SMART Management Updates: In August 2024, Philip Jaurigue, SMART Board Chair, retired and has been replaced by Debbie Burrell, past Deputy Chair and CEO of Burrell International Group. For those new to SMART, Debbie was the lead staffer for the SMART Congressional Caucus for 12 years prior to her Congressional staff retirement. She finished her Congressional staff career as Chief of Staff for Congressman Roscoe Bartlet who led the Caucus.
Robert Carullo, founding SMART Executive Director in 1999, also stepped down in August with Phil but remains active as the Executive Director Emeritus. Robert Mazzuca, SMART Deputy Director for the past two years has moved up to Executive Director. He also had been our Chair of the very important Economic Development Group for 15 years. He came to SMART after retiring from Lockheed Martin, Satellite and Space .
Annual Events: SMART is currently working on the return of the founding TechTrends series (1999-2004) that will be conducted in the Mid-Atlantic States (rotating each year) in the Spring to compliment the SMART PROC GOV CON held in the Fall in Frederick MD (2004 to present).
Upon lifting of the Federal Executive Branch travel ban, we will re-start TechTrends, hopefully in 2025 hosted by NJ in Atlantic City. If we cannot conduct a full TechTrends with Federal Executive Branch senior officials in the remainder of 2025, we will conduct several working sessions in DE, MD, NJ, PA & DC to prepare for 2026.
Back to our very successful Fall series, SMART PROC GOVCON, the 21st annual event will be conducted in Frederick, MD on November 18-19, 2025. See www.smartprocgovcon.com
Programs / Projects: We are currently focusing on two major efforts.
First, the Drive Across America program continues despite our challenges caused by starting just before the pandemic hit. For 2025 we are planning two Drives focusing on Veterans’ needs to re-start the program; one is SE PA and the then South Jersey. We are finalizing our plans for these two in June. We will then follow up with local Drives in DE, MD & VA and then expand from there. Stay tuned for updates.
Second, Rob Mazzuca is planning a significant program led by Harry Epstein to support the industrial base for our Naval Shipbuilding. Stay tuned for an update soon.
Contact SMART Executive Director, Emeritus, Robert Carullo at 609-304-2904 as needed.