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Booz Allen Hamilton

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FY2016 Annual Report · Booz Allen Hamilton
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P E O P L E 
P U R P O S E
P A S S I O N

I M P A C T   R E P O R T   /  2 0 1 6

I N T R O D U C T I O N

Welcome to Booz Allen Hamilton’s 2016 Impact Report. Now in our second century, 

we are as vibrant and innovative as the day we were born. After having created the 

very  concept  of  management  consulting  more  than  a  century  ago,  we  have  now 

woven that heritage into a range of highly skilled technological capabilities that have 

had an exciting impact for our clients, our people, and the communities where we live 

and work. Our people are bringing their mix of consulting and advanced technology 

expertise to solve problems with a different, more effective mindset. Their purpose 

is to devise powerful solutions for our clients’ toughest challenges. And their passion 

is in everything they do; they want to help their country protect and serve its citizens 

better and make sure their neighbors have adequate food and shelter.

We’ve lasted more than 100 years because we’ve stood firm on a foundation of 

the highest character, an unyielding commitment to the best client service, and 

genuine  care  for  our  employees  and  communities.  But  importantly,  we’ve  also 

adapted with the needs of the times. Today, we’re building value and opportunity 

for  our  second  century  by  investing  in  technology  skills  like  data  science  and 

analytics, systems delivery, engineering, and cyber, and we're supporting those 

skills with investments in our culture of innovation. 

Our  clients  call  upon  us  to  work  on  their  very  hardest  problems  because  they 

see  again  and  again  that  we  are  up  to  the  task.  And  our  investors,  whose 

confidence  and  support  give  us  the  ability  to  serve  our  clients  and 

communities,  see  our  value  each  year  in  strong  financial  performance  and 

potential for growth. 

FROM THE CEO & CHAIRMAN 

DEAR COLLEAGUES  
AND FELLOW  
STOCKHOLDERS,

For more than a century, the people of Booz Allen Hamilton  
have helped clients anticipate and prepare for the future. We  
pride ourselves on working hard to stay a step ahead—knowing 
what our clients will need next, helping them understand 
change, and delivering solutions that advance their missions in 
light of complex, new requirements. 

It should be no surprise, then, that we anticipated the changing 
dynamics of our own core federal contracting market several  
years ago and defined how Booz Allen would transform to 
remain a leader in our industry. We are now well into that 
transformation under our Vision 2020 growth strategy, and the 
fiscal year that ended March 31, 2016 was a milestone year. 

After 3 years of revenue contraction, we started to grow the  
top line in fiscal year 2016. We aggressively pursued and won 
opportunities in an improving market. We broadened the types  
of work we do for long-standing clients and introduced our 
advanced capabilities to new clients. We continued to evolve our 
portfolio of services and products and develop our talent base 
toward mission-critical work that requires a blend of domain 
knowledge, consulting expertise, technical skill, and innovation. 

President and Chief 
Executive Officer 
Horacio D. Rozanski 
(standing, left) and 
Chairman of the Board 
Ralph W. Shrader 
(standing, right) with 
Booz Allen Hamilton 
colleagues at the firm’s 
Washington, DC, 
Innovation Center.

F Y 1 6   R E V E N U E

$5.41

BILLION

22,583 
NUMBER OF EMPLOYEES

AS OF MARCH 31, 2016

T O T A L   B A C K L O G

$11.8

AS OF MARCH 31, 2016

BILLION

These strides demonstrate significant progress toward achieving sustain-
able, quality growth that benefits clients, investors, and our own people. 
While we still have more to do to fully realize the value and potential of  
Booz Allen’s growth strategy, the past year affirmed that we set the right  
path to the future. In fact, we are building it brick-by-brick.

LEANING INTO THE MARKET 
Fiscal year 2016 saw improved demand in the market, and we had great 
success in capturing opportunities across defense, intelligence, and 
civilian agencies. Although the market remains very competitive, prices 
stabilized in parts of our core business. Clients tell us they feel more 
confident about their budgets and are more accustomed to managing 
through uncertain periods. As a result, they are better able to focus on 
their missions and plan for the future.

On the strength of our consulting expertise, client relationships, past 
performance, and substantial recent investments in innovation and 
advanced technical capabilities, we captured new work and won recom-
petes in every part of our business. We built a record fiscal year-end 
backlog of $11.8 billion. Our book-to-bill ratio of 1.45 was our highest 
since before the Company went public. Our funded and unfunded backlog, 
representing work over the next 6 to 18 months, is up 8.5 percent from 
the end of fiscal year 2015, and priced options, representing potential 
future revenue, increased 45.0 percent.

To capture that backlog, we spent more heavily on bid and proposal 
activity, marketing, and other indirect costs during fiscal year 2016, which 
had an impact at the bottom line. Nonetheless, we were pleased to once 
again deliver financial results that met or exceeded our forecast for the year.

Here is a summary:

•  Gross revenue grew 2.5% to $5.41 billion

•  Adjusted net income1 grew 2.6% to $246 million

•   Adjusted Diluted Earnings Per Share1 were $1.65, up from $1.60  

in fiscal 2015

•  Adjusted EBITDA1 margin was 9.4%

•   Total return to shareholders was 6.7% for the 12 months ending  
March 31, 2016, compared with 1.8% for the S&P 500 and 0.5%  
for the Russell 1000.

ADVANCING OUR STRATEGY
Fiscal year 2016 was the 3rd year of implementing our Vision 2020 
strategy. At the heart of our strategy is the differentiation created by 
combining our consulting heritage and thorough knowledge of clients’ 
missions with key technical capabilities, including engineering, systems 
delivery, cyber, digital, and advanced analytics. 

We have also expanded our business in the commercial and international 
markets. And we continue to advance an innovation agenda that has  
internal and external benefits. It has energized our workforce, forged 
strategic partnerships with other innovators in academia and the  
private sector, and created alternative revenue streams in the form  
of cutting-edge products and solutions. 

Of particular note during the past year was our purchase in November, 
2015 of the software services unit of SPARC, a Charleston, SC, technolo-

1    These measures are non-GAAP financial measures. For a reconciliation   

of these measures to GAAP, please see the Appendix.

88%

FY16

WIN RATE
ON
RECOMPETES

FY16

WIN RATE
ON NEW
CONTRACTS

62%

gy firm. The SPARC team fortifies our already strong systems delivery 
business and establishes an agile development hub in the South. As with 
other recent acquisitions, the SPARC purchase demonstrated our approach to 
mergers and acquisitions in a dynamic industry: We are focused on small 
capability-based plays that can bolster organic revenue in areas where we 
see the greatest potential for sustained growth.

The transformation we have undertaken is reflected in the type of work we 
performed and won during fiscal year 2016. Clients are turning to us for 
support on their most important priorities, including: 

•   Identifying and mitigating against a broad spectrum of emerging 
national security threats spanning both physical and cyber risks

•   Designing secure, advanced communications systems to protect 

warfighters

•   Decreasing the large backlog in claims for veterans’ benefits

•   Enabling health insurance enrollment through the Federally Facilitated 

Marketplace

•   Helping auto and drug manufacturers, energy producers, retailers,  

and others secure their products, infrastructure, and processes from 
cyber threats

High-quality delivery of our services and expertise on critical missions like 
these further strengthens our essential partnerships with clients and 
builds value for shareholders. It also helps us attract and retain the best 
people—women and men who are passionate about solving problems and 
making a difference in the world.

LEADERSHIP AND BOARD GOVERNANCE
In February 2016, Chief Financial Officer and Treasurer Kevin Cook 
announced his retirement and Executive Vice President Lloyd W. Howell, 
Jr., was named to succeed him as CFO, effective July 1. Lloyd brings to  
the CFO position more than 24 years of experience at the firm, including 
leadership in business operations and strategic planning. He has deep 
familiarity with the firm’s finances, and will lead our effort to accelerate 
growth at both the top and bottom line through effective capital deploy-
ment and investment strategies. 

During fiscal year 2016, we further diversified our shareholder base, 
attracting institutional investors focused on value as well as growth at  
a reasonable price. After the sale of 26 million shares total in secondary 
offerings in November 2015 and May 2016, The Carlyle Group owned 
about 11 percent of outstanding common stock of the Company as of  
May 27, 2016.

We were pleased to welcome Melody Barnes to Booz Allen’s Board of 
Directors in October 2015. She is a domestic policy strategist and a Vice 
Provost and Senior Fellow at New York University and formerly served as 
Assistant to the President and the Director of the Domestic Policy Council 
for President Obama. Melody brings a wealth of public policy expertise 
that will help broaden our perspective on issues important to clients and 
to our own strategic planning. The Board remains actively engaged with 
management on our long-term strategy and competitive positioning in an 
evolving market, as well as risk management and stewardship of share-
holder value. 

44%

EMPLOYEES WITH 
ADVANCED DEGREES

66K

VOLUNTEER HOURS
RECORDED BY EMPLOYEES IN FY16

We are particularly proud of the diversity of our Leadership Team and 
Board of Directors; they are among the most diverse in corporate America 
today. This diversity reflects and complements the transformation of our 
firm. But more than that, it underscores our commitment to creating 
opportunity for our people and demonstrates the importance of diversity 
to our success.

COMMITMENT TO PEOPLE, CLIENTS, COMMUNITY
It is a great privilege to represent the work, ideas, energy, and dedication 
of Booz Allen’s nearly 22,600 talented professionals. Their performance 
drives our business and creates opportunities for the future. 

Ask a Booz Allen strategist or technologist to describe what he or she 
does and the answer that most often comes back is “I solve problems.” 
In today’s world, that means bringing together people of varied skills and 
backgrounds and applying their passions to complex challenges. The 
people of our firm do that each and every day—in their work and in their 
communities. 

In fiscal year 2016, our Company was again recognized for its excel-
lence by respected publications and associations. The honors included 
FORTUNE’s Most Admired Companies, Working Mother’s 100 Best 
Companies, and Forbes’ Most Prestigious Consulting Firms and Top 
100 Military Friendly Employers. In addition to serving clients each  
day, the people of Booz Allen gave more than 66,000 volunteer hours 
to organizations across the country—work that strengthens communi-
ties and assists those in need. For our people, this service is just one 
more meaningful way to put their values and passions into action. 

Thank you, Booz Allen employees and stockholders, for your support as 
we continue to transform our firm, help clients in new ways, reach for 
growth, and above all, serve as a positive force in the world. We look 
forward to building on our success in fiscal year 2017.

RALPH W. SHRADER, PH.D.

Chairman of the Board

HORACIO D. ROZANSKI

President and Chief   
Executive Officer

P E O P L E / MEET OUR PEOPLE—engineers, systems delivery experts, and data 

scientists;  working  parents  and  military  families.  One  military  family  shares  their 

story of deployment and financial uncertainty until both joined Booz Allen, where they 

are thankful for the financial security our benefits provide to military personnel who 

must deploy. And learn how our innovation tools are creating connections throughout 

the firm—infusing our workplace with even more creativity to drive client solutions.

P U R P O S E / UNDERSTAND  OUR  PURPOSE—to  solve  our  client’s  greatest 

challenges.  In  defense,  for  example,  our  team  of  experts  identified  traumatic 

brain injury subtypes that could lead to improved recovery outcomes for wounded 

warriors. Our cybersecurity experts have ensured our country’s safety by securing a 

commercial nuclear facility and in the process raised the bar on industry standards. 

We’re partnering with clients to solve their challenges, and as a result—the cars you 

drive are safer, the utilities that power our country are more secure, and our borders 

are more protected.

P A S S I O N / FEEL OUR PASSION—for giving back, for making a difference. Our 

volunteers  have  mentored  young  innovators  through  the  not-for-profit  FIRST®  for 

more than a decade. The net effect of Booz Allen's long and passionate support: 

the firm was recently named a FIRST Strategic Partner, one of only 18 organizations 

to achieve such recognition.

Passionate  inquisitiveness  led  to  a  breakthrough  solution  to  help  track  the  Ebola 

virus in Africa. That same energy and love for advanced data analytics and virtual 

reality  technology  led  to  the  creation  of  Project  OceanLens™  which  brings  never-

before-seen capabilities to mapping the underwater environment.

PEOPLE, PASSION, AND PURPOSE—they are the stories of the promise we make and 

the impact we deliver every day.

PEOPLE

PURPOSE

PASSION

Management Consultants Go for Gold ...........1

Intrepid Analysts Help Unlock Clues  
to TBI Treatments .........................................16

Hope Drives Culture of  
Innovation ...................................................31

Building A Culture of Innovation  ....................3

The Nuts and Bolts of  
Engineering Excellence ..................................5

Saluting Military Families with a Culture  
that Builds Resiliency ....................................7

Dare to Create the Future with  
Our Data Science Workforce  .........................9

Supporting and Celebrating  
Our Working Parents ....................................11

Building Our Systems  
Delivery Workforce .......................................13

Connected Cars: Innovation and Safety  
in the Driver’s Seat ......................................18

Story Time in the Cloud—an App-based 
Approach to Reading Together .....................33

Analytic Innovation Cell—Bringing New Ideas  
for Keeping the Nation Safe ........................20

Helping Reach More Kids with a  
Great FIRST® Impression .............................35

Raising the Bar on Public Utilities’  
Cybersecurity ..............................................22

Fish Eye View—Project OceanLens™ ............37

Bringing it all Together: Behind the  
Scenes of the Healthcare Reform ................24

Turning on the Lights:  
C4ISR Integration ........................................26

Smart Cities & Government, Happy  
Citizens—Transforming the Middle  
East and North Africa ..................................28

Playing for Keeps—Cyber Wargames .............39

A Passion for Problem-Solving  
Leads to an Innovative Tool for  
Disease Tracking .........................................41

Advanced Analytics Put Clients  
Ahead of the Attack.....................................43

P

E

O

P

L

E 

EVERY COMPANY SAYS IT:   

“ Our people  
make us g re at.” 

