Regina Kassar
At Red Team Consulting, Kassar helped small and midtier companies find opportunities in the federal marketplace.
Regina Kassar grew up in a military family, so it was only natural that when the opportunity arose, she would help service-disabled veterans grow their companies.
As a business development manager at Red Team Consulting in 2014, Kassar volunteered for the Service-Disabled Veteran-Owned Small Business Council and organized its monthly dinner events and educational boot camps.
Within a year, she became Red Team's vice president of education, helping small and midtier companies of all stripes find opportunities in the federal marketplace.
"I worked with industry as well as government to speak with those members to tell them if you're looking to go after this contract, let's dig in deeper," Kassar said. "Overall, it wasn't really the value of the project. It was the impact you had on that company to win the award to provide jobs as well as those capabilities to our government and our military men and women, which is what it always goes back to for me."
"Regina was an absolute superstar for our company," said Jeff Shen, vice president and general manager of Red Team Consulting. "She certainly went above and beyond for both Red Team and the federal IT community."
Her passion for helping veterans goes back to her roots. Her brother and grandfather served in the Navy, and her father, Merton Miller, served in the Air Force for 26 years and is now associate director of investigations at the Office of Personnel Management's Federal Investigative Services.
Kassar also took on volunteer roles at AFCEA and within a year became president of the NOVA Chapter's Young AFCEANs, where she leads networking and mentorship programs for members younger than 40.
Despite her family background, Kassar started out far from federal service, working in real estate sales and marketing. Then she earned a master's degree in teaching and taught second grade in Fairfax County, Va., for more than three years. After the birth of her twins, she decided to go back into business.
Her various jobs have taught her the value of technology, said Kassar, who recently left Red Team Consulting to work in federal software sales at IBM.
"It's neat to see how technology as a teacher at the time supported us to be so much more successful to make an impact," Kassar said. "Now I'm here on the solutions side learning all the IT I sell. It's incredible to see it in use."
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