Terry Gerton There’s some exciting developments at ACT-IAC. You’re announcing the 2026 Partners Program. Before we get into the details of the new class, tell us about the program and what it’s designed to do.

Dave Wennergren Absolutely. Well, for the sake of your audience, Terry, I’ll just say, ACT-IAC has been around for almost 50 years and we were created by government employees as a way for government technology leaders to be able to talk across agencies, but also with their counterparts in industry. And so we grew from a government organization to be both a government and industry organization. And the common bond that binds everything that we do at ACT- IAC is this idea about if you get government people and industry people in the room together, you’ll get better outcomes in the acquisitions that you do. The federal technology budget is really big, $90 billion a year or so, and most of that money ends up in the hands of the private sector. So we could do good contracting, we could do bad contracting, and a lot of that hinges on how well do you understand where the private sector is, what they can offer, how well does the private sector understand what government needs. So it’s that long-winded intro. Everything that we do from our communities of interest to our Federal Insight Exchanges and then our professional development programs are structured around this idea about how do you bring government and industry together to say, I’ll say, walk a mile in each other’s shoes. So we have three major professional development programs. We have an Associates Program for young people early in their career, a Voyagers Program for mid-career folks, and then the Partners Program, which is geared for, on the government side, folks that are 14, 15s that aspire to be SESs and then their counterparts in industry. So the curriculum of the Partners Program is built around the executive core qualifications, the ECQs that the government uses, and those have been updated so we have new ECQ’s that folks do. And so we rally a class of government and industry. But the thing that’s made the Partners Program so special for now well over 20 years is that we buddy up a couple of industry people with a couple of government people and so they sort of form a group that’s going to go through the class together in addition to leadership skills, they’re going to learn about each other. What’s it like from the private sector view? What’s like from government view? All those sorts of things. And then the magic really seems to happen after they graduate from the program at the end of nine months, they become an ACT-IAC fellow. And then that’s sort of like the alumni group. And as they say, high tide rises all boats. So as you progress in your career, you’ve got this group of people that you went to school with that are sort of your network. And now everybody’s got more senior jobs in industry. And so we have folks who have taken the Partners class like 20 years ago, who still have maintained these connections with the industry and government peers they went to class with and now have this sort of broad network of people that they can trust and can trust them to engage on the topics that matter to government.

Terry Gerton The program was on hiatus last year and you’ve brought it back. Did you find a rising tide of interest this year?

Dave Wennergren Yes, last year was an unusual year, because as we all know, the government agencies were really sort of hyper-focused on internal cost reduction exercises and changes in the workforce. And so there weren’t a lot of agencies that were making investments, I’ll say, in professional development last year. And so we had to, unfortunately, not do a Partners class last year, and so that was the first time, like I said, since the program started 20-some years ago that we weren’t able to field a class. But over the course of the year, we’ve seen government folks sort of get out of that internal view about the initial cost-cutting exercises that happened with the new administration and now be focused more on, there’s a lot of new guidance out about where we need to go. And so, you’re starting to focus on where do we want to go? Maybe the priorities for something like artificial intelligence are different but there actually are new priorities and so people are trying to engage. And along with that comes a recognition that you need to get out and speak, you need to get out and state your position, but you also need to make sure your workforce is trained for the future. And so, yes, we did start to see some uptake on the government side. I’ll say we always have lots of interest from the industry side in a way. And unfortunately, we always have a lot more applicants from the industry side than government, even in its heyday. But yes, we started to see government folks being willing to get their agencies to support them. You go through the program, you keep doing your day job. The program’s structured over nine months. But it happens in the evenings, on the weekends, some breakfasts, things like that. So you’re able to still do your day job. But nonetheless, government agencies do have to pay a tuition fee to be part of the program. And so we started to see agencies being willing to do that again. So we were delighted to be able to field a class.

Terry Gerton I’m speaking with Dave Wennergren. He’s the president and CEO of ACT-IAC. Dave, you’ve got a Pathfinder team in place that goes along with the cohort. Tell us about the Pathfinders and what their role is.

