INTRODUCTION TO DOD OSBP

The Common Entry Point for Small Businesses

The goal of our website is to make it easier for small businesses to understand where to go first, who to contact, and where to find information on available resources and opportunities to do business with the U.S. Department of Defense. The Office of Small Business Programs (OSBP) is focused on increasing small business participation in defense acquisitions through targeted programs, reducing barriers to entry, and providing resources to industry to make it easier to do business with us. 

Thank you for visiting our virtual office today, and please check back frequently as we add new resources and tools to support small businesses.

Respectfully,
Farooq A. Mitha
Director

 

LEADERSHIP

Mr. Farooq A. Mitha
Director

Farooq A. Mitha currently serves in the Biden administration as the Director of the Department of Defense (DoD) Office of Small Business Programs (OSBP). As Director, Mr. Mitha oversees more than $140 billion of annual awards to small business. In addition, he assists the Joint Chiefs of Staff, Secretaries of Military Departments, Under Secretaries of Defense, Directors of Defense Agencies and Major Commands in including small business planning into the readiness of the Department. These efforts aim to modernize and restore the nation’s industrial commons through focusing on advanced manufacturing, applied research, and innovative programs that align small business capabilities with the DoD’s current and future needs.

Prior to his appointment Mr. Mitha served on the Biden-Harris transition team as a member of the DoD Agency Review Team. Mr. Mitha also served in the Obama administration as the Senior Advisor to the Director of the DoD Office of Small Business Programs and the Deputy Assistant Secretary of Defense for Manufacturing and Industrial Base Policy.

Mr. Mitha was previously President and CEO of Imbue Group, Inc., a small business providing subject matter expertise to DoD’s industrial base and innovation programs on small business programs, supply chain risk, defense procurement policy, use of other transactional authorities, small businesses engagement within the national security technology and industrial base, and advanced manufacturing.

In his previous time at the Department of Defense, Mr. Mitha led several programs and initiatives that have increased the visibility of small business within DoD, modernized programs to infuse small business capability into major defense acquisition programs and increased effective dialogue with industry.

Mr. Mitha has a strong background in international policy and national security. He is fluent in Arabic and published opinion-editorials offering commentary on issues concerning the Middle East and the American political system. In 2009, Mr. Mitha was a Fulbright Fellow in Amman, Jordan where he coordinated a Track II diplomacy conference and conducted research on economic reform in the Middle East. Mr. Mitha has also lectured at domestic and international universities on economic reform in the Middle East, U.S. policy in the Middle East, and civic engagement.

Mr. Mitha obtained his law degree from the University of Florida Levin College of Law and holds a B.S. degree in Interdisciplinary Health Sciences from the University of South Florida.

Dr. Jacqueline Charles
Associate Director

As the Associate Director of Small Business Policy, Legislative Affairs and Workforce Development, Dr. Charles serves as the Principal Advisor to the Director on small business industrial base related policy, regulation, and legislation.

Prior to joining the DoD OSBP, Dr. Charles served as a Product Support Manager in the Combat Data Systems Program Office within the F-35 Joint Strike Fighter Program. Dr. Charles advised on logistics policies. She led efforts to sustain various software and hardware tools that Combat Data Systems provides to its operational units that are responsible for developing combat mission data files with the latest capabilities for the F-35. She also held other key leadership roles in her 24 year career in support of various DoD acquisition and sustainment programs.

Dr. Charles earned her PhD in Education with a specialization in Leadership for Higher Education and a MBA with a specialization in Global Operations and Supply Chain Management from Capella University. She is also a member of the Defense Acquisition Corps.
 

Mr. Derrick Davis

Mr. Derrick Davis
Director

Mr. Davis currently serves as the Director for Industrial Cyber Security for the Office of Small Business Programs (OSBP).  He directly oversees several programs in support of the U.S. Department of Defense (DoD), including the Project Spectrum cybersecurity outreach initiative. Mr. Davis provides strategic leadership for several teams of communications, cybersecurity, and program-support professionals. He utilizes his extensive experience with national security technology and policy strategy to direct cybersecurity compliance, supply chain analysis, technology development and integration, and program support.                                           

Prior coming to becoming a federal civilian, Mr. Davis worked as a technology strategist in the private sector where he held key leadership positions. Mr. Davis attended Oklahoma State University where he did his doctoral research in Cyber Security Governance.  Also, Mr. Davis attended the University of Maryland Baltimore County where he earned his Master of Science in Information Systems.  
 

