Huntsville Center participates in virtual small business forum

Huntsville Center Public Affairs
Published Oct. 27, 2020
Colleen O'Keefe, Huntsville Center contracting chief, and Albert "Chip" Marin III, Huntsville Center programs and business director, participate in the Society of American Military Engineers Huntsville Post’s virtual Small Business Forum Oct. 20.

Colleen O'Keefe, Huntsville Center contracting chief, and Albert "Chip" Marin III, Huntsville Center programs and business director, participate in the Society of American Military Engineers Huntsville Post’s virtual Small Business Forum Oct. 20.

HUNTSVILLE, Alabama—Subject matter experts from the U.S. Army Engineering and Support Center, Huntsville, joined other U.S. Army Corps of Engineers and Redstone Arsenal personnel to participate in the Society of American Military Engineers (SAME) Huntsville Post’s virtual Small Business Forum Oct. 20.

More than 350 participants, mostly small business owners and business representatives from across the country, logged in to learn about Huntsville Center’s more than 40 programs and upcoming acquisitions.

Col. Marvin Griffin, Huntsville Center commander, provided an overview of the Center’s unique mission and how it has evolved over time to meet the needs of the nation.

“As new needs arose, new requirements have come up in highly technical, very specialized areas, and Huntsville Center picked up those specialized missions with all the capabilities and technical expertise,” he said.

“We rely on industry as we develop those technical competencies, and make the services and capabilities we provide work for our warfighters and our nation.”

Virtual attendees also got a closer look at individual programs via interactive round table sessions with Huntsville Center and other USACE program managers and contracting specialists.

These sessions focused on energy; electronic technology; facilities and facility technology; military support; medical facility architectural and engineering contracts; ordnance and explosives; safety and pre-award contracting.

Although most Department of Defense organizations transitioned to maximum telework in March, Griffin said there is still a requirement to execute the mission and deliver the program.

“We ended the fiscal year with 5,000-plus actions and over $2.4 billion contract awards,” Griffin said.

“I want to sincerely congratulate everyone on that effort—not just because those are great numbers but because each and every one of those contract actions are critical to our national defense, critical to support our nation and essential to supporting and providing the facilities and resources needed for our Soldiers, Sailors, Airmen and Marines serving around the world.”