At Booz Allen, we know it’s true. We foster a culture of 

collaboration, ex p e r im e nt ati o n ,  an d di s c u s s i o n  o f  n ew 

i d e a s , an d we k n ow th at di ve r s e  m in d s  y i e l d  d i ve r s e 

p e r s p e c ti ve s .  O ur 2 2 ,6 0 0 d e di c ate d  e mp l oye e s c o m e 

f r o m  all walk s  o f li f e, an d h a il  f r o m   a r o un d th e   g l o b e, 

b u t s h ar e a d e f ining c h ar a c te r i s ti c — a  dr i v ing  p a s s i o n 

fo r s o l v ing o ur c li e nt s’ p r o b l e m s  an d d e li ve r in g 

l a s ting valu e. We'r e e ng in e e r s  an d s c i e nti s t s ,  sy s te m s 

d e li ve r y,  c y b e r,  an d an al y ti c s e x p e r t s ,   a n d   t h e   l i s t 

g o e s   o n .   W e ’r e   a l s o   v e t e r a n s ,   r e s e r v i s t s ,   working 

parents, recent grads, and military spouses. This experience  

an d ex p e r ti s e, c o u p l e d w i th a 10 0 + - ye ar c o n s u l ting 

l e g a c y i s w h at  we o f f e r o ur c li e nt s . A n d i t s e t s  u s 

ap ar t . We inv i te yo u to m e e t o ur  p e o p l e  th r o u g h  th e s e 

s to r i e s . S e e fo r yo ur s e l f  h ow  B o oz  A ll e n  i s  b uil ding  a 

wo r k fo r c e th at h e lp s  o ur p e o p l e thr i ve p r o fe s s i o n a ll y 

an d p e r s o n all y,  an d h ow th at tr a n s l ate s to exc e p ti o n al 

c li e nt s e r v i c e an d s o lu ti o n s .

PEOPLE PURPOSEPASSIONPEOPLE

MANAGEMENT 
CONSULTANTS   
GO FOR GOLD

Booz Allen employees 
engage in discussion at  
our New York, NY office.

| 1 |

Throw a tough set of problems at a talented 

group of consultants, ask them to devise the 

best solution, and you’ve got quite a serious 

competition that we call the Management 

Consulting (MC) Games.

MC Games connects employees and 
leaders to solve real client challenges.

This 3-month, voluntary Olympics of Consulting competition is designed to 
simulate a real-world consulting engagement. During the most recent MC 
Games, held in 2015, multi-level, interdisciplinary teams were pitted 
against each other to solve one of 13 large-scale, strategy-level client 
challenges presented by a Booz Allen leader. More than 350 team 
members came from 44 Booz Allen office locations around the world—
from Washington, DC, to the United Arab Emirates and Korea—and were 
coached by 95 Booz Allen leaders. 

Seven of the problems tackled by the 52 teams came from inside the firm, 
like “how to build a better career manager,” while the remaining six were 
market facing, including how to manage gender equality in the military and 
looking for the “next big thing” in our health service offerings. All of the 
challenges tackled real-world issues offered to the players by the leaders 
who face them; the winning solutions were considered for implementa-
tion, and in many cases were implemented.

GOING FOR GOLD

Competing teams held “pitch jams” to prepare their final presentations 
and work through the details of their solutions, flexing their consultancy 
muscles—in strategy frameworks, operating model, and deck writing. 
Each team held a scope review and then a mid-point review with a senior 
leader to ensure projects were on track. 

After months of developing, planning, and designing a solution—all on 
their own time—teams arrived at Game Day to present their final analysis 
and recommendations. “The day of the games stood out as one of those 
great days in your career,” says Principal Heather Powers, who served on 
the senior leadership team that created and designed the competition.  
“It was so energizing. It’s just a fabulous way to affirm our heritage,” 
Heather says. 

After closed-door deliberations, judges picked 13 winners and announced 
the results—to audible cries of victory and disappointment from the 
audience. It was so intense, no one wanted to lose. 

Senior Consultant and MC Games player Anastasiya Olds says she felt 
leaders were really listening. “They took what we said to heart,” she says. 
“This wasn’t just a networking exercise; senior leaders actually took 
suggestions from the teams.” 

One such suggestion grew into Booz Allen’s online Systems Delivery 
University (SDU). The idea was to create a repository of tools and 
resources that employees could easily reach. SDU is now live; through 
partnerships with several e-learning providers, technical staff can boost 
their skills in software and process engineering, data architecture, 
program management, and more. Another idea—the Functional Skills 
Mentoring Program—launched with a pilot focusing on process improve-
ment and knowledge management. 

The MC Games serve as a catalyst for growth and remind Booz Allen 
staff of the importance of senior leaders working with junior team mem-
bers to drive engagement and connection. Anastasiya says she stays in 
regular contact with one of her MC Games mentors, someone she likely 
never would have met otherwise.

| 2 |

IMPACT REPORT / 2016PEOPLE

BUILDING A CULTURE   
OF INNOVATION 

Booz Allen has been delivering innovative solutions to clients for  

over a century, but in 2013, the firm embarked on a mission to effuse  

an intentional Culture of Innovation throughout the organization.

Booz Allen’s flagship 
Innovation Center in 
Washington, DC.

“The spirit of entrepreneurism and 
innovation has been at our core since 
the beginning. And as we looked 
ahead to the next 100 years, we had 
an opportunity to freshly infuse 
innovation in how we approach the 
market and solve client problems,” 
says Senior Associate Chris Holmes, 
one of the Culture of Innovation 
initiative leaders. “The greatest pool 
of innovators are our employees— 
who understand their clients’ missions 
better than anyone. Employees’ 
diversity of thought, experience, and 
expertise are the key to driving 
innovation. We thoughtfully built a 

framework to bring this creative 
diversity together, which provides a 
new lens to analyze problems. Our 
culture of innovation empowers 
employees as creative thinkers and 
provides unparalleled value for our 
clients and for any problem we try 
 to tackle.”

of planned points of collaboration, 
we’ve established an environment that 
attracts more of the best ideas and 
compels our people to connect, 
contribute, and thrive. Recruiting and 
retaining a new generation of talent is 
a priority to stimulate creativity and 
create original, sustainable value.

For the past 3 years, Booz Allen’s 
Strategic Innovation Group (SIG) has 
built and driven this Culture of 
Innovation framework. We connect 
people and ideas across the natural 
barriers of markets, capabilities, and 
geographic distances. Through 
focused challenges, and the creation 

WITH THE RIGHT TOOLS, THE 
SKY’S THE LIMIT

To foster this culture, Booz Allen 
developed a set of tools and pro-
grams—several of which have 
generated impressive buy-in and 
engagement. These include:

| 3 |

•   THE G ARAGE: An online crowd-sourcing platform where 

employees post ideas and problems, get feedback, and 
pose/respond to “challenges.” Since launching in 2014, the 
Garage has crowdsourced nearly 1,000 ideas, and 19,000 
votes have been cast by employees to posted challenges.

•   THE  COM BUSTI ON C HAMBER: A live, “Shark Tank”-like event, 
where employees get 5 minutes to pitch near-market-ready 
ideas to a panel of senior partners—with no decks, just their 
pitch and whatever makes it stand out. In 2015, $285,000 
was awarded to winning pitches to develop, launch,  
and scale new client solutions.

•   ANNUAL  IDEAS F ESTI VAL :  A celebration of our  

innovation efforts that also allows us give back  
to our community. The day’s events—which take place 
simultaneously in several Booz Allen offices—bring together 
junior employees and senior leaders for sharing, networking, 
and workshops where attendees brainstorm solutions to 
issues faced by a local not-for-profit. In 2015, employees all 
across the firm could also engage with the day’s events via 
a custom app that connected users through photos, 
comments, and real-time feedback. More than 87,000 
interactions and impressions were generated.

•   THE  MI LLENNIAL PROJECT: We’re attracting the sharpest 
young talent through this effort that includes a winter 
engagement program to expose junior technical talent to 
consulting earlier in their career-seeking process; a 10-week 
competitive Summer Games internship; a Student Incubator 
to source, capture, and prototype brilliant new ideas; and a 
means to invest in the STEM talent pipeline by working on 
social good endeavors.

OPENING THE DOORS OF INNOVATION

We’ve come a long way since 2013 and the next chapter of our 
innovation journey is underway as we jump into the Innovation 
Hub (iHub) network, a group of entrepreneurs, startups, 
incubators, investors, and other leading-edge firms in pre-exist-
ing hot beds of innovation in places like Austin, Boston, Los 
Angeles, San Diego, and Seattle. Our iHub presence is helping 
the firm enhance our brand, recruit and retain top talent, 
generate leads, sell new business models, and pilot new 
technologies. We’ve even opened our own Innovation Center in 
Washington, DC. From its innovative space design to the 
cutting-edge technologies from our partnering sponsors— 
Intel, Hewlett Packard Enterprise, and Microsoft—the 
state-of-the-art Center is built to fuel creativity. 

“The Innovation Center and our engagement in the larger iHub 
network are helping to raise the bar,” says Senior Associate 
and Innovation Center Director Kurt Scherer. “Now our clients 
are getting not only the best of Booz Allen, but of our partners 
and alliances as well.”

| 4 |

“ My team wrote ideas and algorithms for a relatively 
unknown technology on a writeable wall in the 
Innovation Center—something for a client in the health 
market. Later, I had an impromptu conversation with a 
principal visiting the Center that day, who saw how our 
ideas could provide a possible solution for his defense 
client. It was a tangible example of how our open work 
environment can drive new ideas and the transfer of 
innovation across the firm.”

—Associate Julian Van Giessen,  
on working in the new Booz Allen Innovation Center

IMPACT REPORT / 2016In February 2016, in an effort to develop brain health innovations for veterans experiencing mild traumatic brain injury and post-traumatic stress disorder, Booz Allen leveraged relation-ships with its San Francisco and Austin iHub co-working locations—Galvanize and Capital Factory—to host, with the Veterans Affairs Center for Innovation/MyVA Partnerships,  the #VABrainTrust Hackathon, together with veterans, caregivers, clinicians, data scientists, and others.Booz Allen’s data curation platform, Sailfish, provided hackathon participants with datasets categorized by the hackathon themes: communi-ty reintegration, rehabilitation, and diagnostics. Throughout the weekend, teams developed and pitched ideas and presented them to the judges. Twenty projects were created, including using Twitter bots for suicide prevention and interven-tion, creating online communities for service members to find jobs and reintegrate into society, developing platforms for clinicians to provide qualified veteran medical referrals, and using wearable devices to monitor and improve sleep patterns and attentiveness. 
PEOPLE

THE NUTS AND BOLTS  
OF ENGINEERING EXCELLENCE 

When the U.S. began fighting in Iraq and Afghanistan, 

improvised explosive devices (IED) were one of the biggest 

threats to our soldiers. Booz Allen engineers were able to not 

only develop specialized armor for Army and Marine Corps 

vehicles, but also a jammer with the ability to block the 

wireless signals that detonate IEDs. Together, in just over  

a year, these technologies cut the number of U.S. casualties 

from IEDs in those countries by approximately 85 percent.

A few of Booz Allen’s 3,000+ 
engineers stop for photos during the 
SWE and BEYA conferences.

“These are the kinds of solutions that draw clients  
to Booz Allen,” says Senior Vice President Brian Abbe, 
“and the ability to work on these kinds problems for  
our clients—some of the largest and most complex 
problems imaginable—are what draw the most 
talented engineers to the firm. They love to be 
challenged and to work on projects with such  
incredible impact.”

THE CONSULTATIVE ENGINEER

Booz Allen has worked on engagements with critical 
engineering elements for more than a century (like  
contributing to the design of the Hubble Telescope  
and the Apollo 11 moon launch), but it was largely  
in a consulting capacity until the technology and 
digital revolutions of recent years. Since then, Booz 
Allen has been building our engineering workforce to 
ensure we have specialized expertise in a wide range of 
engineering fields. And our engineers deliver a unique 

| 5 |

advantage to our clients—they’re not only accom-
plished in their respective fields and leading the way  
in other disciplines such as policy, business, and 
management fields, they also embody the firm’s 
management consulting heritage as they innovate 
solutions for clients. It’s a new way of providing 
engineering services that sets Booz Allen apart: 
consultative engineering. 

“Our engineers not only roll up their sleeves and perform 
hands-on, cutting-edge work for our clients, they’re able 
to provide them with the broader picture, as Booz Allen 
consultants, to deliver a more holistic solution,” says Brian.

ATTRACTING AND RETAINING DIVERSE,   
HIGH-PERFORMING ENGINEERS

Because our success in this—and every—market 
begins and ends with our people, we’ve created a 
systematic approach to growing a diverse and talented 
engineering workforce that includes: 

•   Targeted acquisitions of companies like the Defense 
Systems Engineering and Support division of ARINC 
Incorporated—which added approximately 1,000 
employees to our engineering body in 2012 and added 
depth and scale in the fields of C4ISR; sustainment 
engineering; aviation and naval shipboard systems; 
and positioning, navigation, and timing; and SDI 
Technologies Corporation—which helped build our 
rapid-prototyping, manufacturing, and production 
capabilities, and our expertise in customized 
electronics and radio frequency communications

• 

 Partnerships with—and often leadership positions 
within—professional associations like the Armed 
Forces Communications and Electronics Association 
(AFCEA), the Society of Women Engineers (SWE), and 
the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers

• 

• 

 Relationships with associations that have profes-
sional, university, and diversity touchpoints— 
such as Great Minds in STEM, the National Society 
of Black Engineers, and the Society of Asian 
Scientists

 Strategic recruiting within the industry that helps 
us hire world-class engineers—like Dr. Dave Stoudt 
and Tom Hastings, who joined the firm as Booz 
Allen Fellows in early 2016; and university recruit-
ing at select schools with top engineering pro-
grams—reaching students before they graduate.

