Federal 100 winner: Ronald Ellis
Ellis, former project manager of the Army Special Access Program Enterprise Portal, led the effort to field that new communications network for Special Forces.
Ronald Ellis
Deputy director of the Program Executive Office for Enterprise Information Systems’ Technology Applications Office
Department of the Army
Ellis led the effort to field a new communications network for Army Special Forces that allows the same kind of communications tools for classified information that has previously been available for unclassified communications.
Ellis managed the $6.8 million program to deploy and operate the Army Special Access Program Enterprise Portal. It is the Army’s first enterprise, compartmented network that provides secure data, voice and video connectivity at the top-secret level.
Now deputy director of the Program Executive Office for Enterprise Information Systems’ Technology Applications Office, Ellis "put in place, for the first time ever, a Defense Department electronic collaboration tool for the Joint Special Access Program community operating at the TS/SCI level based upon program access and need to know,” said Gary Winkler, the Army’s program executive officer for enterprise information systems. “This capability promises to provide multiyear savings of $70 million via inter-service cost-sharing and collapsing of multiple Special Access Program networks."