About ITPIE

Biography

As President of VAE, Inc., Nicole Guagenti takes her role as a woman and minority business owner seriously. She knows providing opportunities to people who show passion, commitment and initiative will lead to success at this family-oriented company.

Nicole took a different route than most to network solutions. After graduating from the University of Pittsburgh with a bachelor of science degree in bioengineering, Nicole worked in a research lab in Rockville, Md., conducting DNA analysis and research. After meeting her future husband, Nolan Guagenti, in Washington, D.C., Nicole eventually decided to try her hand at IT.

After studying and passing a myriad of necessary certifications, Nicole started on the help desk at the National Naval Medical Center in Maryland. She worked her way up to network support and monitoring, then on to the building, configuring, and deploying data networks during the Pentagon network overhaul and modernization post 9/11.

Nolan and Nicole started VAE, Inc., in 2006 after realizing their passion and expertise could help clients solve network problems efficiently and creatively with expertise and assurance. It’s those values and commitment to VAE’s clients that inspire Nicole every day to lead this top-tier, reputable company.

Biography

Nolan Guagenti brings his A-game to VAE, Inc. every day not only as its CEO but as its co-founder. Mr. Guagenti started his career in IT as a software programmer as a young U.S. Marine where he was stationed in the National Capital Region (NCR) supporting the Pentagon. During his time in the military, he worked his way up from working on the helpdesk to running the network for the Marines in the NCR, all while working a full-time job for a large ISP after-hours.

Mr. Guagenti jumped right in supporting post-9/11 modernization efforts after leaving the military and became the lead architect for the Command Communications Survivability Program charged with revamping, revitalizing, and modernizing the entire network at the Pentagon. During this time, Mr. Guagenti successfully led a team of engineers from other companies. February 2006, months after finishing the Pentagon job, he and his wife, Nicole Guagenti, started VAE and took the company from a two-person business to a top-tier, highly respected, and sought-after network engineering firm.

Mr. Guagenti has gone on to oversee the design and implementation of some of the largest and most complex network and security environments in the world. This experience helped him become one of the first 10,000 Cisco Certified Internetwork Experts, considered by many a doctorate in IT.

Biography

Ann-Marie Lock brings her experience as an executive and CPA with one of the nation's top public accounting firms and her business-owning expertise to VAE, Inc. as its Chief Operating Officer. Before switching to government contracting, Lock was a Partner with Dixon Hughes Goodman, LLP, a leading accounting and advisory firm with more than 2,000 staff across 13 states. She also can boast of being the youngest partner in the firm's 85-plus-year history at the time.

Lock left DHG at the end of 2013 and started Efficio, Inc., and its subsidiaries, GromaTech and Charax Group. Efficio provides advisory, programmatic, and marketing services for domestic and international defense technology companies. In its first few years of business Lock and the Efficio team helped their clients close over $50 million in contracts and they continue to develop and deliver cutting edge technologies to the U.S. warfighter.

In 2017, Lock joined the VAE family, bringing her deep business and advisory experience to further mature VAE's business practices.

Biography

Khanh Le joined the VAE family in February 2018. As Chief Financial Officer, Ms. Le oversees the company's financial operations including accounting, financial planning and analysis, project and risk management, and corporate compliance. As a key member of the executive leadership team, she focuses heavily upon the identification, qualification, measurement, and organization of VAE's business goals within the context of financial strategies. Ms. Le is a licensed CPA within the Commonwealth of Virginia. She began her career with the national public accounting firm Dixon Hughes Goodman, LLP and after five years in public accounting, she transitioned to a Financial Analyst, overseeing a 120-person, $30 million annual NASA contract. Since being with VAE, Ms. Le has been a major contributor to a number of important VAE initiatives, including the architecture and implementation of both the time and expense-focused software Costpoint, and the human resource capital management software, Paylocity. She also lead the way for VAE's Defense Contract Audit Agency (DCAA) system validations.

