SDI - Key Persons

Job Titles:

• Director of Program and Portfolio Management
• in 2020 As a Project Manager

Alison Johnson joined SDi in 2020 as a Project Manager and then Program Manager for SDi's MSC ITESS Contract. Since 2023, she has served as the Director of Program and Portfolio Management. In this role, she is responsible for leading our Program and Portfolio Management Office; prioritizing and optimizing management and delivery execution practices across SDi's portfolio in order to support the overall strategy in a way that enhances portfolio performance, collaboration, and continuous improvement across the organization. Alison began her career as a Surface Warfare Officer in the US Navy. Since transitioning off of active duty she has provided management across a variety of DOD industries both domestically and internationally, including information technology, shipbuilding, heavy equipment, and military construction, as well as program and project management consulting. Her focuses remain implementing robust, repeatable management practices, building relationships with clients and stakeholders, and promoting the development of talent throughout the organization. Alison has a Bachelor's Degree from Cornell University and a Master's in Business Administration from the University of Massachusetts, Amherst. She is a native of Virginia and resides in Jacksonville, FL with her husband, three children, and two dogs. Alison enjoys traveling with her family, playing tennis, and reading. She serves as the Committee Chair for her local Boys Scouts of America Cub Scout Pack and is a member of the Society of Women Engineers and American Society of Naval Engineers.

Job Titles:

• Executive Vice President of Finance and Compliance
• in 2020 As the Vice President of Business Operations

Cade Kohoutek joined SDi in 2020 as the Vice President of Business Operations. She is responsible for all aspects of the company's financial and support operations, including accounting, financial planning and analysis, and Human Resources. In 2021, Cade was promoted to Executive Vice President of Finance and Compliance, taking on additional responsibilities that include ethics & compliance, IT, and security. During her time at SDi, Cade has completed the successful acquisition of RDA, Inc., effective June 1, 2021. She has also been instrumental in implementing new systems for Recruiting, Talent Management, and Compensation. Cade has over twenty-five years of accounting and finance experience, including eleven years at Compaq/HP and seven years at Shell Oil Company in various finance leadership positions. She also spent two years at GSE Holding, Inc., as the Director of Financial Planning & Analysis. During her time at GSE, she was the financial lead for the IPO process of the company and was on the platform for the ringing of the NASDAQ bell. While at HP as the Senior Manager of Mergers & Acquisitions, she oversaw twenty-seven billion dollars in accounting projects for over twenty-five mergers and acquisitions, including the thirteen billion dollars acquisition of Electronic Data Systems. Cade began her career at Arthur Andersen in New Orleans, where she obtained her Louisiana CPA license (currently inactive) and was an Audit Senior. She has a Bachelor of Science in Accounting from Louisiana State University in Baton Rouge. She is a native of New Orleans and currently resides in The Woodlands, TX with her three daughters. Cade's favorite pastimes are traveling with her children and the Peloton. She also serves as PTO Treasurer and National Charity League (TX Roses Chapter) Assistant Treasurer, and she is a Court Appointed Special Advocate (CASA) for children in foster care.

Job Titles:

• President

Chris founded SDi in 2017. Chris' experience and expertise drive a culture at SDi focused on becoming essential to our clients while spearheading growth initiatives in niche defense and security capability areas. Chris is originally from New Orleans and obtained a B.S. in Computer Science from Tulane University. After graduation, he was commissioned in the U.S. Marine Corps and spent four years on active duty as a Ground Intelligence Officer. During his military career, he also pursued a Master's degree in Information Systems from Boston University. Chris spent six years at Hewlett-Packard developing server deployment tools before joining M.C. Dean as an expat in Stuttgart, Germany. As Director, Project Management Office with M.C. Dean, Chris gained valuable experience working in the government contracting space, leading IT and critical power projects throughout Europe and Africa. In 2010, Chris and his family returned to New Orleans, where he joined GE Capital's Chief Technology Office and their Tech Center initiative. As Senior Director, Cyber Security, Chris led a global team responsible for end-to-end solutions, delivering value onto the GE businesses around all Cyber Security & Risk offerings and services. In 2017, Chris elected to leave GE Capital to form SDi. With only a small team, SDi was awarded a five-year IDIQ contract to provide IT engineering services to the U.S. Navy. In June 2021, Chris and the SDi team announced the acquisition of RDA, a company specializing in Anti-Submarine Warfare (ASW) mission software solutions, further expanding SDi's expertise and capabilities. Chris currently resides in New Orleans with his wife of over twenty years and his four children. He enjoys championing his children through all their athletic pursuits and working out when time permits.

