Executive Mosaic is honored to present Reginald “Reggie” Brothers, CEO of BigBear.ai, as a recipient of the 2022 Wash100 Award, which annually recognizes the top 100 “executives of consequence” for their impact, innovation, vision and achievements within the government contracting community and across the federal landscape.
Brothers, a GovCon Expert, receives this year’s award for leading BigBear.ai’s growth as it leverages artificial intelligence, cloud technologies and data analytics to improve decision-making capabilities for the company’s federal and commercial customers. This accolade marks Dr. Brothers’ second consecutive Wash100 Award.
Visit Wash100.com to cast your vote for BigBear.ai’s Dr. Reggie Brothers as your favorite GovCon leader today!
“Dr. Reggie Brothers fits into an elite group of CEOs that lead not only with a charismatic enthusiasm but also with a deep technical mastery of their company’s technology,” commented Jim Garrettson, CEO of Executive Mosaic and founder of the Wash100 Award. “Reggie is operating on a corporate roadmap that reflects his strength as a futurist and embodies the human characteristic of predictive analytics to compliment the core competency of his firm, BigBear.ai.”
Garrettson continued, “Reggie is now scaling the operations of BigBear.ai with key executive augmentation and also the strategic acquisition of GigCapital4, which moved his company into a publicly-traded and advantaged contender in AI and predictive analytics with a pro forma market cap in excess of $1 billion.”
“With a virtually limitless market potential in AI, we anticipate dramatic scaling for BigBear.ai (and Reggie), and we are speculating if the big bear will be the hunter or the hunted in the coming months of M&A,” he added.
BigBear.ai was born out of a merger between two AE Industrial Partners subsidiaries, NuWave Solutions and PCI Strategic Management, in February 2021, and Brothers, who formerly served as CEO of NuWave, was chosen to lead the new enterprise.
In its first year of operation under Brothers’ guidance, BigBear.ai has seen significant growth through acquisition activity, key leadership additions, corporate partnerships and notable contract awards.
The company went public in December 2021 after completing its merger with special purpose acquisition company GigCapital4. The business combination gave the enterprise a pro forma value of $1.38 billion and opened up new opportunities for BigBear.ai’s expansion into high-growth markets.
“This fuels our commercial growth, expands our sales and marketing, funds our research and development efforts that accelerate the product offerings, and enables us to continue pursuing corporate growth opportunities,” Brothers said of the merger during an Executive Spotlight interview with ExecutiveBiz.
“This is a time when enterprises are really understanding the need to develop their AI capabilities, and this is why it’s so important that BigBear do this public offering to get the kind of scale necessary to provide the capabilities our customer sets need,” he added.
Brothers added that the company plans to perpetuate its “strong momentum” in the government and defense sectors while tapping into new commercial markets such as space, infrastructure, energy, shipping, maritime, and more.
Over the past year, BigBear.ai has notably penetrated the space market through a wide network of partnerships.
In September, BigBear.ai entered into a commercial software agreement with Virgin Orbit; under the agreement, BigBear.ai is leveraging its Decision Dominance platform to deliver AI-powered, space-based data in support of Virgin Orbit’s launch capabilities. Dr. Brothers said the agreement allows BigBear.ai to support Virgin Orbit’s mission “to open up space access and use space to drive lasting change on Earth.”
In November, BigBear.ai signed a memorandum of understanding with Redwire to jointly develop a space-based systems cybersecurity evaluation platform for the Space Cyber Resiliency through Evaluation and Security Testing initiative, or SpaceCREST.
During the same month, BigBear.ai and Terran Orbital signed a software agreement, under which BigBear.ai’s data analytics platform will be used in tandem with Terran Orbital’s satellite constellation to enhance multi-source Earth imaging for federal and commercial customers.
In the defense market, BigBear.ai has accelerated its growth trajectory through what Dr. Brothers calls “a natural partnership” with UAV Factory; under an MOU, BigBear.ai will integrate its AI/ML capabilities with UAV Factory’s unmanned systems and components for use in autonomous operations.
Together, the two companies are working to advance the intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance abilities of unmanned systems with enhanced object detection and identification, which will ultimately improve the value of UAVs while reducing strain on operators, Dr. Brothers explained.
“The broad reach of unmanned aerial vehicles is clear to everybody, and BigBear has a real track record of delivering AI-enabled solutions,” Dr. Brothers told ExecutiveBiz. “Whether you’re talking about a national security application or commercial market space, there’s just tremendous opportunity, and this partnership is going to grow.
Over the past year, BigBear.ai has also seen exponential growth driven by contract awards; the company received nine new prime contracts in 2021, including awards from the U.S. Cyber Command, the Defense Intelligence Agency, the U.S. Army and the National Security Agency.
BigBear.ai closed 2021 with an annual revenue of $145.6 million and a backlog of $465 million, according to its fourth quarter and full-year financial results. Looking to the future, BigBear.ai is predicting a fiscal year revenue of between $175 and $205 million, and the company hopes to earn $20 million in commercial revenue.
“The growth of our federal Analytics business and new commercial opportunities are fueling our move toward more scalable, high growth, technology-first solutions and products,” Dr. Brothers commented. “2021 was a milestone year for BigBear.ai, and we are looking forward to even more exciting growth opportunities in 2022.”
Executive Mosaic congratulates Dr. Reggie Brothers and the BigBear.ai team for their selection to the prestigious 2022 Wash100 Award, and we look forward to their continued growth and success as a key player in the GovCon market.
