Michael D. Parrish was appointed Chief Acquisition Officer and Principal Executive Director for the Office of Acquisition, Logistics, and Construction (OALC) on March 1, 2021. He serves as senior most advisor to the Secretary, providing policy and oversight for all of the Department’s acquisition activities. He leads VA’s 17,000 acquisition professionals and is responsible for the procurement budget of $40 billion as well as the administration and oversight of approximately $100 billion in major programs. Additionally, he manages VA’s $22 billion major construction and leasing program to support the largest integrated health care system in the United States, providing care at 1,255 health care facilities to over 9 million Veterans enrolled in the VA health care program.

Mr. Parrish has over 37 years of senior leadership experience in military, government, corporate, and non-profit organizations. Prior to joining the Department of Veterans Affairs, he served as Professor of Practice/Senior Advisor of Systems Engineering at the United States Military Academy at West Point. Mr. Parrish has been Chairman & CEO of several publicly traded companies and was founder and CEO for multiple Service-Disabled Veteran-Owned Businesses. Additionally, he held executive leadership positions for several General Electric (GE) companies where he served as General Manager for global logistics and services for GE’s Water business, and as Managing Director for GE Capital specializing in ecommerce, six sigma, and productivity of several GE’s equipment management groups.

A retired Colonel, Mr. Parrish served for 14 years on active duty and 21 years in the U.S. Army Reserves as a Senior Army Aviator and Army Acquisition Corps Officer, serving as an Air Operations Officer during Desert Storm. He graduated from the United States Military Academy in 1985 and holds a Master’s Degree in Aeronautical and Astronautical Engineering from Stanford University as well as an MBA with Honors from the Wharton School at the University of Pennsylvania. He is also a graduate of The Air War College and is DAWIA Level III certified in Program Management. Mr. Parrish is the past President of the West Point Society of Philadelphia and has served on the advisory boards of the American Society for Engineering Management, Delaware Valley Industrial Resources Center, USO of Southeast Pennsylvania/New Jersey and the United States Military Academy at West Point.

Anna Urman is the Director of Strategic Outreach and Communications at the Department of Veterans Affairs Office of Small and Disadvantaged Business Utilization. In her role, Anna supports the VA in meeting and exceeding contracting goals for awards to Veteran Owned, small, and disadvantaged businesses. She oversees OSDBU’s outreach, education, and engagement with the small business community as well as our stakeholders and partners across VA, other federal agencies, and industry.  

Anna is an accomplished procurement market and policy analyst, and a small business advocate in procurement.

Anna is the former Senior Procurement Analyst at the Department of State OSDBU, where she contributed to industry stakeholder engagement. Prior to that, she led the Virginia APEX Accelerator) at George Mason University. 

Anna holds a JD from Georgetown University Law Center and has performed post-graduate work in Government Contracts Law and Intellectual Property Law at George Washington University Law School.  

Anna lives in Alexandria, VA with her husband and daughters.  She co-leads a feds-and-contractors rock climbing group and is a dog rescue volunteer.

Senior Vice President Travis Burd is a leader in the firm’s civil health business, supporting technology initiatives for clients such as the Department of Health and Human Services.

Most recently, Travis led the Marketplace System Integrator (MSI) contract for the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services, where Booz Allen provides leadership for systems integration for Healthcare.gov. It’s a complex system of systems that provides individuals with the ability to shop for and purchase health insurance across the individual marketplace.

As a senior leader organizing and delivering large, complex systems development programs, Travis has supported capture and proposal development for the firm’s key opportunities at federal agencies such as the Department of Veterans Affairs, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, the Food and Drug Administration, and the Pension Benefit Guaranty Corporation. Travis is also leading several initiatives to further develop the firm’s Digital Solutions capability and talent base, including Agile coaching and the 2015 acquisition of the software development firm SPARC.

Prior to joining Booz Allen, Travis led large systems development outsourcing and modernization programs for commercial clients in the telecommunications and health insurance industries at Keane, Inc.

Travis has a B.S. in biomedical engineering from Johns Hopkins University and lives with his wife and two young daughters in Baltimore, Maryland.

Tim Gilday is a futurist thought leader and the senior director of emerging technologies at GDIT, focused on the ethical and optimal integration of technology for the U.S. government and society. He collaborates with leaders across government, academia, and industry to identify global risks and opportunities, especially those presented by the increasing pace of technological advancements. He develops policies and practices to guide agency digital transformation and readiness to embrace disruption. Gilday worked as a management and technology consultant to Department of Veterans Affairs from 2013 to 2016.

Nick Wakeman is the editor-in-chief of Washington Technology and joined the publication in 1996 as a staff writer. He's a graduate of Bridgewater College and earned a masters degree from American University. When he isn't writing about government contractors, he's thinking of cooking large pieces of meat over fire and dreaming of ways to embarrass his two sons.

Ross Wilkers covers the business of government contracting, companies and trends that shape the market. He joined WT in 2017 and works with Editor-in-Chief Nick Wakeman to host and produce our WT 360 podcast that features discussions with the market's leading executives and voices. Ross is a native of Northern Virginia and is an alumnus of George Mason University.