This year, Booz Allen is also taking steps to increase 
the pipeline of talented engineers who’ve left the 
workforce and may be ready to return. “Often these are 
women who’ve left to raise a family and now aren’t sure 

Booz Allen SWE members 
(and one future engineer!)  
at the annual SWE 
conference, WE16.

if they can return as engineers,” says Senior 
Vice President Natalie Givans, Booz Allen 
engineer and winner of the 2016 AFCEA 
Women’s Appreciation Award for her efforts 
to further the careers of women. In partnership with 
SWE and iRelaunch, the firm is launching a new 
internship called the “Return-to-Work Program.” The 
program will provide paid re-entry internships in 2016 
for talented experienced engineers with high-demand 
skill sets—like electrical and systems engineers, and 
software developers/engineers—looking for a hands-on 
program designed to jump-start their return to the 
workforce.

Together, these approaches are helping to create a 
powerful workforce—now 3,000+ engineers strong—
that’s ready to take on any engineering challenge our 
clients throw at us and offer solutions as diverse as 
the engineers making them.

“ My favorite project is what I’m doing right now—working on intelli-
gent transportation systems for the Department of Transportation. It’s 
an umbrella of work that integrates advanced communication 
technologies into vehicles and transportation infrastructures, enabling 
connected and ultimately autonomous vehicles—basically cars talking 
to each other and to infrastructure.”

—Lead Technologist Sara Sarkhili,  
named a Women of Color STEM 2015 “Technology Rising Star”

| 6 |

IMPACT REPORT / 2016PEOPLE 

SALUTING MILITARY 
FAMILIES WITH A CULTURE 
THAT BUILDS RESILIENCY

“Booz Allen’s commitment to military families stands apart from other companies,” says Lead Associate Amy 

Bennett. Amy’s husband, also a Booz Allen employee and an Army reservist, recently got called for an unexpected 

deployment. “The last time my husband deployed [prior to joining Booz Allen] we lost two-thirds of our 

income overnight and nearly lost our home. Because of the benefits that Booz Allen offers reservists—among them 

differential pay and continuing health and retirement benefits for up to 1 year of deployment—the situation is 

completely different for us this time. It demonstrates that Booz Allen both understands the unique needs of 

the military community and also places great value on the skills and expertise of its military, veteran, and 

military spouse workforce.”

Staff Scientist  
David Perry, also  
a Sergeant in the 
National Guard, 
with his fiancée  
and young  
daughter.

And that comes naturally—Booz Allen was 
founded by a veteran, has continuously 
supported the Department of Defense (DoD) 
since our first DoD client in 1940, and, today, 
boasts a workforce in which one-third of its 
employees have a military background.

Among the differentiators in Booz Allen’s support 
for the military community: 

•   A formal veterans strategy led by senior 

leaders committed to raising awareness and 
serving the needs of the veteran community

•   Two military-focused employee forums,  
the Armed Services Forum and Military 
Spouse Forum, that offer networking, 
career training, and a valuable knowledge 
base to help employees facing relocation 
with a military spouse

•   A corporate strategy for charitable support 
and relationship building with leading 
military-focused not-for-profits, such as 
Operation Homefront, Blue Star Families, 
and Give An Hour 

| 7 |

“Booz Allen understands the military lifestyle,” says Associate 
Tracy Freedman, a military spouse who co-leads the Military 
Spouse Forum. “We are focused on helping military spouses 
build their careers, not just get a job.” Tracy has worked for 
Booz Allen for 7 years, and during that time has relocated three 
times with her husband, a Marine officer. “The Military Spouse 
Forum provides a support network for spouses who have to 
relocate regularly with the military. We are also building aware-
ness of the needs of our community among Booz Allen career 
managers, which makes all the difference.”

In November, in honor of Military Family Appreciation Month, Booz 
Allen launched a powerful campaign to build military family 
resiliency and highlight the unique skills and needs of this com-
munity. The month’s capstone event was the Military Family 
Resiliency Summit, which Booz Allen co-hosted with Blue Star 
Families and the White House’s Joining Forces, which brought 
together representatives from commercial organizations, military/
veteran not-for-profits, and DoD leadership to discuss changing 
needs of military families. The Summit resulted in a corporate 
engagement guide that was distributed across a national 
network of business and government supporters of the military 
community.

Additional campaign events focused on military spouse 
careers and the unique and transferable skills of this 
community (check out the event recording on YouTube) and 
on the workforce contributions of Vietnam Veterans. Booz Allen 
leaders were a compelling voice in the media—creating aware-
ness of the needs of the military family and how business and 
communities can come together in support. Booz Allen volunteers 
also partnered with Blue Star Families to refurbish military youth 
centers and an elementary school library at military bases across 
the country. 

The firm is extending its innovative service to the military 
community to its next generation, through the new Booz Allen 
Hamilton Innovation Award for Military Children, part of 
Operation Homefront’s Military Child of the Year program. Our 
passion for innovation and support for military families con-
verged in the sponsorship of this award, with longtime partner 
Operation Homefront. Seventeen year-old Elizabeth O’Brien, who 
has a parent in the Army, was named the first-ever recipient in 
March 2016 for launching a not-for-profit that raises funds to 
pay for military housing modifications that aren’t covered by 
insurance, but are needed by disabled military children. The 
award came with funding and consulting services from Booz Allen 
volunteers who provided Elizabeth with a strategic plan to help 
scale her not-for-profit. 

RECOGNIZED WORKPLACE LEADER 
FOR MILITARY/VETERANS 

GI JOBS MILITARY-FRIENDLY EMPLOYER   
TOP 50 FOR 10 YEARS (#2 IN 2016)

MILITARY TIMES BEST   
FOR VETS (#6 IN 2016)

GI JOBS MILITARY SPOUSE-FRIENDLY 
EMPLOYER—TOP 50 SINCE AWARD'S 
INCEPTION (#12 IN 2016)

FORBES TOP 5 EMPLOYER   
FOR VETERANS 2012–2016

BEYOND ESGR* AWARDS FOR 
2014 (VIRGINIA) AND 2015 (MARYLAND)

*Employer Suppor t of the Guard and Reser ve

“The most exciting thing to me about Booz Allen’s support for 
military families is how you have so many parts of the firm 
engaging on a common cause—client teams, forums focused on 
military families, recruiting, human resources, and corporate 
social responsibility,” says Amy Bennett. “I’m proud to work for a 
company that honors the service and sacrifice of military 
families in this way.”

| 8 |

IMPACT REPORT / 2016 
  
  
PEOPLE

DARE TO CREATE   
THE FUTURE WITH   
OUR DATA SCIENCE   
WORKFORCE 

Strategically aligning ourselves as an industry leader in data science and analytics has provided 

Booz Allen opportunities to work on some of the toughest challenges facing the nation and its 

2016 Data 
Science Bowl 
participant.

industries today. This has helped us attract accomplished data scientists to the firm—including 

some of the most renowned in the field. Our people, our solutions, and our passion for advancing 

the art of data science continues to differentiate us from our competition. 

“Booz Allen has deeper data science and analytics, 
cyber, and cloud capabilities than anyone in the 
industry,” says one of those experts, Senior Vice 
President Xena Ugrinsky, who joined the firm in 2015, 
and who says this is the reason she came to Booz 
Allen. “We’ve done it for longer than anyone, and we’re 
able to deliver it on a scale that most companies 
could never approximate. You need someone to 
crunch data? We’ve crunched data for the Internation-
al Space Station. You need someone to do logistics 
analytics? We helped move the U.S. military. Now 
we’re applying that expertise to help our commercial 
clients outpace their competition and offering our data 
scientists the opportunity to tackle the most complex 
problems in government and industry.”

THE VISION AND TOOLS TO ATTRACT THE  
BEST PEOPLE

What makes Booz Allen stand out? According to 
Senior Vice President Mark Jacobsohn, it’s that “We 
ask questions of data that nobody else is asking. We 
transform the way our clients do their jobs, we 
advance the art and science of data science, and we 
help the planet—even save lives. Not everyone is 
willing to take those risks, and even fewer are 
equipped to do so. Together, our data scientists dare 
to take on new and meaningful challenges every day, 
and we reward and advance our talented and commit-
ted team for both results and technical expertise.”

| 9 |

In addition to our efforts to make Booz Allen attractive to 
accomplished data science professionals, the firm works with 
several academic institutions to create curriculums that help 
build the specific skills we’re looking for in future job candidates. 
We’re also building our expertise from the inside with the launch 
of Explore Data Science—a self-paced, interactive, web-based 
course that uses gamification to teach our data scientists and 
other technical professionals how to navigate their way through 
raw data by applying mathematical concepts to real challenges. 
We offer this course to clients as well so they can train their own 
employees.

REINFORCING OUR POSITION AS MARKET LEADER

We have the best people, and those people are passionate about 
helping organizations of all types and missions make use of 
data as a resource. This was demonstrated in 2014, when Booz 
Allen released The Field Guide to Data Science, a foundational 
document now widely regarded throughout government and 
industry as the definitive guide to the discipline. The firm 
launched an expanded and updated second edition of  
The Field Guide in December 2015 with new features and 
content that reflect Booz Allen's evolving, most up-to-date 
understanding of cutting-edge analytics techniques, such as 
deep machine learning.

Two firm-created data science and analytics solutions—Polaris™ 
and Sailfish—are also helping underscore Booz Allen’s position 
as a leader in the industry.

Polaris allows a project management team to work collaborative-
ly—in one environment and in real time—to predict and 
mitigate cost and schedule risk, and to ensure better product 
performance. Sailfish is designed to empower those lacking 
formal training in analytics and data science to play central roles 
in data curation and exploration. It's the first end-to-end data 
science solution that's an easy-to-use analytics system.

Finally, Booz Allen acquired Epidemico in the fall of 2014— 
a Boston-based informatics startup known for data acquisition 
and analytics. Their employees demonstrated an equal 
passion for providing early real-time insights, continuous 
monitoring, and consumer engagement for disease outbreaks, 
drug safety, supply chain vulnerabilities, and other areas related 
to public health. The acquisition underscores the firm’s commit-
ment to further develop leading-edge analytics in critical areas 
such as population health and substantiates our regional 
influence in the world’s Data Science Hub.

Today, Booz Allen’s 600-person-strong elite data science team 
is continuing to grow and bring cross-discipline expertise and 
capabilities to internal and external clients, keeping them 
competitive in today’s data-driven economy.

Booz Allen employees Eric Don, Travis Motley, and Sarahzin Chowdhury show 
their passion for applying data science for social good during the 2016 Data 
Science Bowl.

| 10 |

IMPACT REPORT / 2016DATA SCIENCE FOR SOCIAL GOODIn the U.S. alone, one person is diagnosed with heart disease every 43 seconds. And when you’re waiting for the doctor to return with your results—to learn if you’re one of them—it can feel like an eternity. Now it’s possible for patients to receive their prognoses in real time, thanks to a cut-ting-edge medical advancement achieved just this year—by two hedge fund analysts with no medical experience.This breakthrough was achieved thanks to the 2016 Data Science Bowl, cosponsored Booz Allen and Kaggle, in partnership with the National Insti-tutes of Health’s National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute. This critical advancement speaks to the power of data science, and our sponsorship of the Data Science Bowl represents just one of the many ways in the last 4+ years that Booz Allen has been strategically reinforcing its position as an industry leader in the field of data science. We are growing our data science workforce, bringing what we’ve done for decades for our government and military clients to help other companies take advantage of these critical capabilities.“People want to work for companies that give them an outlet to make an impact,” says Principal Steve Mills. “You can get so much more lift from your CSR investments if you give people tangible ways to participate, and we can also attract a lot of skilled talent to the company through these initiatives.”PEOPLE

SUPPORTING AND CELEBRATING OUR   
WORKING PARENTS

When Lead Technologist Tuyet-Anh (“Anh”) Nguyen joined 

Booz Allen in 2002, she says the firm’s benefits and focus on 

work-life balance played a role in her decision. “Although I 

wasn’t a parent,” Anh recalls, “I knew that Booz Allen had 

regularly been recognized as a best place to work for working 

mothers, and offered the benefits and flexibility that would 

become important when my husband and I started our family.”

Lead Associate 
Priscila Melendez 
and her children  
at their home in 
Virginia.

That day came sooner than expected. Unbeknownst  
to her, Anh was in her first weeks of pregnancy when 
she began working at Booz Allen, and she’d be 
using some of those benefits she’d sought in an 
employer mere months later.

PROVIDING BALANCE

“In addition to the overall maternity leave and health 
benefits, the firm’s flex culture made a world of differ-
ence,” Anh says. “My first pregnancy was high risk, and 
my son was a preemie. My team allowed me to work 
remotely and with a flexible schedule throughout that 
critical time.”

Booz Allen’s flex opportunities aren’t reserved just  
for employees dealing with adversity. Whether formally  
or informally, 80 percent of respondents in our most 
recent employee survey—working moms and dads,  
and non-parents alike—reported that they work  
a flexible schedule, and 75 percent said that they 
regularly telecommute.

Associate Amy Schossler is another working mom 
who’s enjoyed flexibility over her 10 years at the firm. 
“Not only did Booz Allen’s incredible benefits help us get 
the fertility treatments we needed to have our first 

| 11 |

child,” she says, “but the firm allowed me to take 5 
months off after her birth and come back with a 
reduced, 80 percent work week. As my family grew, I 
had the flexibility to adjust my schedule to balance my 
career and my family’s needs. The ability to spend 
time with my young children while remaining competi-
tive and active in the workforce has made all the 
difference to me as a working parent.”

