Scribble Talk Podcast

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Scribble Talk Ethos

Great achievements are usually born of great sacrifices and are never the result of selfishness. There is no grey area: You’re either with that ethos, willing to go out of your way to help people or you aren’t.

The Why?

If we know where we came from, we may better know where to go. If we know who we came from, we may better understand who we are. The more you know your history, the more liberated you are. We want to inspire future generation to choose to sacrifice over greed.
We dedicate Scribble Talk to these selfless patriots. Listen in and get to know them personally…

Hosted by Ashley Kayes
and Baskar Sundaram

Ashley Kayes
Baskar Sundaram

Listen While You Work

At Baachu Scribble, our goal is to produce the best free bid and proposal content in the known universe. One way we’re accomplishing this goal is through our Podcasts… They’re one of our greatest avenues for sharing bidding strategies that are WORKING RIGHT NOW with bidders from all over the world. From Opportunity Identification  —> Capture Planning —> Proposal Planning, Development and Submission —> Post Submittal Activities, Baachu Scribble Talk podcasts are here to help you become the next great “full-stack“ bidder. Scroll down to learn all about the NEW Baachu Scribble Talk podcast.

Scribble Talk is a weekly show produced by Baachu Scribble and hosted by Ashley Kayes and Baskar Sundaram. The duo will take you on a journey with APMP veterans and the brightest bid & proposal minds, diving deep into the topics that bid &  proposal professionals, like you, can use to help grow your skills and your business success.

Host Stories by Samantha Enslen

 

Scribble Talk Exclusive - Rick Harris, Chief Executive, APMP (recorded 18.06 2020)

Part 1

Part 2

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What You’ll Learn

We mean it when we say that everything we do at Baachu Scribble is to help you become a “full-stack“bidder. So, how are we doing it with our podcasts? By sitting down with the industry veterans and the brightest bid & proposal minds on the planet, inviting them to share how our industry has evolved and what’s working right now in all facets of bid & proposals. Listen today and discover the history of our industry and the new tactics that can be implemented to win more tenders, grow your business and increase your bidding skill set!

Available in

apple podcast
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If you're ready to sacrifice who you are, for what you will become, then you will be invited to our show…

EPISODES

EPISODE 50

Nigel Dennis is a proposal pioneer in Australia and has arguably done more to shape the landscape of bidding professionalism in Australia than any other person in the region. He started the APMP Australia New Zealand Chapter, was the first Australian to achieve APMP Professional certification and is the only Australian APMP Fellow.

Nigel now runs BidWrite, a company he co-founded in 2008 and which is now Australia’s largest (by staff numbers) specialist bid consultancy. With degrees in engineering and business, and with bidding experience of 26 years, he is a strong advocate for development of the proposal profession. In his spare time, Nigel has been a serial volunteer for local community and association committees. He has pared that activity down of late and so has more time to pursue his other interests of gardening, music, sport, and tinkering in his shed. He plays trombone in an 18-piece swing band (The Oz Big Band), still plays the odd game of cricket in summer and is a father to four boys.

 

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EPISODE 49

Wolfram Seyring has more than 26 years of experience in business development, sales and sales support with national and international clients.

Wolfram owns Shipley GmbH, Shipley Associates, SEYRING GmbH and co-founder of BidBox GmbH, registered in Düsseldorf, Germany, in 2011. Previously. Wolfram was Global Head of Sales – VimpelCom at NSN, Head of CMO Restructuring –Global at NSN, VP/Head of Global Sales Support – Global at NSN/Nokia, Account Director – France Telecom Germany at Nokia, Global Account Executive – Deutsche Telekom at Ericsson.Wolfram also led diverse workshops on capture and bid management as well as on writing winning proposals and implementing successfully processes in defence, aerospace, telecommunications and transport sectors.Wolfram was co-founder of APMP DACH in 2007. He is also an APMP certified proposal manager. Wolfram Seyring holds a degree in Electrical Engineering (Applied Science, Düsseldorf) and has had considerable additional business education.

 

EPISODE 48

Sarah Jones is an APMP-qualified bid consultant with over two decades of experience, she has delivered large-scale proposals and advised businesses on capture, bid and proposal processes. She is adept at coaching and mentoring people at all levels, with standout success helping emerging talent to pass APMP exams and develop exceptional bid management careers.

Previously Global Head of Bid Process, Bombardier Transportation, a multinational leader in the rail industry, Sarah head up its global bid function, motivating a team of 300 and optimising a £100M+ bid budget. As UK Head of Bids, General Dynamics, she built a new proposal management department. Between 2008 – 2013 she supported Shipley Middle East delivering Shipley methodologies to major customers across that region and beyond. In 2006 Sarah moved to Dubai to build the bid function from the ground up for The Olive Group LLC, a security company. This resulted in a major increase in bid win rate, from 8.5% to 48%, delivering combined sales of $400M, and the company’s biggest ever deal, an $88M contract with the US DoD. As a bid manager and coach at Qinetiq Group PLC, leading defence company, she generated major successes, including the £250M European Space Agency contract. Sarah has a BSc Anthropology at University College London.

 

EPISODE 47

Roshinee Naidoo is an intrinsically motivated, highly accomplished professional with around two decades of experience in preparing detailed deals for multiple projects and composing & presenting winning proposals. She is an expert in strategizing the different disciplines and departments and implementing bid governance models and best-practice methodologies.
Roshinee has successfully delivered 250+ professionally produced, compliant proposalsis and has worked on tenders ranging from €150K to €20M. She won strategic bids accumulating revenues AED 50M (australian dollars) for her company. Also Roshinee is the first ever and only person of colour with the highest proposal professional accreditation in Africa.

