Kenneth F. Wilhoite Email & Phone Number

Business development strategy, process and proposal support consulting for multiple continuing clients from OPTYM, including capture strategy development, training in BD processes, proposal management. Programs supported ranged from the $1 billion Encore II program for DISA, the Multi-mission Maritime Aircraft (MMA) program of the Navy, multiple systems integration, development and execution programs for such agencies as the Department of Transportation, Coast Guard, USPS, and NAVAIR.

SilverPen is a 501 (c)3 organization dedicated to providing young writers from all walks of life a nurturing on-line community to learn and practice the creative writing craft. Directors are volunteers who contribute substantial effort to supporting the organization and the members.

United States

In depth strategic consulting support for Waypoint clients developing next tier business processes and capture programs.

Senior leader, providing versatile and high impact strategic capture counseling and proposal leadership on programs valued from $40 million to more than $1 billion. Programs included highly technical design, test, LRIP and operations for Air Force Research Laboratory and other Air Force units, Navy Bureau of Ships, NAVSEA and others, Army PEO Soldier and others, Coast Guard, as well as various commercial and State programs.

In 1992, Mr. Wilhoite founded and served as Chairman and CEO of OPTYM Professional Services, Inc., a full service business consulting company based in the Washington, D.C. area. OPTYM specialized in supporting companies that market to, bid on, and perform Federal, international, State and local government and large commercial contract programs. During his tenure, the company successfully performed more than 300 contract assignments for more than 100 clients, on programs or proposals with more than $30 billion in value. Clients included Andersen Consulting, BAE, BDM Corp., Boeing, Booz Allen & Hamilton, Compaq/Digital Equipment Corporation, General Dynamics, Johnson & Johnson, Litton, Lockheed-Martin, Northrop Grumman, Oracle, Raytheon, SAIC, Tracor, TRW, UNISYS Corporation and Xerox. For one client, OPTYM’s business development process consulting and direct proposal support resulted in client revenue growth of more than 50% in a three-year period, quadrupled the client’s business backlog, and led to the client’s successful sale at a premium over book value. More than a dozen national corporations including BAE Systems, CSC, Lockheed Martin, and SAIC, have adopted and deployed the business capture and proposal process materials developed by Mr. Wilhoite and the OPTYM team.At OPTYM, he developed and directed an 8-year “body of knowledge” project that captured the economic and operational best practices of over 50 major corporations’ new business development and proposal processes. He has published articles on the topic and is writing a technical book on the subject for publication in 2016. OPTYM’s services included an extensive business education curriculum covering strategic planning, business economics, business development, program management, and effective business communications and was based on the “best performance practices” of the companies included in OPTYM’s body of knowledge project. Mr. Wilhoite actively taught all the courses in the curriculum.

Upon completion of his contract with ADC, Mr. Wilhoite took a year to sail his Westsail 43 yawl from San Francisco to Oriental, North Carolina. The trip covered 7,000 nautical miles of open ocean sailing through the waters of Mexico, Guatemala, El Salvador, Honduras, Nicaragua, Costa Rica, Panama, the San Blas Islands, Colombia, the Cayman Islands, Cuba, and finally up the intra-coastal waterway from Key West to Oriental. The longest passage was the 650 mile, 107-hour crossing of the Caribbean Sea from Cartagena, Colombia to the Cayman Islands.

Under a one year contract with the founder of this family owned business served as chief operating officer. In that role directed all day-to-day program operations of the 450-person company including: marketing and pursuit of new contracts; supervision of 16 active government and commercial programs; selection and training of program executives; customer relations; and forward business planning. Accomplishment HighlightsServied as mentor for founder’s son to prepare him for assuming Presidency. Completed the company’s first formal business plan and established running reporting against plan components for all line operations. Developed and implemented structured policy formulation process. Successfully directed an acquisition, increasing backlog by 20% and first year revenue by 8%. Recruited and placed four program directors in Indianapolis, San Francisco, Washington, D.C., and Portland. Revenues totaled $13 million, over 115% of operational year plan; profits from continuing opera¬tions exceeded operational year plan.

His professional career began in 1966 as a Junior Officer Trainee in the Department of State’s Agency for International Development (USAID), where he served on the International Refugee Program, the Indonesia Desk, followed by a 2-year assignment with the Commodity Import Program in Vietnam (1967-1968). In Vietnam, he led the team that developed the first successful USAID computer based economic development program, tracking counter inflation commodity flows into and through the Vietnamese economy.Between 1969 and 1992, after his government service, Mr. Wilhoite served as both an independent contractor or contracted manager in increasingly technical and complex commercial environments that included:• Senior project manager role within the Systems Development Corporation (subsequently acquired by UNISYS)• Serving as member of the owner-manager team that purchased CALCULON Corporation from Auerbach Associates (subsequently acquired by Computer Sciences Corporation)• Leadership of the Advanced Systems Group within TYMSHARE Corporation (acquired by McDonnel Douglas)• Leading the Western Advanced Systems Group within Planning Research Corporation• Service as the Chief Operating Officer of Advanced Data Concepts (ADC) Corporation• Successful execution of more than 50 economic and business consulting assignments under his own name.During his 1973-1980 CALCULON tenure, his team grew from a staff of four to over 150 systems, communications, and service professionals serving such clients as the Mine Safety and Health Administration and DOE. In 1985-86 he served as a consultant to former Secretary of Defense William Perry’s Strategic Technology Partner’s organization within the San Francisco investment company Hambrecht & Quist. There he provided project and program management leadership to small technology companies and their Fortune 100 strategic partners in the formation and execution of more than $12 billion dollars in operational and technology alliances.