John Song, managing director for Baird and 2021 Wash100 Award recipient, opened the long-awaited 2021 Government & Defense Conference on Wednesday with a look into the company’s success over the past year since the company’s last conference, its growth and influence in the sector, which includes some of the biggest deals and acquisitions across the federal landscape.
Song emphasized that in the last five years, Baird has become a $2.3 billion financial institution with more than 60 transactions that combine for more than 15 billion dollars in transactions and the highest close rate in the industry.
“Anyone who’s read some of the books that we’ve created on the sales side knows how much we value culture in terms of the positioning for companies that we work with and ours is no different as an employee-owned institution,” said Song. “Culture drives our business.”
With a full day of discussion regarding the key industry trends and market outlook for the packed house with a wide collection of federal workers joining the conference virtually, Song provided an overview of the day’s events, including fireside chats from Parsons CEO Carey Smith, LMI CEO Doug Wagoner, BlueHalo’s Jonathan Moneymaker and more.
Jean Stack, managing director for Baird and a 2019 Wash100 Award winner, provided a look into Baird’s market insight into the federal landscape’s M&A activities as well as the more than 28 deals the company has been involved with since Jan. 2020.
In her opening remarks, Stack discussed the flood of capital that’s currently driving through the federal sector in the current market. She talked about the work that many companies are doing to drive their growth and value towards 2025 as the U.S. fights to retain its superiority in a lot of key areas, including space technology and other technical areas.
Stack also touched on the challenges of keeping up with our adversaries and how companies are cutting costs and making their critical moves to capitalize on their top priorities for their clients in the sector during such a challenging time.
“These are what companies are talking about by way of how they want to execute on their M&A strategy,” said Stack. “Whether it be digital transformation, public health, data analytics, space, autonomy, electronic warfare and cybersecurity, these are the buzzwords of the day as our business models continue to evolve and technology and innovation drive our business forward.”