 

EPISODE 46

As a Director of Strategic Proposals UKs and with nearly twenty years’ experience in proposals, Graham Ablett helps clients to win business in a number of different ways including:
  • Winning specific projects and contracts for clients by providing ‘hands-on’ strategic proposal and presentation support in formal procurement and informal / proactive sales scenarios
  • Delivering interim management and consultancy services to help organisations to improve their win rates whilst increasing the efficiency of their bid and proposal operations
  • Delivering proposal skills development, coaching and APMP accreditation training
Graham has supported clients across a wide range of industries including IT services, professional services, travel, logistics, oil and gas, insurance, roadside services, catering, healthcare, facilities management, real estate, office supplies, telecommunications and defence markets. Graham holds the highest level of proposal certification – Professional.

EPISODE 45

Currently a Pursuit Strategist at EY, Ceri Mescall has 14 years of bids and proposals experience in progressively senior positions. Over her career, she’s played an instrumental role in $250m of new business acquisition and $500m of successful business campaigns. Her key strengths are in win strategy development, executive summary writing, and oral presentation coaching.Ceri is a British expat in Canada. She previously served as Western Regional Chair and Communications Chair for the APMP Canada Maple Leaf chapter.Ceri is passionate about self-development. She holds APMP Professional certification, is part of the APMP 40 Under 40 Class of 2019, and is a recent recipient of the APMP Fellows award. She also holds a bachelor’s degree in English Literature, a post-graduate certificate in Project Management, and has professional qualifications in communications and leadership.

EPISODE 44

Constance D. Reid, PMP, CF APMP  is a senior-level business development professional with over 12 years of providing leading capture and proposal strategy. She has led bid efforts for up to $25B global public sector and commercial deals for Leidos, IBM, and currently, Amazon Web Services. She is skilled in marketing to a variety of government and commercial customers, including Dept. of Energy, Dept. of State, DoD, DVA, and many commercial medical providers, payers, and researchers. Constance has been active in APMP for many years, sat on the 2015-2017 Board of Directors and on the 2015-2017 NCA Board of Directors as Secretary. She was the  Inaugural APMP Future Leader awardee and a part of the Inaugural APMP 40 under 40 class. She has participated as a speaker at the 2018 Bid and Proposal Con in San Diego, CA, presenting on “Building Efficient and Effective Bid Processes” She is particularly proud of having developed the ongoing Mentorship Program for Association of Proposal Management Professionals’ (APMP) DC Metro Area Chapter, which was architected and implemented in 2014, and continues in perpetuity and having been adopted by other chapters domestically and internationally and similar associations. When she’s not leading and developing winning proposals, Constance spends time with her husband, son, and 14-year-old Pekingese-poodle. During quarantine, she’s finding ways to channel her in-home energy into re-decorating, trying new recipes and finding new ways to incorporate learning for her 9-month-old in day-to-day activities.​​

EPISODE 43

Dr. Idara Umoh, CP. APMP has worked in several Proposals and Sales roles within multinational Oil and Gas and Construction companies for the past 17 years. Her career has spanned between the UK and the UAE where she has been involved in worldwide bid management, leading several winning multi-million dollar contract wins. She has been responsible for leading commercial operations covering commercial bid preparation and technical teams both in a centralised and country localised proposals management setting. She has also travelled vastly facilitating staff training on proposals best practice. Idara is the author of “How to Create and Maintain a Bid Content Library” and the French language Textbook “La Vie de Marie”. She is fluent in both English and French. Idara holds a PhD in Business/Corporate Communications from the Robert Gordon University, Aberdeen, Scotland. She is Shipley trained and APMP certified, having been one of the recipients of the inaugural APMP 40 under 40 awards. She was also a finalist for the Middle East Energy Awards – Woman of the Year 2019. During her spare time, Idara who is passionate about business communications runs a free 5 day challenge focused on proposals writing to help business owners write better proposals submissions. She also manages a Facebook group called ‘The Grammar Bloc’ where she shares tips on how to communicate effectively.  

EPISODE 42

Christoph Mlinarchik, JD, CFCM, PMP is an expert in government contracts, former federal contracting officer, attorney, expert witness, professional instructor, frequent public speaker, and the author of the best-selling book, Government Contracts in Plain English. He is the founder and owner of www.ChristophLLC.com which provides expert advice in government contracts to a wide range of clients, including business owners, bid and proposal managers, industry trade groups, federal contractors, and subcontractors. Christoph was honored with the “Top Professionals Under 40” award by National Contract Management Association (NCMA). Christoph is an experienced expert witness in federal contracts who has provided expert opinions and reports, research concerning damages, key findings, and case strategy for complex government contracts litigation. As an instructor, Christoph has taught or trained 1000+ federal, military, and contractor professionals nationwide—from novices to C-level executives. As a former director of policy & acquisition for a defense contractor, Christoph understands the business side of government contracts and how to work with your CEO, general counsel, and other corporate leadership. As a former senior contracting officer for the Department of Defense, Christoph has diverse and extensive federal contracting experience across the Air Force, Navy, Pentagon, and Office of the Secretary of Defense. Christoph has negotiated, reviewed, or managed BILLIONS of dollars of government contracts over the course of his career.  This real-world, government experience as the contracting officer who prepares solicitations, evaluates proposals, and selects winning proposals provides an invaluable perspective for clients.  

EPISODE 41

Stacey Duwe, CP APMP runs her own consulting business, Write Fit Solutions, helping her clients with all the things she loves about proposals, for clients that range from small, tech based start-ups to non-profits to fortune 100 companies in commercial and government sectors and across a range of industries. Stacey earned her BA in English and women’s studies from Cleveland State University in Cleveland, OH, is APMP certified (Foundation and Practitioner), and was recognized in the inaugural class of APMP 40 Under 40. She is also an active APMP member and has served on the Greater Midwest Chapter Board of Directors since 2017 as the Publications Chair, then Secretary, Vice Chair, and currently as Chapter President.

