Winning a Wash100 Award is no small feat. Since its inception in 2014, the accolade has recognized GovCon leaders who excel in innovation, leadership and their ability to create impactful solutions to government missions.
For chief technology officers, this means their decisions, strategies and guidance are seen as not only fulfilling immediate organizational goals but also driving the GovCon sector. Winning a Wash100 Award demonstrates these CTOs are the best in their field and at the forefront of technological change and innovation.
The weight of the award is further solidified by its highly selective nature. Executive Mosaic, the industry leader in GovCon media, membership and events and the founder of the Wash100 Award, carefully curates the list of winners each year to reflect individuals who are making the most significant contributions to the GovCon ecosystem.
So who are the CTOs who have won a Wash100 Award? Let’s dig in.
Akash Jain
Palantir Technologies
2023
Jain joined the ranks of Wash100 Award winners in 2023 by helping establish Palantir as a formidable player in GovCon through substantial contract wins and strategic partnerships. In September 2022, Palantir secured a significant $229 million contract extension to continue assisting the Army Research Laboratory in the exploration and application of AI and machine learning technologies in the U.S. military. This enhanced the value of the initial $99.9 million contract awarded earlier that year.
Additionally, in the same month, Jain’s commitment to supplying top-level technology to the federal government was further demonstrated. He helped Palantir win a five-year, $95.9 million contract with the Department of Homeland Security to continue its support for Homeland Security Investigations in combating drug trafficking, cybercrime and identity theft and fraud using the company’s case management system.
In late 2022, Palantir secured an impressive $443 million contract from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention to provide software and digital platforms, aiding in the integration of its technology into an enterprise system aimed at streamlining public health operations. Prior to this achievement, Palantir had already strengthened its over 10 year-long partnership with the CDC through an agreement to continue supplying its Foundry software, which supports the agency in managing disease information integration and analysis.
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Megan Smith
White House
2016
Smith served as the third U.S. CTO from September 2014–January 2017 and won her Wash100 Award in 2016. Smith helped shape federal policies, initiatives, capacity and investments to help President Barack Obama and his administration harness the power of technology, data and innovation to advance the future of the U.S.
Smith’s work included adding senior tech talent to policy tables and broad capacity building work with a wide range of partners on both the capabilities of the government, and of the American people and the nation overall. She also worked on critical technologies that make major headlines in 2025: The future of AI; big data, privacy and civil rights; wireless spectrum and intellectual property and patents.
Smith is the CEO and co-founder of shift7, which was founded to further the impact of its team’s unusual “bilingual” experience of executing effectively in both the commercial technology sector and public and civil service. One of shift7’s top initiatives is helping tech companies fill their needs for specific skills with diverse and non-traditional talent. Another is collaborating with Navajo and Lakota Sioux partners to build local economies that are self-sustaining and not heavily dependent on extractive industries.
Michael Kratsios
White House
2019, 2020
Kratsios earned two Wash100 Awards for his leadership in propelling AI policy, federal integration and security practices. Kratsios in January 2020 was instrumental in creating the important Office of Management and Budget draft guidance regarding AI and federal agencies. The memo detailed new compliance regulations stemming from the executive order on AI, signed in February 2019, which aims to foster and safeguard national AI technology and innovation
Kratsios has been instrumental in advancing new AI initiatives across federal agencies by advocating for proactive policies that incorporate emerging technologies. In September 2019, he revealed that the White House would issue guidance on how agencies should manage and regulate AI applications. This guidance would be the inaugural document with legal authority regarding how agencies should approach the regulation of AI technologies.
Beyond his efforts in AI policy and integration, Kratsios led new initiatives in technology strategy and computing. He collaborated with the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy and the National Science and Technology Council to update the 2016 U.S. Strategic Computing Plan in November 2019.
After a handful of years serving as managing director and head of strategy at Scale AI, Kratsios is back serving in government. He was confirmed on March 15 as the 13th director of the Office of Science and Technology Policy in the White House.
