About GCAT | Government Contracting Advisory Team

Meet our team members

Debbie Goode, Founder, The Government Contracting Advisory Team

Debbie provides more than 20 years of accounting and auditing experience to clients in the Central Florida region. Debbie works primarily with government contractors, governmental entities, not-for-profit organizations, and commercial companies.

Debbie offers expertise in providing government cost accounting services—including DCAA representation, contract rate calculations, developing ICE models, and setting up cost accounting systems that meet FAR Part 31.2 requirements. In 2008, striving to provide the most value to her government contracting clients, Debbie founded the Government Contracting Advisory team (GCAT), a network of independent service providers who specialize in providing services to government contractors. Through the GCAT, government contracting clients gain quick access to a variety of government contracting specific services, including help with bid proposals, GSA schedules, contract negotiations, and RFP reviews.

As an active member of the local Melbourne community, Debbie is an officer on the executive committee of both the Economic Development Commission (EDC) and Women’s Business Center. She is also a member of Brevard Small Business Assistance Council and Small Business Resource Network.

In 2010, Debbie’s professional achievements were recognized with the Florida Institute of Certified Public Accountants (FICPA) Women to Watch Award in the experienced leader category. During the same year, she was named to the FICPA’s President’s Honor Roll. Additionally, Debbie is a diplomat of the American College of Forensic Examiners (ACFE).

Education:
Debbie received her Bachelor of Science, Accounting degree from the Florida State University. A big believer in higher education, she immediately went on to obtain her Masters in Accounting from the University of South Florida and was successful in passing the extensive exam required to become a Certified Public Accountant

Organizations:
Over the years Debbie has held active roles in many professional and local community organizations, such as:

• Small Business Resource Network
• Economic Development Commission of Florida’s Space Coast – Executive Committee and Board Member
• Women's Business Center at Florida Tech – Board Member
• Space Coast Government Finance Officers Association
• Brevard Small Business Assistance Council – Treasurer, Secretary
• American Institute of Certified Public Accountants
• Florida Institute of Certified Public Accountants

Stephen C. Thomas

Mr. Thomas is a partner and patent attorney with the law firm of Hayworth, Chaney, & Thomas P.A., whose office locations include Melbourne, Orlando and Vero Beach, FL. Mr. Thomas practices patent, trademark, copyright, and business law and chairs the Intellectual Property and Business Law division at the firm. He is licensed to practice before the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office. He is an active litigator in both federal and state courts.

Prior to joining the law firm, Mr. Thomas was employed by defense contractor Harris Corporation in Melbourne, Florida in a program management, technology development, intellectual property development, licensing, and systems engineering capacity. He is well versed in the intellectual property requirements imposed by the Federal Acquisition Regulations (FAR) and has experience negotiating these rights with government contract offices. He held profit/loss responsibility at Harris Corporation for numerous defense contracts with industry leaders such as the Boeing Company, Lockheed Martin, Raytheon Company, and numerous others in the aerospace industry.

Mr. Thomas holds electrical engineering and law degrees. He was the valedictorian of his law class.

Edward J. Kinberg

Mr. Kinberg retired from the U.S. Army in 1994 and established his law firm in Melbourne Florida. The majority of his military career involved contract law and litigation.

While on active duty, he served as contract trial attorney for the Department of Army in Washington DC representing the Army in complex contract disputes before the Armed Services Board of Contract Appeals and bid protests. He also served as the Deputy Chief of Contract Law and Procurement Fraud Coordinator for U.S. Army Europe and as a Senior Attorney with the U.S. Army Aviation and Troop Command.

He is an active member of the National Contract Management Association. In addition to serving as Chapter President for the Cape Canaveral, he served on the National Board of Directors and is a frequent speaker at events. His contributions to the contract management association have earned him the status of Fellow with the NCMA, one its highest awards. He has also been inducted in the “Hall of Fame” of his local chapter.

Mr. Kinberg is also certified by the Florida Bar as an expert in the construction field.

Mr. Kinberg was recently selected by Aspatore Books, a Division of Thomson Reuters, to join a team of leading government contract attorneys in writing chapters on government contracting under their “Inside the Minds” series. He is the author of a chapter entitled, "Successful Strategies in Defense Contract Bid Protests" for the book Government Contract Bid Protests and a chapter entitled, "Dispute Avoidance and Resolution" for the book Best Practices for Resolving Government Contract Disputes.

