Monday, June 9, 2008

Position: President and chief operating officer, FedResults, a Herndon strategic advisory firm that helps clients sell their products and services to the federal government.

Career Highlights: Executive vice president of JB Cubed before its merger with Government Strategy Advisors, forming FedResults. Before that, Dinkel was senior vice president of sales and global professional services, vice president of Midwest sales and federal regional manager at Computer Associates, capping a 23-year tenure that included participation in more than 50 acquisitions. Previously, he was federal sales manager at Johnson Systems before its acquisition by Computer Associates.

Age: 57

Education: AA, applied sciences, Erie County Technical Institute; coursework, advanced information technology and systems analysis, Miami University in Ohio.

Personal: Lives in Great Falls with his wife, Kathleen.

How did you get to where you are?

Being raised on the family farm in upstate New York, I was ingrained with producing something and then selling it. And to sell it, you have to fill a customer need by standing in their shoes and paying attention to detail. It sounds almost too basic, but they are sound concepts that don't always get applied in business. So, I pay particular attention to them and hope I have passed these values along to my daughters.

From those days and through my first few jobs as systems programmer and consultant, I knew I enjoyed selling more than producing because there is a certain gratification in helping customers articulate their problem and find a solution. As I moved into sales management positions and built teams, I was recruited to the Washington area to run the federal sales division of Johnson Systems. I didn't know much about federal sales, but I learned it well enough to keep the job after Johnson got acquired by Computer Associates in the mid-1980s. I grew the federal services practice and through a lot of teamwork obtained Computer Associates' first $1 million contract with the government. The experience gave me the foundation to step up and run national and international units at the company -- just when I thought I had my niche in the federal division.

During this time, I also benefited from the exposure to icons in the technology community. It often happens that individuals running large enterprises are really down-to-earth people who enjoy what they do and aim to make their part of the world a little better.

As it turns out, federal sales was more than a niche because it's a new career direction. The federal budget process, contract vehicles and other nuances are difficult for small-to-midsize companies to manage, so there is immense opportunity there. To give ourselves the scale to take advantage of it, I put together a plan that resulted in a merger with Government Strategy Advisors to form FedResults. More recently, I formed a partnership with Topside Consulting, a firm with a similar approach for helping companies get in front of federal agencies. At the end of the day, the real enjoyment is helping them master this market. Sales is what we do, but it's almost a by-product of problem-solving and solution delivery.

-- Judith Mbuya