Leadership
Tiffanny Gates
President & CEO
Tiffanny Gates is responsible for corporate strategy and company performance. Since her appointment in 2017, she has grown both Novetta’s topline revenue and employee base by over 50%. Her focus on excellence in execution for Novetta’s customers and programs, continued investment in advanced R&D, and dedication to employee growth are key to the company’s success.
Tiffanny came to Novetta from Blackbird Technologies, a division of Raytheon, where as VP of Cyber Strategies she managed development of custom computer network hardware and specialized software solutions. Prior to Blackbird, she was SVP of Strategy and Business Development for the Mission, Cyber, and Technology Solutions Group, a $1 Billion business unit at ManTech International. She joined ManTech following the successful 2008 acquisition of her company, Emerging Technologies Group, where she was President and CEO. Earlier in her career, Tiffanny was a consultant to the National Security/Information Assurance Team for the Commander, Naval Security Group, worked with the National Security Agency as a technical analyst specializing in counterintelligence threats, and served in the U.S. Navy as a Cryptologic Officer. She holds a Bachelor of Science degree from the United States Naval Academy.
Rich Sawchak
CFO
Rich Sawchak is responsible for corporate finance, accounting, contracts, compliance, information technology, security, and treasury management; he also serves as the Corporate Secretary.
Rich came to Novetta from Shafer Corporation, where he served as Executive Vice President and CFO and was responsible for all aspects of finance, accounting, contract administration, compliance, human resources and recruiting. Prior to that, he served as Senior Vice President and CFO of Paradigm Solutions. At Paradigm, Rich was responsible for the finance, accounting, corporate development, recruiting and information technology functions. Rich has extensive experience in financial management, corporate finance, and the execution and integration of acquisitions for public and private equity-backed companies. During his tenure, Paradigm Solutions was purchased by CACI International of Arlington, VA. Rich holds a Bachelor of Science Degree in Finance from Boston College’s Carroll School of Management where he graduated Summa Cum Laude. He also holds a Master’s Degree in Entrepreneurial Finance and Strategic Cost Management from the Olin Graduate School of Management at Babson College.
Michael Thieme
CTO
Michael Thieme is responsible for Novetta’s technology portfolio, driving development of innovative solutions and products to support diverse customer missions. He has over 20 years of experience in technical leadership positions supporting IC and DoD programs, delivering novel capabilities to solve challenges in data analytics, identity intelligence, and image processing. Under his leadership, Novetta has launched Centers of Excellence in Machine Learning, Cloud, and DevSecOps, building state-of-the-art capabilities that anticipate customer needs and strengthen our technology-enabled services.
Michael came to Novetta with the acquisition of IBG, a biometric consulting and technology company. Michael holds a Bachelor of Arts in Political Science from Tufts University and is the editor of national and international technical standards in AI and biometrics. He is an officer of the U.S. INCITS/AI Technical Committee and represents the U.S. as an expert in ISO/IEC JCT1 SC 42, Artificial Intelligence. He holds multiple patents in biometric image processing.
Brian Hobbs
SVP, Business Development & Strategy
Brian Hobbs is responsible for Novetta’s business development and strategic growth. Mr. Hobbs has more than 15 years of experience in business development leadership roles serving the Department of Defense and the Intelligence Community with career bookings exceeding $5 billion.
Prior to Novetta, Mr. Hobbs was the Vice President of Corporate Capture for KeyW. In this role, he oversaw strategic corporate captures and standardized the capture process for the company at the enterprise level. Prior to KeyW, Mr. Hobbs served as Executive Director of Business Development for Blackbird Technologies, Inc., where he standardized BD and Capture efforts. Hobbs also served in senior capture management roles with both Six3 Systems, Inc. and CACI International, Inc. During his time at CACI, Mr. Hobbs received the Wing Award for sales excellence and the CACI Intel BD Team MVP award for driving top-line growth. Mr. Hobbs’ business development expertise includes special operations, full-spectrum cyber operations, ISR, and advanced analytics. Mr. Hobbs holds a Bachelor of Science from the University of Vermont in Burlington, VT.
Rob Sheen
SVP, Client Operations
Rob Sheen is responsible for customer mission success as the leader of Novetta’s Information Exploitation, Cyber and Mission Solutions teams; overseeing deployment, implementation and all aspects of operational excellence in the customer space.
Prior to Novetta, Rob held program manager roles overseeing mission-critical data analytics system implementations at companies such as Sapient and CACI. In 2011, he joined Novetta as Program Manager of Defense Intelligence. In that role, he oversaw the deployment of large-scale data solutions for defense and intelligence customers. Throughout his tenure with Novetta, Rob has played a pivotal role in our continued success by operating at the center of our leadership team; connecting business development to inspire product innovation, leading mission-focused teams to achieve excellence in execution. Mr. Sheen graduated from Virginia Tech with a B.S. in Computer Science and earned an MBA from the George Washington University School of Business.
