Photo By Stefan Alford | Left, Thaddeus Martin and Christopher Evans, directors of the Office of Small Business...... read more read more
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REDSTONE ARSENAL, Ala. – The Kansas City Chiefs, Golden State Warriors and Army Materiel Command Small Business Programs Office all have something impressive in common – they are repeat champs.
For the second year in a row, the AMC organization swept four of the five same categories in the annual Army Small Business Awards Program, earning top honors for support to Women-Owned Small Business, Service-Disabled Veteran-Owned Small Business, Historically Underutilized Business Zone, and overall Small Business Program.
In addition, Thaddeus Martin, the director of AMC’s Office of Small Business Programs, was recognized for the third time in five years in the DoD Small Business Vanguard Award program with the Revolutionary Leadership Award for advocating for the inclusion of small business participation and encouraging innovation through small business utilization.
“I feel that our small business office did well in capturing four of the five command awards for fiscal year 2023,” explained Martin, “because of the increases in small business participation at the prime or subcontractor level, improvements in the working relationship between AMC’s broader acquisition team and small business, and AMC initiatives that improved the small business program.”
At the end of Fiscal Year 2023, AMC obligated over $11 billion and awarded 42,660 contract actions to small businesses.
“This goes to show AMC’s strong utilization of small businesses to fulfill Army contract requirements, contribute to the health of the manufacturing and defense industrial base, to ensure that our Warfighters have what they need, when they need it,” said Martin, who is an office of one at the headquarters here, but oversees 10 assistant directors and 55 small business professionals across the enterprise, who provide support at the operational and tactical levels.
One of those professionals is procurement analyst Ebonie McClintock who serves Forts Bliss, Carson and Johnson from her Fort Cavazos office under the Mission and Installation Contracting Command headquarters at Fort Sam Houston. The geographic connect-the-dots is indicative of the wide-ranging responsibilities the small team shares across the enterprise.
It's a critical role, said McClintock, that “contributes to the expansion of the small business industrial base by providing the maximum practicable opportunity for small businesses to participate in Army programs and support the Army’s mission in support of the warfighter.”
“It’s a collaboration process across the entire AMC enterprise,” added Martin. “AMC has such a vast portfolio that each small business program brings something different to the table in terms of opportunities. Combine that with AMC’s geographical footprint across the world and you can see that AMC has the Army’s most diverse mission. Our small business professionals keep mission readiness as one of their top priorities as they work through unique contracting challenges – (they) are here to help and assist small businesses; advocate for small businesses; try and influence acquisition outcomes in a positive manner for small businesses; and help small businesses when they are experiencing problems.”
McClintock said that she enjoys the challenges of “debunking the myths with both parties. There are a lot of misconceptions of industry’s views of working with the government, and the government’s idea of what small businesses are capable of. I enjoy educating the acquisition community on small business programs so they can better understand how we can benefit each other.”
It all ties into the office’s overall mission to maximize opportunities for small businesses that support Army materiel readiness by providing capabilities that can meet mission readiness, decrease procurement lead times and help sustain the force for multi-domain operations.
For the awards, AMC competes against the small business programs offices at Army Futures Command, Medical Command, National Guard Bureau, and Army Corps of Engineers.
| Date Taken: | 05.15.2024 |
| Date Posted: | 05.14.2024 16:31 |
| Story ID: | 471269 |
| Location: | REDSTONE ARSENAL, ALABAMA, US |
| Web Views: | 64 |
| Downloads: | 0 |
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