Dave Wennergren We’re a volunteer organization. And the magic that has made ACT-IAC so special so many years is so many industry and government people who are willing to spend their time to help address this agenda of how do we collaborate for more effective government mission outcomes? And so, in addition to having the course, in addition to having external speakers and facilitators, we always have a cadre of current government and industry leaders, many of whom who have taken the program before. So they’re now fellows who help guide the work. And so in addition to getting the value of the cohort that you’re part of the class with, you also have this cadre of government and industry leaders who are going to help facilitate you on your journey, provide you some mentoring advice, help shape the curriculum to sort of not only do the ECQs in general, but the sort of topics that are hot this year. And so this volunteer leadership group is a crucial part of it.

Terry Gerton You talked about this course being kind of on your own time and still having to do their day job. What sorts of experiences do the partners participate in?

Dave Wennergren There are a number of things we do. We do some offsites, we do some learning in town. We do work with our various groups. And so, again, it’s structured around the executive core qualifications for people to become senior executives. And so, as you know, raising business acumen, being able to lead change and lead people. So we have a number of events set up around that where we’ll bring in speakers. We’ll have them do team building exercises together, go learn about historical things that may help with perspectives on today. And so it’s a really meaningful experience and I say, do it on your own time, but I mean, there’s a lot of time. And so you do have to invest in it. We have an offsite coming up in just a few days to kick the program off. That’ll be like a Sunday, Monday, Tuesday thing that’ll involve some hands-on learning experiences and as well as some classroom.

Terry Gerton It sounds like this program really does begin to build collaboration across the industry-government boundary and that boundary’s been kind of tricky over the last year. How are things playing out for ACT-IAC more broadly?

Dave Wennergren Well, you’re right. I mean, the importance of collaboration remains. But if you have a moment of time when you’re sort of inwardly focused, which I’ll say was happening a lot early last year, where people were so focused more on the changes in the workforce, the cost-cutting exercises internally, I mean, that’s okay. And you have to do that periodically. But then if you really want to move the agenda forward, if you really want to make some additional progress on cybersecurity, tech modernization, adoption of AI, then you have to be able to reach out and get the advice of the many. And so just as with our professional development programs having a sort of period of calm last year, we’re now seeing a lot more participation in all the events that we do. And so we have our nine communities of interest who are focused around the functional topics that government leaders tell us are most important today. So everything from acquisition reform and the future of the workforce to tech modernization and AI and cybersecurity. And then we have agency-based groups, too, our Federal Insight Exchanges that are focused on what are the priorities for each agency and how do they want to get that work done. And we’ve started to see a real big pickup in all of that work this year, as people are getting back out and getting into the market to learn and grow together.

Terry Gerton What are the themes that you’re seeing resonate across both communities coming into 2026?

Dave Wennergren So clearly a lot of focus on artificial intelligence is a hot topic of the day, but then that’s sort of the grouping of, I’ll say transformation, consolidations and efficiency. So a lot of work going into this idea about how can we make sure the right people are doing the job on behalf of the many rather than everybody doing it themselves. Innovation continues to be a hot priority, and how can we get more of it? There are some, I’ll say, evergreen topics, tech modernization is still very important. A number of federal agencies are still spending the majority of their budgets on maintaining an aging legacy base. So tech modernization next steps, and how does tech modernization help facilitate your ability to do artificial intelligence? And of course, another evergreen topic is cybersecurity, ever-increasing threats and how do we stay ahead of that? Particularly in an age where quantum computing will change everything about cybersecurity.

Terry Gerton Well, in the past year, we saw the administration pull down a lot of regulations and change a lot of rules, but the new rules haven’t been issued yet. How are you finding the community operating in this kind of limbo space?

Dave Wennergren Well, I’d say there is a lot of, at this point now, a lot sort of top-level direction. A number of new executive orders to replace the ones that were rescinded, and clearly some big priorities around, like the OneGov initiative at GSA and the acquisition reform work that’s going on across government. So, a priority push around how do we get artificial intelligence adopted more broadly at agencies, and not just, I’ll say, at the margins, but in the core mission areas rather than just in the support areas. So I think you’re right, there’s sort of the next level of indenture about how do you execute what’s still being worked on. But clearly there’s enough priorities that have been directed from the top down that I think it’s easy for industry, much easier this year for industry and government to both see, ah, this is where we’re headed. So how can we help make that happen?