Page 32 - FCW, March 30, 2016

WTInsider
What David Berteau
brings to PSC
Washington Technology’s editor looks at the background and ambitions of the new CEO of the Professional Services Council
BY NICK WAKEMAN
David Berteau is just getting started as the new CEO of the Professional Services Council, so it is too early to get specifics on how the organization might change or what priorities he’ll bring.
And he might not be looking to make a lot of changes at first because, to hear him describe it, what PSC has been doing for the past decade or more is exactly what Berteau wants to continue.
“They are working on issues I’ve worked on my entire professional career,” he said. That career includes various positions at the Defense Department under both Republican and Democratic presidents, a stint as an executive at SAIC, and consult- ing and advocacy work at Clark and Weinstock.
He has also performed analytical work related to acquisition and gov- ernment management at the think tank Center for Strategic and International Studies and taught at the University of Texas at Austin, Georgetown Uni- versity and Syracuse University. Since December 2014, Berteau had served as DOD’s assistant secretary for logistics and materiel readiness.
“I’ve wrestled with these issues from every conceivable angle,” he said. “The
critical question is how does the gov- ernment do the optimal job of organiz- ing itself to know what it needs and then issue and award contracts to get that done.”
It is a matter of creating and foster- ing a process that gives contractors the best chance to win contracts and then perform well.
“I’ve worked on these issues my entire life, and this is the perfect place to do that work from,” he said. “And this job doesn’t come open very often, so it’s a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity.”
Berteau is replacing Stan Soloway, who led PSC for 15 years. The orga- nization announced that it had hired Berteau on March 1, and he officially takes the reins on March 28.
Berteau has been working on vari- ous sides of the government market since 1981, when he first went to work at DOD, but he traces his dedication to the public sector to his childhood on the family strawberry farm in Louisiana.
“I was raised in a family that believed citizens have responsibilities, including paying attention to what is going on and participating,” he said. “[My career] is an outgrowth of how my mom and dad raised me.”
Public service is important to Ber- teau, and he points with pride to his alma mater, Tulane University in Loui- siana. The campus was devastated by Hurricane Katrina and had to close for a semester.
“When it reopened, the only way it was able to attract students to come back was to have a much bigger com- mitment to and requirement for public service as a part of their education,” he said. “Tulane has thrived under that framework.”
And now, Berteau said, he is bring- ing that passion for public service to PSC.
“PSC has been around a long time, and under Stan, it expanded in terms of magnitude and reach,” he said. “It became a premier organization. There is a top-notch team here.”
The organization has many top-flight qualities. It is relevant and important to both the government and its mem- ber companies, but unlike many trade associations, PSC has an analytical side that Berteau said he found very attractive.
“This is a trade association that really pays attention to the data and the trends over time,” he said.
That attention includes the annual
WashingtonTechnology, a sister publication to FCW, covers all the ins and outs of the IT contracting community. Learn more at WashingtonTechnology.com.
28 March 30, 2016 FCW.COM