The Future of GovCon

PJ Lechleitner: The Once in a Generation Opportunity Inside DHS That Most Companies Are Missing

On this episode of The Future of GovCon, Jake Frazer sits down with Patrick "PJ" Lechleitner, former Acting Director and Deputy Director of U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, 21-year DHS and HSI veteran, Navy cryptologist, and Fairfax County police officer turned federal investigator. PJ pulls back the curtain on what is really happening inside ICE and DHS right now, where the money is flowing, how the contracting environment is evolving, and what companies need to do to position themselves in what he calls a once in a generation funding moment for homeland security. He calls it like it is. No partisan spin, no lobbying. Just the reality of one of the most consequential shifts in federal law enforcement spending in U.S. history. 🔔 Subscribe and leave us a rating on Apple Podcasts or Spotify — it helps more people in the GovCon community find the show. ⏱️ TIMESTAMPS 00:00 – Welcome and introduction 01:26 – Who is PJ Lechleitner: Navy, police, 21 years at DHS and HSI 02:29 – Growing up in Schuylkill County, Pennsylvania: big Irish Catholic family 04:05 – Joining the Navy right out of high school: a family tradition 06:11 – Cryptology in the Navy: signals intelligence and life in the SCIF 07:16 – Living in Italy and England: the highlight of his military career 08:05 – Admiral Crowe's advice: get out, figure yourself out 08:30 – George Mason, Fairfax County PD, and the transition to federal law enforcement 10:12 – Why being a street cop is the best training for federal investigation 11:57 – How PJ ended up at U.S. Customs, which became ICE 12:48 – How DHS was formed: ICE, CBP, USCIS explained simply 14:32 – HSI vs ERO: the detectives vs the detention and removal side 15:50 – ERO's chronic underfunding and the new surge of attention 16:43 – How CBP and ICE relate: uniform vs investigative functions 17:56 – How HSI uses contractors: the innovation lab, big data, and cyber operations 19:56 – How to engage: GSA vehicles, independent contracting, and what's changing 21:10 – Where the big beautiful bill money is actually going inside DHS 22:19 – Detention capacity: from 41,500 beds to a target of 100,000 23:36 – Transportation: why ICE needs wraparound contract support, not just airframes 24:41 – The massive scope of contracting opportunity: IT, healthcare, logistics, facilities 25:02 – Nontraditional contracting vehicles: WEXMAC and the push for speed 28:41 – The DOGE effect: brain drain, efficiency pressure, and doing more with less 29:12 – Career vs. political appointee friction and how it is settling down 32:07 – New DHS Secretary Mark Molan and the normalization of contracting processes 34:08 – How to protect yourself as a new entrant in the DHS space 35:21 – Do your due diligence: talk to people who know the space 36:06 – The run on DHS procurement and contracting expertise 37:31 – Testifying before Congress: PJ's experience on the Hill 40:10 – A once in a generation funding moment: there has never been this much money 41:21 – What does the DHS space look like in 2029? 43:25 – The mission never goes away: DHS traces back to 1789 44:10 – Pushing enforcement beyond the borders: prevention vs reaction 46:14 – Transnational criminal organizations and the proliferation of cyber threats 47:50 – The pendulum swings: FBI, CIA, ATF and what happens after immigration 48:46 – One word on the future: "Chaotic"

The Power of Energy in GovCon | John Ustica

On this episode of The Future of GovCon, Jake Frazer sits down with John Ustica, CEO of Siemens Government Technologies, for a conversation on the trends reshaping defense and GovCon from the ground up. John brings a perspective you don't often hear on this show: a career built not in the Pentagon but on the factory floor, working his way through one of the most complex companies in the world before taking the helm of SGT. In this conversation he covers energy investment, power dominance, digital twins, micro nuclear, shipbuilding, reshoring, and where the $1.5 trillion defense budget is really going. If you work in defense technology, energy, or GovCon broadly, this one is packed with insight. 🔔 Subscribe and leave us a rating on Apple Podcasts or Spotify — it helps more people in the GovCon community find the show. ⏱️ TIMESTAMPS 00:00 – Hook: Energy investment and the reshoring renaissance 01:24 – Welcome and introduction 02:46 – John's background: factory floor to CEO 04:08 – Childhood cancer survivor and the leadership lesson it left 05:20 – Choosing Siemens over Lockheed Martin out of college 07:38 – Running a factory in Fort Payne, Alabama: hard lessons in leadership 08:45 – Surround yourself with people smarter than you 09:37 – How John learned GovCon fast: be interested, not interesting 11:02 – Growing up in Fort Myers, Florida: fishing, sailing, and lessons from the water 12:24 – What boating teaches you about leadership under pressure 13:22 – How big is SGT inside the Siemens universe? 13:55 – What foreign ownership mitigation actually means and why it matters 15:24 – The next aircraft carrier will be delivered digitally on Siemens software 16:34 – Serving the Army in Korea, Japan, and Australia: the AUKUS opportunity 17:49 – Closing the loop: from design to delivery in one digital environment 18:44 – Digital twins and what they mean for cost and speed in defense 19:54 – Power dominance: energy as the new national security priority 20:24 – Building the energy backbone at Guantanamo Bay 21:39 – Data centers, the grid, and the coming infrastructure challenge 22:43 – Partnering on small modular reactors and micro nuclear 24:02 – What SGT is doing in data and the Altair Engineering acquisition 25:07 – Real time data lakes, attribute level security, and RapidMiner 27:58 – Reacting to the $1.5 trillion defense budget request 28:40 – Shipbuilding: Hyundai, Newport News, and modernizing public shipyards 29:45 – Speed in procurement and the rise of nontraditional contractors 30:35 – European defense: partners calling for help moving faster 31:24 – What does GovCon look like in 2029? 32:01 – Reshoring as a renaissance for U.S. manufacturing 33:54 – Investing in apprenticeships and the skilled labor pipeline 35:15 – One word on the future: "Amazed"

