As a Business Development professional, I have worked with many capture and proposal teams and I've learned that successfully driving business growth is best achieved through an alignment of organizational culture to the strategic objectives, vision and values of the organization, and a marketing strategy that clearly communicates these objectives.My introduction into the world of business development was not planned by me, nor did it come from responding to a specific job posting. In fact, it was a typical day writing and testing code for a software development project my company was awarded from the Navy, when a SVP in the organization reached out to me to help support a proposal they were writing. He told me they needed someone with a technical background to help write a response to a sample “Task Order”. Of course I was willing to support the proposal effort, and that was my first step into the world of proposals and business development.I am happy (and proud) to say that the company was awarded a major contract as a result of that proposal. However, I also learned that the proposal was really the final step (excluding execution), that had followed a number of activities performed by many people (truly a team sport) in order to even be in a position to bid. Shortly after we were awarded a contract, I was asked to become a permanent member of the Business Development team - an offer I readily accepted. Today, I am an experienced proposal management professional who has successfully demonstrated these skills at several large and small businesses within the engineering, professional and consulting services sectors. I have a dedication and experience within all phases of the business development life-cycle successfully leading capture, response strategy development and proposal teams in the pursuit of new business opportunities from discovery to bid.