Mile Corrigan, President and CEO of Noblis

As president and CEO of Noblis, Mile is responsible for general management and strategic direction of its overall scientific, technical, financial and administrative activities. Prior to this role, she served as the company’s executive vice president with a broad scope of responsibilities and held several other leadership roles, including senior vice president for its Federal Civilian Solutions Mission Area.

Episode Transcript

(00:00):
M and T Bank presents CEOs youshould know, powered by iHeart Media.
Let's me Millie Corrigan. She isthe president and CEO for Noblests, located
in Western Virginia. They worked witha wide range of government and industry clients
in the areas of national security,intelligence, transportation, healthcare, environmental sustainability,

(00:21):
and citizens services. Before we talkmore about Millie's company, I first
asked her to talk a little bitabout herself, where she's from, and
her origin story. I'm proud tosay that I'm a Virginia native. I
was born in Leesburg and grew upmost of my high school years in western
Virginia, attending South Lakes and thenwent into undergraduate at Virginia Tech. At

(00:43):
Tech, I studied management science andinformation technology, really focused on decision support
systems. So my experiences in thoseearly years all Virginia and currently obviously running
a company that's headquartered in Virginia andcan speak to many of the great ins
Noblist is doing there, I havesomething in common. We're both from this
area. I'm a Northern Virginia kidtoo, as our listeners know, and

(01:04):
I always think there's something about talkingto lifers that are from the area because
they have that inclination of knowing theDMV even better, and I think they
can associate that with their work lifetoo, as they get to know their
customers how the DMV works. SoI'm going to be anxious to talk to
you about that, and just alittle bit of course, we're here to
talk about Noblests and your ascension throughthe company with almost twenty five years of

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experience, which is remarkable in itselfin any workplace to stay that long for
a quarter of a century. Butbefore we do that, just to give
a little bit of context, whenyou were coming out of Virginia Tech,
what did you do before you joinedNoblests. So at the time after I
graduated Virginia Tech, it was inthe early days of the dot com era,
and if you're from northern Virginia,you remember what those days were like.

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I sure did. I started mycareer in software and really focused on
this new e commerce world that weall lived in and web based environment.
So I worked as a software developerdeveloping distributed systems for the commercial sector for
general motors, for chemical companies.This was a consultant company in the local

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geography and it wasn't until that bubbleburst that I pivoted to GOVCN. So
about twenty three years ago, somebodyheard about Nobilists. Either you did or
they heard about you. How didyou end up joining the company? Well,
I joined again as a software developer, not as a business leader as
I am today. But I whenI reflect back on that, I think
that is a testament to how Noblistsdevelops its leaders, you know, not

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just for a billet on a contract, but you know, for their career.
And so in my tenure at Noblists, I was able to perform in
a wide variety of roles throughout thecompany. Sometimes I joke with my team,
I think I've had almost every jobhere, working across all customer missions,
but most notably you know, inthe civil sector, but also in

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defense. And so I find it, you know, and exciting that you
can have so many careers within thesame company. You know, for me,
it was in health and then environmentalscience and energy, and then to
transportation and later aerospace, and sowhen you think about my technical background,
certainly can span multiple domains, buthaving that mission experience with those customer segments

(03:23):
really has been what has retained meas well as Nobles's investment in me,
as well as other leaders within thecorporation. So for our listeners, Milly
is not exaggerating, folks. Shehad a lot of different jobs and noblests
a lot, and I want totalk about that before we talk about mission
statement and what you do and programsand capabilities in the gov con space and

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all the cool things about Nobleists.I want to talk about your ascension because
I think this is really important forour leaders out there. Now, I'm
going to give you my example.I've been in sports radio TV for a
long time and I was on airfor many years, but I made a
decision that I wanted to get intomanagement and I had my own personal reasons,
which I'm sure you did about yourascension through the company, But you
moved from one specific sector to another. So what that said is you were

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moving up the ladder. Did youknow you wanted to change into a more
managerial run the company thing or waseverything organic? How did it all work
for you? That's a really goodquestion and one that I get asked all
the time, not only from employeesyou know, coming into the company,
but others that want to understand howthey can grow themselves as leaders within the
business. And so I would saythat it was not you know, as

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many careers are, not you know, completely architected and you know planned that
way. In fact, you know, I had identified myself as a technical
leader, having you know, conductedand been successful at converting research into you
know, programs and delivering you know, immense amount of you know, technology