 

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EPISODE 40

Janneke Orriëns CPP, APMP is recognised for her passion for proposals, championing proposal management best practice as she and her team help bidders to capture ‘must win’ deals and to bring about radical increases in win rates. She has completed proposal assignments with clients in sectors such as IT, telecoms, accounting, facility management, staffing and logistics.

Janneke served as the first Chief Executive of the Netherlands chapter of APMP in 2004-2006. Today, the Netherlands Chapter is one of the largest APMP chapters. Additionally, since 2007, she has been part of the Board of Directors of NEVI, the Dutch association for procurement professionals. Over 6,000 procurement professionals are NEVI members.

Prior to joining Strategic Proposals, Janneke worked at KPMG International, one of the largest professional services firms in the world and one of the Big Four auditors. As a buyer, she successfully ran Global RFPs and negotiations, such as a Global RFP for PC hardware and services.

Respected as a thought leader in the proposal profession, Janneke has a track record of outstandingly successful achievement – consistently attracting excellent feedback from senior executives, course participants, evaluators and proposal professionals alike.

 
 

EPISODE 39

Olessia Smotrova, CF.APMP Fellow, the president of OST Global Solutions, Inc. has more than 20 years of experience in business development. She led winning bids for four out of the five top government contractors, winning more than $22 billion over the course of her career. She is the author of the book How to Get Government Contracts: Have a Slice of $1 Trillion Pie, and seven other books. She has taught a graduate course for the Stevens Institute of Technology, and provided training to Treasury and NASA. She has served for 2 years as the President of the National Contracts Management Association (NCMA) Bethesda/Medical Chapter, and for 2 years as the President of the Association of Proposal Management Professionals (APMP) National Capital Area Chapter. She is recognized as an APMP Fellow for her contributions to the field of capture and proposals – the highest honor in the business development profession. Her skills span every aspect of business development, sales, and marketing. Prior to supporting hundreds of Fortune 500 companies and small businesses as a proposal consultant and growing OST, she worked as a business developer for Raytheon and Lockheed Martin, and wrote for the Financial Times of London.

EPISODE 38

Krystn Macomber has more than 17 years of experience in various marketing and pursuit roles within the architecture/engineering/construction (AEC) industry. Her career has been dedicated to developing and implementing holistic marketing, sales, and pursuit processes that align with best practices and win work. She regularly serves as a trainer and workshop leader in her roles at work and throughout the industry, including for the Association of Proposal Management Professionals (APMP).  She also regularly presents on marketing and pursuit best practices to small and diverse-owned businesses throughout California. Krystn serves as the marketing manager for Burns & McDonnell’s California regional operations where she is responsible for strategic marketing and pursuit efforts across the state. Krystn is currently serving a three-year term for the APMP International executive committee as vice chair, chair, and past chair. She previously served in various board of director roles, including chapter chair, for APMP California, APMP Greater Midwest, and APMP National Capital Area chapters. In 2018, Krystn was selected as the APMP Bid & Proposal Industry Executive of the Year and recognized as an APMP Fellow, the organization’s highest honor.

EPISODE 37

Carl Dickson is the founder of CapturePlanning.com and PropLIBRARY. Carl is a proposal manager, writer, trainer, and coach. A career spanning 30 years, Carl has published over a thousand articles, whitepapers, books, and training materials. The articles he publishes reach over 100,000 professionals every week and over 7 million professionals have visited his websites. As a speaker, Carl has presented at conferences and events sponsored by (APMP); Society for Marketing Professional Services; Marketing Research Association; Armed Forces Communications and Electronics Assoc. (AFCEA); FOSE; Deltek; Fairfax County Community Business Partnership; Government Contracting Institute; and the Washington DC Office of Contracting and Procurement.
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EPISODE 36

Chris Whyatt has spent the last 25 years of his career working in the adjacent disciplines of sales and bidding.  After winning major £10m pa deals with British Gas, Barclays Bank and the Halifax Building Society in the late 90’s, Chris established Practical Bid Solutions Limited (PBSL) as an independent bid consultancy.  This work led to more involvement with sales improvement programmes, and as a result, PBSL was rebranded as Get to Great in 2008 and he supported 100+ small and big organisations such as VMware, McAfee, NICE Systems, Camelot , HP, Glory, LivePerson, Virtual Clarity, G2Speech, Cyient, NetApp, Fujitsu, Babcock, NTT, SIMS and Babcock. Chris has been delivering training programmes for TechUK for 15 years and has supported clients on ~50 major deals, co-created 25 business winning frameworks, trained ~1,000 people in sales and bid aspects of business. Chris co-founded the UK chapter of the Association of Proposal Management Professionals (APMP) in 2001 with Jon Williams and served on the Board as COO for the first 3 years.  He was a Fellow of the Sales Leadership Alliance, which rebranded as the Association of Sales Professionals. Chris has conducted extensive research into improving the working relationship between sales and bid, publishing his second paper on this subject in January 2020.

EPISODE 35

Jamie Ninneman ​is an industry expert with more than 21 years working in customer-facing roles across the information technology spectrum, focusing on enterprise software and related services. In his current leadership role at SAP, he is both the global lead for Bid & Proposal Management as well as head of multiple global shared-service organizations. Previously his experience includes leading services organizations, defining and executing enterprise transformation strategies, and managing key customer relationships. Jamie is a past Chair of APMP International’s Board of Directors (Association of Bid and Proposal Management Professionals) as well as a member of APMP’s Business Sector Committee.

EPISODE 34

Larissa Cornelius owns nFold, a South African proposal consultancy that inspires success through words that win. She is the current chair of the Association of Proposal Management Professionals (APMP) SA chapter. She has over 17 years’ business development and operational experience. She is a certified APMP Professional and was voted as one of the 40-under-40 APMP professionals in 2018. By combining proposal best practice with her operational and sales background, she actively promotes the proposal profession and helps businesses to win more. She is passionate about proposals and following best practices; as winning proposals ethically – improves lives, by creating and retaining jobs.

