Luncheon Speaker Series: Hot Issues in Federal Contracting

Luncheon Speaker Series:  Hot Issues in Federal Contracting

One on One with Thomas A. Sharpe, Jr. who is the Commissioner for the U.S. General Services Administration’s Federal Acquisition Service

Thomas Sharpe was appointed Commissioner for the U.S. General Services Administration’s Federal Acquisition Service, effective February 10, 2013.

In this position, he oversees the delivery of more than $50 billion of products, services and solutions that save taxpayer dollars and enable federal agencies to accomplish their missions as efficiently as possible.

Sharpe has almost 30 years of leadership and business management experience in both public service and the private sector. Before joining GSA, Sharpe served as the U.S. Department of the Treasury's Senior Procurement Executive. In that role, he was responsible for Treasury-wide procurement policy, procurement career management, and oversight and continuous improvement of bureau procurement operations.

Before joining Treasury, Sharpe served as a consulting principal with IBM Business Consulting Services, responsible for the marketing, sales and delivery of procurement transformation engagements with IBM's commercial and government customers. His prior operational procurement experience includes playing a key role in strategically sourcing IBM's technical service requirements that generated competitive advantage to IBM. Sharpe has also held senior procurement and managerial roles with the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency and the U.S. Department of Defense.

Sharpe has a Bachelor of Science degree in Political Science from the University of Scranton and a Master of Business Administration degree from Marywood University.

Q&A with Howard B. Parker, Jr. who is the SBA Procurement Center Representative

Mr. Parker serves as the SBA Procurement Center Representative (PCR) currently providing support for six agencies. He is the resident PCR for the General Services Administration (GSA), the Office of Personnel Management and the Department of Energy (resident meaning he has an office at these three agencies). He also serves as the liaison PCR for Naval Medical Logistics Command, the Department of Interior, and the Defense Technical Information Center (DTIC). His primary functions as a PCR is to review Sub-Contracting Plans, provide contractual support and assistance, provide training to contracting officers and program managers, and to be an advocate for many of the issues facing the small business community.

Prior to joining the Small Business Administration, he was a Contracting Officer for GSA Schedules division. He was responsible for reviewing offers submitted by the vendor community and awarding contracts, which allowed vendors to obtain a GSA Schedules.

Before joining the GSA Schedule Division, he was a Senior Contracting Officer for the Center for Information Security and Services. His primary function included initiating pre-award and post-award actions involving highly specialized procurements, providing contract support services for the Department of Defense, Department of Agriculture, Commerce Department and other Government agencies. Many of these requirements were of a classified nature, which required a top secret clearance to work on these sensitive procurements.

Prior to joining the General Services Administration, he spent eleven years as a contract specialist for the Department of the Navy, Naval Electronic Systems Command located in Crystal City Virginia. His primary functions included the formulation of acquisition strategy, negotiation, award and the administration of contracts. Many of these contracts were for research and development studies for full scale development, services and production of complex electronic equipment systems.

Who Should Attend

• Small businesses wishing to do business with the government
• 8(a) and SDB Businesses
• Large Businesses Connecting with SBA Certified Businesses
• Woman Owned Businesses
• Service Disabled Veteran Owned Businesses
• Veteran Owned
• Native American Owned
• HUB Zones

Cancellation and Refund Policy: If you are unable to attend the luncheon, you are welcome to send a substitute, however, you must notify us prior to the luncheon date. On site substitutions will not be permitted. Please email us requesting the change. If canceling, you must do so in writing no later than one week before event date. You will receive full credit towards the next event. If you do not attend the luncheon, you are responsible for the entire registration fee. No exceptions.

Disclaimer: Speaker schedule(s) are subject to change. MBRT reserves the right to substitute speaker(s) as necessary.