Management in All Forms
President Rich Gast
Resource Management Concepts, Inc.
Pax Leader
The next time you have to surrender a lighter or your suntan lotion to a Transportation Security Administration agent at the airport, have a little sympathy. He or she is not allowed to just throw the items away.
Under various Federal and state environmental laws, the TSA is required to manage the items that they collect in compliance with a variety of environmental protection management requirements. “They are frequently inspected and are subject to fines if found to not be in compliance, just like everybody else,” said Rich Gast, President of Resource Management Concepts, Inc. of Lexington Park, Maryland.
RMC has worked closely with TSA since 2004 helping the agency develop and implement the management policies and processes to promote and exercise successful environmental stewardship. The Transportation Security Administration is one of RMC’s biggest clients, though RMC has an accomplished record of supporting the environmental management needs of multiple federal agencies. However, as Gast explained, environmental stewardship is essentially a system management problem, and RMC’s essential skill lies in systems management, be it of operations, financial, environmental, security, or information technology challenges.
CEO Kevin Cooley
“We are systems management analysts helping to solve an environmental issue,” Gast said of RMC’s TSA work. The same skills, he said, are regularly applied to client’s other management challenges.
According to CEO Kevin Cooley, the company’s systems management expertise has evolved from its first contract two decades ago when founder Mike Colina performed SBIR IV&V analysis and began assisting Patuxent River Naval Air Station in the program management of base operations and hazardous materials and waste program requirements. I was the first employee, other than Mike. We have gone through a lot and have had a lot of fun since then.”
“One of our first large contracts was supporting the NAS Public Works Environmental Department,” Cooley said. “That allowed us to support a wide range of requirements and provided us the past performance necessary to compete on other contracts.” RMC continues to support NAVAIR and US Navy RDT&E range management, range sustainability and encroachment initiatives.
RMC currently employs about 90 staff and has branched out into other fields, attracting new customers, including the TSA, Naval Surface Warfare Center Indian Head, NAVAIR, the Army National Guard, and the National Guard Bureau. It now has employees in 14 states that manage efforts conducted in all 50 states and territories.
Chairman Mike Colina
The company maintains primary business lines which include operations management, environmental and military range management, mission assurance and security services, and information technology. RMC performs a broad range of tasks, including ergonomic assessments and accident investigations, emergency response planning and vulnerability assessments, and network operations and information assurance.
The company underwent a management restructuring in February, in which company founder and CEO Mike Colina assumed the chairmanship of the company, Cooley became CEO and Gast became President.
“Rank and file employees probably didn’t notice a thing,” Cooley said of the chair shuffle.
Gast agreed, noting that he still wears his hat as Chief Financial Officer, overseeing the company’s books, but now has other responsibilities, such as human resources management.
Cooley said he is still doing some direct work for the company’s customers, but noted, “I’m kind of focused on business development, planning and vision.”
Part of that vision entails growing the company. Cooley and Gast are committed to double its size by 2016.
“As we continue to support NAVAIR and the National Guard, we will broaden our work portfolio outside of the TSA to all of DHS” Cooley said.