(04:51):
capability to my customers. I thinkthat what won me over in the end
from being a pure technologist to thebusiness side was my passion for really shaping
the work that we do. Iknew that if I had an opportunity to
shape and drive the work and thebusiness in the areas that I felt were

(05:13):
most impactful for our nation, mostimpactful for our people, that that was
something that I wanted to step upand accept responsibility for. And so,
you know, because of my technicalbackground, I have this system's thinking mindset
and I bring that to business problemsand I think that's what has helped me

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in my current role at CEO.And so you know, i'd take those
foundational skills that I've learned building andcreating solutions into shaping and driving you know,
where the company is headed for thefuture. Okay, so we're here
to talk about Noblists. The firstthing I'd love to do is just to
get your overall mission statement. Whatis that? Sure? You know,
our mission at noblest is to solvecomplex scientific and technical problems that benefit the

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public and of course advance our nationalsecurity interests. And our tagline is for
the best of reasons, and wereally do mean that. You know,
our people, you know, ourdata, our systems, our technology,
solutions in our infrastructure, computing powerall together are really what pioneers the innovation
is that we believe will improve lives, you know, drive positive change across

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those government missions, and of courseyou know, deliver value not just to
meet mission need, but ahead ofmission need. You know, I'm going
to throw a compliment. It's probablybeen one of many during our interview,
but you did something that more andmore of our guests and leaders are doing
right now. You gave me themission statement, but you also gave context
to why you have that mission statement, and I really appreciate that because I
think that's really important to explain,because anybody can give a mission statement,

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right and some of them sound thesame, especially in the gov cone space.
If you work that way but givingit context I think is a really
good lesson for our leaders. Thatcontext is key in almost any area,
including your mission statement. So Ijust wanted to compliment you on that.
Thank you. Okay, let's dothis. There's going to be a lot
of listeners that are new and hearingabout Nobles for the first time. If
you were to give me only athirty thousand foot view of what you do,

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what would you tell everybody? Sure? I would? I mean,
first and foremost, you know,we work with a wide range of government
clients and defense, homeland, security, intelligence, law enforcement, and civil
sectors, so the full breadth ofthe federal government. We invest research and
development to deliver solutions that advance ourcustomer missions. As I mentioned, and

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you know, we have a strategicfocus on national security, critical infrastructure,
health, and space, and soyou know, we pride ourselves on delivering
full life cycle expertise, so notjust special studies or early concept analysis and
advisory support, but really we helpcustomers in design, throughout, development,

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deployment, operations, and sustainment.So we are a full life cycle company.
We prime over ninety five percent ofall contracts that we pursue, and
I would say that our research isinstrumental to solving our nation's most critical challenges.
And I can say that because it'sdemonstrated right by the significant investments that
our government customers make in US,you know, year over year, the

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stewardship and operation of you know,several managed innovation labs that we operate and
manage for them, and then againthe sustained funding and many of our block
books, studies and government funded research. So MELEI, when I have an
opportunity to talk to people like youthat you're kind of in the super secret
business and there's only so much youcan talk about, and if our listeners

(08:37):
find that Millie is being vague,there's a reason why, because they work
with a lot of people and alot of different things that are super secret
that really keep security of our country. So with all that said, when
I'm hearing a lot about AI lately, and I'm hearing about cybersecurity, and
I know every client's different, andI get that. Well. With that
said, what's at the forefront rightnow? That probably when it comes to
programs and capabilities that you're most proudof, but also your clients are really

(09:01):
needing. In twenty twenty four,and moving forward. Sure, we're both
i'd say fortunate enough to be broadas well as diverse and deep in many
areas. I would say that forthe newer areas of investment, we've long
been investing in AI and mL andare known for our expertise. We're developing

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several training solutions for our government customersin addition to the algorithms that are in
operation for those missions that are deliveringyou know, immense amount of capability.
I would say the area that we'recontinuing to invest more and more in really
isn't just one area. It's theconvergence of multiple technology areas into one.

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So if we think about where we'veevolved in the engineering space, you know,
to model based engineering MBSSE digital twinsto what you know we're seeing happening
in the ar VR XR space,where you're starting to see very high fidelity
imaging video capability and capacity coupled withthe acceleration of compute and the amount of

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processing power that we now have tofuel all of those innovations and the power
of the converging. Convergence of thosetechnologies together is how we're looking at the
market and looking at how we delivercapability to our customers understanding. Thank you
for sharing all of that, AndI did want to ask you because I
know it's a really competitive kind ofmarket and what you do. So with
all that said, how do youdifferentiate yourself from all the competition out there?

