The Senior Team

Kirk Swann, Civilian Agencies Business Unit

Kirk Swann is focused on assisting federal agencies in the areas of electronic government, IT policy, performance management and transparency. Kirk’s expertise includes strategic planning, information technology policy and portfolio management.

Prior to joining Touchstone, Kirk held senior management and consulting roles at Accenture, Etensity and American Management Systems. Kirk has supported clients in both the public and private sectors, and has experience across a variety of industries, including financial services, telecommunications and new media.

In 2005, Kirk was selected to the “Federal 100” by Federal Computer Week for his efforts in support of the human resources, financial management, and grants management lines of business at the Office of Management and Budget. Kirk received his Bachelors of Arts in Mathematics from Dartmouth College.

Cate Gregory, National Security Business Unit

Cate Gregory has over 15 years of consulting experience in organization development, leadership development and coaching, strategic planning, business process reengineering, and program management. Cate is known for bringing together diverse groups of individuals with competing agendas, and aligning them around a common purpose or goal. She combines technical and content expertise to help leaders draw on their own strengths to achieve lasting outcomes for themselves and their organizations. Cate has worked at all levels for government including local, state and federal agencies.

Cate co-leads Touchstone’s Strategic Planning and Alignment service offering, and is responsible for driving business growth and expanding the capacity of consultants to provide strategic consulting services. In addition, Cate served as the Account Manager for Touchstone’s National Geospatial Intelligence Agency engagements, where she increased revenue by 43%; as a Subject Matter Expert for the Department of Defense Biometrics Management Office project, where she was responsible for developing a Governance Model for the DoD Biometrics Community of Interest; and as an Engagement Manager supporting the U.S. Department of the Treasury, Office of E-Government.

Prior to joining Touchstone, Cate spent 10 years as a principal consultant with American Management Systems (now CGI-Ams, Inc.). Her experience also includes independent consulting and IT systems process improvement and implementation support. Cate holds a Bachelors of Arts in Foreign Affairs and Spanish from the University of Virginia.

Leslie Thornton, State and Local Business Unit

Leslie has been passionate about helping leaders creatively and collaboratively develop high-performing organizations and communities for 15 years. As an experienced Organizational Development leader and strategic planner, Leslie is known for bringing together key stakeholders to set goals, design structures, increase performance, and build consensus.

Leslie helps local, state and federal organizations develop and implement transformation initiatives. She is skilled in planning and facilitating collaborative workshops to develop missions, visions and goals; she also designs governance structures and teams to support cross-jurisdiction planning, problem solving and sustainability.

Leslie is a part time Adjunct Faculty member at Johns Hopkins University, where she teaches classes in conflict, negotiation, strategic planning and organization design for the Carey Business School. She is a trained mediator and provides pro-bono mediation to Virginia Small Claims Courts. Leslie is also a member of the Organization Development Network, an international professional association of organizational development practitioners.

Prior to joining Touchstone, Leslie held management positions with Thomson Prometric, a wholly owed subsidiary of Thomson Corporation, and the Chesapeake Packaging Corporation. She was an International human resources manager and supported teams in Asia and Europe that created global Organizational Development standards and tools for performance.

Leslie received her Bachelor of Science in Business Management from Virginia Tech, and her Master of Science in Organizational Development from The Johns Hopkins University.

Steve Holden, PhD, Executive Business Operations

Steve Holden is responsible for overseeing the firm’s Contracts, Finance, Human Resources, and Facilities departments. As a Senior Principal with more than 25 years experience, Steve serves as an Account Manager for a wide variety of projects, including the General Services Administration, the National Science foundation, the Federal Emergency Management Agency, and the National Marine Fisheries Service.

Steve is focused on helping organizations achieve their maximum efficiencies through strategic planning, assessment and management; project and program management; and stakeholder engagement. Steve served as the Engagement Manager for the award-winning Business Gateway initiative at the Small Business Administration, where he oversaw Program Management Office tasks including project management, EVM, financial analysis and strategic alignment.

Prior to joining Touchstone, Steve was an assistant professor of information systems at UMBC, where he did research and taught e-government, Federal information policy, project management, management information systems and decision support systems. He has also served as a senior executive at the Internal Revenue Service, and spent 10 years at the Office of Management and Budget. His Federal civil service career began in 1983 as a Presidential Management Intern with the Naval Sea Systems Command.

Steve received his PhD in Public Administration and Policy from Virginia Tech, and his Masters and Bachelors of Arts in Public Management from the University of Maine.

Sonny Bhatia, Emerging Technologies

Sonny has extensive experience in emerging technologies, social media, product management and enterprise software implementation. He has led process design, quality management and software development organizations, and can help organizations understand the impact of Web 2.0 technologies, prioritize needed infrastructure updates, and address the latest cyber security threats. Sonny’s experience includes leading cross-functional teams with the ability to communicate on both the executive level as well as technical and operational level.

Sonny has over 20 years of product management and implementation experience. Prior to joining Touchstone, he served as a Senior Product Manager for WebMethods and as a Senior Manager of Enterprise Transformation Services for Unisys. He has also held senior-level roles at Manugistics, Collaborex, PeopleSoft, GE Capital IT Solutions, Arthur Andersen, MCI Telecommunications, and General Electric.

Sonny received his B.Sc. in Electrical Engineering from the University of Pittsburgh, and his MBA from Georgetown University.