National Veterans Small Business Engagement

The 2015 National Veterans Small Business Engagement (NVSBE) is scheduled for
November 17-19, in Pittsburgh, PA.

NVSBE directly connects VOSBs with PDMs from the Department of Veterans Affairs, other federal agencies, state government, as well as large firms with small business needs—and provides training opportunities to improve the capabilities of small businesses to successfully compete for procurement contracts.

NVSBE also enables VA PDMs to engage with a large number of VOSBs in a short period of time, facilitating market research in support of meeting VA socioeconomic goals.

What to Expect

NVSBE attracts thousands of VOSBs to connect with federal agencies, commercial corporations, and prime contractors—among others.

With greater opportunities for direct access and exposure to contracting and program specialists,
NVSBE welcomes you to make the connections necessary to succeed in today’s competitive
contracting environment.

Speaker and Presenter Information

Featured Speakers

	Robert A. McDonald Robert A. McDonald was nominated by President Obama to serve as the eighth Secretary of Veterans Affairs and was confirmed by the United States Senate on July 29, 2014. Prior to joining VA, Secretary McDonald was Chairman, President, and Chief Executive Officer of The Procter & Gamble Company (P&G). Under his leadership, P&G significantly re-calibrated its product portfolio; expanded its marketing footprint, adding nearly one billion people to its global customer base; and grew the firm’s organic sales by an average of three percent per year. This growth was reflected in P&G’s stock price, which rose from $51.10 the day he became CEO to $81.64 on the day his last quarterly results were announced—a 60 percent increase from 2009 to 2013.
	General Dennis L. Via General Dennis L. Via assumed duties as the 18th Commander of the U.S. Army Materiel Command (AMC) August 7, 2012. AMC is the Army’s premier provider of materiel readiness to ensure dominant land force capability for the U.S. Warfighter and our allies. General Via’s prior assignment was as AMC’s Deputy Commanding General. He deployed to Southwest Asia in October 2011 as the Commander, AMC Responsible Reset Task Force with the mission of leading the strategic integration of the Materiel Enterprise for the Retrograde of equipment and materiel out of Iraq at the conclusion of Operation New Dawn. Prior to that, he served as Director for Command, Control, Communications and Computer Systems, J-6, The Joint Staff, Washington, D.C.
	The Honorable Maria Contreras-Sweet The Honorable Maria Contreras-Sweet became the 24th Administrator of the U.S. Small Business Administration and a member of President Obama’s Cabinet on April 7, 2014. Prior to her arrival in Washington, Contreras-Sweet founded the first Latino-formed commercial bank in California in more than 35 years. As the bank’s executive chairwoman, she focused on providing access to capital and counseling to small- and mid-size businesses in Los Angeles. She previously started a venture capital firm that invested in small businesses. In 1989, Contreras-Sweet founded Hispanas Organized for Political Equality (HOPE), a nonprofit, nonpartisan advocacy organization dedicated to encouraging Latinas to engage more fully in the democratic process.
	Horace L. Blackman Horace Blackman is Vice President of the Health & Life Sciences (H&LS) organization within Lockheed Martin’s Information Systems & Global Solutions Civil business. Mr. Blackman leads a team of 2,300 employees who engineer solutions that enable federal healthcare agencies to be more secure and efficient. The team, which includes two wholly owned subsidiaries, QTC and Systems Made Simple (SMS), supports the important missions of customers such as Centers for Disease Control and Prevention; the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services; the Department of Health and Human Services; the Social Security Administration; the Food and Drug Administration; and the Department of Veterans Affairs (VA).