AWARD-WINNING OFFERINGS

In addition to flex opportunities, Booz Allen is commit-
ted to providing our working parents with benefits, 
policies, programs, and a corporate culture that 
supports them as they balance work and family 
responsibilities and we create a workforce for our 
second century.

What’s more, the firm’s parental leave policies extend  
to all of our parents—birth mothers and fathers, 
single parents, adoptive parents, and same-sex/LGBT 
parents; exempt and non-exempt employees; and 
full-time and part-time employees. And if both parents 
are employees, they each receive parental leave for the 
birth or adoption of a child. Booz Allen’s adoption 
assistance program—which provides a $5,000 reim-
bursement per adoption (for a child not biologically 

IN THE U.S.—WHERE 70 PERCENT 
OF WOMEN IN THE WORKFORCE 
HAVE CHILDREN UNDER 18—ONLY:

5%
companies 
offer fully paid 
maternity leave

17%
offer paid 
paternity 
and/or paid 
adoption leave

7%
offer adoption 
assistance

BOOZ ALLEN OFFERS  ALL THREE.

Data referenced comes from: 2015 Moms@Work: 
Data referenced comes from: 2015 Moms@Work:   
The Working Mother Report, 2014 National Study of Employ-
The Working Mother Repor t, 2014 National Study of 
ers, Family and Work Institute, and 2015 Benefits survey of 
Employers, Family and Work Institute, and 2015 
Society for Human Resource Management (SHRM) members 
Benefits sur vey of Society for Human Resource 
Management (SHRM) members 

related to either parent)—is also available to, and the 
same for, all of our adoptive parents.

Booz Allen’s 2015 Working Mother of the Year Anh Nguyen poses with her family.

“  Booz Allen is deeply vested in parents and our children. Even during 
the most difficult of times of being a parent: losing a child, having an 
adoption fall through, dealing with health issues, I’ve found Booz 
Allen to truly have a heart—not just a checkbook.”

— Associate Tricia Kassiday 

Other family-friendly offerings include everything from  
a childcare center at our headquarters, nationwide 
childcare discounts, and firm-sponsored family events  
to backup childcare and dedicated employee forums 
for parents, women, military spouses, and flexworkers.

It’s because of benefits and programs like these— 
together with our commitment to the advancement  
of women—that Booz Allen has been named to the 
prestigious list of “100 Best Companies” by Working 
Mother magazine for 17 consecutive years. And why, in 
2013, we were inducted into the Best Companies Hall 
of Fame.

“It’s been 14 years since these family-friendly offerings 
helped draw the “unexpectedly expecting” Anh to Booz 
Allen, and she says she’s glad they did. Anh was 
named Booz Allen’s 2015 Working Mother of the Year 
and recognized as one by Working Mother magazine 
that same year. She’s now an active mother of five 
children and says a career at Booz Allen is a choice 
she’s benefited from “many, many times over.”

| 12 |

IMPACT REPORT / 2016 
PEOPLE

BUILDING OUR 
SYSTEMS DELIVERY   
WORKFORCE

To stay on the leading edge of revolutionary ideas and innovations, and to provide clients with 

unsurpassed expertise in areas like systems delivery, Booz Allen relies on our greatest asset and 

differentiator—our people. Now in our second century, we’re more inventive than ever—our 

incredibly skilled teams are shattering industry norms and delivering never-before-seen results  

for clients who must be prepared to develop and launch secure, scalable systems and software 

development services. 

| 13 |

Booz Allen employs 3,500 systems delivery practitioners, 
including more than 350 certified Scrum Masters and Project 
Management Institute (PMI) Agile Certified Practitioners (PMI-
ACP), more than 60 SAFe Agilists (SA), and more than 800 ICAgile 
Certified Professionals (ICP) trained in the Agile Mindset and practices.

One of the ways we invest in our workforce is through our SD 
University (SDU), which provides access to cutting-edge 
learning opportunities, events, partnerships, programs, informa-
tion, curriculums, training, and certifications. SDU ensures that 
our employees are ready to deliver using modern, state-of-the-art 
technologies and methods. We’ve built comprehensive curricu-
lums and learning paths in areas such as Agile, DevOps, mobile, 
cloud, and analytic development. Embedded in the SDU 
curriculum is Booz Allen’s consultative approach to delivering 
software systems, which drives a consistent level of quality 
across our business by establishing expected processes and 
tried-and-true delivery practices.

ACQUIRING NEW DIMENSIONS IN OUR SYSTEMS 
DELIVERY WORKFORCE

With a renewed strategic focus on strengthening and expanding 
the firm’s technical capabilities—including expansion of our 
systems delivery business—Booz Allen acquired the 270-person 
software services unit SPARC in 2015. Located in Charleston, 
SC, SPARC is now an Agile Systems Delivery Hub of Booz Allen, 
providing software development services for government and 
commercial clients by combining forward-thinking technology and 
engaging team members. 

“ We’ve been able to add new dimensions to the systems delivery 
work we’ve been doing for 40 years,” says Principal Dan Tucker. 
“Joining forces with SPARC has allowed us to augment our team 
and grow our capabilities to meet the resounding demand for 
contemporary methodologies and technical expertise we’re 
seeing in the marketplace.”

The integration has positioned Booz Allen squarely at the 
forefront, bringing clients a powerful convergence of strengths in 
consulting, program and acquisition management, analytics, and 
information assurance, as well as advanced skills in engineer-
ing and systems delivery, including modern agile and DevOps 
methods. Leveraging our now combined services and diverse 
skills has helped Booz Allen expand existing client relationships 
and secure new business. The now aligned SPARC and Booz 
Allen prowess has already been integrated into some of the 
firm’s systems delivery work with the Department of Veterans 
Affairs, the U.S. Navy, and other clients, including the Office of 
Personnel Management and the Centers for Disease Control and 
Prevention. 

“One of the driving differentiators is Agile software development 
methodology,” Dan says. “Having worked with SPARC, we knew 
their singular ability to do this at scale; they were involved in 
one of the largest agile software development implementations 
in the Federal Government. When we look at our pipeline and 
where agencies are going, Booz Allen can now help clients take 
these lean development practices and use them agency-wide, 
institutionalizing this way of delivering systems. It’s ground 
breaking.”

EMPLOYER OF CHOICE FOR TECH TALENT

Uniting with SPARC to provide cutting-edge systems delivery has 
not only changed how the firm uses agile methods to accelerate 
secure, innovative delivery but also elevated Booz Allen’s brand 
and position as a systems delivery services provider and 
employer for top tech talent. In the past, software developers 
who may not have seen themselves in a traditional management 
consultancy now recognize Booz Allen as a leader in agile and 
DevOps techniques and a place where they can infuse cut-
ting-edge, innovative technologies to drive adoption and success 
for clients.

Merging SPARC’s forward-thinking technology capabilities with 
Booz Allen’s ability to deliver leading-edge tech solutions—while 
advancing the firm’s long-term growth strategy—has been a 
monumental milestone, furthering our ability to make visionary 
ideas world-changing realities for clients across the government  
and commercial sectors. 

| 14 |

IMPACT REPORT / 2016P U R P O S E

BOOZ ALLEN IS A PURPOSE-DRIVEN  
COMPANY, AND THAT PURPOSE IS 

to solve our clients’ 
toughest challenges.

We make our client s’ mis sions our own, and   

f r o m day one, we have under sto o d th at thi s 

ap p r o a c h  d r i v e s   u s   t o   d o   o u r   b e s t   w o r k ,   

compels us to build tighter teams, and helps   

us forge lasting c li e nt r e l ati o n s hip s . O u r 

mul ti f a c e te d te am s  e mb o d y d e e p  m i s s i o n 

un d e r s t an ding , m ar ke t- l e a ding  f u n c ti o n al 

c a p a b ili ti e s , c o n s ul ting t al e nt ,  a n d  tr u e   

te c hni c al an d e ng in e e r ing ex p e r ti s e.  T h e   

s to r i e s in  thi s s e c ti o n d e m o n s tr ate  h ow  B o oz 

A ll e n i s dr i v ing imp a c t fo r o u r c li e nt s  w i th 

th e  r i g ht s k ill s an d ex p e r ti s e to  a d dr e s s 

s p e c i f i c c li e nt c h a ll e nge s  an d  d e li ve r 

e nh an c e d an d inn ovati ve c ap ab ili ti e s .

PEOPLE PURPOSEPASSIONPURPOSE

INTREPID ANALYSTS   
HELP UNLOCK CLUES   
TO TBI TREATMENTS

| 16 |

Traumatic brain injury (TBI) and psychological health (PH) conditions have devastating impact on quality 

of life, family relations, and military readiness. More than 300,000 U.S. service members have been diagnosed 

with these “invisible wounds,” according to the Defense and Veterans Brain Injury Center (DVBIC). The 

consequences to service members and families are severe, and the intense search for innovative treatments and 

better, enduring results has spread across military and civilian sectors.

Booz Allen is dedicated to creating brain health innovations for 
service members and veterans who have experienced TBI and 
PH conditions. With deep roots in the field of TBI care, research, 
and education, Booz Allen serves as an essential partner to 
clients like Department of Defense (DoD) Blast Injury Research 
Coordinating Office, the Defense Centers of Excellence for 
Psychological Health and Traumatic Brain Injury (DCoE), the 
Vision Center of Excellence (VCE), and the National Intrepid 
Center of Excellence (NICoE).

In 2010, the DoD established the internationally recognized 
NICoE to find new approaches to treating TBI. Since being 
awarded the contract to support NICoE, Booz Allen brought not 
only their traditional consulting expertise but also advanced ana-
lytics capabilities to establish the infrastructure that helped the 
Center employ new approaches to clinical treatment and 
research by using interdisciplinary teams and integrative 
medicine in a collaborative effort with patients, families, and 
referring providers. We’ve served NICoE across every depart-
ment in the organization, including strategic innovation and 
communication, and a full service Program Management Office 
(PMO) that supports clinical care, research, administrative 
functions, education, and human capital.

Since its inception, the Booz Allen NICoE team has:

•   Supported the creation of the Military Health System 

(MHS)’s TBI Pathway of Care which aligned NICoE to the 
Walter Reed National Military Medical Center and solidified 
NICoE’s mission as primarily clinical while still serving as a 
site for translational research for TBI and associated 
psychological health conditions

• 

• 

• 

 Developed a white paper that established attributes and 
infrastructure requirements to position NICoE as a leading 
neurotrauma institute within the MHS

 Partnered with NICoE at each step of its maturation toward 
providing unmatched care to patients and families affected 
by some of the most challenging cases of TBI

 Facilitated the strategy for NICoE to expand its reach  
through Intrepid Spirit centers at nine military bases  
across the country.

“One of the most exciting things is how Booz Allen’s innovative 

data analytics capabilities are transforming the diagnosis and 

treatment of TBI,” says Senior Associate Sako Maki Thompson, 

who leads the firm’s behavioral health strategy with its MHS 

clients. Anticipating NICoE’s needs, the team created an 

algorithm to analyze the presentation, symptoms, and treatment 

outcomes for the more than 950 TBI patients treated at NICoE 

since it opened. This work resulted in identifying four TBI 

subtypes, allowing for improved treatment strategies.

“Eventually researchers and clinicians will be able to utilize 
these sub-categories to directly tie outcome measures to 
treatment strategies, which will allow providers to identify the 
treatments that have the best outcomes for certain injuries,” 
says Staff Technologist Peter Hoover, who provides support to 
the NICoE Informatics team.

“This information in the hands of practitioners will help 
patients start on the treatments that have the best track 
record for treating their type of injuries and facilitate a direct, 
positive outcome on patient recovery,” continues Aaron 
Hauptman, a staff scientist who supported the creation of 
the algorithm.

NICoE’s continued success has allowed it to expand its 
mission to serve not only active-duty service members, but 
also beneficiaries, and retirees. 

“Someday we hope the NICoE model will be transferable to all 
facilities, civilian and military, that treat TBI,” says Senior Lead 
Scientist Jeffrey Cole, who helms the Booz Allen research team 
at NICoE. “Until then, we will continue to strive for the kind of 
analytical insights and breakthroughs that will help improve the 
quality of life those that have sacrificed so much for our country.”

| 17 |

IMPACT REPORT / 2016PURPOSE

CONNECTED CARS:   
INNOVATION AND SAFETY   
IN THE DRIVER’S SEAT

Automotive engineers and innovators want to be the first to bring 

exciting new connected features onto the latest car models, and 

consumers continue to demand more. The downside: That 

connectedness to the Internet now means the industry faces  

more cyber exposure and cyber threats than ever before. 

| 18 |

IMPACT REPORT / 2016Officer, it took only 6 weeks to become a reality and for the 
client to reprioritize risk mitigation investments. 

Having proven our mettle as a full-service partner equally 
capable of building, testing, and deploying a system that 
analyzes on-vehicle data as we were developing a supply 
chain strategic roadmap, this client’s leadership has now 
tasked Booz Allen with designing and operationalizing new 
capabilities where we’ll continue to bring the breadth of our 
expertise to bear. 

An extension of our work with the automaker led to Booz 
Allen assisting the auto industry in developing and operating 
the first Information Sharing and Analysis Center (ISAC) sharing 
cyber threat and vulnerability information. 

As millions of us get behind the wheel in an increasingly 
interconnected future, the ISAC means an added layer of 
cyber protections. It will serve as a central hub for intelli-
gence and analysis, enabling the timely sharing of cyber 
threat information and potential vulnerabilities in vehicle 
electronics or in-vehicle networks, ultimately safeguarding 
drivers every time they turn on the ignition. 

