GekeVenn: INTREPID

Yesterday, Intrepid was awarded a $94 million Army contract for “support of the Program Executive Office Missiles and Space staff.” The contract was one of many the small business has won over the last decade. Intrepid, LLC is a Huntsville, Alabama-based, employee-owned defense contractor specializing in systems engineering.

Most GekeVenns feature a list of lobbyists, but Intrepid is able to win its defense contracts without lobbying as it employs six former Army department officials, as well as others in the Defense Department, the US Air Force and the US Navy. The relationships between its employees and the government are already well established. The company's Facebook page, for example, boasts of its connections to government, highlighting a breakfast with Alabama Senator Richard Shelby (R) in February of this year.

In 2015, Intrepid's current Vice President Shannan Starling left her job as Program Manager at the Department of Defense's Missile Defense Agency to join Intrepid.

Intrepid's Operations Director Mike Makee, in addition to his time with the US Navy, also served as Chief of the Fielding and Operations Branch of the Missile Defense Agency and the Integrated Air and was the Missile Defense Deputy Division Chief of the US European Command in Stuttgart, Germany.

And according to Eric Aldridge's LinkedIn page, he was “[r]esponsible for the Tactical Operations Center operations and training, ensuring proficiency of personnel and timeliness and accuracy of information coordinating information with other DoD and Government Agencies.”

This is how such a small business (with under 100 employees) is able to garner such a large share of federal government defense contracts.

LOGSA = Logistics Support Activity
SMDC = Space and Missile Defense Command
USAF WFD = US Air Force War Fighting Department
ASHPO = Armed Scout Helicopter Project Office