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Millie, That's a great question.I again spoke to our research and
how we're focused on not just shortterm gains, right, So we want
to make sure that, of coursewe have short term initiatives that can deliver
incremental benefit and to deliver value earlyand often. We'll always be focused on
that, but we're all so focusedon making long term bets, bets that

(11:03):
we believe will deliver disruptive and breakthrough capability. And so, just like
a balanced financial portfolio, we lookat our innovation portfolio in the same vein
so that we can attract top tiertalent, so that we can provide challenging
opportunities for our employees, but alsoso that you know, we can stay
ahead of the market to you know, again, you know, stay at

(11:24):
the tip of the sphere. Youknow. One of the things that really
boggles my mind when I talk tovery smart leaders like you and your staff
too, because I know that's reallyimportant to have a great, smart staff
that works hard and has a goodquality of life about today's technology and what
you do. And once again withno specificity, but it seems to me
that as I read the news andall the things that we have to worry

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about and then we're working on itseems like with a technology, it's a
very fluid and fast moving thing,and having to keep up with it blows
my head apart just thinking about whatyou have to deal with with your team
because things are moving so quickly.With all that said, communication, education
and all the things of the fluidityof technology, how does everybody stay together

(12:07):
move forward to make sure that you'reon the same page because there's so much
going on. You know, I'mglad that you asked this question. I'd
almost say that you teed it upfor me because it's something that I'm pretty
passionate about. I would say thatmy first response is that, you know,
and I learned this from a dearfriend of mine, you know,
no one is buying on the inside, which means you've got to get out
of the building. You have toget out of the building to learn about

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what's happening across industry. You haveto see it for yourself, you know,
be curious. We have been veryintentional about the partnerships we have,
not just with academia, but withother industry organizations, so that you know,
we aren't so insular to think thatthe best ideas only come from noblest
we're you know again, I'm thefirst one to say how proud I am

(12:48):
of our technologists or scientists. Theyare the best in brightest minds. But
we humble ourselves daily to say whatelse is happening and what else could we
be doing? Whose should we becollaborating with? And I think that open
collaborative mindset and desire to continuously learn, regardless of your career, band,

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or title, is something that I'vereally tried to promote across the board.
One of the other things that Iask our leader, CEOs and presidents and
entrepreneurs in this series, Millie isabout the hardships but also the challenges in
the industry, because we all knowthat it's not unicorns and rainbows all the
time. Your company is doing verywell, you have a great success rate,

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it's growing, you've been sustainable,You've been with the company for a
long time, but currently what arethe challenges that you face you and your
team, I would say one ofthe key challenges that we face, as
well as many other organizations that operateout of this region or other regions like
it, where we have a largedistributed workforce, right, many that are

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located near their customer environments. Andhow do you keep the corporate culture strong
when you are operating in a hybridenvironment where you have subcultures within a culture,
and how do you ensure that theyreally get the consistent experience that you
want every employee to have, justas you would want every client to have.

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And so that's something that we arereally focused on. We call that
the employee value proposition, and howdo we continue to enhance the employee value
proposition to ensure that our teams andour people feel that they're empowered as well
as included. You know, inclusivenessis something that is important, but we

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also think engagement is important, empowermentis important, and so all those are
just facets of what we call theEVP. You know, I'm glad you
brought that up. And if youcan indulge me just for a second,
because I think this is a fascinatingtopic and we could go for hours about
in person work hybrid completely at home. It's a little bit different for you
because people have security clearance and theyhave to be at certain places. And

(14:58):
I get all that we've talked aboutthat before with the great leaders like yourself,
But as a leader, it hasto be challenging to the way you
kind of grew up in this industrytwenty five years ago and everybody was at
work all the time, and nowit's just not the case. So people
with salaries and the work life balance, I mean, there's so many different
factors to why people want to joincompanies and be a part of them.

