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Mr. Blaisdell is the Founder and Managing Partner of Virginia-based Evoke Consulting. And he worked hard to get there. In 2005, Mr. Blaisdell left traditional federal contracting behind and capitalized on his 15 years of consulting experience to launch a second career building Evoke into a federal management consulting firm within the government contracting industry.

Throughout his career, his focus has been his colleagues, clients, and our community. Mr. Blaisdell founded Evoke with a vision to build the company into a platform to serve that purpose and those beliefs. At Evoke, Mr. Blaisdell empowers employees to grow professionally and look at the world with compassion.

Today, with clients across the country, Evoke continues to deliver and has won numerous recognitions, including Washing Tech Fast 50, Virginia Chamber of Commerce Fantastic 50, and Inc. 500. Mr. Blaisdell continues to volunteer with several organizations including the Virginia Hospital Center Medical Brigade (Board Member), Big Brothers Big Sisters, and Arlington Little League.

As a business leader under constant pressure to learn new strategies demanded by rapidly changing markets and ever-evolving technology, Mr. Blasdell’s skills have merged to create a knowledge base that serves both fellow leaders and corporations. “Sharing what I know, learning from others, and making a positive impact, fuels my desire to keep growing Evoke and giving back each day.”

Prior to launching Evoke, Mr. Blaisdell had executive responsibility for operations, sales, marketing, and management of various client programs for multiple small and emerging federal contracting firms in the Washington, DC area.  In his consulting roles, Mr. Blaisdell held federal and international management consulting roles within several large agencies and commercial organizations including AT&T, British Telcom and Concert Communications.

Mr. Blaisdell began his consulting career on a Department of Defense contract supporting the Secretary of the Army for Research, Development and Acquisition. Later, Mr. Blaisdell moved to a large science and technology firm and consulted for the Ballistic Missile Defense Organization where he supported national missile defense and theater missile defense initiatives. Mr. Blaisdell supported programs developing the U.S. Navy Aegis Ballistic Missile Defense vessels, most notably the Aegis Lightweight Exo-atmospheric Projectile Intercept program.

Mr. Loreto is a hands-on executive with over 20+ years in the management consulting field, with expertise in strategy, process improvement, business development, and service delivery.

In 2007, Loreto joined Mr. Blaisdell in launching Evoke and the two have combined to create a driving business force, filling a void they saw in the federal management consulting market. Today, Evoke Consulting has grown from a two-person startup into a nationwide management consulting firm.  Mr. Loreto’s passions at Evoke are his employees, our clients, and our community.

Mr. Loreto served on active duty as a Naval Supply Officer for seven years and another five years as an Intelligence Officer in the Naval Reserves. His active duty assignments included at-sea operations aboard the USS Ticonderoga (CG-47) and the Office of the Secretary of Defense while stationed at the Pentagon. As a reservist, Mr. Loreto supported the National Military Joint Intelligence Center (NMJIC) as an analyst and watch officer.

Prior to Evoke, he held various leadership positions in the management consulting field. He developed successful high performing teams supporting multiple customers in the federal market to include the U.S. Navy, the Department of Homeland Security and the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA).

Loreto’s passion in the community comes back to veterans. He has helped organize, sponsor or participate in over fifty Veteran focused support events in the past ten years. Notably, Loreto served for many years on the original board of directors for the non-profit group “Run to Honor.” Run to Honor seeks to honor all fallen heroes and support the families of Naval Academy fallen. Loreto helped expand the organization’s activities to include a “Swim to Honor” component to include his participation in open water endurance events to honor his fallen classmates.

Mr. Loreto holds a Bachelors of Science from the United States Naval Academy, a Masters in Business Administration (MBA) from the University of Maryland and is a Lean Six Sigma Black Belt and certified Project Management Professional (PMP)®.

Michael Dallara is Evoke’s Chief Operating Officer responsible for customer satisfaction and the company’s operational performance. In this capacity, he oversees all aspects of Evoke’s service delivery and financial management while concurrently supporting growth initiatives. Mr. Dallara’s 25 years of industry experience includes executive leadership roles driving team results across an array of professional and technical capabilities in service to federal agencies and state and local governments.

