Victory Solutions is proud to be considered a top contender for the Huntsville/Madison County Chamber of Commerce's Best Places to Work 2021 Competition! The Victory Solutions Team is truly amazing!
https://hsvchamber.org/2021-best-places-to-work-contender-list/
From left, Victory Solutions Vice President David Alan Smith, CEO Kris McGuire, and IDEA Executive Director Chris Crumbly worked to establish the Systems Engineering Technology Program utilizing an award from the U.S. Department of Defense.
Victory Solutions has partnered with Auburn University, Calhoun Community College, and the newly created Institute for Digital Engineering Advancement (IDEA) to utilize a $500,000 award from the Department of Defense to develop a digital engineering curriculum to educate the next generation of systems engineering technicians. The award represents year one of a five-year grant totaling $9.9 million.
Development and implementation of the Systems Engineering Technician Program, SET, has been in work for several years. In 2016 Victory Solutions Chief Executive Officer, Kristine McGuire, was appointed by Congressman Aderholt (AL 4th District) to the Board of the Tennessee Valley Corridor (TVC) with the mandate to identify educational opportunities in support of TVC regional goals. Through Victory’s Model Based System Engineering (MBSE) support to the Missile Defense Agency and NASA Marshall Space Flight Center, our team identified a critical US industrial base skill gap: a readily available workforce of digital modelers trained to support systems engineers. This led to the concept of a 2-year degree in Systems Engineering Technology (SET) which will appeal to graduating high school students and career transitioning professionals including returning veterans (McGuire is a disabled veteran herself).
The nonprofit IDEA will be the central hub for the SET initiative. Overall implementation will be led by Auburn Engineering associate professor Greg Harris and assistant professor Greg Purdy, both of the Department of Industrial and Systems Engineering; James Payne, dean for Business and Computer Information Systems at Calhoun Community College; David Alan Smith, senior vice president of Victory Solutions; and Chris Crumbly, executive director of IDEA.
“Our SET curriculum will prepare a workforce of systems engineers equipped with the digital engineering skills necessary to enable future U.S. technology development,” Harris said. “Systems are much more complex today and there is a great demand for systems engineers from organizations such as the Department of Defense, NASA and the Department of Energy. The SET program will address this demand and establish a workforce pipeline to enable trained systems engineers to make an impact.”
The SET curriculum will feature a strong focus on exposure to various industries with a need for systems engineers and will emphasize internship opportunities for program participants to gain hands-on experience. “It’s imperative, on both economic and national security grounds, that we identify and achieve efficiency gains in our engineering and product development processes,” Payne said. “People looking to start a technical career in the Huntsville area will find this program to be a promising addition to the opportunities Calhoun already offers. We look forward to building this program from the ground up and establishing it as a nationwide standard.”
Students in the program will have direct access to prominent companies in the aerospace and manufacturing industry in the form of guest lecturers and other involvement coordinated by Victory Solutions. We are working to establish SET internships to provide students with real-world experience while offering our government and industry partners insight to SET capabilities as well as the opportunity to fine tune the SET curriculum over time”, Smith said.
Ultimately, the vision of the researchers and industry partners involved in bringing the SET program to fruition is to provide a national collaborative center in the form of the nonprofit IDEA, where best practices and solutions in digital engineering and manufacturing will be identified, shared and recommended. “IDEA will introduce the SET concept to community college systems across the nation and remain as a subject matter expert to support education and connect organizations with experts, graduates and interns,” Crumbly said.
On Friday, February 28, 2020, Ms. Kris McGuire, CEO of Victory Solutions was presented with the Veteran Entrepreneur of the Year award from The Catalyst Center for Business and Entrepreneurship. The Catalyst Center was founded in 2003 and serves entrepreneurs and small business owners in every stage of business to assist in successfully navigating their business journeys. The Annual Entrepreneur of the Year Awards recognizes the accomplishments of entrepreneurs throughout North Alabama and celebrates all areas of entrepreneurship - from services and technology to defense, retail, and everything in-between.
The Veteran Entrepreneur of the Year award acknowledges an outstanding military-veteran entrepreneur in the North Alabama Region and it is an honor for Kris McGuire to have been nominated and presented with the award in recognition of her vison, effort and leadership in building Victory Solutions into a small business with over 100 employees at 10 locations within the US and overseas. More information regarding the Catalyst Center and their mission is available at https://catalystcenter.org/
“Victory Solutions is a “Best Places to Work” awardee in 2018 as determined by the Huntsville Chamber of Commerce using a survey of our employees. This award honors the “best of the best” member businesses in the Tennessee Valley by celebrating businesses that create an excellent workplace culture through employee engagement, strong leadership and excellent communication. So thank you to our employees for honoring us in the most important way possible: by their willingness to tell the world that Victory Solutions is a company they want to work for!
Victory Solutions, Inc. is proud to announce our selection as the 2017 NASA Marshall Space Flight Center (MSFC) Small Business Prime Contractor of the Year for support provided under the Marshall Integrated Program Support Services (MIPSS) Configuration Management and Data Management task order. Victory Solutions is honored to receive this award, considering MSFC has so many outstanding small businesses providing a variety of critical services and products in support of MSFC’s mission. Our recognition would not be possible without the superb and diligent work by our MIPSS employees and subcontractors.
We are additionally excited about the opportunity to represent MSFC as a candidate for the NASA agency-level Small Business Industry Awards. The Center’s award recipients in the categories of Large and Small Business Prime Contractors of the Year and Small Business Subcontractor of the Year become candidates for agency-level Small Business Industry Awards. Victory Solutions looks forward to representing MSFC at the NASA Agency-level Small Business Industry Awards.
An article about the award can be found in the Marshall Star.
The Best Places to Work is an annual event for members of the Huntsville Chamber of Commerce. Of the more than 200 area businesses nominated for the Best Places to Work award for 2015 only 12 were selected as winners. Best Places to Work winners are judged in the following categories of micro (10-20), small (21-35), medium (36-149) and large (150+ local employees). Awards are based on a survey that asks employees to rate their company against criteria that includes team effectiveness, retention probability, job satisfaction and benefits. Victory Solutions was chosen in the “medium” company category. Tharon Honeycutt, the Chamber’s Vice Chair for Small Businesses and Events, said, “Employees and businesses are recognized by their peers for their contributions and the overall impression within their workforce, and in the community, making this a very special award. Congratulations to all our contenders, and to our award winners – the torch is passed to you now – keep making us proud!”
Victory Solutions, Inc. wishes to congratulate Laura Prater for receiving the prestigious Silver Snoopy award at NASA's Marshall Space Flight Center. Fewer than one percent of NASA employees or contractors have ever received this award. Congratulations Laura!
Victory Solutions Founder and CEO Kris McGuire has been selected to sit on the Boeing CEO Roundtable in October 2012.
CEO Kris McGuire was featured in an article found in the Guntersville, Ala. Advertiser-Gleam.
