FALLS CHURCH, Va. – Oct. 30, 2013 – Northrop Grumman Corporation (NYSE:NOC) has received two 2013 DoD Nunn-Perry Awards honoring teams who have excelled in quality, technical assistance, return on investment and protégé development. Northrop Grumman's partnership with MVLE Inc., a nonprofit organization that encourages professional growth for people living with disabilities through employment and support services, represents the first time a prime contractor has entered into a Mentor-Protégé agreement with an AbilityOne® services provider. Northrop Grumman Information Systems also received a Nunn-Perry award for its mentor protégé program with Kimmich Software Systems, Inc., which provides engineering services to the intelligence community.
The DOD Mentor Protégé program encourages major DOD prime contractors to develop the technical and business capabilities of small disadvantaged businesses, qualifying organizations employing the severely disabled, women-owned small businesses, service-disabled veteran-owned small businesses, or businesses located in historically underutilized business zones.
The Nunn-Perry Award is named in honor of retired U.S. Senator Sam Nunn, who sponsored legislation to enact the Mentor-Protégé Program in 1991, and former Secretary of Defense William Perry. Nunn-Perry awards are the highest honor companies can receive in the program. Northrop Grumman received two of the seven awards given this year.
Northrop Grumman has 13 current mentor protégé agreements and has worked with more than 110 protégés over the life of the program. The company has received 22 DOD Nunn-Perry Awards for participation in the DOD Mentor-Protégé program, more than any other company in the program.
The Mentor-Protégé program is managed as part of Northrop Grumman's Socio-Economic Business Program. The goal of this program is to insure that capable small businesses including small-disadvantaged, woman-owned, veteran-owned and service-disabled veteran-owned, historically underutilized business zones, AbilityOne organizations, lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender concerns and Historically Black Colleges/Universities and Minority Institutions, receive the maximum practicable subcontracting opportunities on all major programs.
More than 35 percent of Northrop Grumman procurement spending goes to small, women or minority-owned firms. The company has met and exceeded the 23 percent small business statutory goal for more than 10 consecutive years and has received numerous awards and recognition for support of socio-economic business programs.
This year Northrop Grumman received the SourceAmerica national award for Commercial Business Partnership in support of the AbilityOne Program. Northrop Grumman was honored for its partnership with MVLE Inc., a service provider in the AbilityOne network. AbilityOne is the single largest source of employment for people who are blind or have significant disabilities and currently provides employment opportunities to nearly 50,000 people nationwide.
Northrop Grumman is a leading global security company providing innovative systems, products and solutions in unmanned systems, cyber, C4ISR, and logistics and modernization to government and commercial customers worldwide. Please visit www.northropgrumman.com for more information.