Potomac Officers Club

Nicole Funk

Nicole Funk is a senior vice president at Booz Allen Hamilton and leads efforts in support of U.S. military and defense clients.

Funk supports organizations involved in government research development and engineering, as well as other defense markets including chemical, biological and nuclear defense.

Previously, Funk worked as an information technology senior program manager at Northrop Grumman, where she led the RDECOM and integration support services programs.

After working with Booz Allen for 11 years, Ms. Funk rejoined the firm in 2005.

She is a director of the Aberdeen Proving Ground Army Alliance; a member of the National Defense Industrial Association; executive board member of the Greater Harford Committee and is on the board of directors for the Boys and Girls Club of Harford County.

Funk holds an M.S. degree in biotechnology from Johns Hopkins University and a B.S. in biology from Frostburg State University. She also has Business Strategy Certification from the Round Table Group.

Rich Tighe

Rich Tighe is currently a vice president with Bechtel National, Inc., the $6.5 billion global business unit within Bechtel serving U.S. government customers.

He is the manager of business development for the defense & security business line within BNI, reporting to the general manager for defense & security, and responsible for the DoD, NASA, DHS, and intelligence community markets.

He serves as the BNI representative to Bechtel’s corporate marketing & business development working group and is a member of the board of trustees for the National Defense Industrial Association.

Rich joined Bechtel in 2006 as a marketing and BD manager.

He previously worked 11 years for Lockheed Martin at the Nevada Test Site, holding several scientific and management positions and rising to assistant general manager for high-hazard test and evaluation.

Before joining Lockheed, Rich served as a postdoctoral fellow in the nuclear sciences division of Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory.

Rich attended Loras College in Dubuque, Iowa, earning a B.S. in physics, and the University of Notre Dame, where he earned a Ph.D. in experimental nuclear physics.

Glenn D. Baer currently serves as vice president of corporate contracts and procurement for ARINC Inc.

In this position, Baer is responsible for running ARINC’s corporate contracts and procurement department, which includes proposal development, contract establishment, negotiations and administration of sound and profitable contractual requirements. This position also directs the company procurement, export compliance and subcontracting mission areas.

Baer currently serves as chairman of the National Defense Industrial Association‘s government policy advisory committee. He has also previously chaired the NDIA Procurement Planning Committee, Washington Procurement Committee and the Contract Acquisition Management Subcommittee.

Throughout his tenure, Baer has assumed a leadership role in many government acquisition reform initiatives. He previously chaired a Pentagon-directed multi-industry association working group, and also led a multi-industry association effort to seek revisions to the organizational conflict-of-interest regulations.

Baer has testified and briefed government and industry forms on a broad range of acquisition policy issues. He served as a principal NDIA representative in the regulatory implementation of the Federal Acquisition Streamlining Act, participated in the Section 800 Panel on Contract Formation, Industry’s FAR Part 15 Rewrite and Past Performance in Source Selection task forces.

In addition, he also serves on the board of directors for NDIA, TechAmerica and the Professional Services Council. He is a member of the NCMA Executive Advisory Council.

Baer is a current member of the Acquisition Reform Working Group, and a veteran of the U.S. Army. He earned a bachelor’s degree in economics and accounting and a M.B.A from the University of Maryland.

Sheldon Fox, Harris

Sheldon Fox is president of Harris Corp.’s government communications systems division.

GCSD develops and supports systems for customers in the fields of defense, national intelligence, federal civil, information technology services, healthcare and cyber.

As president of GCSD, Fox is responsible for managing GCSD’s systems that solve mission-critical challenges of its defense, national intelligence, federal civil, information technology services, healthcare and cyber customers.

At Harris, which he joined in 1984, Fox has been attributed with achieving financial and business objectives and positioning Harris on many nationally important platforms and programs.

Prior to his current position, Fox was president for GCSD’s national programs business unit, which served the intelligence community. He also acted as president of Harris’ defense programs business unit.

Fox has also served as vice president and general manager of GCSD’s business unit for Defense Department programs and vice president of programs for defense communication systems. Harris credits Fox with playing a key role in helping the company achieve financial and business objectives and positioning the company on significant platforms and programs.

GCSD is comprised of seven capabilities- based business areas: mobile wide-band networks, space communication systems, proprietary programs, mission information systems, advanced information solutions, mission critical networks, and avionics and electronics.

Fox earned both his bachelor’s and master’s degrees from Georgia Tech and his master’s of business administration from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. In 2008, he was named a Georgia Tech Distinguished Engineering Alumnus.

Fox has completed a Harris management development program, Mahler Co.’s advanced management program and Harris’ leadership directions program at the University of Virginia’s Darden School of Business. He also completed a program at the Defense Systems Management College at Fort Belvoir.

Fox is a member of the Aerospace Industries Association, Air Force Association, Armed Forces Communications and Electronics Association, Association of the United States Army, Navy League, National Defense Industrial Association, Intelligence and National Security Alliance, United States Geospatial Intelligence Foundation and the United States Space Foundation.