Power Players | 4 - Shay Assad

Director of procurement and acquisition policy at the Defense Department. He was appointed in April 2006. Not listed. DOD is a big buyer, so Assad has his hands full overseeing the agency’s acquisition and procurement policy. He has been a strong advocate for the use of governmentwide acquisition contracts and the needs of the acquisition and procurement workforce. His office recently launched an initiative to assess the military’s 26,000-employee contracting workforce to better understand employees’ skills and competencies and find ways to improve those skills. Assad has also been vocal about the need to reduce DOD’s reliance on lead systems integrators, and he has campaigned for a 5 percent reduction in spending on services contracts in the next two to three years. This is a turbulent time for the government’s procurement and acquisition employees, and that is particularly true at DOD. Assad has shown keen insight into workforce issues, but as more workers retire and few candidates step up to replace them, the workforce challenges might seem overwhelming. Steady.