Lt. Gen. Wendy M. Masiello, USAF (Ret.)
President, Wendy Mas Consulting LLC
Wendy Masiello is an independent consultant having retired from the United States Air Force as a Lieutenant General. She is president of Wendy Mas Consulting, LLC and is based in Alexandria VA.
A strategic, creative thought leader in defense and federal contracting, acquisition, and organizational positioning, Wendy currently serves as an independent director on board for KBR Inc. (Compensation and Sustainability and Corporate Responsibility Committees), EURPAC Services, Inc. (ESOP) (Compensation and IT Committees), StandardAero (owned by The Carlyle Group), Tlingit Haida Tribal Business Corporation, and is President, National Contract Management Association (NCMA). She also serves on Rawls Advisory Council for Texas Tech University’s College of Business, the Air Force Studies Board under the National Academies of Science, Engineering, and Medicine (NASEM), and is a director on the national non-profit board for Rebuilding Together.
Prior to her July 2017 retirement, Wendy was the first three-star general to serve as Director of the Defense Contract Management Agency from 2014-2017. At DCMA she managed a $1.4 billion budget and 12,000 people responsible for holding 20,000 contractors worldwide accountable in performing 340,000 Defense and NASA contracts with more than $2 trillion in contract value. During her tenure, she was challenged by the Secretary of Defense to reduce DCMA’s overhead by 25%. Wendy flattened the Agency’s organizational structure meeting the cost reduction goals in two versus a three-year plan, minimizing harmful personnel actions, while implementing data analytic tools and visualization techniques to improve schedule and delivery performance of 20,000 contractors across the Defense Industrial Base (DIB) and its supply chain. In a demonstration of bold leadership and skillful communications she rallied assistance from responsible cyber security agencies to rapidly assess impact of a detected cyber intrusion in DCMA’s system, averting a real threat to separate DCMA from the DOD networks which would have stopped $500 million in contract payments and cash flow into the US economy each day. As cyber issues escalated throughout the Defense Industrial base, Wendy explored responsible ways to partner with industry in assessing quality standards and compliance across the DIB, which allowed her to divert DCMA resources to help DOD assess cyber security measures and issues within Defense contractors.
General Masiello was Deputy Assistant Secretary (Contracting), Office of the Assistant Secretary of the Air Force for Acquisition, from 2011-2014. She envisioned then led Air Force contracting through a major organizational restructure following a 30 percent cut in contracting personal at seven Air Force major business units. The reorganization produced a first-ever virtual, world-wide contracting team supporting Air Force installations around the globe with essentially a 24/7 workforce across time zones should urgent needs be identified. The concept once in place enabled deliberate strategic buying decisions and cost category management delivering $2 billion of savings in just two years.
As Program Executive Officer for the Air Force’s $65 billion Service Acquisition portfolio from 2007-2011, Wendy created an acquisition process which accelerated service acquisition through empowerment and delegation. Her structure of delegation with accountability and insight was commended by Congress and became a model for DOD.
Career Breadth
In addition to her breadth of contracting experiences including aircraft, satellites and missiles, Wendy taught pricing at the Air Force Institute of Technology, was Executive Director for the Inspector General at the National Reconnaissance Office, and a strategic planner at Air Armament Center at Eglin Air Force Base. She also commanded the 96th Air Base Wing at Edwards Air Force Base and deployed to Iraq and Afghanistan as Principal Assistant Responsible for Contracting for Army Forces from July 2005-Jan 2006.
Education
Bachelor of Business Administration degree from Texas Tech University
Master of Science degree in logistics management with a concentration in contracting and production management; Air Force Institute of Technology
Master of Science degree in national resource strategy from the Industrial College of the Armed Forces (ICAF), Fort Lesley J. McNair, Washington, D.C.
Harvard Kennedy School’s Senior Managers in Government
Senior Acquisition Course from ICAF
Recognition/Accomplishments
2021-22 – Chair, Rawls Advisory Council, Texas Tech University School of Business
2021 – Co-chair, Committee on Defense Acquisition Workforce Capability in Data Use, for DOD under the NASEM; published: “Empowering the Defense Acquisition Workforce to Improve Mission Outcomes Using Data Science”
2017 – Distinguished Alum of Texas Tech University
2015 and 2016 – named among Executive Mosaic’s Wash 100
2014 – Greater Washington Government Contractor “Public Sector Partner of the Year”
2011 – Federal Computer Week as one of “The 2011 Federal 100”
NCMA Certified Professional Contract Manager and Fellow
Military: Defense Superior Service Medal, Distinguished Service Medal, Legion of Merit, and Bronze Star