Pentagon officials to meet with industry groups in January

By Marjorie Censer  / December 14, 2017

The Pentagon's top procurement official is set to meet next month with three defense industry groups, the chief executive of the National Defense Industrial Association said last week.

Hawk Carlisle told Inside Defense the next meeting of the defense-related associations -- NDIA, the Aerospace Industries Association and the Professional Services Council -- is slated for January and will be hosted by PSC. Ellen Lord, the Pentagon's top buying official, confirmed in the fall she had already attended her first of these meetings, which are held four times each year.

Carlisle said Jerry McGinn, who was the acting chief of the Pentagon's manufacturing and industrial base policy office, attended the last meeting. Eric Chewning, who has since been named the head of that office, is slated to attend the next one, he said.

While each association gets to invite member companies, Carlisle said the hosting association gets to invite more and sets the agenda. NDIA, he said, will host one in the spring.

“The one that NDIA hosts, the medium and small [contractors] will be the largest contingent,” he said. “On the agenda . . . will be those issues that the medium and small companies are having that the big companies probably don't care as much about.”

Carlisle also said he expects Defense Secretary Jim Mattis, who met with the defense-related associations in April , to meet with the groups again, “probably in the spring.”

Additionally, he said Deputy Defense Secretary Pat Shanahan has agreed to meet with NDIA separately.