A 26-year Army employee was recently recognized as a Federal 100 award recipient during a ceremony on March 25, in Washington D.C.n provided a highly anticipated presentation on DCGS-Army version 3.1 to a standing room only crowd.

Michael Ryan, PD Signals Warfare deputy product director, was honored along with 99 other individuals in the federal information technology community, chosen by an independent panel of judges for their leadership, professional accomplishment, stature and peer acclaim.

Celebrating its 20th anniversary this year, The Federal 100 awards program was created to recognize key individuals in government and industry. The winners are nominated by Federal Computer Week readers and include honorees from a wide range of government including members of Congress, DoD, Department of Homeland Security, Industry and many other federal organizations.

This year’s honorees, “have acted as agents for change in the way agencies and companies develop, acquire and manage technology…..In many cases, the results of their efforts will be lasting.” That quote comes from then-editor Edith Holmes from the first Federal 100 Awards issued in March 1990, and the words still apply today.

The recognition received by Ryan is directly related to his achievements in reducing the devastating effects of the single most effective weapon used against our deployed forces today……improvised explosive devices (IEDs). By mid 2003, radio-controlled IEDs (RCIEDs) quickly become the signature weapon of choice in Iraq and Afghanistan and remain the # 1 killer of combat forces in the region.

First generation Counter RCIED Electronic Warfare (CREW) devices were fielded in response to this threat, but were limited in their capabilities. Ryan came to PD Signals Warfare in late 2004 to take the program to the next level. When he arrived at the CREW office, there were only 12 people working on the program. Today, there are over 60 government, military and contract personnel supporting the program office, an additional 200 support personnel in theater, and over 22,000 CREW “Duke” systems fielded in support of Operation Iraqi Freedom/Operation Enduring Freedom (OIF/OEF). Ryan briefly deployed to Iraq in May 2006 with the initial fielding of CREW Duke systems. Casualties and deaths attributed to RCIEDs have been drastically reduced over the past five years, and the trend continues downward.

Commenting on the award recognition, Ryan stated, “It is very satisfying to receive the feedback and look at the trends with RCIEDs over the last five years. I’ll accept this Federal 100 award, but know that there is an extremely talented and dedicated team behind all of this to make it really happen. We know that our efforts have effectively pushed the threat almost out of that spectrum, and made them (insurgents) rethink their methods for employing and triggering IEDs. They no longer have the upper hand.”

Ryan’s accomplishments have been evident throughout his entire career. Immediately after graduating college in 1983, he began work at Picatinny Arsenal on fire control programs in support of small arms, combat maneuver, and air defense platforms. Ryan came to Ft Monmouth in January 1991, at the onset of Desert Storm, where he supported the deployment of an electro-optic countermeasure program called Stingray for the Army, and initiated a similar program for the Marine Corps scout HMMWV.

In 1996, Ryan moved up to Program Executive Office Intelligence Electronic Warfare & Sensors (PEO IEW&S) headquarters staff, where he held various positions there in Systems Engineering, Horizontal Technology Integration (HTI), and finally as the first Acquisition Logistics & Integrity (ALI) Team Lead.

Following his tenure on PEO IEW&S staff, in 2003 Ryan accepted a new position as a Product Director under Project Manager Distributed Common Ground System-Army (DCGS-A). He then went to Signals Warfare as the Product Director CREW from 2004-2006, and following that assignment, Ryan took on a newly formed position as Director Counter IED Operations for HQs Communications-Electronics Research, Development, and Engineering Center (CERDEC).

In this capacity, Ryan assumed an oversight role for all of CERDEC for IED Defeat activities. He also is credited with establishing the C4ISR Spectrum Integration Working Group, to address spectrum interference challenges between combat net radios and the CREW jammers across the PEO IEW&S and PEO C3T communities. Their first success was achieved in less than seven months, with the initial fielding of 16,000 new Blue Force Tracker (BFT) systems incorporating the interference fix, or “I-Fix.” Today, all BFTs are able to operate properly without interference from CREW systems, allowing soldiers to maintain vital situational awareness information of surrounding friendly forces.

In August 2007, Ryan attended Senior Service College at the National Defense University, Industrial College of the Armed Forces where he received a Masters in National Resource Strategy. Ryan retuned to Fort Monmouth in June 2008 to become the Deputy Project Director for PD SW. In his current role, Ryan is heavily engaged in all aspects of SW business, to include high-profile ISR Surge related activities with the new Prophet Enhanced program, PM Information Warfare efforts, and critical upgrades required for the fielded Duke V2 systems.