We’re three weeks deep into the popular vote contest for the Wash100 Award, which means we’re nearly at the one month mark for this nail-biting, exciting race. Coalitions and strongholds in the top 30 ranking of the most prestigious names in government and government contracting have begun to take shape—though, as this week’s recap will describe, there is still a lot of time for fates to shift and new powerhouses to emerge.
If you haven’t yet participated in the 2023 Wash100 popular vote contest, please make your way to Wash100.com today to cast 10 votes. Doing so will ensure you have a small but important impact on the highly contested race for the number one most beloved GovCon or federal sector executive.
The last two weeks have seen Microsoft Federal executives maintain the top two slots in the ranking. This week is no different, except that they traded places: the company’s president, Rick Wagner is now at number two and the vice president of its defense sector business, Wes Anderson, has gained the number one spot, as of Thursday afternoon. (Wagner was yesterday profiled in GovCon Wire to expound upon the work that earned him the award.)
The remaining significant news about the vote standings consist of an abundance of new entrants to the top 30 (many of them first-time Wash100 winners as well), who did their best to displace and apply heat to some Wash100 veterans.
Craig Abod is not an unfamiliar face to the vote rankings, as he put up a valiant fight and just missed the top 10 of last year’s final results. This week, after a relatively quiet first couple of weeks, the Carahsoft president and founder shot onto the list and placed all the way at number three. Welcome to the fight, Craig.
There were three other debuts in the top 10 this week: three-time Wash100 winner Karen Dahut, CEO at Google Public Sector; first-timer Rob Stein, senior vice president for the North America public sector business at Salesforce at number seven; and four-time recipient Bill Rowan, vice president of public sector for Splunk at number 10.
The subsequent three slots were also filled by fresh faces to this year’s popular vote race: first-time Wash100 honoree Cameron Chehreh of Intel at number 11; two-time awardee Max Peterson of Amazon Web Services at number 12; and six-time winner Anthony Robbins of NVIDIA at number 13.
Will the displaced old favorites rise up reclaim their high perches or will these new additions to the list and Wash100 continue to seize the day? Tune in next week to find out.
And make sure you’ve voted! Head to Wash100.com right now. In a matter of minutes, you will have helped decide one of the most valued distinctions in government contracting.
