March 28, 2016
McLean, VA — Booz Allen Executive Vice President Karen Dahut has been named Civil Commercial Group (CCG) Lead, and Executive Vice President Susan Penfield has been named Strategic Innovation Group (SIG) Lead, effective April 1, the company announced today.
Dahut, who built and has led the SIG for the past three years and is a member of the firm’s Leadership Team, will oversee delivery of the firm’s strategic, technology, and analytic capabilities to federal civilian agencies and commercial clients, including Fortune 500 corporations. Penfield most recently has led the Innovation, Culture, Ventures, and Solutions group within the SIG and will now oversee the entire organization responsible for driving innovation across the business and strengthening a culture of innovation inside the firm. Penfield will also join the Leadership Team.
As Booz Allen enters the fourth year of its long-term Vision 2020 strategy to achieve sustainable quality growth, Dahut and Penfield will be tasked with building on the company’s investments in innovative technologies and capabilities by helping expand them across the business into new advanced solutions for government and commercial clients.
“Karen Dahut and Susan Penfield have brought vision and energy to every position they’ve each held over many years,” said President and CEO Horacio Rozanski. “As we build momentum for future revenue growth, they are the right leaders to help deliver returns on our investments in areas such as cyber, engineering, analytics, systems delivery, and innovation. Beyond that, they bring diversity of thought and experience to our senior leadership team, which are essential for our success in today’s market.”
Dahut has been a Booz Allen leader for nearly 14 years, and in 2013 was asked to build and lead the new Strategic Innovation Group to develop and deliver innovative solutions to our clients’ toughest challenges. She is an accomplished business leader who thrives on energizing organizations and building businesses by enhancing innovation and developing technology solutions for a broad base of clients. Dahut previously led Booz Allen’s 5,500-person Analytics business, creating and delivering world class big data solutions for clients across both the commercial and public sector. Before that, she led the firm’s U.S. Navy business, involving staff and engagements in 25 locations worldwide.
Prior to joining Booz Allen, she was an officer in the U.S. Navy and served as the comptroller for the Navy’s premier biomedical research institute. She received a B.S. degree in business finance from Mount St. Mary’s University and an M.S. degree from the Viterbi School of Engineering at the University of Southern California.
“I am incredibly proud of how the SIG has shaped our firm’s innovation culture over the past three years, and our commitment to creating new, compelling innovative products, technologies, and solutions for our clients,” Dahut said. “As the leader of CCG, I look forward to the great opportunity to drive these advancements further into our civil government and commercial markets, benefitting a broader array of clients and accelerating the growth of our business.”
Penfield has been with the firm more than 20 years, and has led businesses in the health, technology, and innovation fields. For the past year, she provided leadership to the SIG’s Innovation, Culture, Ventures, and Solutions group—where she built a team to drive Booz Allen’s internal and external innovation ecosystem. Penfield also laid the groundwork for the firm’s products and solutions business, and forged creative new approaches to partnering with significant companies like Microsoft and Intel while advancing relationships with the start-up community through a nationwide innovation hub construct.
Her career experience spans a variety of technology and management positions in support of science, engineering, and financial organizations. Before joining the SIG, she led the firm’s Health business, where she led technology and transformation initiatives across the Federal and Commercial Health space. She holds a B.S. degree in technology management from Lock Haven University in Pennsylvania and a certificate in Management from Northwestern’s Kellogg School of Business.
“In my experience as a Health market leader and in the SIG, I’ve seen firsthand how our investments in innovation have helped our clients solve their toughest problems,” Penfield said. “I’m proud to now have the opportunity to lead this high-performing organization, looking ahead to develop the culture, the partnerships, and the next generation of ideas and technologies that will benefit our clients in the years to come.”
In addition to these appointments, effective April 1, the firm announced in February that retiring Chief Financial Officer Kevin Cook will be succeeded by Executive Vice President Lloyd Howell, also a long-time senior leader and currently CCG head, on July 1.
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