LTG (R) Dave Julazadeh: The Changing Character of War and What It Means for Industry

On this episode of The Future of GovCon, Jake Frazer sits down with retired Lieutenant General Dave Julazadeh, former Deputy Chief of Staff for Capability Development at NATO's Allied Command Transformation, F-16 combat pilot, and newly appointed COO of BENS (Business Executives for National Security). Dave breaks down what the war in Ukraine is revealing about the changing character of warfare, why the cost barrier to generating strategic effects has dramatically fallen, and where he sees the biggest opportunities for industry over the next three years. 🔔 Subscribe and leave us a rating on Apple Podcasts or Spotify — it helps more people in the GovCon community find the show. ⏱️ TIMESTAMPS 00:00 – Welcome and introduction 01:30 – Dave's career overview: F-16s, NATO, and ACT 04:50 – Growing up in Illinois and falling in love with aviation 07:00 – University of Kansas, ROTC, and a critical graduation timing call 09:00 – First assignment: Ramstein and nuclear deterrence missions 11:40 – Embedded with the Rangers: Haiti and a crash course in joint ops 16:45 – Years of European assignments and how they shaped his worldview 19:00 – What is NATO Allied Command Transformation and why it matters 20:40 – Multi-domain operations explained 22:00 – How NATO nations divide domain responsibilities 24:50 – The U.S. Mission to NATO in Brussels: the best first stop for industry 27:20 – The changing character of warfare: what Ukraine is teaching the world 30:00 – Operation Spiderweb and the collapse of the cost barrier to strategic effects 33:30 – Why NATO's innovation cycle is dangerously slow 36:00 – How Dave championed NATO's first Space Symposium 39:00 – Space as a service and what the U.S. is doing right 40:45 – Where things are headed by 2029: AI-assisted decision-making 42:30 – Dave's new role as COO of BENS 44:20 – One word on the future: "Bright"

The Coast Guard's $25 Billion Moment | RDML Mark Fedor

On this episode of The Future of GovCon, Jake Frazer sits down with Rear Admiral (Ret.) Mark Fedor, 34-year Coast Guard veteran, former Coast Guard CFO, and Senior Director of Programs at HII. Mark pulls back the curtain on one of the most undercovered opportunities in GovCon: the Coast Guard. With $25 billion injected through budget reconciliation, a major headquarters reorganization with five new PEOs, and a rapid prototyping office called Raptor actively pulling in industry partners, the Coast Guard is open for business in a way it hasn't been before. 🔔 Subscribe and leave us a rating on Apple Podcasts or Spotify — it helps more people in the GovCon community find the show. ⏱️ TIMESTAMPS 00:00 – Welcome and introduction 01:00 – Mark's background: 34 years, six ships, three commands, Coast Guard CFO 02:30 – Nickname "Bomber" and growing up in Bristol, CT 05:40 – Why the Coast Guard over the Navy 07:00 – Coast Guard Academy vs. sister service academies 12:10 – Harvard Kennedy School and the path to senior leadership 13:20 – First ship in Miami: counter-narcotics and 480 migrants aboard 15:40 – The leadership lesson that stayed with him 17:00 – Early exposure to government contractors 19:30 – The Deepwater acquisition collapse 23:45 – Becoming the Coast Guard CFO 25:30 – Post-9/11 budget step change 29:00 – The One Big Beautiful Bill: $25B and the pressure to execute 31:00 – Buying vs. leasing vs. contracting 33:00 – Five new PEO structures explained 35:20 – The Raptor Office: rapid prototyping for vendors 36:00 – How to engage the Coast Guard via SAM.gov 39:10 – Could the Coast Guard move from DHS to DOW? 41:50 – The Coast Guard as a geopolitical instrument 44:20 – Force Design 2028 and the three-year outlook 47:50 – One word on the future: "Optimistic"

MG Ryan Heritage: What Industry Gets Wrong About Selling to Cyber Command

Description: On this episode of The Future of GovCon, Jake Frazer sits down with Major General (Ret.) Ryan Heritage — former J3 at U.S. Cyber Command, Commanding General of Marine Corps Western Recruiting, and one of the most operationally grounded voices in the cyber domain today. Ryan brings a perspective you don't often hear: an infantry officer who came up through the mud and guts of maneuver warfare and applied that same mindset to cyber operations. In this conversation he breaks down how the cyber domain works as a maneuver space, what industry is getting wrong in how they engage Cyber Command, why a dedicated Cyber Service may be on the horizon, and where the AI and cyber race is heading by 2029. If you work in defense tech, cyber, or GovCon broadly, this one is essential listening. 🔔 Subscribe and leave us a rating, it helps more people in the GovCon community find the show.