Virginia Tech Applied Research Corporation names Northern Virginia chief of staff
Key Watkins of Burke, Va. has joined the Virginia Tech Applied Research Corporation as the chief of staff in the National Capital Region.
“Watkins is a retired U.S. Navy captain with great leadership and organizational skills and an extensive background in Intel and communications,” said research corporation CEO Thomas M. McNamara Jr.
Watkins was formerly the program manager for the Navy's Wounded Warrior Program and former military assistant to John Grimes, who was U.S. Department of Defense chief information officer and assistant secretary of defense for Networks and Information Integration in the Bush administration.
Watkins will assist McNamara and the Virginia Tech Applied Research Corporation program managers with all aspects of operations in the National Capital Region. He will also work closely with Bennett Teates, the research corporation’s executive director for Blacksburg operations, to foster collaboration and streamline operations. “I am very glad that Key has joined [the Virginia Tech Applied Research Corporation] and look forward to his outstanding contributions in building this new organization,” said McNamara.
Dedicated to its motto, Ut Prosim (That I May Serve), Virginia Tech takes a hands-on, engaging approach to education, preparing scholars to be leaders in their fields and communities. As the commonwealth’s most comprehensive university and its leading research institution, Virginia Tech offers 240 undergraduate and graduate degree programs to more than 31,000 students and manages a research portfolio of $513 million. The university fulfills its land-grant mission of transforming knowledge to practice through technological leadership and by fueling economic growth and job creation locally, regionally, and across Virginia.
