Marianne Bailey, a former deputy national manager for U.S. national security systems at the National Security Agency, has been named WashingtonExec’s Pinnacle Award Intelligence Government Executive of the year.

Bailey was recently tapped to lead Guidehouse’s cybersecurity practice.

In its second year, the annual Pinnacle Awards luncheon was held Oct. 31 at the Ritz Carlton Tysons Corner. The luncheon drew over 525 GovCon leaders and professionals, and showcased exemplary GovCon leadership in industry and government.

Bailey has more than three decades’ experience protecting the nation’s critical security systems, including having served in the Pentagon’s chief information officer office as the principal director for cybersecurity.

Bailey is a recognized speaker and thought leader in technology, cybersecurity, automation, leadership, STEM and culture. She previously served as the assistant deputy director of trusted engineering solutions at NSA, chief of NSA Information Assurance Directorate engineering, director of the Unified Cross Domain Management Office, Defense Information Systems Agency liaison.

Additionally, she has served in various management and engineering positions across the intelligence community.

In 2018 at NSA, Bailey partnered with critical stakeholders to lead the development and execution of a comprehensive strategy for the largest cybersecurity and cryptographic modernization program in two decades. The scope ranged from national nuclear armament to more than 4 million secure communication capabilities globally deployed.

At the same time, she led the reallocation of about 15% of the workforce to high-priority challenges, developed a strategy to drive cybersecurity workforce health and kicked off an effort that eventually led to standing up a new Cybersecurity Directorate.

See the full list of Pinnacle Award winners here.