Running a government contracting business means operating under constant scrutiny. Audits, compliance reporting, and regulatory requirements are built into every contract, and companies that handle them poorly rarely survive for long. For Margarita Howard, sole owner and CEO/president of HX5, rigorous adherence to those obligations has been a cornerstone of the firm’s operation since she founded it in 2004.
HX5 today supports the Department of Defense and NASA with professional mission support services, employing more than 1,000 people across 34 states and 90 government locations. Howard attributes a significant part of that growth to a culture of discipline that starts at the top. “Businesses must invest in educating themselves about these regulations and ensure strict adherence to them,” she has said. “It’s important that a company’s records are impeccable when working with the government due to the compliance reporting and audits that companies have to agree to perform on government contracts.”
Roots in Managing Government Programs
Howard’s appreciation for process and accountability traces back to her military career and her subsequent role in implementing the Tricare program, the Department of Defense’s health care system. As a regional director, she oversaw operations in seven southeastern states, managing the kind of organizational complexity that later proved directly applicable to running a large contractor.
“Nobody likes change,” she recalled of the Tricare rollout. “So we had a lot of town hall meetings. I was an area field manager at the time, responsible for my office in Florida. I then quickly advanced to a regional director.” That experience managing resistance and driving adoption at scale gave Howard a practical education in government operations.
The same attention to detail extends to how Margarita Howard has built HX5’s leadership team. Senior managers, many of them women, have stayed with the company for years. “We were very selective of people that we chose for our management team,” she said. “Many of them have been with us for 10 years or so, and we just have a highly dedicated, experienced management team. We could not do what we do without them.” At HX5, stability and accountability are not just values; they are operational realities. Visit this page for more information.
Learn more about Howard on https://www.margaritahoward.com/
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