Two Serco Leaders Recognized with Chief Officer Awards by WashingtonExec

Serco Inc. is proud to announce that two leaders in the business received Chief Officer Awards during the Annual WashingtoExec awards ceremony.  Julie Van Leunen, Serco’s Chief Human Resources Officer received CHRO of the year for a Public Company, and Dr. Garrett Smiley, Serco’s Chief Information Security Officer won CISO of the Year for a Public Company. 

The Chief Officer Awards, is an annual program that recognizes the most impactful and innovative executives in government and industry who hold C-suite positions.  The Chief Officer Awards garnered an unprecedented level of interest and excitement this year, underscoring the exceptional caliber of talent and leadership within the government contracting community.

Julie was recognized for her leadership through a multi-dimensional campaign to put people back at the center of Serco’s business strategy. She achieved this during a period of rapid change at Serco, which included a transition in CEOs for North America and the UK Group, the integration of a recent acquisition, and in a highly challenging labor market.

Garrett was recognized for his efforts across the full spectrum of information security.  This included the incorporation of infosec measures into every aspect of Serco, ensuring data protection across the current business while also expanding the scope of new business pursuits.  He also led the improvement of incident response across the business while shrinking the “attack surface” for incoming threats.    

“It is an honor to have both Julie and Garrett as leaders here at Serco, and both are very deserving of the recognition they received from WashingtonExec.  Julie has shown exceptional leadership by prioritizing our people and placing them at the heart of Serco's strategy. Her creativity, persistence, and unwavering commitment make her an outstanding industry leader in HR and worthy of this award.  Garrett’s leadership has helped Serco take great strides in improving our information security practices and he has helped develop new protocols to mature our cyber resilience," said Tom Watson, Serco’s Chief Executive Officer.