Nand Mulchandani
CIA
2023
Mulchandani landed his first Wash100 Award in 2023 after achieving another significant first: Being named the CIA’s inaugural CTO. He co-authored the “Software-Defined Warfare: Architecting the Department of Defense’s Transition to the Digital Age report” that identified software as a crucial technology that U.S. warfighters could use to gain an advantage over adversaries.
Mulchandani was an accomplished cyber innovator in Silicon Valley before joining the CIA. He was CTO and acting director of DOD’s Joint Artificial Intelligence Center, a.k.a. JAIC, where he played a critical role in creating the center’s strategy and operating plan. Here, Mulchandani led a products group and built out a venture capital-based product planning and funding process for a $180 million budget. He was also deeply involved in internal product, technology oversight and strategic decisions for more than 30 different products across six technology verticals, including cyber, warfighter health and joint warfighting.
The tech innovator is a past fellow at the Harvard Kennedy School’s Belfer Center for Science and International Affairs. Mulchandani founded tech companies Oblix, Determina and ScaleXtreme. He was vice president of strategy and market development at Citrix, where he ran product and outbound marketing for the Citrix cloud infrastructure group.
Schuyler Moore
U.S. Central Command
2024
Moore earned the most prestigious honor in GovCon in 2024 for her work transforming and modernizing DOD technology. She served a two-year role as the director of science and technology for the Defense Innovation Board. Here she provided counsel to the defense secretary on the military applications of cyber capabilities, AI and biotechnology. She also authored a report on 5G communications that was presented to both the White House and Congress.
In a groundbreaking development, Moore became U.S. Central Command’s inaugural CTO in October 2022. She implemented innovative training exercises designed to enhance service members’ proficiency with AI. Notably, the exercises Scarlet Dragon Oasis and Falcon Oasis challenge the previously static perception of software within the DOD, emphasizing responsiveness to user input.
As CTO, Moore led CENTCOM’s SANDTRAP hack-a-thon that focused on data and software challenges related to countering one-way unmanned aerial systems. Over the course of this week-long event, 15 hand-selected coders from across DOD built prototypes to improve the speed and accuracy of counter unmanned aerial system processes.
Moore is currently serving as a Naval Reserve intelligence officer in U.S. Naval Forces Europe-Africa/U.S. 6th Fleet.
Steven Walker
DARPA
2018, 2019
Walker earned a pair of Wash100 Awards in 2018 and 2019 for groundbreaking science and technology achievements over 30 years of illustrious public sector work. He spent more than a decade at the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency in roles including director, deputy director, deputy office director, office director and deputy director of the Tactical Technology Office. DARPA under Walker’s leadership began working on the second and third waves of AI technology targeting autonomous platforms and contextual reasoning adaptation.
Walker also spent a number of years with the U.S. Air Force, including as deputy assistant secretary for science, technology and engineering, where he created the technology investment strategy for the service’s annual $2 billion science and technology program. He led functional management of more than 14,000 military and civilian scientists and engineers.
One of Walker’s most significant achievements for the USAF was initiating the $500 million DARPA/Air Force Falcon program to develop and flight test technologies for long duration hypersonic flight and affordable, responsive space lift. He began his engineering career in the Air Force Research Laboratory’s air vehicles directorate, providing expertise in airplane exhaust system fluidics and aero-acoustic modeling and simulation research.
Walker wrapped up his career as a vice president and CTO at Lockheed Martin, where he was responsible for the company’s technology strategy, global research and customer mission development.
About Wash100
The Wash100 Award, now in its 12th year, recognizes the most influential executives in the GovCon industry as selected by the Executive Mosaic team in tandem with online nominations from the GovCon community. Representing the best of the private and public sector, the winners demonstrate superior leadership, innovation, reliability, achievement and vision.
Explore Wash100.com to learn more about 2025’s slate of winners from industry and government.
The Potomac Officers Club’s 2025 Army Summit is the most prestigious land warfare conference in Washington. It brings together the service’s top officials, defense experts and GovCon leaders to discuss new DOD technology initiatives and business opportunities. Don’t miss out!