Biography

Kornel Gyalokay has been working alongside VAE, Inc. since its inception and joined the VAE family in 2020 as its Chief Technical Officer. Mr. Gyalokay enriches VAE with his experience from engagements such as: Lead Network Designer / Architect for the Pentagon Renovation Program, the Technical Director of the National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency New Campus East Program, and the Program Manager of the Mark Center Base Realignment and Closure (BRAC) efforts.

More recently, Mr. Gyalokay has been the founder and owner of Lead IT Solutions LLC, a small business with $8.2M in service sales, focused on delivering Army and Department of Defense level IT architecture product development, objective information technology analysis, and senior executive communications. Notable deliverables that have changed the Army and DOD included the publishing of numerous common IT infrastructure architectures designs that have enabled military departments (MILDEPS) to come together and begin to operate under a vendor-agnostic unified architecture in alignment with DOD-CIO's Joint Information Environment (JIE) initiative.

Championing and the adoption of such architecture frameworks by the MILDEPS and DISA has given Mr. Gyalokay a respected voice in the technical advancement of Army Enterprise and DoD JIE Network Initiatives. His ability to work alongside government stakeholders to determine the true underpinning need for documented requirements has led to infrastructure architecture documents that are readily and rapidly adoptable by the Army and the DoD community at large. Mr. Gyalokay's ability to systematically analyze, solve, document, and communicate complex challenges in simple, non-threatening, and easy to consume ways enhances VAE's solutioning and solution/service delivery.

Biography

All roads for Dave Chaput, during his successful career in IT sales, led him to VAE, Inc. As the company's Director of Sales, Mr. Chaput is in charge of running and building a team of motivated, knowledgeable, adaptable people who are ready to do what it takes to build on the company's successes.

Taking the reins of the sales organization in 2017, he has expanded the sales team, adding dedicated outside sales and formalizing VAE's three main sales areas: Engineering Services, Product Resale, and the ITPIE product line.

Mr. Chaput, like many on the company's team, served his country in the U.S. Air Force as an officer and chief of the engineering branch at the Pentagon. This is where he met VAE co-founder Nolan Guagenti. The pair worked together in modernizing the Pentagon's entire network while Mr. Chaput worked as an account executive with Cisco Systems Inc.

During his tenure with Cisco, Mr. Chaput rated in the top 1 percent of public sector salespeople and top 10 percent for Cisco overall, landing him a spot in the Chairman's Club for his sales acumen. Mr. Chaput put Cisco back on top in terms of sales in the Army, growing revenues from $13 million to $98 million just before he left the company in 2017.

Mr. Chaput's energy, knowledge, and passion for IT sales make him an integral part of the VAE family and the company's future successes.

Biography

Kyle Williamson has spent his career managing cyber security and enterprise-level networking programs. Since joining VAE, Inc. in 2012, Kyle has worked closely with both Department of Defense and commercial financial customers and has been a key contributor to the company’s growth. As the Director of Services, Kyle utilizes his experience in sales and program management to ensure VAE continues to deliver the exceptional quality customers and partners have come to expect. Prior to joining VAE, Kyle worked for Booz Allen Hamilton, providing technical consulting services to the Department of Defense around the National Capital Region. While based on the Pentagon, he met the VAE team working on the build-out for the Mark Center IT Infrastructure project in Alexandria, Virginia, and joined VAE himself shortly after.

Biography

Carlos came to VAE after having served his country as an Army Officer for 20 years, 15 of those as a communications and network engineer. He has lent his talents to several successful and large-scale Army Network Modernization efforts that have spanned the globe in both location and classifications. With a M.S. In Applied Mathematics, he has been leading the charge as VAE’s Director of Software Development on the creation and refinement of our ITPIE software. ITPIE (Information Technology Programmable Integration Engine) provides a near real-time and accurate single source of truth to both planners and operators.

Biography

Technology executive with 30+ years of experience leading the design and delivery of secure, scalable, and highly available networks and systems. Recognized expert in intent-based networking (IBN), AI-driven operations, and automation with a proven history of building global-scale Operations Support Systems (OSS). Skilled at navigating complex, distributed, and politically sensitive operational environments to deliver mission-critical outcomes. Trusted advisor to senior government, military, and Fortune 500 leadership; published author on enterprise security and network architecture.