Rachael Martin, director of the Maven Office at the National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency, has made her debut on Executive Mosaic’s prestigious 2024 Wash100 list for accelerating artificial intelligence adoption across the federal government and for her strategic guidance of the Pentagon’s flagship AI program.
Vote for Martin as your favorite GovCon leader as part of the 2024 Wash100 popular vote competition! Voting closes on April 30, so visit Wash100.com to cast your ten votes today.
The widely respected and coveted Wash100 Award is given to senior executives in the federal government and government contracting industry for their boundary-pushing, innovative contributions to the GovCon ecosystem and to federal missions. These individuals are GovCon’s most promising and powerful leaders, and they’re positioned to meaningfully shape the landscape in the coming year and beyond.
“As the leader of NGA’s Maven Office, Rachael is responsible for adopting and deploying cutting-edge AI/ML technologies and solutions in support of U.S. warfighters,” said Jim Garrettson, CEO of Executive Mosaic and founder of the Wash100 Award. “Her pioneering AI work is helping to keep our nation ahead of the technological curve and prepared for what lies ahead in this rapidly evolving field. Rachael’s vision and innovation have landed her a spot on our Wash100 list for the first time, and we look forward to seeing her continued impacts in the vital AI realm.”
Hear NGA’s Rachael Martin speak in person at the Potomac Officers Club’s 5th Annual AI Summit on March 21! Don’t miss this opportunity to stay updated on NGA’s AI efforts, meet thought leaders in the AI field and expand your network. Register here.
In the spring of 2022, NGA took ownership of the Department of Defense’s flagship AI program, Project Maven, and Martin was tapped to lead the program in January 2023. Throughout Martin’s first year of overseeing Maven, the project has made significant strides forward. In November 2023, Maven officially became a program of record, and it may begin contracting activities in 2024.
“I think the best way to describe us is we’re just now starting to get our feet under us to be able to look towards the future,” said NGA’s Maven Office Director Rachael Martin at the NGA Industry Summit in November. “We’ve hit our milestones and you’ll start seeing as we look to the next few months a lot more activity from the Maven office in terms of contracting.”
Martin said NGA plans to release a request for proposals for data labeling in the second quarter of 2024. And in addition to data labeling and building up an AI infrastructure, NGA is interested in text-to-image capabilities, large language models and computer vision in the long term for Project Maven.
“Where we’re looking to do experimentation and prototyping will be in some of these areas just to get a sense of how do we best integrate and use and operationalize some of these technologies because they are not without challenges in their current maturity,” said Martin.
As Maven continues to make forward progress, Martin’s strategic leadership and AI expertise will be essential in guiding the program to success and supporting U.S. warfighters with the most advanced capabilities possible.
Prior to her current role, Martin served as director of NGA’s AI, Automation and Augmentation Office. She also previously held the role of mission director for business process transformation at the DOD’s Joint Artificial Intelligence Center.
Executive Mosaic congratulates Rachael Martin and NGA on their inclusion in this year’s Wash100 list. Visit Wash100.com to vote for Martin as your favorite GovCon leader!
