NDIA Moves Forward as an Enterprise in 2018.

• Author: Carlisle, Hawk
• Position: President's Perspective

As we enter 2018, I want to take this opportunity to recount the National Defense Industrial Association's deliberate efforts over the past year to add member value and offer insight on where we are going.

As I have said many times, our members are our raison d'etre--our reason for being. They provide the leadership and expertise that make NDIA's divisions, chapters, affiliates and working groups so relevant and effective in promoting the mission to bring government, industry and academia together to solve the biggest challenges in national security and provide the very best for the warfighters.

This association belongs to its members, and all of the efforts of its 70 professional staff members are committed to the shared mission.

There has been a great deal of change at NDIA over the past year as we have executed a blueprint to further our commitment to remain this country's largest and most trusted defense industrial association.

We welcomed two new senior executives to the team, each with extraordinary expertise and more than 26 years serving our country in uniform. Rachel McCaffrey is executive director of our Women In Defense affiliate and Wes Hallman has come aboard as senior vice president for policy. These are critical positons and we could not have found two better leaders.

I am also extremely pleased to announce that retired Army Maj. Gen. Jim Boozer has joined NDIA as my chief of staff. He is a widely respected career artillery officer with extensive leadership and command experience. He will help me coordinate all efforts across the NDIA enterprise and will ensure a cohesive execution of the strategy moving forward.

Regarding the strategy, we have put together a thoughtful and forward-looking plan that will serve the membership and the association's mission well. The strategy will have a five-year horizon that will be executed in one-year increments to allow for assessment and adjustment to the lines of effort.

These six lines of effort, or focus areas, are: promoting innovation in technology and process; driving acquisition reform and regulatory modernization; strengthening the defense industrial base and workforce; focusing on the challenges of small business; advocating for budget stability; and building security cooperation to include improving processes in foreign military sales and direct commercial sales.

These focus areas transcend the equities of each of the 1,650 corporate and 85,000 individual members and they will be...