May, 2022
MEET 1901 GROUP: Paul Wilkinson
Chief Growth Officer
“I enjoy working with clients and partners to find solutions that leverage emerging technology that can be applied to improve our customer’s mission. 1901 Group is at the forefront of applying cloud and managed services and it’s rewarding to solve customer problems with new and innovative solutions.”
– Paul Wilkinson
What do you think makes 1901 Group successful in cloud migration?
We built the company with the idea that every workload would eventually operate in the cloud in the future. This was the premise of the company and challenged us to think differently about IT service delivery in the federal marketplace. We have always strived to use automation, analytics and leverage to solve IT operations, maintenance and transformation. In the last several years, the government has started to adopt cloud at scale and 1901 Group is perfectly positioned to help customers on their journey to the cloud with the ten years of hard work to build a company based on use of cloud to deliver managed services.
What excites you about 1901 Group and what do you think gives it the competitive edge?
The pace of innovation in the market is extraordinary. We are seeing firsthand the potential benefit of new technologies, such as artificial intelligence (AI) as customer’s migrate their data to the cloud. We are in the infant stages of adoption of emerging technology and the sky is the limit. I’m excited to see people powered processes transition to automated solutions and how our customers can take advantage of technology to be more predictive and proactive instead of reactive.
How do you see the company changing in two years, and how do you see yourself creating that change?
We will push the boundaries of automation, seeking opportunities wherever possible to use technology to improve IT service delivery while also reducing costs. This will drive the “automate everything” behavior and increased use of cloud native services and AI platforms. There is so much opportunity in areas such as IT Service Management, security, and cloud management to leverage automation and AI and we will continue to be at the forefront of this wave of automation to improve the services we provide our customer.
What is the biggest challenge facing leaders today?
Creating sustainable programs to attract, hire, skill and retain the next generation of talent needed to take full advantage of new solutions available in the market. Companies will have to seek alternative ways to train their employees and tap into new sources of talent to support the growth opportunities in the market.
What advice would you give someone going into a leadership position for the first time?
Understand your customers. Take a moment to walk in their shoes and understand their challenges and the reality of their situation and think of creative ways to solve their problems, not yours. Always focus on your customers and your employees and everything else will take care of itself.
Paul Wilkinson is responsible for managing the company’s growth, leading business development, capture management, marketing, and communications. Paul provides leadership for the development of new markets and managed service offerings. Paul brings over 25 years of experience within technical and leadership positions supporting commercial, federal, and DoD programs. Prior to joining 1901 Group, Paul was Chief Operating Officer of List Innovation Solutions, supporting the successful sale of the company to Salient Federal Solutions and led Salient’s Strategic Market Development Group. Prior to that, Paul held numerous leadership positions providing financial consulting, product management, and IT services supporting both public and private sector customers at SRA International (now GDIT), BearingPoint, and KPMG. Paul holds a Bachelor of Science degree in Finance from George Mason University and is a Certified Project Management Professional (PMP).
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