Honorees

2010 Living & Giving Award Honoree: Blackbird Technologies, Inc.

Blackbird Technologies provides innovative solutions to challenging national security requirements.  Driven by innovation, speed, and reliability, Blackbird is a recognized industry leader in emerging technologies, custom hardware development, software engineering, cyber security, specialized communications devices, complex networks, and tracking and locating systems.  Blackbird has a distinguished track record of providing unique, cutting-edge solutions to a wide range of U.S. Government, Intelligence Community, Defense, Law Enforcement and commercial customers.  Blackbird employs engineers, scientists, researchers, deployed field personnel, and analysts who have a deep understanding of operational requirements.  These unique capabilities enable Blackbird to take advanced research and rapidly bridge the gap from concept to real-world operational deployment.

2010 Congressional Champion Award Honoree: The Honorable Jim Webb

Jim Webb presently serves as the senior Senator from Virginia.

As a combat Marine in Vietnam, an attorney, a senior defense department official, an Emmy-award winning journalist, a film-maker, and the author of nine books, Jim Webb has maintained a life-long commitment toward protecting America’s national security interests, promoting economic fairness and social justice here at home, and increasing the accountability of government. In 2007, following his first-ever run for political office, he brought those passions with him to the United States Senate. By the fall of 2008, Washingtonian Magazine had picked him as the “Rising Star” in the magazine’s “Best & Worst of Congress” edition, Politico newspaper had named him “Rookie of the Year” in Congress, The Atlantic magazine named him one of the world’s 27 “Brave Thinkers,” and Esquire Magazine had counted him among the 75 most influential people of the 21st century, for doing “more to repair his party’s relationship with the military” than anyone since the Vietnam War.

Arriving in the Senate with long experience in military and veterans affairs, on his first day in office Webb introduced a comprehensive 21st century GI Bill for those who have been serving in our military since 9/11, and within 16 months had guided the most significant veterans legislation since World War Two through both houses of Congress, prompting The Atlantic Magazine to term him “the master of the Senate.” Along with Senator Claire McCaskill of Missouri, he created the Wartime Contracting Commission, with responsibility for bringing accountability for fraud, waste and abuse brought about by the often-unsupervised contract processes in Iraq and Afghanistan. Long dedicated to reforming our criminal justice system, Webb designed and chaired a series of committee hearings and conferences to examine the issues of mass incarceration and policies toward drugs, and became one of the strongest voices in Congress on the need for a top-to-bottom restructuring of the criminal justice system.

In addition to these individual endeavors, Webb has remained an active voice on military, economic and foreign affairs through his membership on the Armed Services, Foreign Relations, Joint Economic and Veterans Affairs committees. With long experience overseas that predates his time in the Senate, particularly in Asia, Webb now serves as Chairman of the Subcommittee on East Asian and Pacific Affairs on the Foreign Relations Committee. He also serves as the chairman of the Personnel Subcommittee of the Armed Services Committee.

Webb speaks Vietnamese and has done extensive pro bono work with the Vietnamese community dating from the late 1970′s. He is the proud father of children Amy, Jimmy, Sarah, Julia, Georgia, and step-daughter Emily. He lives in Northern Virginia with his wife Hong Le Webb.