Ms. Kasey Diaz
Deputy Director

 

Prior to joining DoD OSBP, Ms. Diaz worked in the private sector where she provided direct program management support for federal government small business policies and programs with the objective of maximizing utilization of small and disadvantaged small businesses. She currently serves as the Deputy Director of the Office of Small Business Programs, and also is the Director of the DoD Mentor-Protégé Program.

Prior to providing programmatic and management support to the federal government, Ms. Diaz was instrumental in enhancing membership recruitment, retention and outreach and influential in all membership-level activities as the Assistant Director for nonprofit associations. Ms. Diaz has more than 17 years of experience in technical, programmatic, administrative and management assistance in support of DOD as a subject-matter expert on small business and acquisition policies, procedures and related matters at the major command level. She has a BS in Biology from the Indiana University of Pennsylvania.
 

Ms. Carla Johnson
Associate Director

As the Associate Director for Acquisition Support and Contracting, Ms. Johnson manages the Subcontracting portfolio and the Office of Small Business Program (OSBP) contracts. Ms. Johnson monitors and reports on the Department’s Subcontracting performance toward goals and executes the OSBP contractual requirements and translates these requirements into actionable contracts. She directly supports the Office of Small Business Program’s mission by striving to fulfill present fiscal year goals in prime contracting and subcontracting, as well as tracking DoD's performance history. 

Prior to joining OSBP, Ms. Johnson worked in CFIUS as a member of the International Outreach and Strategic Engagement Team. She has also held positions in OUSD/Acquisition and Sustainment as the Contracts Lead, Project Manager for Business Systems, and Resource Manager for the Deputy Assistant Secretary of Defense Command, Control, and Communication (C3), Cyber, and Business Systems. 

Ms. Johnson has also served in a number of leadership positions in the DoD, in support of project management, contracting, budgeting and financial management, as well as, private industry where she served as Budget Director for Radio Free Asia (RFA) and Senior Program Analyst with Northrop Grumman.
 

Khalil Mack

Mr. Khalil Mack
Deputy Director

Mr. Mack currently serves as Deputy Director of the Office of Small Business Programs (OSBP) and Director of APEX Accelerators. As part of the OSBP leadership team, he oversees Industry Engagement, Strategic Communications, Policy, Industrial Cybersecurity, Small Business Risk, and the APEX Accelerators program.

With 97 offices across 49 states and territories, APEX Accelerators provide a critical front door for business and industry to help to expand suppliers to the federal, state, and local government marketplaces and provide opportunities for companies new to government contracting to acquire the skills and know-how to compete.

The work Accelerators do with businesses, in concert with their partners, strengthens the defense industrial base by accelerating innovation, fostering ingenuity, and establishing resilient and diverse supply chains.  The result is the creation of a domestic industrial base that can deliver preeminent solutions to the military and other government users.

Mr. Mack previously held the position of Associate Director of Policy, where he was the principal advisor to the OSBP Director on small business industrial base related policy, regulation, and legislation. His experience also includes serving as Branch Chief for the Rapid Prototyping Acquisition Branch at the Washington Headquarters Services Acquisition Directorate, where he planned and executed non-FAR based acquisitions, including Other Transactions (OTs), and in various contracting roles for the Army Intelligence and Security Command (INSCOM).

Prior to becoming a federal civilian, Mr. Mack was a consultant, specializing in acquisition and finance, for several federal agencies including the Department of Homeland Security and the Federal Bureau of Investigation.

Mr. Mack earned a Bachelor of Science in Business Management from Hampton University, and a Master of Business Administration from the George Washington University. He is also a graduate of the Procurement and Contracts Management Certificate program at the University of Virginia.



Dr. Bryson Reynolds
AAAS Policy Fellow

As a AAAS Policy Fellow, Dr. Reynolds oversees efforts to expand market intelligence including the Market Research Center of Excellence (MRCOE), develop of digital platforms to streamline workflow including the Mentor Protégé Program (MPP) Portal, and mitigate risk to small businesses in the defense industrial base posed by foreign, ownership, control, and influence (FOCI).

Prior to joining OSBP, Dr. Reynolds worked in neuroscience research at the University of Virginia and Vanderbilt University focused primarily on neuroimaging and the biomechanics of head impact, and in STEM education at the Vanderbilt Center for Science Outreach.

Dr. Reynolds earned his BS degree in Psychology from Middle Tennessee State University, and his PhD in Neuroscience from the University of Virginia.

Mission

We maximize opportunities for small businesses to contribute to national security by providing combat power for our troops and economic power for our nation.

