Meet the CEO: Dr. James DeBardelaben, IvySys Technologies
June 18, 2019 | By Sindy Yeh
Arlington is consistently ranked as having one of the smartest, most creative workforces in the nation. These well-educated, highly sought-after workers flock to Arlington because of the abundance of innovative companies and startups that call Arlington home. These companies are founded by visionary and committed leaders who strongly believe in their people, products and ideas. In this series, we will meet some of these leaders.
Meet the CEO: Dr. James DeBardelaben, IvySys Technologies, LLC
Founded in 2005 by Dr. James DeBardelaben, Ivysys Technologies specializes in solving critical threat awareness problems for the defense, intelligence, and homeland security communities using its signal processing-based advanced analytics capabilities. Ivysys is a leader in big data integration, predictive analytics, and analytic modernization software. Dr. DeBardelaben started the company after working as a Program Manager at The Johns Hopkins Applied Physics Laboratory. In January 2018, the company was awarded a $4.6 million DARPA contract to combat weapons of mass terror.
Where do you see your industry – and your company’s place in it – in the future? Are there new challenges on the horizon or more opportunities?
The applications of big data analytics in the defense industry are growing rapidly to combat the myriad of national security threats facing our country. As defense and intelligence organizations collect increasing volumes of data across a variety of sources, decision makers are seeking innovative ways to make sense of it. IvySys delivers the unique software solutions and actionable analytics that national security customers need to discover threats hidden in big, noisy data.
Founded in 2005, I believe the company started out in Crystal City. Has it always been in Arlington? How does having an office in Arlington/Ballston helped IvySys?
IvySys is an R&D innovation partner to some of the U.S. Government’s most advanced research and development agencies. We have been located in Arlington since 2007. The close proximity of our Ballston office to R&D agencies, such as DARPA, has been essential to building on our relationships to better understand their problems.
What advice would you give to an entrepreneur just starting out in this community?
Many new entrepreneurs starting out in the defense community initially focus on developing cutting-edge technologies with specific defense applications being an afterthought. I would advise new defense technology entrepreneurs to first focus on understanding your prospective customer’s mission challenges and then develop innovative technical solutions to specific problems.
What do you like best about your job?
The best aspect of my job is working every day with a brilliant, creative group of data scientists and software engineers to solve critical national security challenges using bleeding-edge technologies.