The Pentagon has announced the winners of the 2018 Nunn-Perry Awards, which recognize excellence in the DOD Mentor Protégé Program.
Created in 1990, the program helps eligible small businesses grow their presence in the defense industrial base. The initiative was named for the contributions of Sen. Sam Nunn and the former Defense Secretary William Perry, who both helped get the program off the ground.
Ten awardees who support three military departments and two defense agencies were chosen from 21 submissions.
In congratulating the winners, Shannon Jackson, acting director of the Small Business Programs within the Office of Industrial Policy, highlighted the key roles mentors, protégés and historically black universities play in the small business economy and the defense industrial base.
“Just as they have been key to the technological advancements that have fueled our past successes, today and in the future, we lean on them to lead in innovation and to help bring the latest in conventional and unconventional warfighting technology to the warfighter,” she said in an April 17 release.
The winners will be recognized at the Nunn-Perry Award Celebration in September. They include:
- Air Force: CACI, Crystal Clear Technologies, Morgan State University
- Air Force: IBM, Redhorse, Morgan State University
- Army: Leidos, Time Systems Inc., George Mason University
- Army: Perspecta, CSCI, Morehouse College Entrepreneurship Center
- Army: CACI, Athena Technology Group, Morgan State University
- Missile Defense Agency: Parsons, Trident, Alabama State University
- Missile Defense Agency: Tec-Masters Inc., ITSC Secure Solutions, Oakwood University, University of Alabama Huntsville
- Missile Defense Agency: Tec-Masters Inc., People, Technology, & Processes, Oakwood University, University of Alabama Huntsville
- Navy: Raytheon, EEI, Bethune Cookman University
- National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency: Booz Allen Hamilton, Darkblade, Virginia State University, Howard University, Elon University