Executive Mosaic is excited to honor Chris Brady, president of General Dynamics Mission Systems, with his fourth consecutive Wash100 Award in recognition of his unbreakable passion for technology and its role in federal missions, which earned GDMS a remarkable number of contract wins over the past year.
The Wash100 Award, which represents the most coveted accolade in the government contracting community, reached its landmark 10th anniversary this year. During the annual process of carefully selecting the top 100 executives in the field, Brady’s enduring spirit as a leader distinguished him from his competitors and landed him a spot in the 2023 Wash100 cohort.
“In a massive organization like General Dynamics, serving with distinction amongst your industry peers is a job requirement that Chris Brady has been consistently achieving in his role as president of General Dynamics Mission Systems,” said Jim Garrettson, CEO of Executive Mosaic and creator of the Wash100 Award. “Chris’ easy-going personality and technological dexterity enable his knack for spotting the best available talent in the marketplace, deploying managerial resources strategically and building the consensus of his elite executive team. Simply stated, Chris is a leader,” Garrettson added.
Brady began his tenure at GDMS over two decades and elevated to his current position in 2018. His guidance has proven transformative for the company, serving as a foundational element for the impressive momentum GDMS has maintained over time.
In a March 2022 interview with GovCon Wire, he discussed the efforts GDMS has undertaken to develop cutting-edge technology offerings in support of federal missions.
“It is really challenging engineering work, but that is what also makes it fun,” said Brady.
His interest in evolving technologies presented itself in a number of highly-technical contract wins for GDMS over the past year. Brady cited a $229 million U.S. Army contract awarded in February last year, under which GDMS is designing and delivering a certified hand-held device to manage and transfer cryptographic key material and mission planning data, as just one instance in which GDMS is applying its state-of-the-art technologies.
Also in the encryption realm, GDMS won a $22.9 million contract from the Air Force in September to provide a high assurance Inline Media Encryptor for the service branch’s Cryptologic and Cyber Systems Division using capabilities from the company’s suite of ProtecD@R encryption platforms and associated engineering services.
That same month, GDMS received a National Security Agency contractor to develop and test an ethernet encryptor using its TACLANE E- Series Adaptable Security Platform, which is compliant with Ethernet Data Encryption Cryptographic Interoperability Specification standards.
Brady noted space technology as another major focus area for GDSM, which, he said, has operated in the space market for over 60 years while supporting more than 400 related missions.
This legacy carried into 2022, beginning with the February launch of the James Webb Space Telescope, which featured 18 mirrors built by GDMS’ beryllium machining team.
“We are very excited to see some of the first images coming back from the telescope, and cannot wait for them to get all of the mirrors aligned to reveal some amazing things from the early days of the universe,” Brady said.
Continuing this momentum, GDMS and partner Iridium later secured a $324 million Space Development Agency contract, under which the two organizations are responsible for constructing, operating and maintaining ground entry points and operations centers for the first portion of the National Defense Space Architecture.
“We are extremely proud of our extraordinary space heritage and it’s one that is expanding and growing at an exceptional rate,” said Brady.
“As you can see, we are locked into the space market – and it is only going to grow in size and importance from here,” he added.
Kicking off 2023, GDMS once again proved its strength in the public sector market with a $481.6 million contract win from the Army to assist with the maintenance of its Prophet Enhanced Detecting System, the service branch’s signals intelligence and electronic warfare system for ground military vehicles.
With Brady’s inspiring leadership and longstanding presence as an innovator in the technology field, there is no doubt that GDMS will continue to make waves in the federal market in its future support of U.S. missions.
Executive Mosaic thanks and congratulates Chris Brady and the GDMS team for their groundbreaking year and fourth Wash100 win.