EPISODE 33

Bruce Farrell is proposal director for Plante Moran’s consulting group. He leads a multi-national team who provide proposal, presentation, and other practice development related support. He is also a design geek who specializes in bringing strong design principles to brands, proposals, presentations, and other business documents. He particularly enjoys using thoughtful design to help people create documents that can make an impact. Bruce is a frequent presenter at Association of Proposal Management Professional (APMP) events, primarily focusing on presentation or proposal design. He is a member of APMP’s International Board of Directors.

 

EPISODE 32

Mel Smith is a Senior Business Winning Consultant with Harmonic with a track record of winning bids in the commercial and public sectors worth up to £1.4bn. Mel has a varied career background spanning Graphics, Marketing and Communications for International Investment Banks, Asset Management Companies and Hedge Funds as well as having owned her own Florist business before returning to the corporate life and the world of bidding.

Mel has been a member of APMP since 2012. Mel is current past UK APMP chair and is 2020 conference director. She is member of the APMP UK Chapter Board since 2018 where she held Marketing & Communications Director and Vice Chair positions. Mel led the delivery of chapter’s strategic goals, building on its current comms and engagement activity and developing the way chapter engage effectively with its members. Mel is also an International APMP Board Member since Jan 2020.

 

EPISODE 31

Brenda Crist has 25 years of experience providing capture, proposal, and program management support for information technology companies serving the Federal market. She is currently the Vice President at the Lohfeld Consulting Group. Prior to becoming a full-time proposal professional, Ms. Crist served as a Group Manager for OAO Corporation and Project Manager for Harris Corporation. She has provided onsite system, application, and network management solutions for civilian and military clients.  She holds a Master’s Degree in Public Administration from American University. She is certified at the Professional Level from the Association of Proposal Management Proposals and has delivered APMP certification training to hundreds of students since 2011. She is a Fellow of the Association of Proposal Management Professionals (APMP) and former Chapter Chairperson of the Year.

EPISODE 30

Jim K. McCarthy career spans over 37 years of marketing and proposal strategy creation, proposal development, and oral presentation coaching in support of contractors seeking to expand their market shares or to enter the government contracts market sector. As a founder of AOC Key Solutions, he built an organization that, since its inception, has played a part in winning more than $184 billion in federal contract awards for its clients.

Jim frequently serves as a conference guest speaker or panel moderator on topics ranging from leadership to winning government contracts through every legitimate means available. He has served in an advisory role with the George Washington University, Virginia Science and Technology Campus, Technology Accelerator and has been a frequent speaker with the George Mason University Procurement and Technical Assistance Center. Jim has also served on the board of the Veterans Institute for Procurement GovCon Council. In February 2016, Jim was named to Executive Mosaic’s Washington 100 as one of the top–100 most influential leaders in the government contracting arena. He currently serves on advisory boards for the USO-Metro and the National Contract Management Association.

Since 2016, Jim has served at the Chairman of the Board of Rekor Systems, Inc., a publicly traded technology and AI company traded on NASDAQ: REKR.

EPISODE 29

Jon Williams is the UK managing director of Strategic Proposals. He holds the unique status of being a Fellow of each of APMP, the Institute of Sales Management and the Royal Society of Arts. In over twenty years in proposals, he’s worked with sales organisations in more than thirty countries, helping them to radically improve their win rates. Jon’s published numerous research white papers, and is a regular keynote speaker at conferences around the world. He’s the co-author, with BJ Lownie, of bestselling book “Proposal Essentials”, and is recognised for his passionate for all things proposals!

EPISODE 28

Chris Simmons has 30+ years business development consulting experience including Deloitte Consulting and CGI/AMS. Chris is Founder & Principal at Rainmakerz Consulting LLC (served 200 customers and has won tens of billions in new business for his clients). An APMP Fellow and Certified Practitioner, Chris is former APMP National Capital Area Chapter (NCA) Vice President and Membership Chair and was also APMP NCA Mentor of the Year. Chris won the first ever John Elder APMP Journal Award for the topic  (How to Create Winning Proposal Themes). Chris has presented at numerous APMP International, NCA, other APMP chapters events. Chris was also voted as Consulting Magazine’s Top 25 Consultant. ​

EPISODE 27

Steve Skeldon is APMP Certified at the Practitioner level and currently works as a Senior Proposal Manager for Vectrus. He has more than 8 years of proposal experience across the Federal services industry, managing and supporting bids for a variety of customers across civilian and defense sectors of Government, with heavy support to Navy and Army clients. He is heavily involved in APMP at the local and international levels, receiving the distinction of being named a 40 under 40 in 2018 at the APMP International Conference in San Diego. Steve currently serves as the Vice President for the APMP National Capital Area Chapter and previously served as the Conference Co-Chair for the APMP NCA MAC 2019 conference. He holds a Bachelor degree from Roanoke College and a Master of Professional Studies from The George Washington University.

EPISODE 26

Jeff Leitner has 30 years of experience supporting proposals, capture, and business development across the public sector. Currently Vice President of Consulting for Red Team Consulting, he leads the company’s proposal, capture, and growth strategy consulting practice, working with Red Team’s clients and consultants. He also leads the company’s proposal best practices and develops and delivers proposal training. Jeff earned his Bachelor of Science in Aerospace Engineering from the University of Michigan, so he is literally a rocket scientist. He is active in the Colorado Chapter of APMP and regularly presents at APMP conferences and delivers webinars to APMP members. Jeff is known for his dry, witty humour. In his spare time, he enjoys spending time with his two teenage children and passionately protesting environmental destruction, civil rights injustices, animal cruelty, and gun culture.

EPISODE 25

Ajay Patel leads SMA, Inc. as President and CEO. SMA, Inc. is the world’s largest advisory firm dedicated to improving its client’s competitiveness across their entire program lifecycle from market and competitive strategy to capture strategy and bid/proposal development to profitable program execution for public sector markets.

