Terry DavidGovernment contractors face more scrutiny than ever, and Margarita Howard says that pressure is not something companies can afford to ignore. As CEO and president of HX5, a mission support contractor she founded in 2004, Howard has watched federal spending climb to record levels across defense, health care, and infrastructure work in 2024.
More money on the table, she says, comes paired with more oversight. “Businesses must invest in educating themselves about these regulations and ensure strict adherence to them,” Howard says. Margarita Howard reasoning is straightforward. Contractors that fail to keep clean records can quickly lose the trust that keeps agencies awarding them work.
RECORDS AS A COMPETITIVE ADVANTAGE
“It’s important that a company’s records are impeccable when working with the government due to the compliance reporting and audits that companies have to agree to perform on government contracts,” she says. At HX5, that standard extends across a workforce of more than 1,000 employees stationed at 90 government locations in 34 states, supporting the Department of Defense and NASA out of the company’s Fort Walton Beach, Florida headquarters.
Howard’s attention to compliance has roots in her earlier career. Before founding HX5, she worked on the rollout of Tricare, the Department of Defense’s health care program, first as an area field manager in Florida and later as a regional director overseeing seven states in the Southeast. That experience gave her a close view of how federal agencies expect contractors to operate.
BUILDING ON A SMALL BUSINESS FOUNDATION
HX5’s early growth also came through the federal 8(a) program, which supports small businesses facing social and economic disadvantages. “After becoming an 8(a) company, we were awarded very quickly four contracts in one year and that really helped in getting us off the ground,” Howard says. Even then, she pushed HX5 toward competitive bidding rather than depending solely on the protections the program offered, a decision that has kept the company positioned for continued federal work long after that early support ended. Read this article for additional information.
Learn more about Margarita Howard HX5 on https://www.f6s.com/member/margarita-howard