Tactical Tailor is extremely proud to share that it has been awarded the Pacific Northwest Defense Coalition Member of the Year Award. This is a singular and distinctive event for Tactical Tailor, coming as it does from such a prestigious organization of defense and contracting companies.

“To say this is a huge honor for us would be to damn the PNDC with faint praise,” says Tactical Tailors CEO Casey Ingels. “This sort of recognition, from within a peer group of such critical companies…it’s just…it’s just a huge honor!”

The Pacific Northwest Defense Coalition is an association of defense and security industry companies that work together to foster steady economic growth for their region, to help sustain long-term profitability for its members. Perhaps most importantly it works to maintain those within the needs of the both the individual warfighter and—on a much larger, more strategic scale—on all warfighters. The PNDC membership includes companies from every level of the defense industry—they run the gamut from companies like Leatherman Tools, Benchmade Knives and FLIR to Oregon Ironworks, Raytheon and Leupold.

Ingels is a former enlisted Soldier who served in the 2/75 Ranger Regiment who used his GI Bill to earn a law degree. He has been the CEO of Tactical Tailor for several years now and Chairs the PNDC’s Advocacy Committee. The company was founded by an Army veteran, has numerous veterans in its leadership and employs many more.

The PNDC has worked tirelessly all year to mitigate the damage caused by sequestration. Its members have been a “go to” resource for journalists, scholars and legislators since sequestration first began. It has been instrumental in providing the resources necessary to understand the impact of budgets, the government shutdown, sequestration itself and defense appropriations. Meetings with national representatives have been held from Puget Sound to Capitol Hill in order to contextualize and clarify the reality of defense contracting as opposed to the so-called “military-industrial complex.”

Over the last several months the PNDC has met with Congressmen, Congresswomen and Senators from several states in order to work through the defense financial crisis.

“We’ve worked with Congressional Members to streamline the Federal procurement process,” says Ingels, “so we can increase the return on defense and security investment—for instance, looking life-cycles and long term value of products or services versus first year cost or lowest bid. We have helped with reforms that help contractors of all size, and to make it easier for government buyers to source what they need commercially, without duplication or replication…it has been a busy year.”

A few other PNDC accomplishments include:

·Strealining procurement regulations and reforming ITAR restrictions to more rational, common sense standards.

·Provide local authority to defense and security officials who best know the needs of their base or agency.

·Provision of support to companies in key industrial sectors at risk of unfair foreign competition.

·End the practices of manufacture in US territories claiming Berry-compliant “Made in the USA” but not paying US minimum wage to workers

·Fund matching to K-12 districts, colleges and universities for workforce training.

If you look at the recent bipartisan budget agreement, or go back and read opposition to the sequester, much of what you see will be the direct result of information, background and context provided by the PNDC.

The PNDC Member of the Year Award is selected by its membership. Companies earning the award must earn the respect of their peers and be recognized for achievement—not just for contribution to advocacy (though that is important) but for corporate leadership, positive business practices, manufacturing practices and what Ingels calls the “care and feeding” of employees.

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