FFRDCs

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:The recently departed Mitre CEO wanted to grow the company with non-FFRDC work, one guesses this was so he could justify a pay raise for himself. And the FFRDC work at Mitre was expanding at the same time he was doing this.

Jason took the FFRDC's for granted, which is why Mark was brought in.

Respectfully, brought in to do what? Reactive RIFs with the CFO, CEO & new VP of Ops? Anyone can do that

It seems like he was brought in to RIF people.

Agreed. In all orgs RIFs are easy to implement and bring immediate financial relief (CFOs love them). It's a quick fix where everyone (except the well-connected) is expendable.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:The recently departed Mitre CEO wanted to grow the company with non-FFRDC work, one guesses this was so he could justify a pay raise for himself. And the FFRDC work at Mitre was expanding at the same time he was doing this.

Jason took the FFRDC's for granted, which is why Mark was brought in.

Respectfully, brought in to do what? Reactive RIFs with the CFO, CEO & new VP of Ops? Anyone can do that

It seems like he was brought in to RIF people.

Agreed. In all orgs RIFs are easy to implement and bring immediate financial relief (CFOs love them). It's a quick fix where everyone (except the well-connected) is expendable.

Mark started Labor Day - several months before the election. If the Dems had won, modulo getting rid of the idiocy that was Engenuity, it's unlikely that any/most of the RIFs would have happened.

As far as quick fix, as an operator of FFRDCs, MITRE's staffing levels are nearly entirely dependent on Federal decisions to rely on FFRDC staff for whatever. As of November, MITRE's staffing levels matched MITRE work under the Biden Administration. The Trump Administration/DOGE/Palantir buddies/3025/... decided to trash a number of Federal IT programs with knock-on effects on MITRE work and, in some cases, explicitly targeted FFRDC funding. Result was a large number of MITRE staff with no work/no likelihood of new work in any financially absorbable timeframe. Other than RIFs as a tool to match staff to work, what precisely do you think Mark/CFO/... could have done?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:The recently departed Mitre CEO wanted to grow the company with non-FFRDC work, one guesses this was so he could justify a pay raise for himself. And the FFRDC work at Mitre was expanding at the same time he was doing this.

Jason took the FFRDC's for granted, which is why Mark was brought in.

Respectfully, brought in to do what? Reactive RIFs with the CFO, CEO & new VP of Ops? Anyone can do that

It seems like he was brought in to RIF people.

Agreed. In all orgs RIFs are easy to implement and bring immediate financial relief (CFOs love them). It's a quick fix where everyone (except the well-connected) is expendable.

Mark started Labor Day - several months before the election. If the Dems had won, modulo getting rid of the idiocy that was Engenuity, it's unlikely that any/most of the RIFs would have happened.

As far as quick fix, as an operator of FFRDCs, MITRE's staffing levels are nearly entirely dependent on Federal decisions to rely on FFRDC staff for whatever. As of November, MITRE's staffing levels matched MITRE work under the Biden Administration. The Trump Administration/DOGE/Palantir buddies/3025/... decided to trash a number of Federal IT programs with knock-on effects on MITRE work and, in some cases, explicitly targeted FFRDC funding. Result was a large number of MITRE staff with no work/no likelihood of new work in any financially absorbable timeframe. Other than RIFs as a tool to match staff to work, what precisely do you think Mark/CFO/... could have done?

What is Engenuity?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:The recently departed Mitre CEO wanted to grow the company with non-FFRDC work, one guesses this was so he could justify a pay raise for himself. And the FFRDC work at Mitre was expanding at the same time he was doing this.

Jason took the FFRDC's for granted, which is why Mark was brought in.

Respectfully, brought in to do what? Reactive RIFs with the CFO, CEO & new VP of Ops? Anyone can do that

It seems like he was brought in to RIF people.

Agreed. In all orgs RIFs are easy to implement and bring immediate financial relief (CFOs love them). It's a quick fix where everyone (except the well-connected) is expendable.

Mark started Labor Day - several months before the election. If the Dems had won, modulo getting rid of the idiocy that was Engenuity, it's unlikely that any/most of the RIFs would have happened.

As far as quick fix, as an operator of FFRDCs, MITRE's staffing levels are nearly entirely dependent on Federal decisions to rely on FFRDC staff for whatever. As of November, MITRE's staffing levels matched MITRE work under the Biden Administration. The Trump Administration/DOGE/Palantir buddies/3025/... decided to trash a number of Federal IT programs with knock-on effects on MITRE work and, in some cases, explicitly targeted FFRDC funding. Result was a large number of MITRE staff with no work/no likelihood of new work in any financially absorbable timeframe. Other than RIFs as a tool to match staff to work, what precisely do you think Mark/CFO/... could have done?

Resign.

