Perry Hill, deputy director, Air Force Nuclear Command, Control and Communications. Panels included: Digital Transformation 360: A New Vision for Achieving Decision Advantage, chaired by Bobby King, CACI; Products and People-Is the U.S. Defense Tech Ecosystem up to Its Task, chaired by Benjamin Herndon, KUNGFU.ai; Sitting on a Billion-Dollar Secret - Leveraging American Ingenuity through FFDRCs, chaired by Ginny Diehl, SAIC; Is the U.S. National Security Innovation Ecosystem on the Right Path, chaired by Imran Umar, Booz Allen Hamilton; and Advanced Technology and National Security, chaired by Jason Dyer, GDIT.
Other featured presentations included: Brig Gen Luke Cropsey, USAF, PEO, Command, Control, Communications and Battle Management; Maj. Gen. Heather L. Pringle, USAF, commander, Air Force Research Laboratory; Kimberly Chamblin, director of partnerships, Public Sector, Boston Dynamics; Fireside chat with Defense Innovation Unit's Acting Director Mike Madsen and Mitch Weiss, professor, Harvard Business School; Angie Donahoo, Innovation Sector director, General Service Administration Federal Systems Integration and Management Center; and Paul Nielsen, director and CEO of Carnegie Mellon's Software Engineering Institute.
A check presentation for $25,000 was also made to Lt. Col. Vincent Perrone, USAF (Ret.), president and CEO of Veterans Inc., by Jamie Thurber, chapter chairman of the board, and Pat Hamilton. These funds will assist in the training and education of veterans in a number of different areas, including retraining for new career fields after service.
At the conclusion, McGinley and Hamilton thanked the numerous volunteers and again gratefully acknowledged the many individual industry sponsors who provided key support to help make the symposium possible.
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