Industry Perspectives: The Role of Business Acumen in Acquisition Success

A native of Cadiz, Kentucky, Tom Davis was commissioned a Lieutenant in the Field Artillery upon graduation from the United States Military Academy in 1972. After numerous troop assignments in Germany and Korea, he earned a Master’s Degree in International Relations and Economics at Harvard University, and joined the faculty of the Military Academy teaching International Relations, Economics, and Government in the Department of Social Sciences. In 1985, Mr. Davis graduated from the Marine Command and Staff College where he won the prestigious Clifton B. Cates Award for individual research, then joined the Office of the Army Chief of Staff as the Fire Support and Classified Program Analyst. He subsequently served as Military Assistant to the Secretary of the Army before moving to the Joint Staff where he was the Chief, Non-Strategic Nuclear Forces Branch, in J-8. In this position, he headed the study that served as the basis for the 1991 decision withdrawing American short-range nuclear forces from Europe.

In April 1997, Tom joined the Northrop Grumman Corporation as Senior Defense Analyst advising the corporate leadership on emerging strategic, technological and budgetary trends in the American defense program. He was a frequent author of articles and editorials on defense strategy and management issues. Having written an assessment on Homeland Security (HLS) in the Spring of 2001, and a subsequent monograph on the subject, he was asked to coordinate corporate HLS programs following the attacks of September 11, 2001. He is a life member of the Council on Foreign Relations. In September 2002, Tom joined the corporate staff at General Dynamics Corporation and was named Director of Strategic Planning. In July 2005 he was promoted to Staff Vice President and in March 2008 to Corporate Vice President for Strategic Planning and Business Development. In these capacities, Mr. Davis evaluated trends in the national security, federal civil sector, and international markets to identify emerging business opportunities. He retired from GD in April 2013, and is currently Senior Fellow in Residence at the National Defense Industrial Association and was recently named the Forrestal-Richardson Industry Chair at Defense Acquisition University. Tom published his first novel, Conclave, in August 2016. It is a fictionalized account of the election of Pope John Paul II in October 1978, and takes advantage of Tom’s extensive experiences over the past forty years.

Headquartered in Reston, Virginia, KIHOMAC is a Veteran-Owned Small Business (VOSB) aerospace engineering and manufacturing services company of approximately 350 employees throughout the U.S. KIHOMAC is principally engaged in the development and production of new solutions to sustain legacy equipment in aerospace and a variety of commercial industries. 

Ross Thompson joined the faculty at the Defense Acquisition University (DAU) in November 2015 as the Senior Acquisition Executive in-residence. He provides consulting, mission assistance, and executive coaching to Defense Program Executive Officers, Program Managers, and senior leaders in both the Defense Department and commercial industry. 

A retired Army Lieutenant General, Mr. Thompson served from 2016-2019 as a commissioner on the 2016 NDAA Section 809 panel charged with making recommendations on actionable changes to regulatory and statutory language to improve the Department of Defense acquisition process.  He advises senior government and industry leaders on strategy, program management, technology, contracting, budgets, process improvement and workforce development. He also serves on the Board of Directors for several technology companies.

Kim Herrington is Vice President, Government Finance at L3Harris Technologies.  In this role, Kim is responsible for providing strategic leadership to L3Harris business segments to optimize financial performance within the U.S. government contracting environment.  

Prior to joining L3Harris, Kim worked for 3 years for the Department of Defense, serving as a principal advisor to the Undersecretary of Defense for Acquisition and Sustainment.  He served 2 years as the Director of Defense Pricing and Contracting, and he completed his DoD tenure as the Principal Director for Industrial Policy. 

Previously he was senior vice president and chief financial officer for Textron Systems and before joining Textron Systems, Herrington spent more than seven years at Bell Helicopter, a Textron company, as vice president of Cost Management Integration and Director of EVMS. Herrington began his career at Lockheed Martin where he worked for 20 years in a variety of finance roles, including 10 years in Pricing and Estimating. 

Herrington earned a master of business administration degree in finance from the University of Southern California and a bachelor’s degree in economics from the University of California at Los Angeles.