Gary M. Beckert

Mr. Beckert is a business analyst, certified training facilitator, award-winning manager, and business writer. He earned two Leadership Awards while in a Fortune 500 corporation, and has over 27 years successful business development experience, including helping proposal teams win more than $2 Billion in contracts for product and services for the U.S. Government.

Gary is a former Certified Business Analyst through the SBA-sponsored Florida Small Business Development Center Network. He is a certified facilitator through the Kauffman Entrepreneurial Foundation of Kansas City, and a certified Teamwork and Organizational Improvement facilitator through AchieveGlobal. He is an active member of the National Contract Management Association (NCMA), a founding member of the Alliance of Supplier Diversity Professionals (ASDP), and a member of the American Society for Training and Development (ASTD).

Gary has trained literally thousands of people in professional and high-technology skills including: Government contracting, GSA Schedules, business development, supplier diversity, contract acquisition, contract pricing, “Earned Value” (WBS) government cost & schedule management, software project management, contract requirements management, and high technology computer engineering courses.
Mr. Beckert provides voluntary counseling and government contracting workshops to Small Business Development Centers, Procurement Technical Assistance Centers, and small business offices at prime contractors and government agencies.

Lenita W. Wright

Lenita specializes in Commercial Property & Casualty Insurance & Employee Benefits. She joined Bowen, Miclette and Britt in 2003. Lenita brings 35 years experience to the firm with a background as a National Broker in Commercial Sales and Service & Employee Benefits.

Lenita has worked with government contractors / subcontractors for 23 years meeting their insurance needs from Florida to California. The Brevard county office also provides service to many commercial contractors, property owners, manufacturers, high tech companies and those with environmental / pollution exposures.

Associations

1995 President PIA of Florida
2008 Director - Space Coast EDC
1989 CIC Certified Insurance Counselor
1994 Class Leadership Jacksonville

B. David Krigelman

David is the President of Krigelman & Associates, Inc. (a Veteran-Owned Small Business). David supplies systems engineering, program management, and proposal development and technical support service expertise across a broad spectrum of application areas including development and operations of NASA manned space programs; planetary flyby missions, orbiters, and entry probes/landers; communications satellites and ground stations; as well as military development, production and support of classified satellites and ground stations, re-entry vehicle systems for ICBMs, C4I systems, tactical data systems, and flight and armor simulation and training systems.

David’s five decades of experience encompass: Lockheed Martin (former GE Aerospace); consulting for large and small defense/space/commercial businesses both US and international; and military service with the US Army Signal Corps. His proposal participation resulted in winning over $10 Billion in government contracts including the US Army’s STRYKER Family of Light Armor Vehicles Program and the Target Acquisition Designation System/Pilots Night Vision System (TADS/PNVS) for the AH-64 and AH-64D Apache Helicopters. He has also provided voluntary support of the SBA Service Corps of Retired Executives (SBA/SCORE), DoD/DLA Procurement Technical Assistance Centers (PTACs), the Florida Network of Small Business Development Centers (SBDCs), and the Brevard Small Business Assistance Council (BSBAC).

David holds a BSME from Drexel University in Philadelphia, PA

Travis Proctor

Travis Proctor is the President of Artemis, The IT Department, a company he founded in 1995 while a sophomore at Florida Institute of Technology. In 1998, Mr. Proctor graduated at the top of his class earning his Bachelor's degree in Computer Science Information Systems. Artemis currently employs 21 people and provides IT Department services to government contractors and other clients throughout the Central Florida region from its offices in Melbourne.

Mr. Proctor's spirit and determination continues to drive his company's progress in providing cutting edge technology support services. Artemis IT provides monitoring and managed services for client-owned infrastructures, web application development, and was an early adopter of cloud computing services allowing the company to provide secure access to core applications such as MS Office, Outlook, DelTech, Quickbooks, etc., without requiring clients to make expensive IT infrastructure investments.

Mr. Proctor is an active member of the Space Coast community and serves on several community and company boards. Artemis has won numerous awards in its field for outstanding service and community support, and Mr. Proctor has been selected as one of the top 4 leaders under 40 in Brevard County. In 2006, Florida Institute of Technology awarded Travis with the University's GOLD award as the outstanding Graduate of the Last Decade, and in 2007 was the first inductee into the Montrose High School Hall of Fame.

