TOP RACERS
LeDuc and his wife, Reeli Reinu, are congratulated by Mats Skott, race director, after completing a swim-run race in Switzerland in July 2017. LeDuc and Reinu were the top finishers among American co-ed teams.
ongoing projects and often has lasting schedule effects, because of the time that’s diverted from that project to accomplish the last- minute tasker or the time it takes to resume the train of thought that was happening when the interruption occurred.” How does he overcome it? “By first communicating the change in priori- ties to my team and then by taking actions to prevent further interruptions from occurring till the tasker is complete,” he said.
LeDuc got his start in federal acquisition in 2001. “My first job out of college was working for the Navy’s Explosive Ordnance Disposal Technology Division in Maryland. I was there for a little over four years, doing electrical design engineering—building and troubleshooting, with most of my work in the preliminary, pre-milestone A phase of the acquisition life cycle.” He then spent a few years in the private sector before coming to PEO STRI in 2008, where he works at the other end of the acquisition life cycle. “Most of my work for [the Product Manager for] VTS is post-milestone C, putting requirements into a contracting pack- age and monitoring the contractor to ensure that they’re meeting those requirements.”
LeDuc noted that he has been fortunate to have had varied assign- ments over the years that he has been with PEO STRI. “Each challenge builds upon the previous one, to make the next product that much better for the Soldier,” he said. Tose assignments have given him opportunities to take on various degrees of program management, and that exposure “helps bring the larger picture into the light and therefore better decisions and requirements development [have] occurred,” he added.
Among the most memorable was his work on the Mari- time Integrated Training Simulator program, his initial foray into programmatic exposure. “Tat’s where I got my feet wet with collaborating with the multiple organizations that make a program possible, including communicating with finance, contracts and management levels in my own department.” One of his most challenging assignments was his work on a foreign
military sales program. “Te program had limited commu- nication and slow response times, which was a detriment to maintaining the program’s schedule.” To ensure that the sched- ule stayed on track, the team identified “early and upfront” the importance of maximizing all opportunities to meet with the customer to resolve questions, LeDuc said. “We also leaned heav- ily on our own expertise to resolve questions when we were unable to get information from the client.”
LeDuc noted that each program assigned to the Product Manager for VTS “is very dynamic, and lessons learned are pushed forward to the next program. My senior program directors talk about the days when they used typewriters and the introduction of Word- Perfect changed their lives. Even though I don’t have the years they may have or [haven’t seen] the drastic changes, I’ve still seen small changes here and there that ultimately drive the method in which we go about our daily tasks.”
While most of those changes have improved the way his team works, he noted that not all of them are for the better. For exam- ple, he said, “I’ve seen changes in the regulations for attending conferences, due mainly to poor behavior on the part of some- one who probably no longer works for the government anyway. It’s frustrating that we’re reduced to rules that govern the behav- ior of the worst employee, and it’s a detriment that we can no longer attend conferences—they provide a great opportunity for inspiration and problem-solving.” Industry days fill that gap, he noted, but often focus on finding solutions to a specific challenge.
“A broader focus—on solving tomorrow’s problems—that’s where innovation comes from.”
Despite those challenges, he said, his work for PEO STRI has given him some great opportunities: travel to several countries, as well as “the chance to meet and work with some pretty amazing people, and a plethora of experiences that many only read about.”
—MS. SUSAN L. FOLLETT HTTPS: / /
ASC.ARMY.MIL 75
SCIENCE & TECHNOLOGY
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