GovCon M&A Talk with Mike Derrios

Sharon Heaton (0:00)

Where will the next generation of GovCon leaders come from? And what kind of GovCon market will they face? Today on GovCon M&A Talk, Mike Derrios talks about building the GovCon talent pipeline, connecting the classroom to the real world, and what government, industry and universities need to do differently to prepare the workforce for the future. Because the future of GovCon depends on who we're preparing to lead it, and what the structure of that market is going to be.

This is GovCon M&A Talk, presented by Orange Slices. I'm Sharon Heaton of SP Liftoff, and I live and breathe GovCon M&A. So let's talk deals.

Mike, thanks so much for joining us on GovCon M&A Talk today.

Mike Derrios (0:59)

Thanks so much for the invitation, Sharon.

Sharon Heaton (1:01)

Well, you are the head of the Baroni Institute at George Mason University. I believe it's the only one in the country of its sort. Could you tell us what the Baroni Center is and what your goal is?

Mike Derrios (1:13)

Absolutely. Yeah, thanks for, again, thanks for the opportunity to come on and chat with you today. So the Greg and Camille Baroni Center for Government Contracting, it's a mouthful. It is, in fact, the only university-based academic center in the nation that studies the industrial base of government contracting holistically. It sits within the Costello College of Business at George Mason University. It really offers a unique perspective into this $800 billion segment of the American economy. I think a lot of people still don't know, unless you're in the Washington, DC area and you live and breed this stuff every day, a lot of people across the nation still don't know a whole lot about what government contracting is. We exist to kind of be a bridge there to those folks, a bridge between government and industry, and then also a bridge to academia. We want other academic institutions to understand what this unique world of work is, as well as the everyday citizen who is wondering, well, where's my taxpayer dollars going, and what are you doing with those?

We do that by focusing on a variety of different lines of effort. You mentioned at the top there, education and training.

There is a government contracting minor program at the university.

It's a little unique. Not a lot of universities have that. We have a minor curriculum. We're also standing up a certificate program in government contracting. But it goes beyond just the walls of the university. When we talk about education and training, we're also talking about trying to bridge that knowledge gap between industry and government in terms of how this world of work operates. There's so much to pick apart in terms of policy, but also just everyday practice.

We do a lot of convening. We're thought leadership, trying to bring the community together and discuss the topics that are front and center for everybody in this space. And then, you know, there's research. And that's probably what the center has been known for, you know, since it was established really almost a decade ago now. It became a named center about four years ago, but it's been around for a while, and it really leaned in heavily in the beginning on some really, really good research. And we continue to do that. So that's kind of the center writ large.

Sharon Heaton (4:02)

One of the things about GovCon is that people will often know the world from where they sit, but have a very hard time understanding what the other perspective is. And I specifically see that GovCon companies thinking about the government and then thinking about certainly the government not understanding. I was talking to a government official recently who went on about the importance of moving to firm fixed price because the government was getting ripped off by all these time and material contracts. And every GovCon owner I know says, yes, please throw me into that briar patch. I want to be doing firm fixed price. So it's almost as if the two sides aren't talking to each other.

One of the interesting things about 2025 was that it was very hard to get people who are working in the government to come out and speak.

To share their perspective or to give commentary on what was going on. Are you finding that in 26, it's easier to get people from the government to come out and share those thoughts? Or is it still as kind of locked down as it was last year?

Mike Derrios (5:04)

I think it's getting better. I think that there was a lot of change last year, for sure. I think that a lot of government agencies were just focused on getting their arms around that. And traditional government speakers were not necessarily as available to get out there. I think it's getting a little better now. And I think, frankly, agencies are starting to realize that there is a need. You have to speak to industry about what's going on with some of these things because it's a partnership. When we talk about an industrial base, I mean, that's exactly right.