Red Gaters joining our team possess one of the traits we look for as we recruit for new talent – the desire to perfecting their capabilities and skills every day. Ongoing learning plays a critical role in personal and professional development – particularly with remote working and the desire for personal fulfillment. We must engage in continuous personal learning to be adaptable and flexible to stay competitive and relevant.
 
In fact, executive coach Monique Valcour highlights why being a good leader requires a continuous personal development journey in a recent Harvard Business Review article. She also brings up the need to encourage proactivity, develop learning agility, and facilitate learning to encourage proactive problem-solving in a team.
 
Aligned to our corporate values, self-growth is key to living a fulfilling life and having a successful career. We develop and grow thanks to our ability to learn. Continuous learning is essential to continue strengthening our corporate culture to improve performance and innovation and accomplish employee satisfaction and retention. 
 
The capability of lifelong learning recognizes that humans have an innate drive to explore, learn and grow. It encourages us to improve our quality of life and sense of self-worth by paying attention to the ideas and goals that inspire us.
 
One of the Financial Times’ latest polls among chief learning officers (CLOs) stated that 82 percent of respondents considered leadership the top learning priority identified for executive education, followed by change management at 57 percent. Other priorities included digital transformation, strategy, and innovation brought up by more than two-fifths of respondents.
 
How Red Gate Supports Employee Self-Growth
 
Udemy
Udemy is an online resource Red Gate offers for free to all our employees immediately upon joining the team. It has a wealth of information to further boost their career from a strategic management and technical perspective, including courses about software development, program management, among many others. Our leadership team carefully selected the most applicable topics aligned to the nature of Red Gate’s business.
 
One of our team members recently used Udemy to build from scratch a data-driven business tool to generate a recruiting dashboard that will help further enhance the company’s recruiting efforts, analyze its progress, and consequently enable improved performance decision-making tools for the leadership team.
 
Vistage Executive Training
The leadership team also participates in the company’s self-growth efforts. Every month, they attend remote meetings with Vistage, a senior executive peer mentoring membership group, learn about the latest leadership and management industry trends, and find creative ways to solve business challenges. Red Gate’s CEO has applied some of the concepts he has learned during Vistage conversations, including how personnel decisions are made, strengthening our business strategy, integrating quality management, and boosting our company’s differentiators.
 
Most recently, Red Gate president T.J. Iak was recognized with Vistage’s Impact Award for being a member who asks deep questions and provides the most valuable feedback.
 
Quarterly Business Development Virtual Training
Employees have access to learning the latest insights and trends on doing business with the U.S. federal government. With primer sessions and tips shared by chief growth officer Rob Cordray, Red Gaters have access to learning how to participate in the company’s business development efforts.
 
Professional Development Tuition Assistance
Red Gate offers undergraduate, graduate, and post-graduate tuition assistance to full-time employees looking to learn new skills or perfect their current skills. This program is done in partnership with accredited universities, such as George Mason University. Courses that are part of the program are relevant to employees’ positions at Red Gate.
 
Also, Red Gaters benefit from industry-recognized certification reimbursement benefits providing them with additional resources not available at the company. These qualified certifications allow Red Gaters to enhance their professional skills or get the training required for a specific position.
 
Tips When Looking to Join Red Gate
 
As candidates are looking to join our team, Red Gate president T.J. Iak shares, “Staying current in the trends and advances of your profession and making a list of goals of what you would like to learn or be able to do next is greatly beneficial as you aim to perfect or learn new skills.”
 
Thanks to the fast pace of today’s knowledge economy, organizations are seeing lifelong learning as a core component in employee development. At Red Gate, we are committed to encouraging and supporting our team in maximizing their management and technical skills and boost their performance which in turn become vital elements that greatly complement the ongoing growth and success of our organization.

Red Gate has recently been re-registered under a different auditing body for our ISO 9001: 2015 certification. 

We’ve also added registration under a new standard: ISO/IEC 20000-1:2018. 

Effective 30 September 2019, we are registered under GMS Registrar Ltd for both ISO certifications. 

ISO certification ensures that a management system, manufacturing process, service, or documentation procedure has requirements for standardization and quality assurance. ISO (International Organization for Standardization) is an independent, non-governmental, international organization that develops standards to ensure the quality, safety, and efficiency of products, services, and systems.

ISO 9001:2015
Specifies requirements for a quality management system when an organization:

• needs to demonstrate its ability to consistently provide products and services that meet customer and applicable statutory and regulatory requirements, and
• aims to enhance customer satisfaction through the effective application of the system, including processes for improvement of the system and the assurance of conformity to customer and applicable statutory and regulatory requirements.

ISO/IEC 20000-1:2018
Information technology
Service management system requirements:

•  a customer seeking services and requiring assurance regarding the quality of those services;
  
• a customer requiring a consistent approach to the service lifecycle by all its service providers, including those in a supply chain;
  
• an organization to demonstrate its capability for the planning, design, transition, delivery and improvement of services;
  
• an organization to monitor, measure and review its SMS and the services;
  
• an organization to improve the planning, design, transition, delivery and improvement of services through effective implementation and operation of an SMS;
  
• an organization or other party performing conformity assessments against the requirements specified in this document;
  
• a provider of training or advice in service management.
  

Red Gate is pleased to announce that Kevin Lutz has joined its executive team as Chief Operating Officer (COO). In his new position, Mr. Lutz will engage in operational leadership across the company and provide strategic vision to ensure that Red Gate delivers consistent, outstanding services to customers while achieving its own financial goals.
 
“We are very proud to have Kevin on the team,” says T.J. Iak, president of Red Gate. “Kevin brings tremendous leadership, knowledge, and character that will enable us to raise our game for our current contracts as well as grow into exciting new areas of support.”
 
Mr. Lutz is a highly-respected expert in explosive ordnance disposal, counter-improvised explosive device and insurgency operations, combating weapons of mass destruction, and weapons technical intelligence.  He was inducted into the U.S. Army Ordnance Hall of Fame in 2015.       

His expertise comes from over 35 years of corporate and military leadership experience.  Mr. Lutz retired as a Colonel from the U.S. Army, where his accomplishments included:

• commanding at the brigade and battalion levels and serving three combat tours in Afghanistan and Iraq;
• establishing and commanding twice Combined Joint Task Force Troy (Counter-Improvised Explosive Device Brigade) under Multi-National Corps Iraq;
• assisting in the creation of the Army Improvised Explosive Device Task Force from concept to inception, which became the foundation of the Joint Improvised Explosive Device Defeat Organization; and
• assisting in the formation of the Weapons Analytic Team of the Joint Intelligence Task Force for Combating Terrorism at the Defense Intelligence Agency.

 
Before joining Red Gate, Mr. Lutz was president of A-T Solutions’ Defense Group. Through his strategic leadership, in four years’ time he transformed the business from a $30 million client base into a $130+ million government business, ultimately facilitating the company’s acquisition. He also brings over 20 years of complex project management experience to his new role.

“I am excited to be joining such a mature and professionally operating company. Red Gate’s culture, business focus, and commitment to its clients is a perfect fit to leverage my military and corporate executive experiences,” Lutz says. “I look forward to assisting the Red Gate team in achieving its strategic objectives and enhancing its reputation as a company.”

Mr. Lutz holds a Bachelor of Science in police administration and pre-law from Michigan State University, a Master of Science degree in logistics management from the Florida Institute of Technology, and a Master of Science degree in defense and strategic studies from the United States Marine Corps University. 

​Red Gate provides critical strategic analysis and operational support to the federal government, strategically developing scalable solutions for various federal agencies with expert professional services assistance and emerging technology. Learn more at www.redgategrp.com.