The 2023 Wash100 roster has been finalized, with Department of Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin topping this year's list.
Executive Mosaic received nearly 40,000 votes over the course of three months, and ended up crowning six private sector and four government leaders as the 10 most popular inductees.
Austin received his third Wash100 award, this time in recognition of his advocacy of integrated deterrence and military technology advancement. His full profile is available here.
Wash100 Award
“The Department of Defense is on a two-year winning streak, as the GovCon community continues to enthusiastically come out in droves to support government agency and GovCon ecosystem executives in the Wash100 popular vote competition. This year, we received a surprising and overwhelming flurry of votes in the final hours of the contest that rearranged our top 10 and completely shifted the outcome of GovCon’s most exciting annual race for the popular vote,” said Jim Garrettson, CEO of Executive Mosaic and creator of the Wash100 Award.
“Congratulations to Secretary Austin on a well-deserved win, and thank you to our dedicated audience for your energetic and record-setting support in the Wash100 Award’s 10th anniversary celebration,” Garrettson continued. “Our team at Executive Mosaic has been committed to improving our recognition program year over year, and their dedication has made the Wash100 the most coveted executive award in the industry.”
Up to the final week of the Wash100 Popular Vote contest, Austin was in close competition with Carahsoft Founder and President Craig Abod, who came out second as of the April 28 deadline. They are closely followed by Judi Dotson, head of global defense at Booz Allen Hamilton.
Dotson's Booz Allen Hamilton colleague, Executive Vice President Steve Escaravage, ranked fourth in the list, while Microsoft Federal President Rick Wagner stood at number five. Google Public Sector was represented by CEO Karen Dahut, who gained enough votes to become the sixth most popular inductee.
The seventh and eighth spots went to Lt. Gen. Telita Crosland, director of the Defense Health Agency, and Kathleen Hicks, deputy secretary of defense. Shawn Purvis, president and CEO of QinetiQ US, received the ninth highest votes. Lauren Knausenberger, chief information officer of the Department of the Air Force, rounded out the top 10.
Thank you for making 2023 a record-breaking year for Wash100 votes. Congratulations to all of the 100 inductees for your achievements and contributions to the government contracting industry.
