ARDENTMC - Key Persons
Job Titles:
- Chief Executive Officer
- Founding Partner
- Member of the Leadership Team
- President
Brandon LaBonte is a founding partner and Chief Executive Officer of Ardent. Prior to his position with Ardent, Brandon held numerous leadership roles in the information technology industry. He is our leader and demands the best for our clients.
Brandon's unique experience includes a broad-based approach to information technology and project management challenges. His approach to technology implementations includes fusing sound project management techniques with exceptional technology professionals leading to outstanding customer results.
Brandon earned his BBA from Texas Tech University.
"Many professional services firms focus on doing one thing at the expense of the lifecycle. That, combined with the ‘staffing' model of so many contractors does not deliver for customers. Our tactic is to deliver excellence in the combined skills needed to deliver successful systems from thought to finish."
Job Titles:
- Member of the Leadership Team
- Vice President of Law Enforcement & Immigration
Bryan Casey is an accomplished business development professional with over 20 years of experience selling information technology services to the Federal Government. Mr. Casey leads Ardent's Law Enforcement and Immigration practice supporting accounts at DHS USCIS, USSS, ICE, TSA, and S&T. Mr. Casey excels at developing and identifying opportunities that align with Ardent's core technical competencies (Digital Transformation, Location Intelligence, and Data Science and Analytics), establishing a trusted relationship with clients and business partners, and growing Ardent's business and brand in the marketplace.
Mr. Casey has excellent communication, presentation, interpersonal and team management skills, which makes him a highly effective and extremely self-motivated leader and Ardent team member.
Mr. Casey graduated from Radford University, with a Bachelor of Arts degree in Media Studies.
Job Titles:
- Chief Technology Officer
- Member of the Leadership Team
As Chief Technology Officer of Ardent, Jesus Jackson leads the company's technology strategy and determine its technology priorities. As an industry thought leader, Jesus brings his robust experience and relationships to build competitive advantage across Ardent's service offerings in Digital Transformation, Location Intelligence, and Data Analytics in the Federal market.
Prior to Ardent, Jesus was formerly the Vice President for Engineering at CollabraLink Technologies, where he led 200 word class engineers to solve technical challenges across the Federal sector in cloud computing and DevSecOps. Before his role at CollabraLink, Jesus was the Senior Director, Technology & Head of EGT Labs for EGlobalTech and led the cloud and data science practice within the Strategic Innovation Group (SIG) at Booz Allen Hamilton.
Jesus has a Bachelor's of Science degree in Computer Science from the University of Maryland, College Park.
Job Titles:
- Chief Growth Officer
- Member of the Leadership Team
As the Chief Growth Officer, Joshua Rubin, leads Ardent's corporate growth strategy and execution, integrating cutting-edge technology practices with deep market understanding and mission focus.
For over 15 years, Josh has led business development in the federal civilian and national security sectors. Prior to joining Ardent, Josh held the same position at multiple companies where he successfully achieved aggressive corporate growth, an elevated market presence, and increased enterprise value.
Josh received his B.S. in Business from the University of Maryland, Robert H. Smith School of Business.
Job Titles:
- Director
- Member of the Leadership Team
- Senior Leader of Geospatial
Julie is a senior leader of geospatial, IT modernization, and policy development projects at Ardent. With more than 20 years of experience in geospatial technology and professional services consulting, Julie is proud of her unique ability to lead strong technical teams to execute impactful work, develop trusted, lasting relationships with clients, and provide innovative thought leadership and creative problem-solving in both client and corporate settings. She currently enjoys leading a diverse portfolio of cloud-hosted Enterprise GIS project teams within DHS, in addition to leading several policy development projects for Federal Geospatial leadership in the current Presidential Administration. Prior to Ardent, Julie held positions in training and consulting at Esri, Booz Allen, and AWS.
Julie earned a Masters degree in Geographic and Cartographic Sciences from George Mason University, and undergraduate degrees in Geography and Geology. She is a certified Project Management Professional (PMP), a certified AWS Solutions Architect - Associate, in addition to being certified in Agile methodologies (Scrum Alliance & SAFe), and a certified cloud FinOps Practitioner.
Job Titles:
- Chief Operating Officer
- Member of the Leadership Team
Katherine Virdi is the Chief Operating Officer for Ardent. Mrs. Virdi's career spans the educational, non-profit, commercial, and government contracting sectors. Katherine started her career in operations of a non-profit educational organization then transitioned into federal contracting at Axiom Resource Management supporting DoD.
Prior to Ardent, she held C-level roles at IntelliDyne LLC, and Senior VP of Human Resources and Executive VP of Operations roles at Evolvent Technologies, Inc. Mrs. Virdi is a certified Executive Leadership coach.