Booz Allen’s experience in cyber threat intelligence, 
developing and implementing information-sharing programs, 
and building cultures of trust across industries empowered 
us to provide the industry with a turnkey solution to 
address its specific, integrated cyber threat landscape.

Principal Jon Allen and his team were instrumental in 
developing the prospectus for the auto industry to create  
the ISAC. 

“The industry recognized that hacking risks are going to rise as 
vehicles become more connected,” he says. “It’s about taking a 
proactive stance that looks across the ecosystem and includes 
forming the industry’s best practices for securing the vehicle.”

From cars to medical devices, the reality of a connected 
product revolution is upon us. And Booz Allen is ready— 
armed with the acumen to help clients recognize opportuni-
ties for evolution while keeping safety and security priority 
number one.

“ We were trusted to fearlessly challenge and disrupt the status 
quo across the client organization. In the face of something 
that seemed impossible, Booz Allen’s team delivered the best 
of what our firm has to offer, enabling the protection of 
millions of drivers and transforming the way this client—
and now the industry—identifies, assesses, and responds to 
vehicle cybersecurity.”

—Vice President Sedar Labarre

One leading global auto manufacturer was among the first to 
recognize this emerging risk, and unlike many of Booz 
Allen’s clients—for whom cybersecurity means protecting 
intellectual property and employee information—the landmark 
realization that cybersecurity also means protecting peo-
ple’s lives suddenly became one of the automotive indus-
try’s highest priorities. 

Consumers also started demanding security when in  
July 2015, news broke that a vehicle was hacked at highway 
speeds. By that time—thanks to Booz Allen’s consultative 
approach and cybersecurity expertise—this global automak-
er (who was not the subject of the 2015 hack) already had a 
strategy in place to respond to such incidents and secure 
its vehicles. Booz Allen’s team had successfully guided this 
client through a cultural and data-driven transformation 
designed to support and facilitate its comprehensive vehicle 
cybersecurity program, going from having no response capabili-
ty to setting the market standard for response planning in  
6 months.

Overcoming “a challenge that no one had ever addressed that 
would require cyber expertise and the ability to bridge internal 
cultural and data divides—this is where Booz Allen excels,” 
says Vice President Sedar LaBarre. “For us, success meant 
securing the vehicles we all rely on to transport our families 
and bringing our client to the industry forefront.”

Our ability to quickly build a team with government security 
and intelligence experience, analytics and telematics capabili-
ties, and commercial manufacturing expertise allowed us to 
define the scope of vehicle cybersecurity and address the 
connected vehicle ecosystem as a whole. 

Booz Allen also realized success was as much about culture as 
it was about engineering. We worked shoulder to shoulder 
with staff across this auto manufacturer's organization to 
transform their environment from an engineering to a 
security mindset. After Booz Allen’s recommendation to 
leadership that the company stand up an internal Product 
Cybersecurity team led by a new Chief Product Cybersecurity 

| 19 |

IMPACT REPORT / 2016PURPOSE

ANALYTIC INNOVATION CELL— 
BRINGING NEW IDEAS FOR   
KEEPING THE NATION SAFE

| 20 |

IMPACT REPORT / 2016The right information, at the right time, to make the right call. That’s the mission of the Department of 

Homeland Security (DHS) Intelligence Analysis (I&A)—to equip the Homeland Security Enterprise with the 

intelligence and information it needs to keep the homeland safe, secure, and resilient. This includes providing 

information technology (IT) capabilities—driven by the DHS’ Chief Information Officer (CIO)—needed to 

get the job done.

When Booz Allen began its support for DHS CIO, we quickly 
realized that the traditional IT development model, which 
worked for longer term development efforts, was not suited 
for the time-critical world of I&A where immediate solutions 
are needed to identify critical threats and leads.

Enter the Analytic Innovation Cell (AIC). Booz Allen created 
an elite team of data scientists, intelligence analysts, and 
IT developers who work together in a collaborative lab at 
DHS I&A. These pros combine expertise to discover the 
most precise intelligence information about possible 
threats to our country. They are hungry problem solvers, 
armed with a mission from the DHS CIO to be “disruptive 
agents for innovation” that can lead to stronger national 
security.

The AIC developed methods, tools, and processes  
to solve specific, pressing analytic problems. This ap-
proach is different from traditional IT development because 
the AIC’s mission is not to build a system, but to solve the 
analytic question of the hour. The AIC leveraged existing 
tools, introduced open source tools, and built custom tools, 
when needed. Over time, this approach enabled the AIC to 
develop a library of simple, yet highly effective, modular tools 
that combined with the right methodologies and analytic 
insights could be used by a wide array of analysts.

As Senior Associate and AIC Team Lead Jeremy Filko says, 
"the success of a team like this is often measured by 
'outputs'—pieces of intelligence produced and IT projects 
and programs executed. But outputs don't keep the home-
land more secure, outcomes do." 

And the AIC delivers. Since its inception in May 2014, the 
AIC has:

• 

 Developed about 500 leads, which would never have 
been identified otherwise—all of them potential risks  
to our safety 

•   Shared 420 significant intelligence leads to DHS,  

Department of Defense, and Department of Justice 
counterparts

•   Of those, more than 150 were selected for priority 

designation by the intelligence community.

BUILD IT FAST AND BUILD IT RIGHT

The Online Document Information Network (ODIN) is  
an example of the AIC’s ability to pull existing data  
into a custom tool to solve a pressing challenge. DHS’ 
Customs & Border Protection (CBP) needed a way to more 
deeply analyze the validity of passports and identify fraudu-
lent documents that might otherwise slip through  
a standard review that looked at just the date of birth, 
passport number, issue date, and expiration date. The AIC 
brain created ODIN, a tool that utilized “check sum digits”—
to meet this need. 

ODIN would soon prove its usefulness. In September 2015, 
Air Canada security referred a possibly altered Greek 
passport to the CBP Immigration Advisory Program—Madrid for 
verification. CBP was able to query the Greek passport in 
ODIN, which returned a “Fail” result, meaning the passport's 
issue and expiration dates did not fall within the valid 
acceptable range. 

This information was relayed to international authorities, and 
the fake passport holder was detained and prevented from 
coming to the United States. Questioning later revealed he 
was actually an Albanian national. 

ODIN’s impact is undeniable: Developed in just 5 days, it 
includes six country data sets and has identified over 150 
fraudulent passports in just 6 months. “For this team, devising 
a new way to use an existing data set—that’s a huge win,” 
Jeremy says. 

The AIC earned the Secretary’s Award for Meritorious 
Service—the second highest award given by the DHS 
Secretary—and is now the model for future DHS I&A efforts. 

The Analytic 
Innovation 
Cell team 
poses during 
the 2016 
Booz Allen 
Excellence 
Awards.

| 21 |

IMPACT REPORT / 2016PURPOSE

RAISING THE BAR   
ON PUBLIC UTILITIES’   
CYBERSECURITY

Today, the U.S. Government views the energy sector as the most significantly 

threat-targeted commercial industry in the country, according to the U.S. 

Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC). The Government has aggressively 

increased levels of federal regulatory scrutiny to safeguard our nation’s 

critical nuclear and electrical infrastructure. Protecting operations from 

physical, cyber, and insider threats has never been more urgent.

| 22 |

While other industries had been bolstering their cybersecurity 
for years, it was only in 2009 that the NRC mandated that all 
U.S. nuclear plants comply with new cybersecurity regula-
tions. Successfully addressing these new regulations, 
combined with overcoming the challenges of mitigating 
unforeseen and previously unconsidered vulnerabilities, 
would be a Herculean task for any company, especially for 
those unfamiliar with the intricacies of cybersecurity and  
the digital frontier.

A PIONEER IN NUCLEAR CYBERSECURITY

For the last several years, Booz Allen has helped SCANA 
Corporation accomplish both feats, and in the process, set the 
bar high for the industry while cementing the firm as a pioneer 
in the nuclear cybersecurity space. SCANA Corporation is a 
publicly owned utility company providing energy services to 
approximately 660,000 residents throughout Georgia, North 
Carolina, and South Carolina. The company operates multiple 
power plants in the region, including one nuclear facility, which, 
like its nuclear counterparts nationwide, was built 30 years  
ago with analog technology. With the integration of small but 
vulnerable digital upgrades over the years, there was a need to 
build a cybersecurity program—including any policies and 
procedures—before the NRC mandates were enforceable. 

“The power industry is adjusting to a new set of critical stan-
dards, and we got involved immediately, bringing our expertise 
and experience from complex cyber-based missions in other 
industries,” says Principal Jeff Winslow. “We’re helping SCANA 
Corporation and other clients secure this critical infrastructure, 
which includes keeping the lights on certainly, but more 
importantly, educating them on new threats that are emerging 
every day.”

Booz Allen supported SCANA through the development of a 
full-range and long-lasting cybersecurity program, which included 
assessing digital assets and implementing operational security 
controls at the V.C. Summer Nuclear Station (VCS). Booz Allen’s 
people brought a distinct edge to the work—through our mix of 
technology and consulting skills that includes unparalleled 
expertise in federal and commercial cybersecurity, specialized 
engineering services, and staff skilled in Industrial Control 
System (ICS) assessments and program management. 

“In this very new space we were able to bring the firm’s broader 
Information Technology (IT) and program management capabili-
ties to bear; we went in with a consulting mindset and tailored a 
cross-functional team for each issue they were trying to solve: 
nuclear, IT, cyber, and analytics,” adds Senior Associate Steve 
Lee, a Utility team leader. 

Booz Allen’s thought leadership and experience helping large 
organizations across the government and commercial land-
scapes were critical success factors—not just in terms of 
cybersecurity and asset protection, but in other essential 
capacities like calculating potential risks and overcoming an 
industry culture that is cautious when it comes to implementing 
newer approaches. 

Our partnership with SCANA and development of industry-wide 
best practices has moved the firm to the forefront of the 
nuclear space, where we’re now helping other utility providers 
across the country identify, assess, and document critical 
plant assets and realize considerable time and cost savings 
while they build out crucial cybersecurity programs. 

“ The firm was ready and able to support a very critical, very 
complex endeavor,” says Executive Vice President Gary Rahl. 
“SCANA’s success is an extraordinary affirmation of Booz Allen’s 
ability to deliver paradigm-shifting methodologies in cybersecuri-
ty programs for the energy industry as a whole.”

The SCANA project team poses during the 2016  
Booz Allen Excellence Awards.

| 23 |

IMPACT REPORT / 2016PURPOSE

BRINGING IT ALL TOGETHER:   
BEHIND THE SCENES OF THE   
HEALTHCARE REFORM 

The Affordable Care Act (ACA), passed in 2010, was enacted 

to make healthcare affordable, accessible, and high quality. 

But it also stirred up intense controversy and headlines as 

Americans wrestled with mandates for individual insurance, 

new taxes on high value or “Cadillac” plans, and the 

Government faced implementation challenges due to the 

complexity of an enormous law. 

| 24 |

From the beginning, all eyes were on the White House and federal 
agencies charged with rolling out the new program. Hundreds of 
Booz Allen experts—working with multiple government agen-
cies—deployed to meet the mission.

Although the ACA is widely credited with ushering in U.S. health 
reform, health reform actually started at the very beginning of 
the Obama administration. The American Recovery and Rein-
vestment Act (ARRA) and its Health Information Technology for 
Economic and Clinical Health (HITECH) provisions passed in 
2009 laid the foundation for the “pay for value” movement 
that underlies the payment reform provisions of the ACA. 
And reform continues with the passage of the Medicare 
Access and CHIP Reauthorization Act of 2015. Combined, these 
laws regulations meant changes for many agencies that Booz 
Allen supports, including:

Booz Allen also was selected to work with CMS and other 
federal agencies to support state governments, and insurers as 
they built and now operate Health Insurance Marketplaces—a 
complex system of systems providing individuals and small 
business employees with access to affordable health insurance 
coverage. Examples of our work include:

• 

 Designing processes to determine consumer eligibility for 
health insurance and subsidies  
on the Marketplace

•   Assisting CMS on oversight that included compliance 
review of health insurance plans, and training of agents, 
brokers, and customer service representatives

• 

 Providing technology support, appeals strategy and opera-
tions, and state Marketplace technical assistance.

During the third open enrollment season, 12.7 million people 
signed up for Marketplace coverage. Our capstone achievement 
was CMS’ award to Booz Allen of a $188 million contract to serve as 
the Marketplace System Integrator, tasked with making sure all 
critical components of the Marketplace’s technology systems, 
internal operations, and policy objectives align.

Reforms also hit the IRS. The 2015 tax season marked the first 
time subsidy payments for the millions of newly insured would 
be reconciled by the IRS. Booz Allen worked with six business 
divisions across the IRS—and nearly every vendor at the agency 
to build a quick and easy IT tool to help taxpayers apply the new 
rules. And it had to be perfect.

We successfully designed, developed, and introduced an entirely 
new system: the ACA Verification System (AVS). Booz Allen’s 
team “broke down the [906-page] legislation,” says Senior 
Associate Yolanda McMillian. “Then, once we had the require-
ments in plain English, we worked with our technical staff to 
interpret and translate them into code.” AVS interfaced with old 
and new systems to process more than 150 million tax returns 
during 2015 without a single error!

In all, our work touched five agencies and almost every aspect 
of the health reform platform. This work demonstrates how 
Booz Allen builds multi-disciplinary teams, bringing together the 
right people with the needed expertise to solve challenges 
across markets and agencies.

•   The Office of the National Coordinator for  
Health Information Technology (ONC)

•   The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid  

Services (CMS)

•   The Agency for Healthcare Research and  

Quality (AHRQ)

•  The Internal Revenue Service (IRS)

•  The Office of Personnel Management (OPM).