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It's got to be challenged for youto keep everybod in the same page and
make sure they're doing what you wouldlike them to do, but also for
them to be paid accordingly to havethat good work life balance. I imagine
just juggling that part of it hasjust got to be really high up in
your list and pretty intense on adaily basis. Yes, And I would
say that you know that really requiresbeing flexible, and I think through the

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pandemic we learned that that flexibility isof high value to many employees, and
so being able to meet your peoplein their season of life, whatever that
season is, and understanding how theylike to learn, how like how they
like to grow, and providing optionalityso that they can grow and develop in

(16:07):
their own way. Obviously with withyou know, with some some boundaries established
to tie it to the business andtie it to the mission of the organization.
But those are aspects of what wereally like to focus on because we've
found that in you know, solicteningfeedback from our employees and hearing their stories

(16:27):
and what they value. That's that'sbeen a key to our success. Again,
still figuring it out like many otherorganizations are, but it's being adaptive
and flexible. I think that isthe key. And community, you know,
communicative, you know, it's importantto be, especially if you're if
you're dealing with a remote operation,our partial remote operation, you need to

(16:51):
communicate more than you think you do. I didn't want to put a pin
in work just for a second andask you about philanthropic and charity work.
What do you like to be apart of whether it's with work or when
you do have free time, whichI mentioned is done too much. But
when you do, what do youlike to be a part of, well,
you know, at Noble's we've throughoutour corporate history, you know,
long before me, it's been importantto engage within our communities and within the

(17:12):
communities we serve. And so I'mvery proud of our efforts, not just
you know, pure philanthropical. Youknow, we have those causes in those
pillars that we contribute to year overyear. Those areas are in you know,
hung in the areas of hunger andhomelessness, education, you know,
STEM and learning, and then improvingthe lives of veterans. But what I'm

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proud of most is really the employeeengagement of our workforce and the activities that
supplement those direct philanthropic efforts. Sojust to give you a sense, you
know, last year, we donatedover forty nine thousand pounds of food to
local food banks. We supported youknow, over one hundred and fifty students

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in STEM initiatives. We contributed acrossthose pillars to over forty four charity organizations,
and you know, on the environmentalfront, removed over you know,
fifty four pounds of waste from ourwatershed and the environment. So these are
things that are employees in workforce reallyrally behind, and you know, that

(18:15):
makes me proud as CEO. Youknow, if I could sidebar on your
answer and thank you for sharing allthat, it's wonderful stuff. I'll give
you another example from my vantage pointof working in sports and the media.
The coverage of women's sports on televisionradio was non existing twenty five years ago,
and now it's at the forefront.There's still room to improve, but
there are women broadcasters now that arecalling the play by play, not just

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sideline reporters. But you know,there were sixty thousand people that went to
a college basketball game in Iowa fora women's game. It's extraordinary what's happened
over the last five ten years withyou when it comes to women. Where
you first came into the industry onthe engineering side, and this can include
coding and stemming everything else. Hasit gotten better over the last twenty five
years. Are you in a placewhere you say, you know women they

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more women are in all we probablystill have more work to do. But
where are you at with women rightnow twenty five years after you started up?
I would say it may appear onthe surface that you know things have
improved, because you may see moreengagement at the surface, but as I
peel back some of the data,we still have a long way to go,
and so that is an area thatI continue to really focus on providing

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the right mentorship and a guidance toour employee resource groups across you know,
multiple areas, not just of coursewomen women in technology. But it's i'd
like to say that we've gotten there, We're not quite there, and I
think, you know, it justneeds more focus and attention across the board.

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And I encourage you know, otherother companies who I know are similarly
invested to keep an eye on that. Well. If there any role models,
you'd be one of them, becauseI mean, your your ascension is
incredible and it's and I know it'scontinuing and a great story. I did
to give you the final word andsome takeaways, Millie, and just you
know, wrap up about what we'vetalked about, and maybe some things that

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we haven't talked about. We'll givea website and we'll talk about careers in
just a moment, but just somefinal thoughts about Noble lists and what you
want to leave away as a takeawayfor our listening audience today. Sure,
you know, I think a keytakeaway I'd love the audience to hear about
is that you know, we areyou know, people first company. Even
though we are categorized as a scienceand technology organization, we firmly believe that

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investments in our people lead to investmentsin our to our customers missions and that
really keeps us focused on again deliveringthose impacts at scale. You know,
I feel honored as CEO to leadsuch a talented, innovative and collaborative team
at Noblest. You know, I'menergized by our research and development investments and

(20:53):
I'm very excited to be at theHELM to see them apply to our most
pressing national challenges. And if Ihad one final thought, you know,
we are growing and you recognized asa top workplace and one of the world's
most ethical companies. We've made thatlist I think eleven times already, and
so you know we are hiring.I encourage you know, listeners to go

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to our website to learn more aboutour opportunities. Our website is n b
l I S dot org and Ilook forward to the audience connecting with us.
Thank you again for this continue success. So give my best everybody Noblest,
and we really appreciate you joining uson MT banks CEOs you should know.
Thank you so much. Thank you. Our community partner, M and

(21:37):
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