Potomac Officers Club

Sophie Barrett, QinetiQ

Sophie Barrett is vice president for communications at QinetiQ North America.

Barrett was appointed to this position in March 2007, charged with branding and key messaging development and integrating legacy companies into the organization.

Barrett’s public relations responsibilities include:

• Integrated marketing plan
• Developing corporate communications policies
• Generating press releases
• Managing an external public relations firm
• Coordinating trade shows
• Content for the corporate website
• Corporate memberships

Prior to joining QinetiQ, Barrett directed corporate communications for Planning Systems Inc., now part of the Technology Solutions Group. She also has worked at Boeing and Harris Corp.

Barrett graduated from the University of Maryland with a bachelor’s degree in business and management. She also holds an associate’s degree in business administration from Northern Virginia Community College.

Aileen Black, VMware

Aileen Black is vice president of the public sector team for VMware, where she leads the company’s federal government sales and strategy efforts.

Black has held this position for four years and in that time, the company reports the federal team has increased its revenue from $8.9 million to $200 million this year.

The federal team focuses on delivering virtualization solutions to the company’s government customers.

Black, a 23-year veteran of the high-tech industry, has received recognition from outside the company, being named by CRN Magazine as one of the 100 most powerful women in the channel. Black has been interviewed on Federal News Radio to discuss virtualization and upgrading of server infrastructure.

Prior to joining VMware, Black served as federal area manager for EMC Corp. Before EMC, she held positions at ONTOS, including as vice president of the public sector and mid-Atlantic region. The company credits Black with opening and staffing a team that covered both areas.

Prior to joining ONTOS, Black was Oracle’s director of sales for the company’s intelligence community business. Black started her career as a systems engineer at Data General before moving into sales and won the company’s rookie of the year award.