“Booz Allen’s work is helping to change and shape the 
future of healthcare in our country,” says Executive Vice 
President Kristine Martin Anderson, who leads the firm’s civil 
health business. “The expertise and skill our people bring is key 
to our position as an essential partner and market integrator for 
Healthcare reform across our civil clients.”

Let’s take a look at highlights from a few of our  
engagements.

MAKING IT LOOK EASY—HEALTH   
TECHNOLOGY, TAXES, & TRAINING

ONC was charged with getting the U.S. healthcare system 
out of paper records and HITECH provided incentives to the 
private sector to make change more quickly. Booz Allen 
provided technical assistance, training, and a learning 
community for the organizations that were fanning across the 
country to implement and use electronic health records (EHR). 
Booz Allen facilitated conversations among 17 “Beacon Commu-
nities” that had made progress in the development of EHRs 
and health information exchange—to identify best practices.  
We also developed and offered training for 62 ONC-funded 
Regional Extension Centers as they helped 100,000 primary 
care providers implement EHRs. 

| 25 |

IMPACT REPORT / 2016PURPOSE

TURNING ON THE LIGHTS:   
C4ISR INTEGRATION

| 26 |

It’s pitch black. You blink frantically, but 

still see nothing. You spin around, and 

all that fills your vision is a dark blanket 

of black. Suddenly, you hear gunfire and 

total chaos erupts. You’ve got to get out 

now. You reach out to feel for a wall or 

door, and touch nothing. You call out for 

help and get no response. Where’s your 

team? And then—relief! The lights come 

back on. You can see a way out. Your 

unit pals are back by your side and, 

together, you quickly make your way  

to safety.

Our nation’s brave warfighters can’t do their job in the dark. They need 
information and situational awareness to succeed and survive. 

The U.S. military’s Command, Control, Communications, Computers, Intelli-
gence, Surveillance, and Reconnaissance (C4ISR) systems provide critical 
intelligence. Unfortunately, many of these legacy systems can be much like 
the first scenario—inefficient, susceptible to threats, and offering a less than 
complete view of the full picture. Stovepiped systems—systems that were 
individually engineered—produce isolated pieces of intelligence.

It’s challenging and sometimes even impossible to assess the battlefield 
environment and collect, analyze, and communicate critical threats. Military 
decision makers and operators must tap into multiple systems—each with 
separate logins and displays—while warfighters in the field toggle between 
radio systems. 

That’s why warfighters—and the organizations that support them—need 
integrated C4ISR, “where the individual pieces are designed as part of an 
enterprise system from the start,” says Executive Vice President Greg Wenzel, 
lead of digital solutions/C4ISR within Booz Allen’s Strategic Innovation Group. 
Integrated C4ISR means bringing together expertise in engineering, opera-
tions, and acquisition. We call this approach Enterprise Integration. 

Booz Allen helped the Army’s Distributed Common Ground System-Army 
(DCGS-A) program integrate C4ISR so it works as a fully interoperable family 
of systems. We developed the DCGS-A Standard Cloud— 
a system that brings together data sets from various sources to be analyzed 
and shared. With a user-friendly interface and massive processing power, the 
system can analyze hundreds of millions of textual intelligence products in less 
than a second.

The DCGS-A Standard Cloud was accredited, deployed, and fully operational 
in Afghanistan in record time. “Our technology approach connects threat 
information from every branch of the military,” says Wenzel. “It delivers 
specific intelligence to those who need it most and need it now.”

Looking ahead, we’re working on a next-generation multi-service tactical cloud 
platform—the Tactical Cloud Reference Implementation (TCRI). Supporting 
both well-connected and disadvantaged users, TCRI is designed to move the 
services towards a fully interoperable architecture for tactical deployments. 
This new cloud-based ISR capability will improve operations planning, assess-
ment, and execution by utilizing advanced analytics that collect, integrate, 
and fuse data from multiple sensor and ISR data systems. We want open 
architectures and platforms to remain just that—open. If the Air Force, for 
example, develops a new sensor, it will be able to plug it in and share 
information across the joint services (Army and Navy/Marine Corps). Keep 
the lights on!

| 27 |

IMPACT REPORT / 2016PURPOSE

SMART CITIES & GOVERNMENT,   
HAPPY CITIZENS— 
TRANSFORMING THE MIDDLE   
EAST AND NORTH AFRICA

The Middle East and North Africa (MENA) region's younger, growing 

population is more digitally wired than ever before. They have higher 

expectations for speed and ease of government services. “Smart 

government” means putting the citizen first and making accessing 

services as easy as possible. “Smart cities” are those that “make digital 

technology, networks, and apps a central part of operations and 

constituent interactions,” says Vice President Danny Karam,  

MENA region. That requires the tough work of modernizing  

existing infrastructure, retrofitting buildings, and defining what  

is “smart” for each city.

| 28 |

Cities can assess how smart they are using Booz Allen’s  
“Four Degrees of Smartness”: 

1.  CONN ECTED   

2.  I NTEGRATED   

3.  PE RS ONALIZED   

4 . P RE DICTIVE. 

“The smartest of cities are predictive, which means agencies 
use sophisticated data collection and analytics to produce 
predictive insights,” Danny says, like which digital technologies 
will promote social welfare or what services businesses really 
need to help boost the economy. 

As a thought leader in digital life with a presence in the MENA 
region for more than 60 years, Booz Allen has seen that MENA 
countries are in various stages of maturity when it comes to 
smart cities. Leading the way are countries like the United Arab 
Emirates (UAE), for which Booz Allen served as trusted advisor 
in developing a smart cities vision and roadmap.

CREATING SMART CITIES IN THE UAE

The story starts in May 2013 when His Highness (HH) Sheikh 
Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum, UAE Vice President, 
Prime Minister, and Ruler of Dubai, announced UAE’s transition 
to smart government. The UAE sought to transform government 
systems, services, and mindset to operate more like the private 
sector. That means providing integrated, 24/7 services with high 
levels of satisfaction, and aiming for optimum customer service. 
Ultimately, there was one goal in mind—promoting constituents’ 
well-being and satisfaction. 

Booz Allen held meetings with more than 20 local and national 
entities to identify government capabilities and challenge areas  
in support of developing the UAE Smart Government National 
Plan and Goals, in conjunction with their lead agency—the 
Telecommunications Regulatory Authority (TRA). Together with 
TRA’s team, Booz Allen developed the Smart Government vision 
and strategy in alignment with the national vision and Informa-
tion and Communication Technology sector strategy. 

During the process of talking with stakeholders, “it was critical 
not just to share the assessment and the strategy, but also to 
create local ownership and give the government entities wind 
‘under the wings’ to take the ideas and initiatives and 
innovate forward,” says Principal Hamid Al Tamimi, MENA 
region. It is this kind of deep knowledge of the culture and 
people of the region that was essential to success here. 
Our client work is driven by leaders and strategists from 
the region. Their proficiency in regional cultural, social, and 
behavioral nuances is a crucial component in the successful  
implementation and adoption of any program or technology. 

Booz Allen employees engage in discussion in one of our offices in the 
MENA region.

Booz Allen led the development of a network that will serve as 
a safe and secure way of communicating information across 
government systems. We helped create a national customer 
relationship management system that allows citizens to call a 
national hotline and receive services without having to walk 
through a detailed background of service history, rearticulate 
certain preferences, or wait to be called back after an agent 
does some research, for example. This makes for happy citizens, 
and if that’s not smart, who knows what is. 

KEEPING THE MOMENTUM GOING

The UAE story illustrates that “the art and science of smart 
government lies not only in having a forward-leading strategy 
that takes into account the nation’s vision, constituency’s  
needs, and technology trends, but also in identifying a pool  
of innovative options, prioritizing those and sequencing them, 
and then bringing those to life, together with stakeholders,” 
says Vice President Fady Kassatly, MENA region.

The story of digital life doesn’t stop there. “There must be a 
drive for continuous improvement,” Fady says, “and an innova-
tion culture that fosters behaviors such as failing-forward, 
increasing collaboration, and giving credit where it is due.” 

| 29 |

IMPACT REPORT / 2016P A S S I O N

 PASSION PROJECTS. 

“ We all have them.” 

They keep us energized, excited, interested, thriving.   

At Booz Allen, we’re intentional about supporting our 

employees’ passions—for community, for innovation,   

for problem-solving. When we aren’t guiding our clients 

through their most critical challenges, our people are 

serving others—volunteering in shelters, soup kitchens, 

animal rescues, with military and veteran organizations, 

and so much more. We’re strengthening our communities  

by lifting up those who need us most. We pursue our 

intellectual passions, too —we’re thinkers, tinkerers, and 

inventors—supported by a culture of innovation that loves 

a good idea, and will put in resources to see where it 

leads. That passion empowers our employees and leads  

to breakthroughs that help us better serve our clients.

PEOPLE PURPOSEPASSION

HOPE DRIVES   
CULTURE OF INNOVATION

A community social worker 
(CSW) is making a home visit 
to a TB patient in Tajikistan. 
CSWs play a critical role in 
ensuring patients regularly take 
their drugs and complete 
treatment. Photo courtesy of 
Project HOPE.

It’s an origin story worthy of a Hollywood movie—an impassioned doctor petitioning 

the president of the United States to donate a Navy ship to be converted into a  

sailing hospital to deliver medical care, health education, and hope to underserved 

communities around the world. (A documentary about Project Hope’s maiden voyage 

won an Oscar for best documentary short in 1961.) Some 54 years later and long  

after the SS Hope sailed its last voyage, Project HOPE—still burning with equal  

parts passion and purpose—connected with Booz Allen volunteers for help in creating 

a culture of innovation that would keep its work alive and thriving for another  

50 years and counting.

| 31 |

INNOVATION AS A GLOBAL DIFFERENTIATOR 

With 400+ employees working in 30 countries around the 
globe, Project HOPE is at the front lines in building capacity  
by supporting local healthcare workers—with training, health 
education, community outreach, and distribution of medicine. 

The organization relies primarily on grants to fund its programs. 
“We asked ourselves, one, how can we better compete for limited 
funds against much bigger organizations, and two, how can we 
harness the expertise we have among our 400+ employees 
to create more mission effectiveness and impact across the 
totality of the organization. Innovation is the key,” says John 
Bronson, a 20-year veteran of Project HOPE.

“Igniting innovation is at the heart of what Booz Allen does, so 
how cool for us to engage with Project Hope to grow their 
innovative culture,” says Principal Josh Elliot, who was part of a 
volunteer team helping the organization. “One of the first things 
we did was to create a shared meaning of innovation. Project 
HOPE employees didn’t always consider what they were doing in 
their own sphere to be innovative or applicable to another part 
of the organization. We said—if it’s working for you, you need to 
share it. The heart of innovation is the sharing of ideas and 
solutions, which can lead to bigger ideas and solutions.” 

Over 4 months, the Booz Allen volunteers interviewed employ-
ees, Board members, peer organizations, and community entities 
and provided an Innovation Framework that included ideas they 
could implement quickly and those they could implement over 
time. “One of the first things Project HOPE did, based on our 
recommendation, was to pilot an ‘idea challenge,'” says Josh. 
Project HOPE employees submitted ideas to be voted on by peers 
for funding and further exploration. “We saw this create a l 
ot of engagement and energy among their employees,” contin-
ues Josh. 

The firm’s volunteers also recommended that Project HOPE 
explore utilization of better collaboration tools to empower their 
geographically dispersed workforce to connect with one other. 
“It was key for them to thoughtfully and intentionally build into 
their culture specific avenues and opportunities for the sharing  
of ideas, experiences, and impacts that were occurring locally,” 
says Principal Osama Malik, another of the project team 
members. 

Several members of the project team stay in touch with Project 
HOPE, more than a year after their 4-month stint concluded. 
“When you work so closely on a project like this, you fall in love 
with their mission, and you want to do whatever you can to 
continue to help,” says Osama. “It’s not all the time that  
we get to apply our knowledge and the skills we’ve honed  
at Booz Allen to an organization that helps others on such a  
global scale.” 

In speaking about the impact of the project, John, later named 
“Innovation Czar” at Project HOPE, says, “Booz Allen helped us 
think more broadly, more innovatively about the work of our 
organization. One example is to examine the inherent value of 
our in-country expertise and how we can capitalize on it to 
further our mission through creative partnerships and other 
ways. They gave us the confidence to be innovative, and their 
work validated our journey forward.”

Project HOPE is just one of the not-for-profits that benefited from 
support by Booz Allen volunteers participating in a firm initiative 
called the Leadership Excellence Program (LEP) that develops 
senior employees’ leadership skills and allows them to apply their 
strategy and consulting expertise to helping not-for-profit organi-
zations. In the 4 years of LEP’s existence, more than 215 
volunteers have helped 33 not-for-profit organizations, volunteer-
ing for 15,517 hours with an estimated value of $2,858,881.

Booz Allen volunteers pose at 
Project HOPE’s headquarters 
in Millwood, VA after 
presenting their Leadership 
Excellence Program’s final 
report to the not-for-profit’s 
leadership team. L to R—Beth 
Neiley, Jon Hutchinson, Will 
Farrell, Josh Elliot, Tony 
Gaidhane, Osama Malik, and 
Emily Miller. (Jim Fazio not 
pictured).

| 32 |

IMPACT REPORT / 2016PASSION

STORY TIME IN THE CLOUD— 
AN APP-BASED APPROACH   
TO READING TOGETHER

A child enjoys a video of his 
dad, who is deployed, reading 
a story to him thanks to the 
services of United Through 
Reading (UTR). Booz Allen 
helped UTR conceptualize a 
new model to provide its 
services digitally to achieve 
greater efficiencies and reach 
even more military families. 
Photo courtesy of United 
Through Reading.