Prior to joining Evoke in 2020, Mr. Dallara was Executive Vice President at a privately held cyber company where he led the creation of company strategy and achieved new contract wins including a new Federal Supply Schedule. Previously, Mr. Dallara was the Chief Operating Officer at a private federal system integrator where he increased the company’s operational efficiencies and customer satisfaction scores while delivering portfolio growth.

Mr. Dallara supported a $2B pure play government services spin-off as a new publicly traded company from a Top 10 aerospace company and served on the company’s executive leadership team. He helped integrate multiple businesses and acquisitions to transform the company and became the Senior Vice President and General Manager for the Federal Civilian portfolio.

Mr. Dallara began his career as an aerospace financial analyst and has held roles of increasing responsibility as a finance manager across divisions of a $2B communications company and director of business operations and corporate development for a division of a Top 10 aerospace company. Mr. Dallara also performed as a project manager on several contracts and was an Industry Fellow at the National Defense University’s Dwight D. Eisenhower School for National Security and Resource Strategy.

Mr. Dallara received his master’s degree in national resource strategy with a concentration in information operations from the National Defense University’s Dwight D. Eisenhower School for National Security and Resource Strategy. He received his bachelor’s degree with dual majors in finance and management from the University of Florida’s Warrington College of Business Administration.

Ms. Chavez serves as Evoke’s Chief Human Capital Officer with oversight of the full Division.  Responsibilities include Compensation, Benefits, Recruitment, Training, Employee Development and Compliance.  Maya has more than twenty years of experience within human capital management and a strong acumen in diverse corporate areas, including matters unique to government consulting across multiple sectors and markets.  Prior to joining Evoke, Maya spent seventeen years at a Healthcare Information Technology Organization, overseeing transformation of its corporate policies, implementation of operational best practices to meet both short and long term strategies as well as enhancing company performance. Maya worked alongside and within leadership to develop company growth from a small business with 70 employees and $50M in revenue to one with over 1000 employees and approximately $200M utilizing strategic initiatives.

Ms. Chavez holds a Master’s Degree in Human Resource Development from Villanova University and Bachelor’s Degree in Business Management from the University of Maryland.

Dr. Shawn Smith is Evoke’s Vice President of Business Development, responsible for all growth functions including business development, capture, and proposal operations. Dr. Smith’s 40 years of industry experience includes technical and executive leadership roles in both services and manufacturing organizations.

Previously, Dr. Smith was Director of Business Development at a privately held consulting services company where he led growth initiatives in U.S. Navy markets winning opportunities on both Seaport-E and Seaport-NxG. Dr. Smith’s prior accomplishments include leading capture efforts to serve U.S. Department of Defense customers in remote and austere OCONUS operating environments. Dr. Smith has also served in executive Capture Manager roles in the Federal market leveraging engineering discipline and a wholistic systems thinking approach to architecting innovative solutions and compiling a win rate of over 70%.

Preceding roles include positions of increasing responsibility at a boutique design and manufacturing firm where he led development and marketing of innovative fiber optic distribution systems as Director of Technology & Marketing. Dr. Smith began his career in the semiconductor industry as industrial controls engineer and spent 15 years with one of the world’s largest semiconductor firms with a culminating role overseeing a worldwide voice and data communications network with 1,200 users on three continents. In parallel, Dr. Smith served 7 years in the U.S. Naval Reserves.

A lifelong learner, Dr. Smith obtained a PhD in Organization and Management-Information Technology Management from Capella University and a MS in Computer Information Systems and BS in Business Administration from the University of Phoenix. Dr. Smith holds a PMP certification from the Project Management Institute and a Systems Thinking Certificate from Cornell University. He is the author of Analysis Frameworks for Systems Engineers and Project Managers and continues to serve as a thought leader in the engineering community teaching postgraduate Systems Engineering courses at the University of Texas at El Paso.