Mr. Patel has over 35 years of consulting, business development, operations, program management and systems engineering experience. Prior to coming to SMA, Ajay was a Director at Deloitte consulting in the Aerospace and Defense practice. He was a Senior Partner at the Monitor Group for twelve years, and created and led it’s global National Security practice. During the 1990s, Ajay served in various roles at SMA including Vice President of Business Development, Executive Vice President of SMA’s Proposal Management group and as the firm’s Chief Operating Officer. Previously, Ajay was at TRW serving in technology development, systems engineering, program management and business development roles.

Ajay enjoys travelling and is an avid reader. His has a particular fascination with typography—the latest fun addition to his library is Simon Garfield’s book “Just My Type: A Book About Fonts.” His favorite bookstore on the planet is Daunt Books in London, United Kingdom.

EPISODE 24

Robin Davis has more than 20 years of commercial and state and local proposal experience. In 2009, Robin established Metre, a successful proposal and sales operations consulting firm that helps healthcare clients win business. Working with start-ups to some of the largest health plans in the country, Robin and her team have helped secure billions of dollars for her clients. She’s proud that over 80% of her work comes from repeat business—a testament to the trusting relationships her and her team build with clients. Prior to founding Metre, Robin fell into proposals at Healthways and then built the company’s first knowledge management and proposal’s department over the next nine years. Robin is an APMP Fellow, former member of the International Board of Directors, and Chapter Chair of the Rhythm & Harmony chapter, which includes members from Alabama, Louisiana, Mississippi, and Tennessee. Robin describes herself as a brave, passionate, life-long learner. She is driven by the desire to make a positive impact in the lives of the people around her, whether that is helping a client win business through proposals or creating a warm and inviting neighborhood bar and restaurant in her community.

EPISODE 23

Kevin Switaj is the President and Chief Executive Officer of BZ Opportunity Management. An experienced proposal professional, he has led bids of diverse sizes and requirements for a wide range of Government clients. He has developed, implemented, and refined life cycle processes at firms, resulting in a minimum of a 50% improvement in win rate year-over-year. He is a former member of the APMP National Capital Area Board of Directors and served as a mentor in the chapter’s mentor-protege program for multiple years. He is a well-recognized thought leader in the field who speaks regularly at regional and international conferences. Kevin has won multiple awards for his writing on opportunity management and regularly blogs on the BZ Opportunity Management site. He is also involved in his community, volunteering for his community swim association and his son’s Cub Scout pack.

EPISODE 22

Marina  Goren  is the President/CEO of Smart BD Consulting – a successful MD/DC/NVA area Capture and Proposal Development firm. Over the past 7 years she has successfully grown her company to over 150 consultants serving over 50 Federal Government contracting clients. She teaches numerous Proposal Development and Capture courses and was an APMP speaker since 2014. Ms. Goren continues to personally support her clients in pioneering new frontiers and winning large strategic bids, while running her company. Ms. Goren has been instrumental at Billions of Dollars in wins for her clients (including a recent single award $1.2B win). Prior to starting her own company, Ms. Goren was a Vice President of Business Development at ASRC Primus and helped grow the company from 2 to over 1,600 FTEs in just a little over 5 years. Ms. Goren had a progressive career in IT, Operations and Business Development for the past 23 years.

EPISODE 21

A former college professor, stand-up comic, and founder of two successful firms, one of the first-ever Fellows of the APMP, Dr. Tom Sant was named the world’s foremost authority on winning sales proposals by the American Management Association and one of the top ten sales trainers in the world by Selling Power Magazine.  

Tom is the author of the best-selling Persuasive Business Proposals, and the highly acclaimed The Giants of Sales and The Language of Success.  

As a consultant, Tom has written over $30 billion in winning proposals for clients in every industry sector.  In addition, he invented the world’s first proposal automation tools, ProposalMaster, RFPMaster and PresentationBuilder, used by thousands of sales and proposal professionals worldwide as the Upland Qvidian system.  

EPISODE 20

Larry Newman is a partner and board member, Shipley Associates. Larry started at Shipley Associates in 1986, so that’s 36 years of consulting and training clients in 5 continents (North America, Europe, South America, Australia, and Asia), 30 countries, and more than 100 organizations.
Larry authored the Shipley Proposal Guide, Capture Guide, and Business Development Lifecycle Guide. He is a Fellow of the Association of Proposal Management Professionals, accredited at the APMP Professional Level. Larry has MS and BS Industrial Engineering from University of Iowa.

EPISODE 19

Randy Richter is Chairman and Price to Win Director at Richter & Company, Competitive analysis and market research firm focused on the Federal market.  Previously, Randy was a Senior Consultant at CAI/SISCo, served as Vice President, Strategic Business Development for Integrated Communication Solutions, responsible for the capture and operation of long-term programs within the Federal government.

Randy received a B.S. from Cornell University and M.S. from the State University of New York at Cortland.  He has completed sales and technical certifications from Cisco, Nortel Networks, 3Com, and Unisphere Networks (now Juniper Networks).  Randy has been a featured speaker at federal conferences, telecommunications industry association events and is an active member of SCIP and APMP. Randy is also founder and president at Western Maryland Lacrosse Officials Association

EPISODE 18

Alan Howard , a 40+ years proposal industry veteran is a Certified Professional of the Association of Proposal Management Professionals (APMP®). Alan joined APMP in 2009 and was appointed to the APMP UK Board in 2016 as the Certification and Apprenticeship development director where he was heavily involved with the mentoring programme and the conference training days. ​

In his 40+ years’ working on proposals, Alan has worked on 100’s of proposals, has trained and mentored 150+ proposal professionals

EPISODE 17

As Sr. Vice President of Consulting at Shipley Associates, David Bol has over 30 years as a Senior Proposal Manager helping client’s win over $220 billion dollars of revenue. He has co-authored three books for APMP that still influence winning business development practices today. Mr. Bol is APMP certified at the Professional level, is an APMP Fellow and co-founded the Rocky Mountain APMP Chapter. He earned the Visionary award guiding the APMP group through the 90’s. He has held every international APMP Board position including being CEO of the Board of Directors in 2009.

