Brubaker leaves Aquilent

Citing a philosophical disagreement on the way the company should be managed, Paul Brubaker recently left his position as chief executive officer of Aquilent Inc., an e-government professional services firm, and promptly launched his own consulting firm.

Brubaker said he chose to leave Aquilent last month after it became clear that the rest of the company's management team did not share his desire to rapidly and aggressively expand the company.

Brubaker, a former Defense Department deputy chief information officer, remains invested in Aquilent with a "pretty good equity stake in the company...and I want to see it do well." However, that is his only association with the Laurel, Md.-based firm. He no longer serves in any management or advisory position.

Although he said leaving Aquilent was not easy, Brubaker did not waste any time finding a new job. Last month, he launched Beil and Co. LLC, a small government consulting firm.

"We'll advise government agencies and other firms in the market space on everything from homeland security to procurement reform," Brubaker said.

Brubaker did sign a "specific noncompetition" agreement with Aquilent before leaving, but he said there are still plenty of areas where his new consulting business can assist customers without infringing on that agreement.

"From everything we saw, Aquilent has been very successful at growing its business in a very competitive market," said James Kane, president and CEO of Federal Sources Inc., which provided business prospect information to the Aquilent investment team before the firm's launch.

Repeated attempts to contact Aquilent were unsuccessful.