Every year, COLSA selects employees from major categories across the company to highlight as part of our commitment to recognizing and rewarding good work. Rewarding efforts that go above and beyond in support of the customer is how COLSA promotes one of the company’s core values.
“People are our most valuable resource.”
Because of the work of employees like Shawn Neil, COLSA’s focus can remain on offering quality products and services that meet or exceed customer requirements and ensure customer satisfaction.
The Importance of a Good Program Manager
Shawn Neil is the Director for Program Control for COLSA, the Program Manager for both the Information Technology Cyber Management (ITCM) contract and the GMT Test Flight contract, and from 2020-2024, the President for the Association for COLSA Employees (ACE).
The Program Control department oversees the status of funding and budgets for various contracts and seeks to ensure nothing is a surprise to COLSA’s program managers. As the Director, Shawn manages the team of Project/Program Specialists who track these statuses. Shawn and his team are responsible for managing multiple budgets, spend plans, delivery of dozens of CDRLs on a monthly basis, reconciliations, invoice accuracy, and quality and correctness of deliverables for dozens of contracts with total values over $500 Million.
As a Program Manager, Shawn says his role is to be responsible for overall performance and customer satisfaction while staying in scope but also managing people so that “they’re aware of not just what’s happening on the contract but also what’s happening within COLSA.”
Recognizing Shawn’s Contributions Over the Years
On the specific contracts he oversees, Shawn Neil is credited with timely and expansively managing employees. As the Program Manager for the ITCM contract, Shawn was the COLSA lead for the recompete. In that role he was largely responsible for doubling the COLSA workforce on this contract. He was also the transition lead, and ensured all incumbents were hired before the contract start date.
As the Program Manager for the GMT Test Flight contract, Shawn is responsible for ensuring employees are deployed to various locations to support the MDA Flight Test Program. Shawn sometimes deploys himself to some of these sites to relieve an employee that has been away for an extended period of time.
“COLSA has asked a lot of Shawn this past year and he always finds a way to deliver and never once has he complained,” wrote Jim Hunter, Shawn’s nominator and Senior VP of Federal Support Services, among many other glowing statements.
One of the biggest examples of Shawn’s commitment is his service as the President of ACE. As the President, he spent a lot of personal time planning events, such as seasonal and Christmas parties, as well as raising money for COLSA families in need. Shawn has also served as the COLSA coordinator for employee involvement in Habitat for Humanity and FOCAL Angels.
A Word from Shawn Neil
“It feels amazing,” Shawn said, citing how validating it felt to have his 20+ years with COLSA recognized. However, he wanted to ensure he didn’t take sole credit. Shawn mentioned the many mentorship opportunities he received at COLSA as he worked his way up to Director for Program Control, as well as how indebted he felt to the teams he has been on.
“It’s easy to be a successful manager when you have a great team around you.”
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