Northern Virginia Technology Council Announces Greater Washington Technology CFO Award Winners

Nigel Morris and CFOs of Booz Allen Hamilton, CGI, K2M, and SMARTHINKING Honored for Excellence in Promoting the Region's Technology Community

HERNDON, Va., June 2, 2011 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- The Northern Virginia Technology Council (NVTC) announced today the winners of the 15th Annual Greater Washington Technology CFO Awards, held last night at The Ritz-Carlton in McLean, Virginia. The CFO Awards recognize local chief financial officers for outstanding achievement and excellence in promoting the area's technology community. In addition, Capital One Co-Founder Nigel Morris was honored as the winner of the Michael G. Devine Hall of Fame award for his contributions to the National Capital region's technology business community during the course of his career.

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The winners are as follows:

Public Company CFO of the Year: Samuel Strickland, Booz Allen Hamilton – As CFO and executive vice president of Booz Allen Hamilton, Sam is responsible for managing the capital structure and financial operations of Booz Allen's $5.1 billion enterprise. He was the officer-in-charge of Booz Allen's successful initial public offering in November 2010, enabled The Carlyle Group's major investment in the firm, and led the separation and spin-off of the firm's former commercial business. Sam leads Booz Allen's infrastructure operations, which encompasses acquisitions, global finance, information services, infrastructure services, people services and core services. He also advises senior leadership as part of the firm's leadership team and is a member of its Board of Directors.

Group/Division CFO of the Year: Michael Waple, CGI – As the vice president, head of financial operations and controller for CGI's U.S. and India operations, Michael provides leadership, guidance and support to CGI's U.S. and India businesses, representing nearly half of CGI's annual business volume. In his role, Michael is responsible for finance and accounting operations supporting the U.S. and India business units and leadership team. In the past year, Michael was instrumental in leading the company to record profit. During the summer of 2010, Michael played a key role in the due diligence and planning process associated with CGI's $1 billion acquisition of Stanley Associates. He now leads the integration of the finance organizations of CGI Federal and former Stanley.

Private Company CFO of the Year: Greg Cole, K2M Inc. – Greg has more than 18 years of financial and management experience with public and private companies, primarily in the technology and health care fields. As K2M's CFO, he was the lead negotiator on behalf of K2M's CEO and Board of Directors on a sale of K2M to private equity firm Welsh Carson Anderson and Stowe, which was closed in August 2010. In 2010, Greg worked closely with the CEO and operating groups to drive revenue growth of 28 percent over 2009 through new business expansion into five new countries and the addition of several independent distributors in the United States.

Emerging Growth CFO of the Year Award: Joel Reiser, SMARTHINKING Inc. – Joel served as chief financial officer of SMARTHINKING from September 2009 until April 2011. In this capacity, he led the finance, accounting, human resources and information technology functions. Joel improved the company's financial management and reporting systems, ensuring that other divisions in the company had good management information from which to make the best business decisions. Most notably, Joel positioned the company for acquisition and successfully managed the sale of SMARTHINKING to TutorVista/Pearson Education in February 2011 and was an integral part of all aspects of the sale.

Michael G. Devine Hall of Fame Award: Nigel Morris – Nigel Morris is recognized for his entrepreneurial vision, managerial skill, ability to inspire those around him and his commitment to the community. Under his leadership, Capital One Financial Services, which he co-founded in 1994, pioneered an information-based strategy that fundamentally transformed the consumer lending industry. During Nigel's 10-year tenure from 1994 to 2004, Capital One's sales grew at a compound annual rate of more than 40 percent and earnings per share growth and return on equity both exceeded 20 percent per year, a financial performance attained by only a handful of American companies. Upon his retirement in 2004, Capital One had successfully transitioned from an emerging startup into an established public company valued at more than $20 billion.

Today, Nigel is the managing partner of QED Investors, a direct investment fund focused on high-growth companies that leverage the power of data strategies. In addition, he works in an advisory capacity with General Atlantic Partners and Oliver Wyman Consulting and serves on the board of numerous for-profit companies.

Together with his wife Lori, Nigel also runs the Bruhn-Morris Family Foundation, which supports many important causes, including early childhood education and the prevention of child abuse, particularly here in our local communities.

The Northern Virginia Technology Council (NVTC) is the membership and trade association for the technology community in Northern Virginia. As the largest technology council in the nation, NVTC serves about 1,000 companies from all sectors of the technology industry, as well as service providers, universities, foreign embassies, non-profit organizations and governmental agencies.  Through its member companies, NVTC represents about 200,000 employees in the region.  NVTC is recognized as the nation's leader in providing its technology community with networking and educational events; specialized services and benefits; public policy advocacy; branding of its region as a major global technology center; initiatives in targeted business sectors and in the international, entrepreneurship, workforce and education arenas; the Equal Footing Foundation, a 501(c)(3) nonprofit charity that serves local area youth; and The Entrepreneur Center @NVTC which mentors new technology entrepreneurs. Visit NVTC at www.nvtc.org.

SOURCE Northern Virginia Technology Council