Mr. Farooq Mitha
Department of Defense Small Business Programs
Senior Advisor
Farooq A. Mitha currently serves as the Senior Advisor in the Department of Defense (DoD) Office of Small Business Programs. In these roles Farooq supports the overseeing more than $120 billion of annual awards to small business, in addition to assisting the Joint Chiefs of Staff, Secretaries of Military Departments, Under Secretaries of Defense, Directors of Defense Agencies and Major Commands in including small business planning into the readiness of the Department. Additionally he supports the analysis of the increasingly global, commercial, and financially complex industrial supply chain essential to our national defense, and actions taken by DoD to maintain the health, integrity and technical superiority of that supply chain. Farooq also supports DoD in the analysis of all matters relating to mergers, acquisitions, and dissolutions of national security-related business. These efforts aim to modernize and restore the nation's industrial commons, maintain the technological superiority of the domestic industrial base and ensure an innovative industrial base aligned with the DoD's current and future needs.
Throughout his time at DoD, Farooq has supported several programs and initiatives that have increased the visibility of small business within DoD, modernized programs to infuse small business capability into major defense acquisition programs and increased effective dialogue with industry. These initiatives include supporting the establishment of the accelerated payments program, which accelerates over $50 billion in payments to DoD's small business contractors, and was recognized by the Harvard Kennedy School of Government Innovations in American Government Award Program.
During his time at DoD, Farooq has supported an increase of total dollars to small businesses and the inclusion of small businesses into the planning to the overall readiness of the Department. Additionally, Farooq supported the Department of Defense in meeting its small business prime contracting goal and its Service Disabled Veteran Owned Small Business goal for the first time in history. In his engagement with industry Farooq has spoken to hundreds of small businesses across the country and met with members of Congress, local elected officials, industry associations, CEOs and Vice Presidents of large firms and university presidents to discuss how to support innovation in the industrial base, reinvigorate the nation's industrial commons and increase non-traditional suppliers to DoD. Farooq has also engaged participated in discussion and delegations with our allies on these topics including the United Kingdom, Sweden, Canada, Qatar, the United Arab Emirates and Turkey.
Through his roles at DoD Farooq has also supported several interagency initiatives including serving on the steering committee of Business USA, the National Export Initiative and the White House Asian American and Pacific Islander Initiative. He also served as a co-lead for the DoD-VA Taskforce on Veteran's Employment where he lead the development of the first entrepreneurship curriculum for separating service members who are interested in starting their own business, which is now integrated into the Transition Assistance Program.
Farooq has a strong background in international policy and national security. He is proficient in Arabic and has written opinion-editorials offering commentary on issues concerning the Middle East and the American political system, which have been published in domestic and foreign publications. In 2009, Farooq conducted research as a Fulbright Fellow in Amman, Jordan where he focused on Jordanian-Israeli economic relations and published a work titled, "The Jordanian-Israeli Relationship: The Reality of "Cooperation." His research was published in the summer 2010 edition of Middle East Policy. Farooq has also lectured on several topics domestically and internationally on economic reform in the Middle East, U.S. policy in the Middle East, the Ara
Throughout his time at DoD, Farooq has supported several programs and initiatives that have increased the visibility of small business within DoD, modernized programs to infuse small business capability into major defense acquisition programs and increased effective dialogue with industry. These initiatives include supporting the establishment of the accelerated payments program, which accelerates over $50 billion in payments to DoD's small business contractors, and was recognized by the Harvard Kennedy School of Government Innovations in American Government Award Program.
During his time at DoD, Farooq has supported an increase of total dollars to small businesses and the inclusion of small businesses into the planning to the overall readiness of the Department. Additionally, Farooq supported the Department of Defense in meeting its small business prime contracting goal and its Service Disabled Veteran Owned Small Business goal for the first time in history. In his engagement with industry Farooq has spoken to hundreds of small businesses across the country and met with members of Congress, local elected officials, industry associations, CEOs and Vice Presidents of large firms and university presidents to discuss how to support innovation in the industrial base, reinvigorate the nation's industrial commons and increase non-traditional suppliers to DoD. Farooq has also engaged participated in discussion and delegations with our allies on these topics including the United Kingdom, Sweden, Canada, Qatar, the United Arab Emirates and Turkey.
Through his roles at DoD Farooq has also supported several interagency initiatives including serving on the steering committee of Business USA, the National Export Initiative and the White House Asian American and Pacific Islander Initiative. He also served as a co-lead for the DoD-VA Taskforce on Veteran's Employment where he lead the development of the first entrepreneurship curriculum for separating service members who are interested in starting their own business, which is now integrated into the Transition Assistance Program.
Farooq has a strong background in international policy and national security. He is proficient in Arabic and has written opinion-editorials offering commentary on issues concerning the Middle East and the American political system, which have been published in domestic and foreign publications. In 2009, Farooq conducted research as a Fulbright Fellow in Amman, Jordan where he focused on Jordanian-Israeli economic relations and published a work titled, "The Jordanian-Israeli Relationship: The Reality of "Cooperation." His research was published in the summer 2010 edition of Middle East Policy. Farooq has also lectured on several topics domestically and internationally on economic reform in the Middle East, U.S. policy in the Middle East, the Ara