EPISODE 16

Samantha Enslen runs Dragonfly Editorial, an agency that helps companies around the world write, edit, and design great content — including proposals. Sam is an APMP member and a frequent speaker at Bid & Proposal Con. She’s on the board of ACES: The Society for Editing, and she’s a writer for the Grammar Girl podcast. In short, she’s a book lover, word nerd, and grammar geek all in one.

EPISODE 15

Nicholas Adams is an industry veteran with 30+ years IT and bid and proposal experience having recently worked for Teradata as Lead for EMEA proposal management and RFX process previously leading their UK & Ireland Opportunity Management function. Before Teradata, Nic also worked at Liberata, Atos/Siemens IT Solutions, Dell, HP and Fujitsu.

Nic has served on the APMP UK Chapter Board of Directors since 2007. Nick was also 2017 and 2018 UK Conference director. At an international level, Nic has served as APMP International chair, past chair and was also first ever Treasurer for the Association. Nic is APMP Practitioner certified and has a business management degree from university of south Africa. Nic also served in the board of AFSM International, Rotary, Lions International and various education institutes.

EPISODE 14

Dick Eassom, aka Wordman, a Certified Fellow of the Association of Proposal Management Professionals (APMP®), past APMP Chief Executive Officer, recipient of the APMP William C. McRae Founders’ Award, past Chair of the APMP California Chapter and a proud member of the chapter’s Mentor program. Dick has presented at 15+ APMP Annual International Conferences on using Microsoft Word for proposal development.

Dick has authored over forty articles for “Wordman’s Production Corner” in the APMP Perspective. In his 40+ years of experience, Dick has led or contributed to numerous proposals in the USA, UK, Canada, Germany and Australia. Dick has a BSc in Electrical and Electronic Engineering from the University of Leeds in England.

EPISODE 13

BJ Lownie was one of the 28 founding members of APMP, true “Proposal Patriot, an accredited Professional and elected Fellow of APMP and started Strategic Proposals in the US in 1987.  He is a truly “Passionate about Proposals”, an outstanding presenter and trainer and is recognised as one of the gurus of the proposal world. In his 35+ years’ working on proposals, BJ has worked on 1000’s of proposals, has trained 10000 proposal professionals and has presented at countless conferences.

EPISODE 12

Over the last 30 years Margaret Helsabeck has focused on leading proposal management, learning and communications across large business winning organisations in UK and USA. Margaret was the second UK APMP CEO and became an APMP Fellow in 2009. Margaret officially retired in 2015 and now runs Mags Arts Space travelling, drawing and painting.

EPISODE 11

Tim Snell has 20+ years’ experience in helping companies create solutions to win business. He has worked in some of the most remote, austere and dangerous places in the world including Afghanistan, Iraq, Liberia, Mali and Sudan in support of military, United Nations, NATO and commercial organisations. Tim is an executive & Personal Coach, Business Winning consultant and Trainer. Tim is APMP Deputy Chief examiner and a regular speaker and contributor to APMP.

EPISODE 10

Ali Paskun CF.APMP is the founder of AbiL Solutions LLC and RFPtrainer. Ali is a veteran in the world of Federal Government contracting having worked for a number of government contractors to develop and refine successful approaches to winning Federal Government contracts. She has spent 35 years developing win strategies with expertise throughout the entire phase of proposal development cycle, primarily for small and mid-sized companies. Ali has an impressive track record of collaborating with and managing capture teams to identify best possible solutions for proposals. She used to manage the Journal of the Association of Proposal Management and has lectured nationally. She is an APMP Fellow and has earned APMP certification.

EPISODE 9

Kristin (Baron) Dufrene, CPP APMP Fellow, has twenty-six years of experience in Federal sector business development, including capture management and proposal development. Kristin has been a member of APMP since 1995 and served as the 2017 Chair of the International Board of Directors. She has led many joint Industry-Federal initiatives, including the Procurement Improvement Committee (PIC), the Federal Procurement Community, and the Government-Industry Acquisition Task Force. Kristin is currently Strategic Capture Executive Director for CACI and holds a Bachelor’s degree in Journalism from LSU.

EPISODE 8

Betsy Blakney, ​CPP APMP, is an APMP Fellow, past APMP International CEO, COO, Board Secretary, and Eastern Regional Representative, and a former APMP National Capital Area (NCA) President. With 25 years of proposal management experience, Betsy is currentlyDirector of Proposal Operations Support for CACI. Betsy was previously the Director of Proposal Services for UNITECH (acquired by Lockheed Martin), served in the Washington Federal Practice of PricewaterhouseCoopers as a Federal Proposal Manager, and began her proposal management career at Datatrac Information Services, Inc. (acquired by CSC). An APMP member since 1996, she actively served as an APMP certification mentor, co-authored the APMP Industry Glossary of Terms, and is a frequent conference speaker/panelist.

EPISODE 7

Colleen Jolly has 20 years’ experience in visual communications, training, marketing (event management and sales (B2G, B2B, and B2C) across several industries and countries including deep expertise in the US, UK, and Australia. She is the youngest person to win the APMP Fellow Award in 2010; she won the APMP Insight Award in 2012 for her article on international business; was featured in Northern Virginia magazine’s “Top 10 Entrepreneurs Under 30” in 2010; and was a finalist for the Stevie Awards Creative Professional of the Year, 2009. She just won the inaugural “40 Under 40” honor from APMP in 2017. She is a former Southeast of England Women’s Business Ambassador (2008-2010); docent at the Corcoran Gallery of Art (2004-2014); board member at the Capitol Hill Arts Workshop (2007-2014); served as Secretary of APMP NCA chapter 2010-2012; and on the International Board of APMP 2012-2015 as Secretary, COO, the youngest CEO in the organization’s history, and Past CEO.

