Speaker Series Dinner: How to Win: Insights into Government Proposal Evaluation

MODERATOR

Jackie Lopez

Ms. Lopez, a former Air Force officer, is President and owner of Premier Enterprise Solutions, LLC (PES). PES is an 8(a) business development program participant, certified economically disadvantaged woman-owned and VA-verified Service-disabled Veteran-owned business. PES provides mission-critical support in the areas of cyber security, network engineering, software development, and telecommunications for both Federal and State Governments and private industry. 

Prior to entering private industry, Ms. Lopez had extensive experience in proposal evaluation and selection while serving as a Director at the GSA Federal Systems and Integration Center (FEDSIM) where she oversaw the annual sales, acquisition, and administration of $120 million of IT contracts. She also served as a Senior Account Manager for the GSA Office of Sales where she developed strategic relationships with other Federal Agency decision-makers and identified large IT business opportunities. 

Ms. Lopez received the GSA Administrators Exceptional Service award and is an ACT-IAC Fellow.  She is a member of the inaugural class of the Women Veteran’s Entrepreneurial Corps (WVEC), a women Veteran’s business accelerator collaboration between Capitol One and Count Me In. She is also a graduate of the Montgomery County Chamber of Commerce Veteran’s Institute for Procurement “Grow” Program and the SBA Emerging Leaders Program.  In 2013, Ms. Lopez was named as “One of the 25 Influential Women in Business – Making a Difference,” by Minority Enterprise Advocate Magazine.  

Panelists

Stephen J. Yuter

Mr. Yuter is a former federal procurement executive across multiple agencies and served as the source selection authority for over $10B of contracts. As the Director of Acquisition Management and Head of the Contracting Activity (HCA) at the Department of Health & Human Services (HHS), Indian Health Service (IHS), he managed the annual contract spending of nearly $800M, executing nearly 24,000 contract actions in FY2015. He developed performance work statements and RFPs, and established evaluation criteria for a range of critical mission areas to include IT services, healthcare, financial management, and human capital. Prior to HHS/IHS, he held senior acquisition and contracting leadership positions to include serving as the Deputy Assistant Chief Procurement Officer for Policy, Systems & Risk Management at the Department of Housing & Urban Development, Chief of Strategic Acquisition at the HHS Program Support Center, and Team Lead/Senior Contracting Officer at the Department of Agriculture, Department of Homeland Security, and Department of Defense. His roles and responsibilities across the civilian and defense sectors included providing leadership for contracting operations, acquisition policy, and workforce development. Mr. Yuter is currently the Chief Contracts Strategist with Deloitte and on the National Contract Management Association (NCMA) Board of Directors, serving as Chair of the Audit Committee and member of the Strategic Planning Committee.

Reginald "Reggie" Lawrence

Mr. Reginald Lawrence completed a distinguished 36-year career as a Federal Government Civil Servant with the National Oceanic and Atmosphere Administration (NOAA) in 2012. Across his years of service, he filled many leadership and managerial roles including science and product applications specialist, Program and Project Manager, Branch Chief, Division Director, and Executive Administrator. For 30 years of his service, he also was directly involved in the contract and acquisition process in the capacities of Contracting Officer’s Technical Representative (COTR), Assistant COTR, Project Manager, Technical Evaluation Board Member (SME), Source Evaluation Board Member, Acquisition Lead (Cost & Technical Proposals). His was involved with contracts ranging in value up to $175M including Fixed Price, T&M, CP, CPAA, and set asides. Since retirement, he has provided his experience and insight into the Federal acquisition process to corporate and commercial entities. He has a B.S. in Mathematics, an M.S. in Computer Science, and Masters Certificates in IT Project Management and Contract Acquisition.

Brian Hebbel

Brian Hebbel has been a Federal Government Contracting Professional for 34 years. He has had an unlimited contracting officer warrant for 32 years. He currently is serving as a Group Director, overseeing three contracting divisions at the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services. Brian has negotiated major contract awards at CMS during his year of service. As a Group Director, the favorite part of his job is reviewing contracting officer source selection documents. Mr. Hebbel also published a book in 2015, "How to Market & Sell to the U.S. Government, A View from the Inside", that has received very positive reviews from industry. Mr. Hebbel holds a Master's Degree in National Resource Strategy from the Industrial College of the Armed Forces.