COMMAND/ORGANIZATION: U.S. Army Combat Capabilities Development Command (DEVCOM) Ground Vehicle Systems Center (GVSC)
TITLE: Deputy executive director for Ground Vehicle Modernization Technologies
YEARS OF SERVICE IN WORKFORCE: 25
YEARS OF MILITARY SERVICE: 30
DAWIA CERTIFICATIONS: Practitioner in engineering and technical management; Advanced in program management; Practitioner in test and evaluation
EDUCATION: M.S. in industrial engineering, University of Louisville; MBA, University of Louisville; B.S. in management science, State University of New York (SUNY) at Geneseo.
AWARDS: Legion of Merit; Defense Meritorious Service Medal; Army Meritorious Service Medal with six oak leaf clusters; Army Commendation Medal with two oak leaf clusters; Army Achievement Medal.

Kevin Vanyo

by Cheryl Marino

For Kevin Vanyo, job satisfaction didn’t come solely from any one job or assignment he’s held throughout his decades-long Army career. It was a sampling of all, and in varying capacities—especially the one he was most uncertain about.

“There was a time during my career when I felt I might not have been a great fit for an assignment, but I went anyway and I’m very glad that I did,” he said of a time, in 2010, when he was being assigned to Special Operations Command (SOCOM) and he didn’t understand why, since he never worked with the special operations community before. “At the time I was pretty disappointed, but about a month after finding out about the assignment, I received a call from a colonel at SOCOM who told me I was actually being assigned to a different position [at SOCOM] based on my Army vehicle acquisition experience,” said Vanyo. “This wound up being one of the greatest assignments of my military career, so I’m extremely happy I didn’t try to get out of the assignment.”

And he’s had many others play out in similar ways. According to Vanyo, some of the best opportunities he’s had in his acquisition career were from a diverse, well-rounded assortment of assignments. “I’ve had assignments in requirements development, program management, science and technology, and test and evaluation. The defense acquisition life cycle model is extremely complex and broad, and to have been able to work across the entire life cycle has increased my understanding of how the different elements work together to deliver capability to our warfighters,” he said. “I think this provides me with a tremendous advantage in having the ability to have meaningful discussions with numerous stakeholders across the acquisition enterprise.”

Vanyo is the deputy executive director for Ground Vehicle Modernization Technologies, focused on science and technology efforts in ground vehicle survivability and protection, vehicle electronics and architecture, and ground vehicle power and mobility. He and his team accelerate the delivery and sustainment of ground system capabilities to allied partners, while ensuring overmatch for warfighters.

“The greatest satisfaction I have as a member of the Army Acquisition Workforce is being able to work with dedicated professionals who are committed to ensuring the Army never enters a fair fight,” said Vanyo. “We work extremely hard to ensure our Soldiers have the best equipment possible so they come home to their families after their duties put them in harm’s way.”

Vanyo entered the Army Acquisition Workforce in 1998 as a uniformed officer after eight years as an armor officer. During a deployment to Kuwait in 1995, he had the opportunity to meet an acquisition officer who was doing contracting work, which was of interest to him. “I had never heard of the [now eliminated] Army Acquisition Corps before,” he said. “He explained what he did and I was fascinated about all the education and career opportunities in acquisition.”

As an armor officer, Vanyo was on tanks in Korea and Germany. “I absolutely love the Abrams, but I also often wondered how to make them even better, so acquisition sounded like the perfect career path to me,” he said.

Vanyo’s first acquisition assignment was as a combat developer at Fort Knox, Kentucky, where he had the opportunity to work on a joint U.S. and U.K. development effort called the Future Scout and Cavalry System. “It was a tremendous assignment as I was able to leverage my operational experience and really get to understand the requirements process and how industry engineers made design trades,” he said. “Working on an international program really opened my eyes to both opportunities and challenges. I could not have asked for a better first acquisition assignment.”

Vanyo said the Program Manager’s Course (PMT 401), which he took in 2012, prepared him to be an effective product manager by reviewing numerous case studies and having rigorous discussions regarding specific situations, what happened, why and what could be learned from them. “The instructors told us we’d have ‘aha’ moments as PMs where we’d be in situations and recall a particular case study that encountered something very similar,” he said. “I was shocked at how right they were and the tremendous amount of actual aha moments I had where I was able to leverage the discussions and lessons learned and apply them to our program’s unique problems. I would encourage anyone desiring to become a program manager to take the course. … It’s invaluable.”

Vanyo said he also would encourage junior acquisition personnel (both civilian and military) to try and get a broad sampling of assignments so they gain a better appreciation for how all aspects of the life cycle fit together. For example, he said, “I think having S&T [science and technology] engineers moving to a matrix program management office (PMO) assignment for a number of years increases their understanding of what it takes to deliver capability to the field and to sustain it. The opposite is also true, when PMO personnel take an assignment in science and technology, they gain an appreciation for the difficulty of developing new technology and transitioning it to programs of record.”

After spending 30 years on active duty and then returning to the Army as a Department of the Army civilian, Vanyo said most of his neighbors, family and friends consider him the “Army guy.”

“Most people outside the military or defense industry find that doing anything for the Army is fascinating, and depending on the job I’ve had at the time, they are really drawn to the fact that I’m able to work on things that have a real impact on Soldier survivability,” he said. “I think my father was very surprised how much and how closely I was working with industry after I transitioned to the Army Acquisition Corps.”

Vanyo said if there is one thing he’s learned it is that acquisition is extremely complex, and there are dedicated professionals across the enterprise that do their very best every day to make a difference for our warfighters. “When there are challenges and disagreements between different stakeholder groups, I try to see things from their point of view and remember they are doing what they think is best. So I do my best to try and find common ground so all the stakeholders can work together as a team to deliver capability.”