EPISODE 6

Mike Parkinson (Microsoft MVP and APMP Fellow) is an internationally recognized Visual Communication and Presentation Expert and award-winning author of (“Billion Dollar Graphics” and “A Trainer’s Guide to PowerPoint: Best Practices for Master Presenters.”). He owns Billion Dollar Graphics and is a partner at 24 Hour Company, a premier creative services firm. Mike has spearheaded multi-billion-dollar projects and helped Fortune 500 companies and international learning institutions win billions of dollars.

EPISODE 5

Kirste Webb is APMP Fellow with 30+ years’ experience in all facets of business development and marketing services. Kirste is Senior Vice President Business Development at ARS Aleut Remediation. Kirste has twice been the volunteer Chair of APMP and was also instrumental in APMP’s certification program by pushing for an APMP Body of Knowledge (BoK).  Kirste also serves as a counselor with the East Tennessee Procurement Technical Assistance Center. She achieved APMP Certification – Foundation Level, and holds Bachelor’s degree and MBA from the University of Phoenix.

EPISODE 4

Eric Gregory has 42 years experience in business development, capture and proposal operations.
Eric has been honoured with APMP’s highest service award, the William C. McCrae Memorial Award, he also received CACI’s top honor for service excellence, the Admiral Thomas H. Moorer Award.
Eric is APMP-certified proposal professional (APMP CPP) and an APMP Fellow, Twice ex. CEO of APMP

EPISODE 3

Cathy Day has over 35 years’ experience directing, delivering, and training capture and bid teams. Cathy designed and developed the Association Proposal Management Professionals (APMP) Accreditation Programme. Cathy is APMP Fellow, APMP Accreditation Director and Chief Examiner since 2004.

EPISODE 2

Tony Birch is Chairman of Shipley Limited. An industry veteran with 40+ years’ experience who has trained over 10,000 people, helped win over $30bn in new business. Elected a APMP Fellow in 2006, Tony served on the main board of the APMP for 4 years; during that time he oversaw the development and launch of the APMP’s Certification Program. As one of the founders of APMP UK, Tony’s mission is to ensure that the role of a bid or proposal manager is recognised throughout the world as a profession – and not just a job.

EPISODE 1

Howard Nutt is Executive Director of the Business Development Institute International (BD-Institute). An industry veteran with 45 years experience. Howard was one of APMP’s 28 founding members, developed its original strategic plan, is the recipient of APMP Founders and Vision awards and continues as an APMP Fellow. He leads development of the Capability Maturity Model® for Business Development and was a former Senior VP of Consulting for Shipley Associates.

COMING SOON...

Publish Date :29th July
 2020

EPISODE 51

David Sotolongo  is a proposal development consultant working from his home in Durham, NC.  Previously, he served as vice president of RTI International’s Multimedia Communications Services. In this capacity, he led a staff of 85 communications and publishing services professionals who provide full-service support in publications, graphic design, editing and writing, and product development, as well as multimedia design, conference and meeting support, and media and audience outreach. Mr. Sotolongo is also vice president of business and proposal development at RTI, comprising more than 2,000 staff and $750M in annual revenue. Previously he started and led RTI’s proposal development group, that is responsible for managing and submitting more than 1,000 proposals annually at a bid value in excess of $1B. David, is APMP professional accredited, was the conference Co-Chair for APMP Bid & Proposal Con 2013, former APMP Board member and Carolinas Chapter co-founder. David also co-chaired the Southern Proposal Accents Conference (SPAC) for many years. He is veteran APMP conference speaker and has also led APMP’s Government Industry Task Force.  David holds a BA from Duke University and completed graduated course work in Journalism and Mass Communication at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.

Publish Date :02nd Aug
 2020

EPISODE 52

As the only named Federal Proposal Manager at Michael Baker International, Valerie leads the proposal team through complex federal and state proposal pursuits as well as facilitating capture planning and strategy meetings on company must-win architecture / engineering / construction efforts worth millions of dollars. Valerie has diverse marketing and communications experience in developing, implementing, and managing large-scale, complex, and multi-million-dollar submittals for federal, state and local, education, aviation, commercial, and defense markets. Valerie developed “Cover Letter/Executive Summary” manual within the Proposal Development (PD) group at Michael Baker. The manual is shared to new hires during their on-board training, as well as to current hires to be used as a refresher in developing strategic narrative content. Additionally, Valerie provides six to eight weeks mentoring and training to new hires, and refresher training to PD staff. Valerie is Winner of APMP® 40 Under 40 2020 Award and earned her CF APMP and CP APMP certification in 2018 and 2019 respectively, and the Shipley Business Development certification, which she received in 2018. Valerie also hopes to pursue her Professional Certification (CPP APMP) in 2021, and to also serve on the board of her local APMP chapter. Valerie has Bachelor of Arts degree from Lawrence University and Executive MBA from Sullivan University. Starting in January 2020, Valerie began a Master of Science (MSc.) degree in Project Management to enhance her project management and leadership abilities on corporate/companywide must-win pursuits at Michael Baker.
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Publish Date :5th Aug
 2020

EPISODE 53

Ginny Carson is the Director of the Business Development Resource Center (BDRC) at Life Cycle Engineering. BDRC functions include BD Process Development and Support, Competitive and Market Intelligence Research, Opportunity Identification and Development, Account Management, Capture Planning and Proposal Support. Life Cycle Engineering provides engineering solutions that deliver lasting results for private industry, public entities, government organizations and the military.