Do you remember a favorite childhood storybook? Was it Goodnight Moon? Horton 

Hears a Who? The Velveteen Rabbit? Many of us can recall that favorite book, plus the 

comforting voice of a caregiver as they read it to us over and over again. For many members 

of our armed forces, one of the most difficult parts of deployment is missing out on the 

bonding that comes through reading with their child. “The mission of United Through 

Reading (UTR) is to be a bridge for military families who are facing physical separation 

through the power of reading together,” says Sally Ann Zoll, Chief Executive Officer of UTR. 

“Every child should feel the emotional bonding and security of being read aloud to.”

| 33 |

THERE’S AN APP FOR THAT—TECHNOLOGY   
KEY TO SCALE

UTR’s desire is to reach as many military families as possible 
with the power of a shared story time, so they sought a partner  
to help them think through how they could scale their opera-
tions to reach even more children—with an audacious goal of 
reaching 1 million beneficiaries by 2019. A group of Booz Allen 
volunteers, giving their own time and expertise, answered that 
call for help.

UTR relies on approximately 500 active-duty service member 
volunteers annually to run its program—facilitating the record-
ings, which are burned to DVD and shipped to the service 
member’s family. “This worked great for many years, but it’s not 
very efficient or scalable today and doesn’t take advantage of 
advancements in digital technologies,” says Senior Associate 
Susan Briessinger, a member of the volunteer project team.

True to our management consulting expertise, the Booz Allen 
team delivered a comprehensive analysis of the organization’s 
business model—focusing on institutional roles, stakeholder 
analysis, and a baseline of UTR’s service delivery model. In 
the next phase the team brainstormed alternatives to the 
not-for-profit’s current model based on “accessibility, reliability, 
and repeatability” criteria. The outcome was a set of strategic 
recommendations for UTR—the cornerstone of which was an 
integrated technology plan to include a web-based app that 
would be accessible for users and beneficiaries. The app 
would ultimately be more cost efficient, be less labor inten-
sive, and meet the expectations of the organization’s younger 
skewing demographic, who are digitally savvy consumers. 

“In our focus on the ‘what’ we wanted—reaching 1 million 
beneficiaries—we were at risk of overlooking the ‘how.’ Having 
the consulting expertise of a team of Booz Allen volunteers, who 
think through these kinds of challenges on a daily basis, was 
invaluable to us,” says Victoria Cameron-Lewis, Senior Director 
for Development at UTR. 

“ Having the consulting expertise of a team of Booz Allen 
volunteers, who think through these kinds of challenges on a 
daily basis, was invaluable to us.”

—UTR Senior Director for Development  
Victoria Cameron-Lewis

In the final phase of their 4-month project, the volunteers 
developed a requirements document to guide UTR in the 
development and implementation of an app-based model. The 
requirements addressed UTR’s concerns about the security of 
web-based apps, specifically any type of geo-tagging that could 
compromise sensitive troop deployments, and for those locations 
that didn’t have access to mobile technologies.

“We met the UTR employees and their passion inspired us.  
They are so committed, and their mission was something our 
Booz Allen team members quickly wrapped our hearts around," 
says Susan. "When we heard the stories of these long deploy-
ments and the positive impact UTR had on families, we became 
invested in helping them figure out how to make this new  
model work.”

A year after this engagement, UTR has made strides in examin-
ing technologies and looking for the right partner to help with app 
development. As part of the firm’s ongoing support to military 
family resiliency, Booz Allen is staying in touch, examining ways 
we can continue to support UTR's mission moving forward. 

UTR is just one of the not-for-profits that benefitted from support 
by Booz Allen volunteers participating in a firm initiative called 
the Leadership Excellence Program (LEP) that develops senior 
employees’ leadership skills and allows them to apply their 
strategy and consulting expertise to helping not-for-profit organi-
zations. In the 4 years of LEP's existence, more than 215 
volunteers have helped 33 not-for-profit organizations, volunteer-
ing for 15,517 hours with an estimated value of $2,858,881.

| 34 |

IMPACT REPORT / 2016PASSION

HELPING REACH MORE 
KIDS WITH A GREAT 
FIRST® IMPRESSION

Booz Allen volunteers Burgess 
Robinson (alumnus), Taylor 
Phillips, Cutter Harrigan, and 
Ray Long at the 5th Booz 
Allen-led FIRST® LEGO®League 
(FLL) Meet the Experts Festival 
in Alexandria, VA.

| 35 |

“ My participation in FIRST® definitely influenced the course of my education and my career goals,” says 
Booz Allen Associate Ashley Cowall. Ashley, a FIRST® (For Inspiration and Recognition of Science and 
Technology) alumna, wasn’t the ‘artsy’ type, so she took drafting as a high school freshmen to fulfill her arts 
requirement. “My drafting teacher encouraged me to join our school’s FIRST® Robotics Competition team. 
During my 4 years with the team, we went to two world championships, won a Chairman’s Award, and won 

the Entrepreneurship Award the first year it was offered. I loved my experiences with FIRST.”

Initial involvement with FIRST turned into employment at a 

FIRST-operated summer camp. The camp director encouraged 
Ashley to apply to a month-long summer program offered by the 
Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) for rising high school 
seniors. She was accepted into and attended the program—and 
the rest is history: She graduated MIT in 2010 with a degree in 
Operations Research, or as she calls it, “the science of better.”

“I hadn’t been thinking of applying to MIT at all. In fact, the norm 
was that fewer than 20 percent of kids in my high school left the  

state for college. If not for my experiences with FIRST, I don’t 

think I would have gone to MIT. FIRST opened doors for me.”

Ashley’s experience illustrates one reason Booz Allen is a 

passionate supporter of FIRST. “Whether or not FIRST partici-
pants go on to ‘STEM careers,’ the experiences and skills 

gained through FIRST are making them community and workplace 
leaders. The opportunity to work as a team to solve a challenge,  
to communicate their ideas to peers and adults—sometimes 
while you’re being judged, these experiences are invaluable,”  
says Lead Associate Christine Hoisington, director of Community 
Partnerships. 

While Booz Allen has supported FIRST since 2004, the 2015–

2016 FIRST season was an inflection point in the partnership. 

The firm’s multi-faceted support and commitment to helping FIRST 
grow in the U.S. and abroad led to Booz Allen’s being named 

a FIRST Strategic Partner, a designation that few supporters  
have received. 

Employees mentor FIRST teams at all age levels (72 teams in 
the 2015–2016 season) with Booz Allen’s financial support, and 

the firm supports FIRST events in locations such as San Diego, 
Boston, San Antonio, Huntsville, Honolulu, and Washington, DC. 

Employees serve on local and regional boards, advising FIRST’s 
local growth strategies so more kids can participate in the 
program—now and for years to come.

Also in 2015, the firm provided pro bono consulting services to 

help FIRST improve how FIRST data is collected and can be 
analyzed. “This project has been challenging and fulfilling. Our 

work will allow FIRST staff to use data analytics in forward-lean-
ing, mission-critical ways—to drive partnerships with funders, to 

make decisions on FIRST growth, and to track the program’s 
impact on participants,” says Lead Technologist Catherine 
Slesnick, a data scientist from Booz Allen’s Boston office and  
a member of the project team. 

“ Consulting is our heritage, and by driving innovation and 

transformation within FIRST, we can achieve greater social 
impact and business ‘ROI’ than we could by just writing a 

check,” says Senior Vice President Paul Chi, also a Virginia 

FIRST board member. “Our pro bono work will help FIRST reach 
and inspire more kids around the world—that’s inspiring to me.”

| 36 |

IMPACT REPORT / 2016PASSION

FISH EYE VIEW—   
PROJECT OCEANLENS™

“The sea, once it casts its spell, holds 
one in its net of wonder forever.”  

—Jacques Cousteau

Left: Lead Developer, Ian 
Byrnes, experiences OceanLens’ 
immersive undersea 3D 
visualization.

Right: A 2D screen capture  
of a 3D scene in OceanLens 
depicting a scenario undersea in 
San Diego harbor as an aircraft 
carrier leaves port overhead.

| 37 |

 
Thanks to geographic information system (GIS) software and the rise of open source geo-mapping data, you 

never have to remember directions again. Satellites offer a bird’s eye view of the world from the White House to 

the Pyramids of Giza. But what about a “fish eye view?”

The oceans remain a mystery, even to those who regularly 
traverse them. What if we could take GIS out to sea? “We 
realized that there was nothing like that for undersea,” says 
Lead Technologist Nirav Desai. “In the world of navigation, 
things haven’t changed much since the 1950s.” Most maritime 
navigational charts are still two dimensional and that often 
means ships are “navigating blind,” Nirav says. 

EXPLORING THE BRINY DEEP—VIRTUALLY

Meet Project OceanLens™, a 3D maritime visualization software 
suite that allows users to import and merge bathymetric data—
underwater topography—to provide a base layer that is matched 
to current GPS WGS 84 positions. MARLIN can then layer and 
toggle additional data sources on/off, live and/or static, as well 
as handle various levels of classified data. 

Project OceanLens is the brainchild of several of our experts. 
In addition to Nirav, there’s Lead Associate and former “subma-
riner” Eric Jones and Associate and Data Scientist Ian Byrnes. 
Ian showed Eric “this global zoomable Google Earth-like tool,” 
Eric says, and he wondered, “Was it possible to do something 
similar with bathymetric data, too?” Short answer, yes. Ian came 
back with a new model—and it went underwater! With the “power 
of data analytics,” the ability to view what used to be invisible  
“is just limitless,” Eric says. 

With OceanLens, users can view the undersea domain from any 
vantage point on a flat-screen TV or on a Virtual Reality (VR) 
headset and see through and around underwater cables, 
moored science buoys, shipping lanes, winds and currents, or 
Unmanned Underwater Vehicles. As the viewer moves the virtual 
camera, data in close proximity is automatically streamed at the 
appropriate detail level (and cached for future efficient traversal). 
This process allows the OceanLens system to fuse data of 
varying resolutions, displaying the highest resolution data 
available while simultaneously providing the viewer a virtual 
rendering of the sea floor.

This innovative, data-layering visualization tool gives defense 
organizations a technological edge. And Project OceanLens 

The OceanLens team poses 
during the 2016 Booz Allen 
Excellence Awards.

architecture and data fusion techniques enable it to replace 
multiple current tools. Project OceanLens supports the full 
spectrum of planning and operations, including undersea sensor 
placement, intelligence data fusion, common operational picture 
development and communication, mission planning and training, 
and more. 

We’re moving OceanLens into the future, developing software 
enhancements including the addition of overlapping data, 
user-generated scenario design, integration of standard 
nautical chart formats, and the ability to print 3D holograph-
ic renderings of critical scenes for sharing content without the 
need for VR hardware. We also worked with SPAWAR’s 
Battlespace Exploitation of Mixed Reality (BEMR) lab to 
install a VR demonstration booth that shows  
off OceanLens and are projected to replicate OceanLens' 
capabilities with the Navy's undersea fleet in government 
facilities in Honolulu. 

We think Jacques Cousteau would be proud that we’re introducing 
the world to a fish eye view. 

| 38 |

IMPACT REPORT / 2016PASSION

PLAYING FOR KEEPS—   
CYBER WARGAMES

It’s 3:00 am. You’re sleeping, or trying to sleep anyway. Your phone buzzes and comes 

to life, lighting up your nightstand. As you reach for your phone, you know this can’t 

be good. The panicked voice on the line delivers the news: “We’ve been breached. Our 

network has been compromised.”

| 39 |

You’re lucky. It’s only a game. This time. Breached! is a Booz 
Allen-developed cyber wargame—a realistic, live simulation that 
begins with a video depicting the dreaded call alerting you to a 
major cyber crisis at your company. You and the other players act 
out roles as members of the C-suite (Chief Operating Officer, Chief 
Information Officer, Chief Risk Officer, HR Director, General Counsel, 
etc.) As many as 200 people can play in teams of 8 to 10. 

Details bring the game to life. Players receive company profiles, 
role descriptions, problem areas, financial figures, and investor 
relations information for the fictional company they represent. 
Game “moves” include the hackers stealing company data, 
corrupting email systems, issuing ransom demands, and more. 
You and your “company team” must make business decisions  
to steer the entire enterprise through the fictionalized attack. 

Breached! players experience a cyber attack “from a perspec-
tive they’ve never had,” says Lead Associate and Project 
Manager Howard Foard, who led design and delivery. “They get 
to step outside of their typical role and a lot of players tell us 
‘this really opened my eyes, I’m scared now,’” he says. 

Wargaming was born and lived for a long time in the world of 
military planning, a service Booz Allen offered exclusively to our 
Department of Defense clients. But we saw a need for a realistic 
educational game in the world of cybersecurity too. We took 
Breached! out to play at the 2015 and 2016 RSA Conferences; 
we’re working with a number of Fortune 500 clients in the 
technology, financial, and retail industries who’ve had to 
contend with cyber attacks. We are also expanding Breached! 
internationally, including in Singapore. 

“The role-playing element is actually fun,” says Senior Associate 
Jeffrey Roth, who has customized and directed wargames and 
disaster simulations for more than 14 years. “Your imagination 
is doing a lot of the heavy lifting and once the scenario is laid 
out, your mind will fill in the rest.” 

SCARING EXECUTIVES STRAIGHT

Breached! gives players the chance to develop and exercise 
their cyber response strategies—before it’s too late. The IT 
networks of some of the country’s largest retailers, financial 
institutions, and government agencies are breached on a regular 
basis, with cyber criminals launching malicious software and 
stealing sensitive customer data as the world watches. 

In many cases of large-scale cybercrime like this, company 
officials weren’t prepared and didn’t manage the crisis well. 
Sluggish technical responses, media missteps, and legal liabili-
ties led to frightened customers, angry stockholders, and, ulti-
mately, a huge drop in sales. 