Job Titles:

• an Artificial Intelligence Research Scientist
• Artificial Intelligence Research Scientist

In 2019, Gene Locklear joined Sentient Digital as an Artificial Intelligence Research Scientist to assist in the development of cognitive AI solutions for military simulations involving human-emulated military decision-making. Prior to his work at Sentient Digital, Gene served twenty-seven years in the U.S. Marine Corps as an infantryman, Special Operations team leader, and Infantry Battalion Operations Chief. During his career, he participated in the Persian Gulf War and the Global War on Terrorism, as well as many other military operations around the world. After his military service, Gene received from the New York Institute of Technology (NYIT) a B.S. in Computer Science in 2012 and an M.S. in Computer Science in 2014. At NYIT, he specialized in Machine Learning and Pattern Recognition and did extensive work for DARPA and the National Science Foundation on the use of Pattern Recognition for Biometric Authentication. In addition to his work at Sentient Digital, Gene is currently a Computer Science Ph.D. candidate at Pace University. His research interest centers on the use of artificial neural networks in solving pattern recognition problems and the application of Deep Learning neural networks. He has a passionate interest in the emergent behavior of systems and the idea of artificial life. Gene currently lives with his fiancée in the Manhattan borough of New York City and enjoys baseball, football, and triathlons.

Job Titles:

• ENGINEERING DEVELOPMENT MANAGER

Gregory Niehaus joined RDA in 2011 immediately after graduating college as an electrical engineer and has been working to serve the Navy's ASW capabilities for over 11 years. In his systems engineering role, Gregory has had the opportunity to work on every stage of the sonobuoy development process as well as dive into several specific engineering tasks. He has worked on implementation and testing of GPS-denied location services with UPenn, programmed a 4-channel transceiver to record the entire RF buoy band, developed the encoding parameters of the uplink data for the latest R&D sonobuoy, and analyzed the effects of sensor tilt on bearing accuracy to assist in sonobuoy specification development. Gregory continuously appreciates the complexity of the systems involved in ASW operations and benefits from the scholarship and work opportunities the field provides. Gregory is extremely fortunate to manage a team of talented and accomplished engineers who work on prototype board PCB design, improvements on fleet signal processing techniques, and everything in between. His personal system analysis experience ranges from unit bench tests and advances to working as a project specialist during data gathering events aboard the Navy's P-3 and P-8 aircraft. Gregory works with the Navy and other contractors on advancing the mission under a variety of programs and sponsors including PMA-264, ONR, and NUWC. He enjoys working on SBIR proposals and SBIR Phase I, but especially SBIR Phases II and III where hardware and testing are involved. Gregory has a BSEE degree from the University of Scranton with a minor in Physics. He lives in Warrington, PA with his incredible wife Mae Lynn, and 3 children under 4 years old. He enjoys trying to keep up with his kids, playing basketball and volleyball, and working on functional 3d printing.

Job Titles:

• General Manager and Director of Mission Software Solutions
• in 2021 As General Manager and Director of the Mission Software Solutions Business Unit

Jon E. Dionne joined SDi in 2021 as General Manager and Director of the Mission Software Solutions business unit. As such, he is responsible for managing the business unit's contracts, people, customer satisfaction, and financial goals. His duties include coordinating business development opportunities and strategies, while maintaining full responsibility for the business unit, including profitability, product management, budgeting, and business unit operations. Prior to joining SDi, Jon worked at RDA, Inc. for twenty-five years, as a member of the technical staff, a site and department manager, and as Vice President of Engineering. Jon served as Principal Investigator of many Phase I SBIR topics (R&D), successfully transitioning many such topics to Phase II (prototype) and to Phase III (fleet products). RDA's key product is LCAP, a Low-Cost Advanced Processor suite, used to command, record, and process all current and experimental U.S. Navy sonobuoys. As Site Manager from 2004-2015, Jon assembled the talented team of software developers and system designers overseeing LCAP's development and personally developed LCAP's acoustic analysis display. LCAP has successfully flown onboard P-3 and P-8 aircraft for twenty years, and it maintains a vibrant path forward. As RDA's Vice President of Engineering from 2015-2021, Jon oversaw staffing, tasking, and budgeting for RDA, including all engineering development efforts. Jon regularly met with RDA's customers to review program status, outlook, and planning for all RDA activities, keeping RDA on schedule and under budget. Jon graduated from Brigham Young University in 1990, with Master's and B.S. degrees in Electrical and Computer Engineering, with an emphasis on Digital Signal Processing and Data Communications. He began his career at IBM / Loral Federal Systems as an associate engineer and scientist in R&D in Manassas, Virginia. Jon grew up on the Tulalip Indian Reservation, just west of Marysville, Washington. Jon and his wife, Lisa, met in high school, married in college, and raised their family in Northern Virginia. They have four married daughters, a son starting college, and five beautiful grandchildren. Jon served a two-year mission for the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, serving the people of France and French-speaking Switzerland.

