Washington, D.C. Chapter
Ann Steele is the owner and CEO of STEELE, a woman-owned small business and emerging player in the federal sector, particularly in the area of homeland security. Ann combines a wealth of experience as an engineer and project manager in the private sector with a decade of federal service to provide her customers with a unique set of skills to provide facility and program management services to the federal government.
Ann began her professional career in land development, then made a jump to federal contracting as an engineer supporting a large-scale NASA research project in the Brazilian Amazon. During that time she regularly commuted to Brazil to oversee the installation of towers, roads, and other support infrastructure that provided NASA and the Brazilian government with key data to understand the relationship of the Amazon Forest with regional and global atmospheres. Following completion of that project, Ann went to work for U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP). One of her most significant accomplishments at CBP was to lead all technical aspects of CBP’s $400M Land Port of Entry Modernization Program funded by the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act. Ann led the planning, design, and construction of over 30 severely dilapidated land ports, bringing them in line with the Agency’s mission in the post 9-11 world.
Originally from the Monterey Bay area, Ann has called Arlington, Virginia home for nearly 20 years. She was once a world traveler who visited over 35 countries on her own. Now she enjoys sharing her passion for world travel with her husband, five year old daughter, and four year old son at a much slower pace. When not building her business, Ann does her best thinking while running and is a 13-time marathoner, beach volleyball enthusiast, decent cook, and gardener with a periodically green thumb. She holds a BS in Civil and Environmental Engineering from Brigham Young University and a Master of Public Administration from George Mason University.