NAVSYS Corporation President, Dr. Alison Brown, offers Testimony to Congress at a Women’s CEO Panel on Jobs and the Economy
Colorado Springs, CO – December 6, 2011 – Dr. Alison Brown, President CEO of NAVSYS Corporation, joined a panel of six female CEOs to advise congresswomen about the challenges their respective companies and industries face and how current economic policies and regulations affect business growth and job creation. Representative Cathy McMorris Rodgers (WA-R), moderated the panel hosted by women members of the House Republican Conference in Washington D.C. on Monday, December 5. Rodgers, Vice Chair of the Conference, explained that the event’s goal was to bring female industry leaders together to share their perspectives on how to revive the economy, which has suffered 34 consecutive months with an unemployment rate higher than 8 percent.
Dr. Brown kicked off the panel, presenting the issues faced by NAVSYS as a small business specializing in GPS high technology and defense, which is facing delays in contracts that save the military millions of dollars. These delays are resulting in a hiring freeze. “The Air Force is drawing down their costs so rapidly this year that there is no time for them to perform any analysis on the effect of some of their cost cutting measures.”
Brown points to DoD and small business contracting restrictions, access to capital and economic confidence as key issues which need to be addressed to help her and other high tech small businesses.
Brown urged that congress “put teeth into the congressionally mandated small business contracting goals (23%) which have continued to be ignored by the DoD and other agencies, and remove barriers to small business contracting, such as unfair Federal Acquisition Regulations, that are being used to prevent small business competitions. In FY11, the DoD fell short of their small business contracting goals by $12B. This was a 7-year low for the contract dollars
awarded to small businesses and a 28% drop from recent years. These contracts are important to help small businesses grow.”
“Another area of critical concern to me,” added Brown “is the challenge in getting access to working capital. As a result of the Wall Street financial crisis, restrictions have been put on banks that are causing Main Street to suffer. Five years ago, I could invest in a new product development with reasonable certainty that when I started receiving customer orders I could get access to a working line of credit sufficient to pay for bringing onboard new employees and purchasing materials. This is no longer the case. This is a serious problem for any small business planning growth.”
Brown’s final Christmas wish relates to economic climate confidence. “Restore confidence to the business community,” Brown advised the Congresswomen. “Having no plan in place to get out of the debt crisis is hurting business far more, in my opinion, than any of the flaws that opponents have pointed out with each other’s plans for recovery. The worse case situation for businesses, in developing our own strategic plans for growth, is the “no plan” condition that currently exists due to Congressional dead-lock and the inability of the super committee to come up with resolutions.”
Other CEOs testifying on the panel included:
Ms. Catherine Heigel – President, Duke Energy South Carolina
Ms. Lisa Hook – President & CEO, Neustar, Inc.
Ms. Barbara Martin – President & CEO, Vista Health System
Ms. Sandra Parrillo – President & CEO, Providence Mutual Fire Insurance
Ms. Janet Trautwein – CEO, National Association of Health Underwriters
A video of the complete panel testimony is available at http://www.ustream.tv/recorded/18952416 About NAVSYS Corporation
Founded in 1986 by Dr. Alison Brown, NAVSYS is an established, growing, and well-respected R&D firm breaking ground in Global Positioning Systems (GPS), Inertial Navigation Systems, and Communication Systems. The company provides specialized GPS products and services for government and commercial customers by leveraging core technologies, unique technical
expertise, and innovative engineering approaches. NAVSYS was the recipient of the prestigious 2007 SBIR Tibbetts Award and the 2008 AFEI Excellence in Enterprise Integration Award.
Contact information:
NASVYS Corporation
14960 Woodcarver Road Colorado Springs, CO 80921 719-481-4877 www.navsys.com