Job Titles:

• SOFTWARE DEVELOPMENT MANAGER

Rob Kunz joined RDA in March 2016 as a Software Engineer supporting the Low Cost Acoustic Processor (LCAP) and various other RDA products. Rob is currently the RDA Software Manager in addition to the being the Warrenton site ISSM and a member of the flight test engineer team supporting Naval Air Warfare Center Aircraft Division (NAWCAD) and PMA-264 for the P-8A Poseidon Acoustic Mission Systems. Rob has 21 years of acoustic sonar experience as an engineer and has developed, installed and tested acoustic sonar systems on navy submarines, SURTASS, surface combatants and IUSS systems for Lockheed Martin and worked with R&D Sonobuoys on P-8A Poseidon, MV-22 Osprey and various other platforms for RDA. He was also a Project Manager for seven years overseeing development and delivery of SURTASS and IUSS acoustic processing systems. Rob has a B.S. and M.S. degree in Computer Science from Brigham Young University. Rob is a native of Utah but has resided in Manassas, VA with his wife and children since 2001. He has two children in college and two in high school. He enjoys traveling, hiking, skiing, whitewater kayaking, mountain biking and weight lifting with family and friends.

Job Titles:

• Project Engineer and Manager for Aircraft Testing and Integration

Ron Hidde joined RDA in October 2014 as a Project Engineer and Manager for the Aircraft Test and Integration efforts in support of acoustic programs in Patuxent River, MD. Ron provides program/project management, engineering/technology development, design and integration support, test planning, test support, and flight operations services in support of Acoustic Systems Division AC15000, Naval Air Warfare Center Aircraft Division (NAWCAD), and PMA-264 for the P-8A Poseidon Acoustic Mission Systems. Ron has thirty-six years of combined experience in Naval aviation with proven success in maintenance management, systems integration, Research Development Test & Evaluation (RDT&E), Acquisition, and Mission Success, in Maintenance Chief, Crew Chief, Flight Engineer, System Integration Specialist, Systems/Project Engineer, Inflight Project Specialist, and Project Manager capacities, supporting PMA-264, ONR, NUWC, and DARPA in ASW Acoustic Data Collection and Analysis efforts. Ron began his career by joining the U.S. Navy while still in high school in 1984. He began by performing troubleshooting, repairing, and inspecting aircraft liquid oxygen (LOX), air-conditioning/heating, radar liquid cooling, pressurization, engine fire extinguishing, engine, and ejection seat systems for the F/A-18A aircraft. He was deployed aboard the aircraft carrier U.S.S. Constellation for six-month WESTPAC and two-month NORPAC deployments and multiple detachments. As he progressed through the military ranks, he became qualified as a P-3C Instructor Flight Engineer and C-20D/T-39 Crew Chief with over six thousand flight hours, performing complete in-flight systems monitoring, performance/range calculations, and normal/emergency procedures for complete mission operation of the aircraft. Finally, he worked as a Maintenance Control Chief releasing P-3C, H-60, S-3, and C-20D aircraft safe for flight before retiring from the U.S. Navy after a twenty-year career. Ron has a B.S. degree from Embry Riddle Aeronautical University and an M.S. degree from Johns Hopkins University. Ron is a native of Wisconsin and resides in St. Inigoes, Maryland, with his wife, Darleen. His three children are grown and on their own. He enjoys biking around Southern Maryland and boating on the Chesapeake Bay with family and friends.