The Wash100 Award is the ultimate achievement in a GovCon executive’s career. The award, created by Executive Mosaic in 2014, is the yearly recognition of GovCon leaders who demonstrate excellence across the board.
Joining the list of Wash100 winners is not just a minor achievement. It serves as a standard of success, highlighting individuals who guide with foresight, motivate through innovation and produce substantial results.
Created by Executive Mosaic CEO Jim Garrettson as an avenue to honor leaders who shape government policies and pioneer industry strategies, this award honors individuals on both sides of the GovCon equation—the public and private sectors. It also celebrates the GovCon change-makers of tomorrow.
Let’s dig into the five core values that every Wash100 honoree embodies, values that transform the benchmarks of leadership in GovCon. Nominate a results-delivering executive today!
What Is the Wash100 Award?
The Wash100 Award represents the highest honor in GovCon, recognizing leaders who transcend the industry. Each year, 100 individuals are selected for their significant contributions to essential GovCon missions, strategic innovation and their overall influence in federal contracting. Nominations for this accolade showcase the outstanding individuals who consistently raise the bar for achievement in this important field.
Many Wash100 winners represent the most successful organizations in GovCon, such as Booz Allen, Veritas Capital, SAIC and leading federal agencies such as the Department of Defense and the Department of Homeland Security. These executives demonstrate success in an industry that has real-world impact on security both at home and abroad.
So what precisely qualifies an individual for the Wash100? The answer is found in the five fundamental values.
What Are the 5 Values of the Wash100 Award?
1. Innovation
Innovation is core to the government and GovCon communities. Wash100 executives are regularly featured for their ability to identify trends before they occur, propose ground-breaking solutions and use emerging technologies to solve the nation’s most challenging problems.
Innovation encompasses more than merely presenting new concepts. It involves the effective application of those concepts to foster genuine transformation. Wash100 winners push the envelope and implement critical capabilities like cloud computing, space technologies and advanced engineering.
These executives help their organizations better protect data and enhance communication. They deliver actionable strategies to align organizational aims with technological resources.
DeEtte Gray
Gray, CACI’s president of U.S. operations, is an example of a Wash100 winner honored for innovation. As the former lead of CACI’s business and IT solutions, the 2025 Wash100 popular vote winner played a pivotal role in the company’s technology refresh efforts in support of the DOD. One of those efforts was the creation of the Integrated Personnel and Pay System-Army, which was delivered to all soldiers in January 2023.
CACI, with Gray’s leadership, acted as the systems integrator for IPPS-A. This was an initiative that unified more than 50 separate systems into a singular web-based platform intended to oversee all facets of human resources and salary transactions for warfighters. Nominate a leading executive like Gray for the 2026 Wash100 season today!
2. Leadership
While technological advancements propel the industry ahead, stellar leadership guarantees that these innovations fulfill important goals. Wash100 honorees are recognized for their capacity to guide teams, projects and organizations through periods of uncertainty and extreme complexity. They motivate action, align their workforce with essential missions, and foster environments that promote sustained success.
Wash100 winners demonstrate steadfast dedication to strategic operations while enabling employees to perform at their highest potential. They emphasize integrity, adaptability and a spirit of collaboration in high-pressure situations.
David Levy
Levy personifies a Wash100 winner honored for his leadership. He has guided AWS to multiple significant contract awards, such as a $158 million contract from the Army and a $115 million deal for Impact Level 6 cloud services. These cemented AWS’ role as the foundation of mission-critical government operations.
Levy’s initiative to speed up generative AI adoption, including AWS’ $50 million Impact Initiative, and collaborations with industry titans like Booz Allen and General Dynamics Information Technologies, demonstrates his commitment to helping federal agencies stay at the forefront of technological innovation.
3. Vision
Vision is a defining characteristic of Wash100 winners. These executives don’t just anticipate challenges far ahead of time. They also identify market opportunities, crafting strategic roadmaps to guide their organizations toward success in a regularly changing industry.
Vision entails the foresight to perceive market trends, policy changes and technological advancements and combine them into practical strategies. Wash100 recipients do not merely react to the current requirements of GovCon, they proactively shape the future, ensuring that their achievements continue to make an impact in upcoming years.
Lt. Gen. Heath Collins
Lt. Gen. Collins embodies a Wash100 winner honored for his vision. As the MDA director, he’s playing a leading role in crafting DOD’s highly anticipated Golden Dome homeland missile defense system.
Prior to taking over at MDA, Lt. Gen. Collins demonstrated vision while serving as program executive officer for weapons. Here he led the development of innovative technologies including the hypersonic AGM-183A Air-launched Rapid Response Weapon and the Hypersonic Attack Cruise Missile.
4. Reliability
Reliability is an absolute must in the GovCon realm as it impacts public services, national security and infrastructure. Wash100 winners are honored for their regular results in leading initiatives that produce results on time, on budget and at the utmost quality.
Reliability encompasses more than just regular achievement. It reflects an executive’s steadfast dedication to deliver despite any limitations. Wash100 winners ensure their organizations not only fulfill, but surpass, contractual obligations, fostering trust with partners.
Leonel Garciga
Garciga exemplifies Wash100 winners honored for their reliability. Under his guidance, the Army developed a pilot program providing corps commanders permission to manage their cyber terrain and the freedom to make decisions instead of depending on a headquarters disconnected from combat.
He also laid the groundwork to ensure that AI products used by the Army follow records management privacy protections and public record requests. The document directs application and system owners to manage, capture and sustain records created through AI applications and low-code/no-code platforms. Nominate a leading federal executive for the 2026 Wash100 season today!
5. Achievement
Achievement is the bottom line. This pillar encompasses an executive’s results-oriented contributions to their organization, the industry, and ultimately, the success of national priorities. Wash100 winners are recognized for their groundbreaking achievements that distinguish them in a highly competitive arena.
Achievement is the synthesis of innovation, leadership, vision and reliability. Recipients of the Wash100 Award exemplify excellence in performance metrics, fostering operational success and solidifying their reputation as icons within the industry. Their contributions frequently act as reference points for realizing enterprise-level goals throughout the GovCon sector.
Jill Singer
Singer represents a Wash100 winner honored for achievement. In 2024, she landed a 10-year, $146 million contract with the Department of Homeland Security to upgrade and protect its telecom infrastructure.
AT&T, as part of this award, is also delivering to DHS subagencies, including the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency with the Wireless Priority Service. This is a federal effort that allows cellular communication service providers such as AT&T to prioritize voice calls made over their wireless networks with authorized devices.
Singer also led AT&T to a Defense Information Systems Agency contract potentially worth $151.6 million. Here the company is delivering national security emergency preparedness priority services supporting CISA’s emergency communications division.
How Does the Wash100 Honor Excellence?
The Wash100 Award, presented by Executive Mosaic, highlights executives who establish the utmost standards of excellence within GovCon. These leaders not only fulfill expectations but exceed them, creating benchmarks through innovation, consistent leadership and a demonstrated history of successful outcomes.
If you’re ready to honor the best in GovCon, nominate a leader for a 2026 Wash100 Award today!