Vision

We are a network of small business professionals with common values, shared knowledge and regular communication who partner with acquisition professionals seeking small businesses to fulfill DoD procurement requirements and give our Service Members the competitive advantage.

Small Business Professionals' Values

Leadership: We provide the direction and resources needed to achieve DoD small business procurement objectives while managing differing perspectives, change, challenges and opportunities.

  • Integrity: We are trustworthy and accountable.

  • Professionalism: We are competent at small business procurement activities and strive for excellence through lifelong learning.

  • Customer Focus: We identify the customer, respond to customer needs and prioritize efforts to serve the customer.

  • Advocacy: We seek ways to leverage small business as a primary procurement option by emphasizing affordability, innovation, agility and responsiveness.

  • Innovation: We implement new ways of developing the small business industrial base to introduce new products, services and solutions to meet DoD mission requirements and maintain the competitive advantage over our adversaries.

Responsibilities

  • Manage the DoD Mentor Protégé Program (MPP) to develop high priority sectors of the DoD industrial base, such as cybersecurity, by pairing experienced mentor firms with small business protégés

  • Manage small business program funding to ensure timely, efficient and effective usage of appropriated resources

  • Evaluate, refine and propose policy to ensure maximum practicable opportunity for small businesses of the DoD industrial base to participate in DoD procurement, while prioritizing the accomplishment of the DoD mission; engage in the legislative and regulatory processes to ensure DoD complies with regulations and statutes and, when appropriate, recommend adjustments to improve the contribution of small businesses to national security

  • Contribute to the DoD acquisition strategy, market research and contracting processes and activities to ensure small businesses receive the maximum practical opportunity to provide innovative, cost-competitive and timely products and services to satisfy DoD procurement requirements

  • Establish challenging and achievable small business procurement goals for the DoD buying commands, monitor performance across all small business socio-economic categories and implement initiatives to achieve statutory goals

Products

  • Industrial base expansion and improvement through MPP and IIP programs

  • Opportunities for small business procurement that annually exceed $50 billion of prime contract awards and over $40B of subcontracting

  • Outreach and guidance to the Defense Industrial Base consisting of almost 35,000 small businesses out of a contractor pool of over 47,000 firms that procure about $300 billion annually from DoD

  • Subcontracting reporting, reviews and oversight of the Comprehensive Subcontracting Plan (CSP) Test Program involving most of the largest businesses of the DoD industrial base

  • Implementation of Federal Acquisition Regulation (FAR) and Defense FAR Supplement (DFARS) small business regulations through issuance of DD 2579 reviews for each contract over $10,000, and, recommendations to adjust regulations when appropriate

  • Acquisition Strategy and Peer Review recommendations on large-scale Defense acquisitions

Current Authorities

The Small Business Act (15 USC Sections 631-657)
Establishes mandatory small business contracting goals and small business programs applicable to all Federal agencies, including the DoD.

DoD Instruction 5134.04 (Director of Small Business Programs)
Establishes the Director of SBP as the principal advisor to the USD(AT&L) and the Secretary of Defense on small business matters and providing small businesses the maximum practicable opportunity for contracts in accordance with the Small Business Act.

DoD Instruction 4205.01 (DoD Small Business Programs)
Establishes the DoD small business programs under the authority of the Director of SBP. DoD small business programs include: small business, veteran-owned small business, service-disabled veteran-owned small business, historically underutilized business zone small business, small disadvantaged business, Women-owned small business, DoD Mentor-Protégé Program, Indian Incentive Program, and all other small business programs in the DoD.

Indian Financing Act (25 USC Section 1544)
Established the Indian Incentive Program (IIP) to motivate prime contractors to subcontract to Indian organizations and Indian-owned economic enterprises by providing a 5% rebate back to the prime contractor for doing so.

Mentor-Protégé Program (10 USC 4902)
MPP: The DoD Mentor-Protégé Program (MPP) provides incentives for DoD contractors to assist protégé firms in enhancing their capabilities and increases participation of such firms in Government and commercial contracts.

Test Program for Negotiation of Comprehensive Small Business Subcontract Plan (Public Law 101-189)
Comprehensive Subcontracting Plan (CSP) Program: The CSP Program allows negotiation and administration of an overall (comprehensive) subcontracting plan for large contractors who choose to participate. The CSP applies to every contract, precluding the need to spend time and resources to individually negotiate subcontracting plans for each contract. This reduces administrative burden on contractors and therefore costs.

Other Defense Agencies

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