Executive Mosaic is honored to introduce Rene LaVigne, president and CEO of Iron Bow Technologies, as the newest inductee into the Washington 100, the premier group of leaders who drive innovation and growth at the intersection of the public and private sectors.

LaVigne has led an eventful past few years as he drove the separation of Iron Bow, previously a subsidiary of Apptis, into a standalone company. That required decoupling Iron Bow from a joint treasury approach with Apptis Holdings Corp. and implementing independent financing exclusively for Iron Bow.

He expanded upon that effort for GovCon Exec and noted that “within the confines of significant market change” the leadership team executed “the spin out and rebranding effort in January 2010, the management buyout in September 2011, including the placement of an independent banking facility, and the implementation of a comprehensive ERP and financial management system launched in May of this year.”

“We took a set of activities within a company which was very much entrepreneurial and underinvested, operated with minimal infrastructure and developed the effort into a real business. We made the silhouette come to life.”

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LaVigne has more than 25 years of government contracting, information technology and financial services experience, and joined Apptis in 2003 as president and general manager of its public and commercial sector.

“What I didn’t know at the time was that I would be at the center of a number of changes that could not have been anticipated,” LaVigne told GovCon Exec.

“These changes presented an opportunity for me to lead some very important structural and organizational decisions. The decisions provided individual and team enhancement which led to value creation for both stakeholders and stockholders. The overall opportunity was one of the more significant challenges I had encountered which ultimately led to accomplishments highlighting my career.”

He rose to assume president and chief operating officer roles and take on the CEO position at the start of 2010, when he led the decoupling of Iron Bow and Apptis, “thereby paving the way for Apptis to be acquired by URS in June of 2011… that secured the opportunity for me and my partners to execute the management buyout of Iron Bow in September of 2011.”

He had previously served as president of Northrop Grumman Computing Systems and held senior vice president and VP and GM roles at Sylvest Management Systems, which was acquired by the Carlyle Group before beings sold to Northrop.

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With several years of “heavy lifting” behind them, LaVigne says he and the rest of the Iron Bow leadership team have their gazes fixated on what’s next.

“The Iron Bow team has embraced the changes in the market with vigorous enthusiasm and there is no limit to what we can achieve. We’re just getting started and I believe the near term future will be an unbelievably exciting phase as we leverage our most recent accomplishments into new successes.”

“Concurrent with these efforts we have built an outstanding team and have matured in all facets of the business. On a personal level, I’m appreciative of the opportunity to have been a part of these successes. We are now ready for takeoff!”