Heather Utt (Paragano)

Experience

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  Merrill Lynch

  Jan 2001 - May 2003

  Financial Advisor

  Worked with 50 member staff to problem solve in areas such as new business opportunities, efficiency in current business model and testing new campaigns and initiatives. Increased client satisfaction by 15% after the first quarter of implementing a process for notifying clients in anticipation of redeeming funds. Saved hundreds of thousands of dollars by tracking and analyzing program effectiveness. Taught employees presentation skills and sales techniques for delivering effective customer service. Increased premier client contact by 20%. Exceeded monthly average production, earning "premier status" and rose to the top 15% of overall sales force for 2002. Show less

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  United States Department of Defense

  Sept 2005 - May 2009

  Contract Specialist

  Served as senior Contract Specialist (CS) who performed pre award and post award contracting functions including, negotiation and administration to completion or termination of long-range high dollar value contracts. Worked with a variety of different contracts including research and development, initial production, product improvement, and support services for the military. Lead CS on large scale production contracts including Warfighter Information Network-Tactical Increment 1 (WIN-T INC1), AN/GSC-52 Modernization and Vehicle Intercommunication System Expanded (VIS-X). Handled all pre award functions of the AN/GSC-52 Modernization effort, valued at $75M, including, approval of Justification & Approval (J&A) for sole source contract, review of Acquisition Plan and drafting and issuing solicitation. Lead CS for the WIN-T INC1, Indefinite Delivery Indefinite Quantity (IDIQ), Firm Fixed Price (FFP), and Time and Materials (T&M), five year, $1.5B, major system production contract. Tasks included, issuing delivery orders and task orders, issuing modifications to update pricing or making administrative changes, Statements of Work (SOW) or Performance Work Statements (PWS) changes, Contract Data Requirements List (CDRL) changes, delivery schedule revisions, adding within-scope efforts, drafting Pre-Negotiation Objective Memorandums (POM) and Post-Negotiation Memorandums (PNM), conducting negotiations with contractor to add new FFP and T&M efforts to the contract. Acted as small business evaluator for the VIS-X, $2.5B source selection. Responsible for evaluating, preparing reports and giving ratings on all Offeror’s small business participation goals. Also, acted as CS for the VIS-X source selection, performing pre-solicitation, solicitation and evaluation functions including; coordinating and obtaining approvals on all source selection documentation, creating and amending the solicitation and issuing Items for Negotiation (IFNs). Show less

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  Department of Veterans Affairs

  May 2009 - now

  Contracting Officer

  Negotiate, Award and Administer Government Contracts for Information Technology (IT) goods and services for the VA. Work closely with Office of Information and Technology (OI&T), Veteran Benefits Administration (VBA) and Veteran Health Administration (VHA) customers. Currently serve as a lead contract specialist under the Transformation Twenty-One Total Technology (T4) and T4 Next Generation (T4NG) programs. Provide guidance and assistance in preparing all pre-award documentation including justifications for other than full and open competition, acquisition plans, determination and findings, performance work statements, source selection evaluation plans and business cases, price reports, negotiation memos and source selection decision documents. My daily activities include a full range of contract activities from acquisition planning, procurement and post-award administration in connection with acquiring supplies and services to benefit the Veterans. In addition, I conduct monthly Program Management Review (PMR) meetings with T4 prime contract holders to address any program and task order issues and concerns and to mitigate and resolve any foreseen problems/issues. Conduct debriefs with unsuccessful Offerors. Hold acquisition strategy meetings with customers and provide well researched, accurate and complete acquisition guidance. Show less