The Honors College is pleased to announce that Jeff Shen (BS Management Information Systems, ‘96), a University Scholar alumnus and the President of Red Team Consulting, will be the Spring 2024 Honors College Graduation Reception Speaker. Red Team Consulting is a strategic growth consultancy that helps companies scale in the government contracting market. For more than 20 years, Red Team has helped thousands of companies achieve their growth targets with full lifecycle business development, capture, proposal development, pricing, and training services.
Since January 2023, Shen has given back to George Mason by serving on the Honors College Advisory Board. In this capacity, Shen recently leveraged his professional networks and gave generously of his time to pull together the Honors College Government Contracting Roundtable, an event co-sponsored by the Greg and Camille Baroni Center for Government Contracting. At the Government Contracting Roundtable, Honors College students had the opportunity to learn directly from Mason alumni who are now corporate executives and leaders in the government contracting industry. Meeting with these leaders gave students the opportunity to appreciate the many pathways to success and the multi-dimensional nature of today’s government contracting companies. It also gave the Honors College a unique opportunity to showcase the immense talent of our student body to major industry leaders in our region.
In his time on the Advisory Board, Shen has shown a deep commitment to helping Honors College students see themselves as the leaders of tomorrow. At an Honors College Professional Development Workshop this Winter, Shen met in a small group setting with a select cohort of Honors College students. He spoke about his experiences leading Red Team Consulting and his pathway from George Mason to his current success, then answered student questions about professional development, telling their own professionalization stories effectively, and his view of key issues in his industry.
Students who participated in both the roundtable and workshop events described experiences where they networked, gained valuable professional experience, and learned about aspects of government contracting they would likely not have encountered without Shen’s help. Two current George Mason students, Jessica Taylor and Avery Shippen, both following in Shen’s footsteps as a part of the University Scholars program, discussed their experience participating in the Honors College Professional Development Fellows Government Contracting Roundtable event.
Jessica Taylor, a Junior pursuing a BFA in Music Technology with a minor in Computer Science, highlighted the importance of the conversations she was able to have:
Echoing Jessica’s sentiments, Avery Shippen, a Conflict Analysis major, highlighted the value of building her professional network and getting a realistic idea of how she might fit into the government contracting industry:
The Honors College is immensely grateful to Shen for helping establish the Honors College Professional Development Fellows program and the Government Contracting Roundtable. Plans are currently underway to continue this project in the coming year.
As a member of the Honors College Dean's Advisory Board, Shen helps provide advisory feedback to the Dean and Honors College administration about the business community's expectations, messaging opportunities, employment trends, and demands for workforce development at Mason. Shen and other board members assist the Honors College in creating new partnerships, promoting internships, developing new service-learning opportunities, and cultivating donors.
The Honors College is exceedingly thankful to Mr. Shen for his service to his alma mater and for sharing his words of wisdom at the Honors College Graduation Reception.