Flight officer turns high-tech CEO p1 - Military Success Stories - Military Times EDGE

When a knee injury sidelined Carol Craig’s flying career, the engineer and former naval flight officer took off in another direction.

She started a defense-consulting firm, Craig Technologies Inc., in 1999 with 10 employees. It has grown to 142 employees and several military contracts, in part because of the advantages of being owned by a woman and a service-disabled veteran.

The Cape Canaveral, Fla.-based company, with offices in Florida, Illinois, Virginia and Washington, D.C., has secured defense contracts that include an award as prime contractor for the Naval Air Warfare Center. The company also performs under prime contractors for three other major federal contracts for NASA, the Air Force and the Army.

The company’s expertise is as varied as the experience of Craig, its president and chief executive officer, who received computer science degrees from Knox College and the University of Illinois and is working to add a doctorate in electrical and computer engineering from Florida Tech.

The company provides software engineering, information technology support services, modeling, simulation and project-management services.

She started her career working in cockpit systems for the Defense Department, “marrying technology with the pilots,” Craig said.

In 1991, she decided to leave her engineering job for a career in the Navy, when women couldn’t fly in combat. Craig was one of the women who led the way for change, specializing in flying P-3 aircraft.

An injury while training ended her flying days, so Craig started on a plan to get back into business. From her home base of Virginia Beach, Va., Craig developed a good reputation as a consultant.

Business was so good that Craig realized she needed to expand from a one-person operation into a full-fledged company.

When her husband got out of the Navy, the couple searched for the perfect spot to live and nurture a new enterprise, and they picked Brevard County, Fla.

ITFlorida, which represents the state’s technology businesses, last year picked Craig Technologies as a final-round nominee for the High Growth Company of the Year award.

Craig’s other government customers include the Air National Guard, the Department of Veterans Affairs and the Florida National Guard. Commercial accounts have included American Airlines and Taurus Software.

The company prides itself on its lean, low-overhead business model and careful planning.

“I was able to put the infrastructure in place and then bring in the contracts,” Craig said.

LAND A GOVERNMENT CONTRACT

The Veterans Affairs Department’s Center for Veterans Enterprise helps veterans start and build businesses. It maintains the VetBiz.gov Web site, where businesses that are at least 51 percent veteran-owned can sign up to be part of a database for government procurement purposes.

To learn more about business opportunities for veterans, contact the Center for Veterans Enterprise at (866) 584-2344 or visit www.vetbiz.gov.