Job Titles:
- Chief Financial Officer
- Member of the Leadership Team
Lynne is the Chief Financial Officer for Ardent. Lynne joined the company in February 2018, assuming responsibility for all the company's financial functions including accounting, tax, budgeting and planning, treasury, program finance and pricing. Her career spans the government contracting, commercial, and federal government sectors.
Prior to joining Ardent, Lynne held positions at Evolvent Technologies, Harris IT Services, Sallie Mae, Arthur Andersen, and the U.S. Federal Government.
During her 25+ year career, Lynne has established a reputation for building strong teams and for aligning financial and business goals to support business strategy and growth. She holds a BS in Accounting from George Mason University and an MBA from Virginia Tech. She is a licensed Certified Public Accountant (CPA) in the state of Virginia and holds a Graduate Certificate in Government Procurement from the University of Virginia. Lynne is a member of the Virginia Society of Certified Public Accountants (VSCPA) and the American Institute of Certified Public Accountants (AICPA).
Job Titles:
- Member of the Leadership Team
- Chief Delivery Officer
As Chief Delivery Officer for Ardent, Rich oversees all contract delivery activities to ensure a high level of customer satisfaction, standardization of Ardent's delivery practices across programs, and monitors project financial health. As an accomplished program, technology, and people manager with over 15 years of experience leading cross-functional teams to develop solutions for clients, Rich works with Ardent's project managers and capability leads to deliver high-quality results for our clients.
Prior to joining Ardent's leadership team, Rich started as a business analyst with Ardent in 2010 and has held various delivery-oriented positions within the company including managing multiple large value contracts.
Rich graduated from Winthrop University with a BS in business and received his MBA from The Citadel. Additionally, Rich holds PMP, ACP, Safe 5, Scrum Master, and HDI Support Center Manager
Job Titles:
- Director
- Member of the Leadership Team
Rob is a senior IT leader at Ardent. He is an accomplished project, technology, and people manager with over 15 years of professional services experience. His focus has been on leading cross-functional teams to deliver software implementation, custom application development, and systems integration projects of varying size. He has extensive experience managing multiple, concurrent projects and have a diverse background of working across multiple industries including CPG, Government, Healthcare, Education, and Non-Profit/Associations.
Prior to Ardent, he held leadership roles at IRi as the Vice President of Program Management, Implementation Services, and at CAS Severn, Inc. as the Practice Lead for Application Development and Software Integration.
Job Titles:
- Member of the Leadership Team
- Senior Director of Technology
Ryan Bolyard is the Senior Director of Technology for Ardent. Ryan leads Ardent's capability development as well as advancing delivery capabilities into new and emerging technologies. Ryan also leads our technical teams in demos, prototyping, and technical challenges for our customers. He has advised C-Suite leaders across the FedCiv agencies on topics such as Cloud, DevSecOps, and Cybersecurity. Prior to Ardent, Ryan worked for ECS Federal (former Blackstone Federal) as a Solutions Lead overseeing the technical delivery of the DHS portfolio. He also served as technical lead of EGT Labs at Eglobaltech where he developed Open-Source solutions for federal customers.
Ryan is passionate about equipping the government with the best technologies and consulting to ensure that our customers are successful in their critical missions. Ryan has a Bachelor of Science in politics and minor in Computer Science from Hillsdale College.
Job Titles:
- Member of the Leadership Team
- Vice President, Mergers & Acquisitions and Asst. Vice President, Operations
Ryan Jennings is Ardent's Asst. Vice President of Operations as well as the Vice President of Mergers and Acquisitions. In his role he supports the coordination and oversight of operational divisions, leading development, implementation, and business process re-engineering to drive operational strategy and special projects with a focus on growth and efficiency. He also acts as VP of Ardent's M&A activities and strategy. He originally joined Ardent in 2018 and previously served as Chief of Staff.
Ryan has nearly 20 years of operational management and leadership experience spanning various industries including the Department of Defense. He is a wartime veteran having twice been awarded the Navy and Marine Corp Achievement Medal.
Ryan graduated from Drake University, in Des Moines, Iowa with a Bachelor's degree in Political Science.
Job Titles:
- Corporate Counsel
- Member of the Leadership Team
Sheri LaBonte is Ardent's licensed corporate counsel and attorney with a background in federal contracting, information assurance and management consulting. Sheri has 20 years of experience, focused in the areas of federal contracting, quality assurance, Privacy, Information Technology, Policy and Healthcare IT. For ten years prior to joining ArdentMC, she provided direct support as a subject matter expert to the Department of Defense's Military Health Services, Department of Veterans Affairs, Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality (AHRQ), and Arlington County Government. Ms. LaBonte received her Juris Doctorate (JD) from Texas Tech University School of Law, as well as a BA in Political Science.