Betty Sapp, Director of National Reconnaissance Office, Inducted Into 2019 Wash100 for Managing NRO Operations, Acquisition Efforts & Advancing Space Intelligence Data

Betty Sapp

Executive Mosaic is honored to introduce Betty Sapp, director of the National Reconnaissance Office, as an inductee into the 2019 Wash100 — Executive Mosaic’s annual selection of the most influential voices in the government contracting arena — for managing NRO’s operations and advancing space intelligence data.

The latest honor represents the fourth Wash100 Award for Sapp in five years.

Sapp was named the 18th director of the NRO in 2012 after serving as the agency’s principal deputy director for three years. Her current responsibilities include oversight of all NRO operations and other tasks directed by the Director of National Intelligence and the Secretary of Defense. The NRO manages the country’s reconnaissance satellites and handles its signals and imagery intelligence operations.

Sapp has faced challenges, particularly on acquisition, during her tenure as head of the NRO. During the 2016 Intelligence and National Security Summit in Washington, D.C., Sapp said one of its 17 crucial acquisition efforts was facing the risk of not being able to meet performance and schedule requirements but she expects it “to deliver soon.”

Her remarks followed comments by James Clapper, the former Director of National Intelligence, to the same audience stating that although the 17 NRO programs out of the intelligence community’s 27 major projects are meeting performance goals, there are “certain exceptions.” The U.S. Air Force plans to award a sole-source contract to United Launch Alliance to produce Delta 4 Heavy rockets for the NRO sometime between 2020 and 2023.

In April 2018, Sapp told SpaceNews the NRO was slated to take over the EnhancedView satellite imagery acquisition contract from the National Geospatial Intelligence Agency. She added that the NRO seeks to construct technology platforms that its personnel can utilize to exchange space intelligence data with other military units and intelligence agencies. NGA has previously procured satellite imagery technology for national security and disaster response operations through the award.

Following the announcement, NRO selected Maxar Technologies’ DigitalGlobe subsidiary for a potential two-year, $600M recompete contract to provide authorized government personnel with access to the company’s WorldView-1, 2 and 3 satellites for public service missions. Sapp said the EnhancedView contract is “an important first step” in the NRO mission to use commercial imagery as a key element in the nation’s current and future overhead architecture.

Prior to her appointment at NRO, Sapp held business management roles at the agency and served in several leadership positions at the Air Force. She also spent time with the CIA and oversaw the Department of Defense’s acquisition of defense intelligence capabilities as deputy undersecretary of defense for portfolio, programs and resources.

Executive Mosaic congratulates Betty Sapp and the NRO team for their selection to receive this award.

About The Wash100

The Wash100 award, now in its sixth 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.

Visit the Wash100 site to learn about the other 99 winners of the 2019 Wash100 Award. On the site, you can submit your 10 votes for the GovCon executives of consequence that you believe will have the most significant impact in 2019.