Speakers

Bryson Patterson currently serves as the Deputy District Director for the South Dakota Office of the U.S. Small Business Administration (SBA). The SBA team in South Dakota is responsible to provide access to capital, counseling and training services, access to government contracts, and disaster relief to small businesses. Bryson joined the District Office in 2020.

Previous to his assignment to South Dakota, Bryson served as Regional Export Finance Manager for Colorado, New Mexico, Utah, and Wyoming based in the U.S. Export Assistance Center Denver. Bryson began his SBA career in 2008 as a Program Analyst in the Office of Small Business Development Centers in Washington, D.C. Bryson is passionate about helping small businesses succeeded. He enjoys fishing with his wife, three sons, and two daughters.

Mr. Brian McJilton is Director of Small Business and Vice Director of Strategic Partnering for the Air Force Research Laboratory (AFRL), Wright-Patterson Air Force Base, Ohio. The AFRL Small Business Directorate is responsible for overseeing the reviews of approximately $3B in procurements across the enterprise, ensuring small business participation is maximized to its fullest extent to meet the demands of our science and technology needs for the Air Force. He focuses on developing novel interactions and programs between AFRL researchers, small businesses, and community partners to provide innovative technologies to meet Air Force requirements and AFRL small business contract award goals. His duties include the identification of small businesses that have capabilities to meet the AFRL requirements, outreach, support, and recruitment of small businesses, aligning AFRL scientists and engineers with external S&T ecosystem members (industry, academia) toward innovative initiatives, and the training of scientists, engineers and contracting officers on the small business program, goals, and objectives.

Prior to his appointment as the Director of Small Business, Mr. McJilton served in several leadership positions for both AFRL and AFLCMC. He most recently served as the AFRL Headquarters Plans and Programs Directorate - Senior Technical Director where he was responsible for assessing strategic guidance, informing and supporting strategic planning and programming, and alliances — both internal and external — to the AF S&T laboratory. Mr. McJilton also served as the S&T Strategy – Partnering & Presence IPT lead, which focused on enterprise collaborations and the needed enhancements and new approaches to expand and deepen AFRL’s engagement with external S&T ecosystems (e.g., universities, industries, government) to support the maturation of technology to accelerate transition of solutions/capabilities addressing future challenges facing both the USAF and USSF. Mr. McJilton also served as the Branch Chief (2011–2019) for the Headquarters Plans and Programs Directorate, Business Operations Division, Integrated Processes Branch, steering integration and support of necessary processes, procedures, and tools to synergize enterprise approaches and compliances. From 2007–2011, he served as the supervisory Chief Engineer of the Business Systems Group at Air Force Material Command/554 Electronic Systems Group.

Prior to serving in Federal civilian service, Mr. McJilton worked 18 years in industry for a variety of large and small businesses (e.g., SofTech, CACI, Universal Systems Inc, Integic Corp, GRACAR Corp, MacAuley-Brown) in various capacities such as Computer Engineer, Senior Systems Engineer, Engineering Management, Business Development, and Business Area Manager. Mr. McJilton also served eight years in the United States Air Force (Active & Air National Guard). He has a master’s degree in Engineering Management from the University of Phoenix, and an undergraduate degree in Computer Science/Engineering from Capital University.

Ed Palacio has 40 years of experience in directing development and production of complex military electronic systems. He has held Profit and Loss responsibility at the Business Unit and Sector levels, as well as functional lead positions in Program Management, Engineering and Operations. Currently he is President of P&L Technical Management Solutions, a Small Business focused on technology, program, and business development for the military and civilian market. He currently serves in various Executive Boards for the IEEE, Industry and Academia. He currently teaches at Stony Brook University’s Department of Technology and Society. Ed holds a B.E.E from the Cooper Union School of Engineering and Science and two M.S. degrees in Electrical Engineering and Technology Management from the Polytechnic Institute of New York. He served as the 2023 IEEE-USA President.