Sales enablement

Five Chief Revenue Officers in Government Contracting

Changes in buyer behavior and preferences constantly present a challenge for sales executives. Forrester, a research and advisory company, found that the average number of personal and digital sales-related interactions rose significantly between 2019 and 2021.

Advancements in technology are also transforming the way businesses engage with customers, Forrester said in a Forbes column.

The chief revenue officer is the high-level executive responsible for sales and everything that goes into driving it.

The Potomac Officers Club—a division of Executive Mosaic—features five chief revenue officers in the government contracting sector.

Steve Cowley, Chief Revenue Officer at IBM

Steve Cowley is the chief revenue officer at computer hardware company IBM. He has been with the company since 1995.

As chief revenue officer, Cowley oversees the company’s revenue growth and the performance of all revenue-related functions, including marketing, sales and customer growth. He also ensures that IBM brings innovation and value to clients and drive hybrid cloud and artificial intelligence revenue growth, according to his LinkedIn profile.

He was the general manager of IBM Cloud and IBM Software prior to his current role. He held that position for over five years and was based in New York at the time.

He also held other GM roles in the past. He was the GM of worldwide sales for IBM software and was the GM of IBM Watson, an AI-based computer system that helps organizations predict future outcomes and optimize employee production.

Cowley took on vice president roles at the hardware company from 1995 to 2008. He was the VP of global postal and logistics solutions, VP of IBM Software Group in Europe and VP of worldwide sales for IBM WebSphere.

IBM offers hybrid cloud, artificial intelligence, automation, cybersecurity and data and analytics products and services to various clients, including those in the government, health care, defense and aerospace sectors. It is headquartered in Armonk, New York, and has multiple offices within and outside the U.S.

Chris McBride, Chief Revenue Officer at Pavilion

Chris McBride is the chief revenue officer at enterprise storage company Pavilion, working out of the firm’s headquarters in San Jose, California. He has over 30 years of experience selling systems and solutions to businesses, the last 18 of which have been focused on building sales and service teams, according to his LinkedIn profile.

McBride describes himself as a cross-functional executive who works to drive alignment and focus on how each team participates in creating customer value. He emphasized that as IT groups transfer more of their operations to the cloud and software-as-a-service-based solutions, his job of building enterprise sales and marketing teams must also adapt accordingly.

McBride has been working at Pavilion for the past 18 months. In his current role, he works as an adviser to start-ups to “leverage high-velocity tools and processes to touch more customers, shorten sales cycles and reduce the overall cost of sales.”

In addition to his employment, McBride also runs his own consulting company, McBride Technology Sales Scientists. He said that for almost six years, he has been helping technology companies efficiently go to market by working with them to clearly understand the business landscape.

Before joining Pavilion, McBride worked as a member of the executive advisory board at Attala Systems, another San Jose-headquartered technology company. In that role, he helped the company modernize clients’ cloud infrastructure.

McBride earned his degrees in marine biology from Auburn University.

John DiLullo, Chief Revenue Officer at Forcepoint

John DiLullo serves as the chief revenue officer of Forcepoint, a software company that specializes in cybersecurity.

Forcepoint offers solutions for data protection, zero trust, cloud security, network security and cross-domain access, according to its website.

As chief revenue officer, DiLullo is in charge of driving the sales and business development functions, Forcepoint said. He also plays a role in expanding the userbase of the company’s products globally.

DiLullo has executive leadership experience in the areas of sales, marketing, engineering, operations and customer experience, according to his LinkedIn profile.

Prior to joining Forcepoint, he served as the CEO of Lastline, a network security company that is now part of VMware.

Lastline uses artificial intelligence and machine learning to protect network, email, cloud and web infrastructures.

From 2015 to 2018, DiLullo served as executive vice president of worldwide sales at application security company F5 Networks.

He was previously a board member at AlertGPS, a company that provides security and communications solutions to enterprises with a mobile workforce.

Earlier in his career, DiLullo held sales-related executive roles at Aruba Networks, Avaya, SonicWall and Cisco Systems, according to his LinkedIn profile.

He earned a bachelor of science in electrical and electronics engineering from Villanova University.

Chris Ericksen, Chief Revenue Officer at Klas Government

Chris Ericksen is the chief revenue officer at communications technology provider Klas Government. He is also a Potomac Officers Club member.

Ericksen oversees the company’s sales, sales engineering, marketing and channel teams and is responsible for company strategy and growth. He has over two decades of professional experience, having served various leadership roles at VMware and Cisco, Klas Government said.

Ericksen was a senior account executive at cloud computing company VMware. In this capacity, he led security and networking sales for various defense clients, including the U.S. Navy, U.S. Marine Corps and the Defense Information Systems Agency.

At Cisco, he was a regional manager who oversaw accounts across the U.S. Army and the Special Operations Forces. He was also a strategic account manager who was responsible for data center, virtualization and cloud technologies across various military accounts.

He started his career in 2000 as a sales engineer at Cisco, according to his LinkedIn profile.

Ericksen holds a master’s degree in finance from Regis University and a bachelor’s degree in management information systems from Birmingham Young University.

Klas Government offers the Voyager lineup, a range of products and solutions that deliver scalable network, compute and radio systems designed to meet government and public safety needs in any operational environment.

The company is headquartered in Herndon, Virginia, and has offices in Florida, Washington, D.C., and Dublin, Ireland.

Christian Smith, Chief Revenue Officer at Splunk

Christian Smith is the chief revenue officer at American software company Splunk, working out of Seattle, Washington. He is an executive sales and marketing leader specializing in cloud and hybrid go-to markets with over 25 years of expertise in all phases of growth and scale, according to his LinkedIn profile.

Smith said that he specializes in sales and marketing leadership, which has led him to build “exceptionally high performing teams.” His professional specialties also include cloud, software-as-a-service, metric-driven models, turn around scenarios, scaling sales organizations and acquisition integration.

Smith has been working at Splunk for over five years. He joined the company in 2017 as vice president of Americas sales and quickly moved his way up to his present CRO role.

Concurrently, Smith sits as a board member at California-based technology firm Feedzai. He joined the company, which safeguards global commerce using advanced cloud-based risk management platforms, in October 2021.

Previously, Smith served as chief revenue officer at software company Nintex, where he worked for over three years. In that role, he was responsible for all global go to market including sales, channel programs, field marketing, and customer success and support.

Smith earned his degrees in marketing, advertising and communications from the University of Washington.

ABOUT POTOMAC OFFICERS CLUB

The Potomac Officers Club is owned and operated by Executive Mosaic. Since 2002, Executive Mosaic has been a leader in media and exclusive senior executive networking programs primarily targeted to the U.S. federal government contracting (GovCon) marketplace. In addition to connecting executives of consequence into a fabric of like minded communities, the company’s growing cross-media platform serves as a leading source of news about the people, policies, trends and events shaping the nation’s GovCon sector.