CAPT Nick Buck, USN (Retired)

Nick Buck is President & Chief Executive Officer of Buck Consulting Group, where he leads a cadre of highly qualified experts focused on improving industry partner mission relevancy as a path to scaling business. Nick is a recognized expert in federal procurement, market development, mission systems, and information technology. His “Know the Market, Go to Market”™ practice leverages decades of government procurement experience to inform product strategies, enhance client value propositions, and improve customer engagements. Nick also volunteers as the co-chair of USGIF’s NRO Industry Advisory Group and has been a principal author in numerous papers involving agile software acquisition, business model evolution, and enterprise-scale cloud adoption.

Nick completed a twenty-six Navy year career where he served as a Naval Aviator, Test Pilot, Major Defense Acquisition Program Manager and Source Selection Authority. In his first acquisition assignment, Nick transitioned a first-build signals intelligence satellite payload off the program critical path in 18 months. Nick returned to the Naval Aviation Enterprise, where he completed a 34-site, fleet-wide imagery and targeting system rollout within three years and reduced the time to generate aimpoints for precision guided munitions from 3 hours to 10 minutes. Nick realized a 90% technology transition rate and reduced cycle time from 3 years to 18 months. His program was recognized with the Assistant Secretary of the Navy’s Excellence in Acquisition Reform Award three consecutive years. Nick concluded his active duty career by pioneering the NRO’s Mission IT transformation from a vertically-integrated stovepiped systems model to an Infrastructure Service Provider, Application Service Provider (ISP-ASP) model. Through Nick’s leadership, the NRO reduced capital and operating costs by over $500M, doubled processing performance and reduced power, space and cooling footprint by 50%.

Nick holds active memberships with numerous industry associations and serves as a Youth Minister with the Diocese of Arlington’s annual WorkCamp program. A Harvard Senior Executive Fellow, Nick’s military decorations include the Defense Meritorious Service Medal, Meritorious Service Medal, Joint Commendation Medal, and numerous sea-service and unit citation awards. Interests include coaching and sailing, where he has competed at the National level in one-design competition.

Nick Buck is President & Chief Executive Officer of Buck Consulting Group, where he leads a cadre of highly qualified experts focused on improving industry partner mission relevancy as a path to scaling business. Nick is a recognized expert in federal procurement, market development, mission systems, and information technology. His “Know the Market, Go to Market”™ practice leverages decades of government procurement experience to inform product strategies, enhance client value propositions, and improve customer engagements. Nick also volunteers as the co-chair of USGIF’s NRO Industry Advisory Group and has been a principal author in numerous papers involving agile software acquisition, business model evolution, and enterprise-scale cloud adoption.

Nick completed a twenty-six Navy year career where he served as a Naval Aviator, Test Pilot, Major Defense Acquisition Program Manager and Source Selection Authority. In his first acquisition assignment, Nick transitioned a first-build signals intelligence satellite payload off the program critical path in 18 months. Nick returned to the Naval Aviation Enterprise, where he completed a 34-site, fleet-wide imagery and targeting system rollout within three years and reduced the time to generate aimpoints for precision guided munitions from 3 hours to 10 minutes. Nick realized a 90% technology transition rate and reduced cycle time from 3 years to 18 months. His program was recognized with the Assistant Secretary of the Navy’s Excellence in Acquisition Reform Award three consecutive years. Nick concluded his active duty career by pioneering the NRO’s Mission IT transformation from a vertically-integrated stovepiped systems model to an Infrastructure Service Provider, Application Service Provider (ISP-ASP) model. Through Nick’s leadership, the NRO reduced capital and operating costs by over $500M, doubled processing performance and reduced power, space and cooling footprint by 50%.

Nick holds active memberships with numerous industry associations and serves as a Youth Minister with the Diocese of Arlington’s annual WorkCamp program. A Harvard Senior Executive Fellow, Nick’s military decorations include the Defense Meritorious Service Medal, Meritorious Service Medal, Joint Commendation Medal, and numerous sea-service and unit citation awards. Interests include coaching and sailing, where he has competed at the National level in one-design competition.