Publish Date :8th Aug
 2020

EPISODE 54

Mike Walsh, CF APMP is the current Chair of APMP. Concurrently, he leads the Alumni and Strategic Business Development efforts for EY’s Financial Services Organization. Mike has spent his entire time at EY in Business Development, starting more than 8 years ago as a Communications and Pursuit Strategist then leading the Service Line Enablement team prior to taking his current role. He was first introduced to proposal management while at Odyssey Systems Consulting Group, a midsized defense contractor. His professional career began 24 years ago as an officer in the US Coast Guard, and since then has taken a few twists and turns on its way to Business Development including stints as a Fire Training Captain for the State of New Hampshire, a middle and high school English and History teacher.

Mike received a B.S. in Government from the US Coast Guard Academy and M.S. in Organizational Leadership from Gonzaga University. He has been on the Nor’easters board of directors since 2012 and served as the Chair of the Nor’easters Chapter from 2014-2019. Mike began APMP International board service in 2016, serving a 2-year term as Director and is currently in the middle of his 3-year term as Vice Chair, Chair and Past Chair.

Publish Date :11th Aug
 2020

EPISODE 55

After 23 years in the DC metro area working for various federal contractors including The MITRE Corporation, General Dynamics IT and several 8(a) companies, Gillian Dionne is now a one-woman proposal shop based on the Space Coast of Florida.  Eau Gallie by the Sea Proposal Consulting focuses on helping small businesses win federal and state contracts. An APMP member since 2001, Gillian has presented at numerous international and regional APMP conferences and professional days, served as a certification mentor, served on the APMP International Board of Directors, and is currently the Venue/Hotel Coordinator for the Southern Proposal Accent Conference (SPAC).  She is certified at the practitioner level (CP APMP).

Publish Date :14th Aug
 2020

EPISODE 56

Gareth Earle has been in bid and proposal management pretty much throughout the whole of his career, with nearly 15 years’ experience in managing the submission of winning bids and leading the delivery of projects and programmes to achieve customer and business objectives. He made the conscious decision to specialise in the profession 7 years ago.

Gareth has been on the other side of the table, evaluating proposals and commissioning work for a major technical and social change programme on behalf of the BBC. For the past 5 years, Gareth has worked for TP Group, a specialist engineering and consultancy company, where he has developed and implemented TP Group’s Bidding Process and is the bid and project management office function owner across the Group globally.

Gareth has been a member of APMP since 2015. Ever since joining, Gareth has been a great supporter of APMP, encouraging other bid professionals to join and pursue certification, as well as attending best practice sharing events. This included Gareth being a speaker at the UK’s 2017 conference; only his second conference attendance. Gareth holds Practitioner certification and was awarded recognition for his influence and achievements in the profession under the 2019 40 Under 40 class.

Gareth has been a member of the UK chapter Board since April 2018, and having held the positions of Membership Director, Conference Director and Vice-Chair, Gareth is the current UK Chapter Chair and is a member of the APMP Chapter Liaison Committee.

Publish Date :17th Aug
 2020

EPISODE 57

Mark Taylor  is Managing Director and a Founder Member of Shipley UK. Having studied Electronic Engineering with Medical Electronics, Mark embarked on a generalist journey spanning 15 years in medical equipment manufacturing, aerospace and defence. He held roles in production engineering, design engineering, engineering consultancy and business winning. Mark pursued his practical enthusiasm for lifelong learning at Nottingham Trent University where he was Course Leader for an Executive MBA Course and subsequently as Head of Training for Linklaters, an international Law Firm.

During his 19 years with Shipley, Mark has been lucky to work with inspiring clients for whom he has designed multinational business winning curriculum’s and delivered over 500 workshops. Always, Mark’s aim is to enthuse specialists from all disciplines to become involved in business winning and to help them develop the skills to do so.

Mark is from Bermondsey and now lives in Worcester with his super wife, sceptical children and a supercilious cat.

Publish Date :20th Aug
 2020

EPISODE 58

Christopher S. Kälin, CPP APMP Fellow  is a global authority on bid and proposal management. He is the Founder and Managing Partner of CSK Management. He has worked with companies around the world to improve success rates, generating over 50 billion dollars in business across many industries, including IT, telecoms, defence, transportation, financial industries, event organisation, gambling and business outsourcing. He developed the BidMaster™ Framework and the Storyline Method™ for developing compelling proposals. Chris regularly presents at business development conferences and sales conventions around the globe and conducts live and virtual training programmes on Winning business with convincing proposals and bid management best practices.

Chris was co-founder and chairman of the German-speaking APMP chapter (Association of Proposal Management Professionals) and regional director for Europe/Africa. He is APMP-certified at Professional Level (CPP APMP) and is an APMP Approved Trainer. In 2013, he received the prestigious Fellows Award. He graduated with a degree in Business Administration and Information Technology from Zurich University.

Publish Date :24th Aug
 2020

EPISODE 59

Sonya Wooley is the President of Mammoth Technologies, LLC, a small boutique proposal firm specializing in proposal management for small business federal contractors. She has over fifteen years of experience in business development, proposal preparation and management, and pricing for federal government opportunities. She has generated proposals valued from $25 thousand to over $1 billion, acting as both Proposal Manager and Capture Manager for small to mid-sized government contracting firms. Sonya has a MA in Behavioral Science from University of Houston-Clear Lake, and received her BA in History from Southwestern University in Georgetown, Texas. She has served as the Chapter Chair for the Lone Star Chapter of APMP for seven years, served on the international board of APMP from 2015 to 2016, and currently serves on multiple APMP committees

Publish Date :27th Aug
 2020

EPISODE 60

Maria Flikkema directs proposal development for IBI Group. With a primary focus on the Canada East region, she has managed large scale proposals across the firm globally and provides strategic direction to proposal teams outside of the Toronto headquarters. Overseeing all aspects of proposal activities, including management of proposal deadlines and progress, and directing the Canada East proposal team, Maria is also responsible for developing a wide variety of customized marketing materials for new pursuits and contract renewals. Having been with the firm for more than 12 years, Maria has a proven track record delivering winning, multi-million to -billion dollar proposals under challenging deadlines for both public- and private-sector clients.

And more….