Breached! is just one example of Booz Allen’s work—our experts 
have decades of expertise in experiential design, simulation, 
facilitation, and analytical techniques that pull together the latest 
innovations in technology and learning theory. Employees’ 
passion for client service and continuous learning propels them 
to build each wargame and exercise in a tailored approach that 
fits an organization’s needs and mission. Find more information 
at http://boozallen.com/exercisedesign.

The Breached! team 
poses during the 
2016 Booz Allen 
Excellence Awards. 

African disaster 
management 
students work 
through tabletop 
exercise design  
steps with their 
colleagues during  
a Booz Allen-led 
exercise course in 
Nairobi, Kenya.

| 40 |

IMPACT REPORT / 2016PASSION

A PASSION FOR PROBLEM-SOLVING 
LEADS TO AN INNOVATIVE TOOL 
FOR DISEASE TRACKING

| 41 |

An Ebola outbreak in West 

Africa in March 2014 rapidly 

grew into the deadliest incidence 

of the virus since its discovery in 

1976. Within months, more 

than 25,000 documented cases 

of Ebola plagued Sierra Leone, 

Guinea, and Liberia. At least 

10,000 died. 

Containing the spread of the deadly disease in West Africa presented a challenge, to 
say the least. Imagine an aid worker in a HAZMAT suit, whose mission is to identify 
Ebola in a swarm of villagers while scrawling down information with a pencil and paper. 
It’s a very common scenario in countries that lack the technology to track, transmit, 
and share health data on infected versus vaccinated patients.

A PASSION FOR PROBLEM-SOLVING

“To even begin thinking about solving a problem like Ebola contact and vaccine tracing,” 
explains Adam Weiner, principal and biometrics and forensic engineering capability lead, 
“we needed to bring our experts in biometric recognition, cloud data storage, custom 
devices and predictive analytics together.” Looking at it from all these angles, Booz 
Allen envisioned a portable, practical device that could capture and store health data 
in the field—something users could operate even while draped in a HAZMAT suit.

Our employees are passionate problem-solvers, and they took facial recognition 
software and integrated it into an existing handheld forensic tool used by law enforce-
ment and the military. INTREPID, as we call the new creation, allows aid workers to 
accurately identify locals from a distance. All you have to do is hover near someone’s 
face with the device, follow on-screen cues, and click when ready. After the front-end 
face-imaging software collects a number of facial measurements, the device com-
pares that data against the INTREPID cloud: a virtual database of previously tagged 
individuals. INTREPID also allows a user to catalog new, untagged individuals—and 
confirm known identities—on the spot.

CLEARER FOOTPRINTS AND SMARTER PREDICTIONS

Recognizing and confirming the identities of people in the hot zone is just half of the 
problem; the ability to track them, monitor their sentiments, and predict the next flare-up 
of the epidemic is another. But we’re working on that, too. 

Epidemico, a health analytics subsidiary Booz Allen acquired in 2015, has a product 
that provides real-time analysis and insights into population health. The company’s 
MedWatcher scrapes news feeds and administers a data processing algorithm to tag, 
filter, analyze, and visualize any health or threat alert, including those in traditional and 
social media, anywhere on the globe. The data is aggregated, analyzed, and then 
visualized on maps to project where an outbreak may move. That means we not only 
know who’s sick, but who’s most likely to get sick, based on data. 

With a device in place for aid workers to capture biometric information and a cloud 
environment built to syndicate their data, we integrated MedWatcher’s data visualiza-
tion and analytics technology to meet the needs of aid organizations. Our INTREPID 
package—the augmented hardware device modified with facial recognition, the 
INTREPID cloud environment, and the data visualization and analytics—is a solution 
for Ebola contact and vaccine tracing, and beyond.  

This piece was adapted from “Building Beyond the Hot Zone,” featured in issue 1 of 
ENVOI Articles.”

| 42 |

IMPACT REPORT / 2016PASSION

ADVANCED ANALYTICS PUT   
CLIENTS AHEAD OF THE ATTACK

Cyber attacks are evolving faster than organizations can launch 

effective defenses. At the enterprise level, the question of a cyber attack 

is when, not if, and the repercussions are daunting—the theft, 

destruction, and/or public release of critical and personal data; 

reputational harm; lowered client or consumer confidence—all can 

trigger massive disruption. Most organizations are relying on stagnant 

defenses and a reactive strategy to identify known vulnerabilities and 

fix them one by one. This seemingly endless react-and-fix loop can’t 

keep up with threat actors who are too fast, too many, and too 

sophisticated for static defenses alone.

| 43 |

Through the innovative integration of technolo-
gy, analytics, tradecraft, and consulting 
ingenuity, Booz Allen has armed its clients 
with an effective security posture that uses 
anticipatory predictive intelligence (PI). It 
enables them to get ahead of these threats, 
assess risks, and take appropriate defensive 
actions—before an attack happens. 

For example, one of the world’s largest 
pharmaceutical companies engaged Booz 
Allen to conceptualize, architect, and imple-
ment a next-generation technology platform 
to conduct predictive, detection-based securi-
ty analytics to protect over $50 billion of 
revenue a year from cyber espionage, 
reputational damage, and intellectual 
capital theft. Our team provided a cloud-
based security analytics platform and 
accelerated solution implementation and 
deployment by months, saving the client 
hundreds of thousands of dollars in operat-
ing costs and time.

SPEARHEADING THE NEXT   
GENERATION OF CYBERSECURITY

“ Booz Allen’s approach to PI has reshaped how our federal and 
commercial clients understand and address cyber threats with 
more innovative defense measures and effective operations,” 
says Executive  
Vice President Angie Messer. “We’re spearheading the next 
generation of cybersecurity, providing solutions that differentiate 
us in the marketplace and transform client operations so they 
can move from ‘survive’ to ‘thrive.’”

The firm’s disruptive business models merge the art and 
science of defeating threats that pose risks to organizations 
and businesses. We deploy Booz Allen’s analytic capabilities  
to collect and analyze real-time threat actor activities using 
highly experienced intelligence analysts, native language 
linguists, and socio-cultural analysts. Our vast team operates 
24/7/365 supporting a state-of-the art Threat Intelligence 
Operations Center, assessing risk and quickly providing anticipa-
tory threat alerts that allow a client to take appropriate defensive 

actions immediately. By employing tools like the firm-developed 
Cyber4Sight®, Global4Sight, Insider4Sight and Cyber Fusion 
Centers, our team can scrutinize an organization’s dynamic 
attack surface as a threat actor would, using the tailored,  
predictive threat intelligence to provide actionable alerts of 
impending attacks. 

This approach represents a significant evolution from traditional 
thinking, in which most offerings rely on industry best practic-
es, standards, and attack history. By upending this model, Booz 
Allen’s forward-looking approach provides evidence and capabili-
ties based on calculated, future risks specific to each client  
and helps them build virtual fortresses, denying entry and 
mitigating potential damage from those threats with more  
speed and accuracy. 

This holistic, integrated approach factors in all data sources 
specific to the client’s industry and business. It links external 
human intelligence with technical intelligence derived from a client’s 
network environment to connect the dots and determine 
whether threat actors are present within the organization’s 
environment—or if they may be in the early stages of an ad-
vanced attack. Because of our accelerated analysis and alert 
delivery, within minutes of discovery, clients are notified of risk. 

In less than 2 years, our rapid innovation of PI capabilities has 
expanded and represents significant growth across all markets. 
We’ve combined the firm’s strategic innovation capabilities 
and leading-edge technologies with the best of our work with 
the Department of Defense, intelligence agencies, federal 
clients, and top-tier commercial clients. 

Booz Allen employees working in our state-of-the art Cyber4Sight threat 
intelligence operations center, where we maintain 24/7/365 vigilance, alerting 
clients about cyberattacks before they happen.

Booz Allen’s PI capabilities have positioned us as game 
changers, able to provide end-to-end solutions that can be 
applied horizontally across client markets. We bring a passion  
to our work that is hard to match—and that passion gets 
results. The firm has been awarded the Global Threat Mitigation 
Program (GTMP)—the largest single-award contract in Booz Allen 
history—to identify and analyze evolving and emerging threats 
and provide training and expertise to combat these threats. Our 
Global4Sight analysts and data scientists will work collabora-
tively with GTMP staff to provide unique insights from digital 
listening that support the readiness and training of Army, 
Reserve, and National Guard forces around the world. 

“Booz Allen’s next-generation cyber monitoring capabilities 
have provided an entry point into new markets like retail, oil 
and natural gas, automotive, and international while expand-
ing our existing defense business,” says Angie, “propelling 
our business into the next 100 years. We’ve built an 
incredible suite of solutions, products, and services, and 
grown an expansive, cross-market business base that’s 
driving bottom line growth and preparing clients in managing 
risk and taking the right actions at the right time.”

The PI team  
poses during the  
2016 Booz Allen 
Excellence Awards. 

| 44 |

IMPACT REPORT / 2016APPENDIX

NON-GAAP MEASURES

We publicly disclose certain non-GAAP financial measurements 
in this report, including Adjusted EBITDA, Adjusted Net Income, 
and Adjusted Diluted Earnings Per Share, or Adjusted Diluted 
EPS, because management uses these measures for business 
planning purposes, including to manage our business against 
internal projected results of operations and measure our 
performance. We view Adjusted EBITDA, Adjusted Net Income, 
and Adjusted Diluted EPS as measures of our core operating 
business, which exclude the impact of the items detailed below, 
as these items are generally not operational in nature. These 
non-GAAP measures also provide another basis for comparing 
period to period results by excluding potential differences 
caused by non-operational and unusual or non-recurring items. 
We present these supplemental measures because we believe 
that these measures provide investors and securities analysts 
with important supplemental information with which to evaluate 
our performance, long term earnings potential, or liquidity, as 
applicable, and to enable them to assess our performance on 
the same basis as management. These supplemental perfor-
mance measurements may vary from and may not be compara-
ble to similarly titled measures by other companies in our 
industry. Adjusted EBITDA, Adjusted Net Income and Adjusted 
Diluted EPS are not recognized measurements under accounting 
principles generally accepted in the United States, or GAAP, and 
when analyzing our performance or liquidity, as applicable, 
investors should (i) evaluate each adjustment in our reconcilia-
tion of net income to Adjusted EBITDA and Adjusted Net Income, 
and the explanatory footnotes regarding those adjustments, 
each as defined under GAAP, and (ii) use Adjusted EBITDA, 
Adjusted Net Income, and Adjusted Diluted EPS in addition to, 
and not as an alternative to, net income or diluted EPS, as 
measures of operating results. We have defined the aforemen-
tioned non-GAAP measures as follows:

•  “Adjusted EBITDA” represents net income before income 

taxes, net interest and other expense, and depreciation and 
amortization and before certain other items, including: 
(i) certain stock option-based and other equity-based 
compensation expenses, and (ii) transaction costs, fees, 
losses, and expenses, including fees associated with debt 
prepayments. We prepare Adjusted EBITDA to eliminate the 
impact of items we do not consider indicative of ongoing 
operating performance due to their inherent unusual, 
extraordinary, or non-recurring nature or because they result 
from an event of a similar nature.

•  “Adjusted Net Income” represents net income before: 
(i) certain stock option-based and other equity-based 
compensation expenses, (ii) transaction costs, fees, losses, 
and expenses, including fees associated with debt prepay-
ments, (iii) adjustments related to the amortization of 

intangible assets, (iv) amortization or write-off of debt 
issuance costs and write-off of original issue discount, and 
(v) any extraordinary, unusual, or non-recurring items net of 
the tax effect where appropriate calculated using an as-
sumed effective tax rate. We prepare Adjusted Net Income to 
eliminate the impact of items, net of tax, we do not consider 
indicative of ongoing operating performance due to their 
inherent unusual, extraordinary, or non-recurring nature or 
because they result from an event of a similar nature.

•   “Adjusted Diluted EPS” represents diluted EPS calculated 
using Adjusted Net Income as opposed to net income.  
Additionally, Adjusted Diluted EPS does not contemplate any 
adjustments to net income as required under the two-class 
method as disclosed in the footnotes to the financial 
staatements.

Below is a reconciliation of Adjusted EBITDA, Adjusted Net 
Income, and Adjusted Diluted EPS, to the most directly compara-
ble financial measure calculated and presented in accordance 
with GAAP.

(AMOUNTS IN THOUSANDS, EXCEPT  
SHARE AND PER SHARE DATA)

FISCAL YEAR ENDED  
MARCH 31, 2016  
(UNAUDITED)

EBITDA & ADJUSTED EBITDA

Net income

Income tax expense

Interest and other, net

Depreciation and amortization

EBITDA & Adjusted EBITDA

Adjusted Net Income

Net income

Amortization of intangible assets (a)

Release of income tax reserves (b)

Amortization or write-off of debt issuance  
costs and write-off of original issue 
discount

Adjustments for tax effect (c)

Adjusted Net Income

ADJUSTED DILUTED EARNINGS PER SHARE

Weighted-average number of diluted shares 
outstanding

Adjusted Net Income Per Diluted Share (d)

$294,094

85,368

65,122

61,536

$506,120

$294,094

4,225

(53,301)

5,201

(3,770)

$246,449

149,719,137

1.65

a.)  Reflects amortization of intangible assets resulting from the acquisition of 

our Company by The Carlyle Group (the “Acquisition”).

b.)  Release of pre-acquisition income tax reserves assumed by the Company 

in connection with the Acquisition.

c.)    Reflects tax effect of adjustments at an assumed marginal tax  

rate of 40%.

d.)  Excludes an adjustment of approximately $3.5 million of net earnings for 
fiscal 2016, , associated with the application of the two-class method for 
computing diluted earnings per share.

| 45 |

IMPACT REPORT / 2016