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NAWCAD Lakehurst earns Navy award for small business contracts

  • Published
  • By Tom Worsdale
  • Naval Air Systems Command Public Affairs
JOINT BASE MCGUIRE-DIX-LAKEHURST, N.J. --  At a ceremony held at the Pentagon on June 13, the Naval Air Warfare Center Aircraft Division (NAWCAD) Lakehurst Contracts and Small Business Offices were the recipients of the 2013 Sarkis Tatigian Award for acquisition excellence in small business programs within the Department of the Navy.

According to Assistant Secretary of the Navy for Research, Development and Acquisition, Sean Stackley, "the Acquisition Excellence Awards were established to recognize and motivate individuals and organizations that have demonstrated excellent performance in the acquisition of products and services for the Department of Navy. Our winners represent the very best of professionalism, ingenuity and accomplishments amongst their peers - the 53,000 members of the Acquisition Workforce. Well Done!"
Individuals and teams from around the Navy competed in a variety of categories within the acquisition community to determine the best of the best for 2013.

"The selection process was extremely competitive. All nominees and winners should be very proud of their outstanding contributions in promoting competition, innovation and excellence in meeting the needs of the warfighter. Your superb achievements have made a difference throughout the Fleet," said Stackley.

As the winner of the Sarkis Tatigian Award in the small business category, it was noted that NAWCAD Lakehurst consistently made the effort to award a significant portion of contract dollars to small businesses. In fact, $750 million or 48% of the Naval Air Systems Command's $1.5 billion dollars in small contract obligations in 2013 were generated by the NAWCAD Lakehurst team. Additionally, Lakehurst exceeded their targets for awarding contracts to Small Disadvantaged Businesses, Women Owned Businesses, Service Disabled Veteran Owned Businesses and Historically Underutilized Business Zone small businesses.

What makes these statistics even more impressive is the fact that these contracts were awarded in a highly specialized arena - aircraft launch and recovery and support equipment for naval aviation, along with non-traditional customers such as avionics, propulsion and the Joint Strike Fighter. Traditionally, many of these contracts would go to large businesses, but due to the efforts of the Lakehurst team, contracts are structured to be competitive for small businesses without sacrificing quality, cost or timeliness.

Lakehurst is also is very committed to supporting the small businesses throughout the life of each contract. "We want each business to succeed, and the Navy to reap the benefits of its purchases," said Dawn Chartier, head of the Small Business Office when accepting the award on behalf of the team.

In addition to Chartier, the Lakehurst team consists of members of the Contracting Office including Thomas Hill, Marybeth Kacek, Barbara Petrzilka, Francis Hufnell, Jennifer Vaccaro, Carl Ruzicka and John Murtagh.

"It is quite an honor to represent this dedicated group of folks. The team has worked very hard through the years to support the small business program and provide quality contracts for the Navy," said Chartier.