Contractors Group Picks Ex-Pentagon Logistics Exec as Chief

The 400-member Professional Services Council on Tuesday announced that it has selected David Berteau, onetime assistant secretary of Defense for logistics and materiel readiness, as its new president.

Effective March 28, Berteau will replace Stan Soloway, another Pentagon veteran who left the contractors group in December after 15 years to launch a consulting firm called Celero Strategies LLC. 

“I am excited to have the opportunity to lead such a respected organization in the fields of government technology and professional services,” Berteau said. “Stan Soloway did a great job growing and improving the Council. I’m eager to build on those accomplishments and to promote an open and competitive federal marketplace in which government benefits from the best solutions that industry has to offer.”

Berteau has private-sector, government and academic experience. He spent 11 years as a senior defense department official specializing in acquisition, logistics, personnel and budgets, from 1981-1993 before his confirmation as assistant secretary in December 2014.

He worked at SAIC, from 1993-2001, including four years as a senior vice president. He was a consultant and director at the consulting firm of Clark & Weinstock from 2003 to 2008. He did a stint at the Center for Strategic and International Studies from 2008 through 2014, ending as a senior vice president.

Berteau also taught at the graduate level at the University of Texas at Austin, Georgetown University and Syracuse University, where he was a fulltime professor and director of National Security Studies from 2001-2003.

“We will continue to build on the outstanding work that PSC is so well known for in the marketplace,” Berteau said. “PSC will continue its leadership role in advocacy for government contractors and for producing first rate research and analysis. We will also maintain an active voice in the media, on Capitol Hill and at government agencies.”