Ed Rinkavage, Catapult Consultants VP of Acquisition Services, Featured in Government Executive Magazine
November 2009
Arlington, Virginia
Ed Rinkavage, Vice President of Acquisition Services at Catapult Consultants, a leader in financial management, acquisitions, program management and information assurance, for federal agencies, recently shared some of his thoughts on the acquisition workforce and his work to bring new talent to the procurement field.
In the November 4 article in Government Executive magazine titled, "New Alliance Hopes to Spur New Talent in Procurement Field," Mr. Rinkavage explains how the contracting universe is expanding and why finding the talent is challenging.
The article also references his brainchild coalition - the Strategic Partnership on Acquisition Recruitment Coalition (SPARC) - a wide scale effort by several procurement-focused entities to create the next generation of contracting professionals. These include representatives from the Office of Management and Budget (OMB) Office of Federal Procurement Policy, the Chief Acquisition Officers Council, Federal Acquisition Institute, Defense Acquisition University and the National Contract Management Association.
The purpose of SPARC is to partner and leverage resources within the Federal, Commercial, Not for Profit, and Academia Sectors in order to identify and attract talent to grow the global acquisition workforce. The group's initial priority is to convince universities to expand their curriculum to focus on procurement.
"The recent OMB mandate to civilian agencies to augment their contracting staffs by at least 5 percent by 2014 and the ongoing hiring spree at the Department of Defense will open thousands of new positions in the field of federal acquisition," said Mr. Rinkavage. "SPARC has been created to jointly address the recruitment of new employees at all career levels and for all entities including the Federal government and commercial industry. This initiative meets the urgent need to identify and recruit candidates for the acquisition workforce."
"We strongly support Ed's work on SPARC. As a professional services and management consulting company with an entire division dedicated to acquisition management and helping customers provide fast, efficient, and responsive acquisition support services, we realize that this initiative is key to recruiting the talent necessary for successful acquisition management," said Catapult Co-founder and Principal Tony Fung.
The complete article can be found here: http://www.govexec.com/story_page.cfm?filepath=/dailyfed/1109/110409rb1.htm&oref=search
Catapult's Acquisition Management Division is a professional services and management consulting provider helping customers provide fast, efficient, and responsive acquisition, procurement, and management support services incorporating a life-cycle and performance oriented, best-value approach. Catapult leverages its business and technology skills to help streamline and modernize acquisition organizations. Catapult provides a full range of acquisition, procurement, contracting, and management support services throughout the Federal government.
Catapult's federal clients include the Department of Health and Human Services, the Department of Defense and the Department of Homeland Security. Catapult also serves other clients in the nonprofit and healthcare industries.
About Catapult Consultants
Based in Arlington, Virginia, Catapult Consultants is a minority-owned, 8(a) certified, professional services and management consulting company specializing in Financial Management, Acquisitions, Program Management and Information Assurance with corporate expertise built around compliance, controls, and assurance. Delivering innovation and award-winning solutions, including accounting, budgeting and auditing services; grant management and program analysis; and acquisition strategy and management, Catapult is GSA approved under the MOBIS, Schedule 70, and FABS contracting schedules. Catapult's mission is to help organizations reach new heights in excellence. For more information, visit http://www.catapultconsultants.com