Though the Washington region was well-represented in Washington Technology magazine’s annual rankings of the top 100 federal prime contractors, the list did not include a single company headquartered in the District.
The list, out this week, included 38 companies with headquarters in Northern Virginia or suburban Maryland.
Four out of the top 10 companies are located in Fairfax or Montgomery counties and accounted for more than $14 billion in federal procurement dollars.
But it’s not the address on the company letterhead, said Penny Picket, president of the Washington Technology Council, it’s where those companies are doing business.
The companies are ranked “where their headquarters are listed,” she said. “But they’re doing business in D.C. and that’s what’s significant to us.”
Many companies with headquarters outside the District have employees in the city on a daily basis, she said. For example, Fairfax-based Anteon International Corp. — 12th on the list with $1.28 billion in federal contracts last year — has multiple federal contracts that require its employees to work in the city.
The company — which was recently acquired by Falls Church-based General Dynamics Corp. (No. 4) — has about 800 employees working in the District on contracts for various government agencies, confirmed Marcus Collier, president of Anteon’s Systems Engineering Group.
But while federal contracting companies send employees and money into the District, a more educated work force and better public school systems put other jurisdictions in a better position to compete, said Gerald Gordon, president and CEO of the Fairfax County Economic Development Authority. Fairfax County had 28 companies on the list.
“What’s attracting [federal contracting companies] to Fairfax is the work force,” he said.
“They are highly skilled engineers, technologically adept people … The large federal contractors are all about technology and that’s just not the labor force that exists in D.C.”
