CONTRACTING


SPOTLIGHT MRS. R. COLETTE CARRIZALES


A winding road to Texas MRS. R. COLETTE CARRIZALES


COMMAND/ORGANIZATION: U.S. Army Mission and Installation Contracting Command (MICC) – Fort Bliss, TX


POSITION AND OFFICIAL TITLE: Deputy director, MICC – Fort Bliss


YEARS OF SERVICE IN WORKFORCE: 18 years in federal service; 13 years in contracting


AWARDS:


Achievement Medal for Civilian Ser- vice; Commander’s Achievement Medal for Civilian Service


EDUCATION: MBA, Trinity College London B.S. in business administration and management, California University of Pennsylvania Level III certified in contracting Member, Army Acquisition Corps


Following 9/11, the U.K. government cre- ated the New Dimension program, which spent hundreds of millions of pounds to set up teams and equipment to respond in the event of a terrorist attack, Carrizales said. “Tey needed an organization to lead this initiative, among other things, in award- ing a contract for the maintenance of all this equipment that they had bought.”


At about that time, she said, the U.K. government set up Firebuy to be the pro- curement agency for the whole U.K. fire brigade. Each county fire brigade had its own procurement arm, and the govern- ment “felt that in order to leverage buying power, it would be more streamlined to set up an organization that could pur- chase items common” to all, Carrizales


70 Army AL&T Magazine October–December 2014


Over many months, Carrizales’ team sat down often with four prequalified vendors, managing the difficult task of keeping ven- dors and discussions completely separate because of proprietary information issues. Also difficult was “document management, to ensure that discussions had been cap- tured correctly and that each vendor was provided the same information by the gov- ernment,” she said.


Tese meetings were resource-intensive and could last all day. Each dealt with different aspects of the contract, from the requirements to the clauses and other terms and conditions, so it was extremely important to have the right people in place at the right time.” Te team hammered out the requirements and the contract


F


ew career paths follow a straight line, and that is certainly true of Colette Carrizales, who started her career in contracting for the


U.S. government as an intern in Seoul, South Korea, with the U.S. Army Con- tracting Agency. A native of the United Kingdom, she was in South Korea because her husband was a DA civilian employee.


In 2004, the family moved to London, and Carrizales found a procurement job with the London Fire and Emergency Planning Authority (LFEPA) in 2005.


said. On behalf of Firebuy, Carrizales was tapped to lead a team of acquisition professionals who would put that mainte- nance contract into place. Te complexity of the requirements was such that the New Dimension program lacked sufficient expertise to develop a contract that would satisfy all stakeholders. In search of a new model, Carrizales explained, they turned to the European Union’s “ ‘competitive dia- logue,’ where you develop a requirement in conjunction with a number of prequalified companies. So, essentially, industry devel- ops your requirement.”


Page 1  |  Page 2  |  Page 3  |  Page 4  |  Page 5  |  Page 6  |  Page 7  |  Page 8  |  Page 9  |  Page 10  |  Page 11  |  Page 12  |  Page 13  |  Page 14  |  Page 15  |  Page 16  |  Page 17  |  Page 18  |  Page 19  |  Page 20  |  Page 21  |  Page 22  |  Page 23  |  Page 24  |  Page 25  |  Page 26  |  Page 27  |  Page 28  |  Page 29  |  Page 30  |  Page 31  |  Page 32  |  Page 33  |  Page 34  |  Page 35  |  Page 36  |  Page 37  |  Page 38  |  Page 39  |  Page 40  |  Page 41  |  Page 42  |  Page 43  |  Page 44  |  Page 45  |  Page 46  |  Page 47  |  Page 48  |  Page 49  |  Page 50  |  Page 51  |  Page 52  |  Page 53  |  Page 54  |  Page 55  |  Page 56  |  Page 57  |  Page 58  |  Page 59  |  Page 60  |  Page 61  |  Page 62  |  Page 63  |  Page 64  |  Page 65  |  Page 66  |  Page 67  |  Page 68  |  Page 69  |  Page 70  |  Page 71  |  Page 72  |  Page 73  |  Page 74  |  Page 75  |  Page 76  |  Page 77  |  Page 78  |  Page 79  |  Page 80  |  Page 81  |  Page 82  |  Page 83  |  Page 84  |  Page 85  |  Page 86  |  Page 87  |  Page 88  |  Page 89  |  Page 90  |  Page 91  |  Page 92  |  Page 93  |  Page 94  |  Page 95  |  Page 96  |  Page 97  |  Page 98  |  Page 99  |  Page 100  |  Page 101  |  Page 102  |  Page 103  |  Page 104  |  Page 105  |  Page 106  |  Page 107  |  Page 108  |  Page 109  |  Page 110  |  Page 111  |  Page 112  |  Page 113  |  Page 114  |  Page 115  |  Page 116  |  Page 117  |  Page 118  |  Page 119  |  Page 120  |  Page 121  |  Page 122  |  Page 123  |  Page 124  |  Page 125  |  Page 126  |  Page 127  |  Page 128  |  Page 129  |  Page 130  |  Page 131  |  Page 132  |  Page 133  |  Page 134  |  Page 135  |  Page 136  |  Page 137  |  Page 138  |  Page 139  |  Page 140  |  Page 141  |  Page 142  |  Page 143  |  Page 144  |  Page 145  |  Page 146  |  Page 147  |  Page 148  |  Page 149  |  Page 150  |  Page 151  |  Page 152  |  Page 153  |  Page 154  |  Page 155  |  Page 156  |  Page 157  |  Page 158  |  Page 159  |  Page 160  |  Page 161