Beth Gitlin

Beth Gitlin is President/Owner of Global Passages LLC, an international trade consulting company. Her company's mission is to assure that US businesses attain maximum profitability with the least amount of risk while initiating and/or expanding their import/export programs.

Global Passages provides tailored resources for US companies to improve product sourcing, to analyze foreign market data and introduce products/services to new foreign markets, to streamline and simplify import/export processes, supply chain management procedures, customs compliance and government regulatory compliance programs.

Beth is a frequent speaker at international trade events throughout the country. Additionally, she is an adjunct faculty instructor at Florida Institute of Technology for their MBA program.

Beth has over 15 years experience in retailing, manufacturing and importing consumer goods. Prior to owning Global Passages, she was Vice President, Imports and Product Development at General Foam Plastics Corporation, a manufacturer and importer of Christmas trees, wreaths, outdoor lighting, swimming pools/pumps and water gardening products. She was responsible for developing and managing from inception a $100M plus Import and Product Development Department.

Her prior experience includes 9 years at Wal-Mart as a Senior Buyer and Import Manager with responsibilities involving trade with over 26 different countries. Previously, she served 4 years as a Lieutenant in the US Army at Schofield Barracks, HI.

Beth lived in Oita, Japan as an AFS foreign exchange student during her senior year in high school. She earned her BA in Japanese Studies from Dickinson College in Carlisle, PA and her MBA from Chaminade University of Honolulu. She returned to Yokohama, Japan for a second year of study in order to complete her MA in Asian Studies at the University of Hawaii.

Beth resides in Indian Harbour Beach, FL with her husband, Scott Hoffman.

Dustin Hodgkins

Dustin Hodgkins is a Business Development Officer for Commercial Business Finance, an accounts receivable financing company. CBF specializes in collateral based financing to assist companies with working capital and cash flow. With flexible underwriting CBF is able to establish lines of credit based upon accounts receivables, purchase orders, inventory and/or government contracts. CBF is headquartered in Winter Park, Florida with satellite offices in Melbourne and works with companies throughout Florida. CBF provides flexible financing structures, quick turnaround time on applications and the ability to work with existing lenders.

Dustin has been with CBF for 3 years and prior to joining CBF Dustin was a loan officer with Investors Mortgage Lending. Dustin graduated from Florida State University with a degree in Finance and a minor in Economics in 2004. Dustin has lived in Brevard County for 5 years and currently lives in Indialantic, Florida.

Dustin is also an active member of the community and currently serves as the President-elect of the West Melbourne Business Association.

Cindy Lennard

A former CFO with a Government Contractor and Controller with a governmental agency, Cindy brings a wealth of experience to the Government Contracting Advisory Team (GCAT). As part of CRI's team over the years Cindy has worked in the Accounting Services, Audit, and Tax departments. Cindy is an accomplished Certified Public Accountant (CPA) and during her tenure with the firm she has focused on providing accounting services to Government Contractors, including:

Deltek Implementation - Deltek is one of the most popular softwares for Government contractors. Cindy helps with initial set-up of the software and consults with clients on software issues. She ensures the software handles the contracts correctly, especially when clients have contract modifications.
Assistance with setting up Government contractors' cost accounting systems, including developing their cost pools to ensure their fringe, overhead, and G&A rate calculations are compliant with FAR and DCAA regulations.
DCAA Representation - Cindy will serve as the liaison between Government contractors and the DCAA to ensure the audit process goes smoothly and the government contractors are either awarded the contracts (in a pre-award audit) or keep their funding on an on-going contract.

Education

Cindy obtained her Bachelor of Science in Accounting and Master of Business Administration from the University of Central Florida. She became a Certified Public Accountant in 2002.

Organizations:

Cindy is an active member in her professional Associations as well as Associations that cater to Government contractors, including:

American Institute of Certified Public Accountants
Florida Institute of Certified Public Accountants
National Contract Management Association, Space Coast Chapter

Cindy is also actively involved with Associated Builders and Contractors (ABC), East chapter and National Association of Women in Construction (NAWIC), Space Coast Chapter.

The individual companies participating in GCAT are not affiliated with each other for any purpose other than providing educational programs for issues related to government contracting. Participating companies do not share fees, and have no obligation to refer clients to companies in GCAT and do not assume any responsibilities or liability for information provided by any member of GCAT