President of Major Contractors Group Steps Down

Fifteen years after he left the Clinton administration Pentagon to head a major federal contractors group, Stan Soloway on Wednesday announced that he is leaving his post as president and CEO of the 400-member Professional Services Council.

“I am at that stage of my career where, if I want to do something different and substantial before I retire, the time to do so is now,” Soloway said in a letter to member firms in the Arlington, Va.-based group. “This is a great industry with lots of exceptional people and companies and I look forward to continuing to work with them.”

Soloway, who served as deputy undersecretary of Defense for acquisition reform in the late 1990s, has made no specific plans, and will stay engaged with the council as it chooses his successor.

“Stan has been an extraordinary leader for PSC, greatly expanding the association's reach and scope and taking it to new heights,” said Ellen Glover, executive vice president of ICF International and chair of the PSC Board of Directors.

Leading the contractors in an era of war, dramatic technological advancement and, in the latter years, defense budget cuts, Soloway is credited with helping grow the association’s membership by 300 percent, PSC said in a statement. The council acquired three major allied organizations, most recently the Tech America Foundation, under his guidance.

Soloway became a familiar witness at congressional hearings on defense spending and services contracting and appeared frequently as a trade journal columnist and panelist at agency-industry conferences. His awards include IT Executive of the Year Award from Government Computer News and the Roback Memorial Award from the National Contract Management Association. He is also a two-time winner of the Federal 100 Award.

In the Obama era, Soloway pushed for agencies to free up contractors to innovate. He also became increasingly critical of White House executive orders requiring workforce benefits and new reporting that his association believed were too burdensome on contractors.

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