[Anonymous]

CNA has too many line item VPs. Some who can’t even speak or put together PPT presentations. $250k-$300k salaries.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:CNA has too many line item VPs. Some who can’t even speak or put together PPT presentations. $250k-$300k salaries.

Yikes

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:CNA has too many line item VPs. Some who can’t even speak or put together PPT presentations. $250k-$300k salaries.

CNA has 20 senior executives listed on their webpage. That seems quite excessive.

https://www.cna.org/about-us/leadership

[Anonymous]

Rumor has it IDA projects will turn back on and may rehire people. Is this true? Will other FFRDC projects come back online at the end of summer too?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Rumor has it IDA projects will turn back on and may rehire people. Is this true? Will other FFRDC projects come back online at the end of summer too?

I hope so….There’s no work coming into RAND these days.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:The recently departed Mitre CEO wanted to grow the company with non-FFRDC work, one guesses this was so he could justify a pay raise for himself. And the FFRDC work at Mitre was expanding at the same time he was doing this.

Jason took the FFRDC's for granted, which is why Mark was brought in.

Respectfully, brought in to do what? Reactive RIFs with the CFO, CEO & new VP of Ops? Anyone can do that

It seems like he was brought in to RIF people.

Agreed. In all orgs RIFs are easy to implement and bring immediate financial relief (CFOs love them). It's a quick fix where everyone (except the well-connected) is expendable.

Mark started Labor Day - several months before the election. If the Dems had won, modulo getting rid of the idiocy that was Engenuity, it's unlikely that any/most of the RIFs would have happened.

As far as quick fix, as an operator of FFRDCs, MITRE's staffing levels are nearly entirely dependent on Federal decisions to rely on FFRDC staff for whatever. As of November, MITRE's staffing levels matched MITRE work under the Biden Administration. The Trump Administration/DOGE/Palantir buddies/3025/... decided to trash a number of Federal IT programs with knock-on effects on MITRE work and, in some cases, explicitly targeted FFRDC funding. Result was a large number of MITRE staff with no work/no likelihood of new work in any financially absorbable timeframe. Other than RIFs as a tool to match staff to work, what precisely do you think Mark/CFO/... could have done?

Resign.

Which would accomplish ???

Mark had nothing to do with how MITRE got to this point.

A totally unrealistic but... clawing back Jason's bonuses would at least have some relationship to how MITRE got here.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:The recently departed Mitre CEO wanted to grow the company with non-FFRDC work, one guesses this was so he could justify a pay raise for himself. And the FFRDC work at Mitre was expanding at the same time he was doing this.

Jason took the FFRDC's for granted, which is why Mark was brought in.

Respectfully, brought in to do what? Reactive RIFs with the CFO, CEO & new VP of Ops? Anyone can do that

It seems like he was brought in to RIF people.

Agreed. In all orgs RIFs are easy to implement and bring immediate financial relief (CFOs love them). It's a quick fix where everyone (except the well-connected) is expendable.

Mark started Labor Day - several months before the election. If the Dems had won, modulo getting rid of the idiocy that was Engenuity, it's unlikely that any/most of the RIFs would have happened.

As far as quick fix, as an operator of FFRDCs, MITRE's staffing levels are nearly entirely dependent on Federal decisions to rely on FFRDC staff for whatever. As of November, MITRE's staffing levels matched MITRE work under the Biden Administration. The Trump Administration/DOGE/Palantir buddies/3025/... decided to trash a number of Federal IT programs with knock-on effects on MITRE work and, in some cases, explicitly targeted FFRDC funding. Result was a large number of MITRE staff with no work/no likelihood of new work in any financially absorbable timeframe. Other than RIFs as a tool to match staff to work, what precisely do you think Mark/CFO/... could have done?

Resign.

Which would accomplish ???

Mark had nothing to do with how MITRE got to this point.

A totally unrealistic but... clawing back Jason's bonuses would at least have some relationship to how MITRE got here.

Agree

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:The recently departed Mitre CEO wanted to grow the company with non-FFRDC work, one guesses this was so he could justify a pay raise for himself. And the FFRDC work at Mitre was expanding at the same time he was doing this.

Jason took the FFRDC's for granted, which is why Mark was brought in.

Respectfully, brought in to do what? Reactive RIFs with the CFO, CEO & new VP of Ops? Anyone can do that

It seems like he was brought in to RIF people.

Agreed. In all orgs RIFs are easy to implement and bring immediate financial relief (CFOs love them). It's a quick fix where everyone (except the well-connected) is expendable.

Mark started Labor Day - several months before the election. If the Dems had won, modulo getting rid of the idiocy that was Engenuity, it's unlikely that any/most of the RIFs would have happened.

As far as quick fix, as an operator of FFRDCs, MITRE's staffing levels are nearly entirely dependent on Federal decisions to rely on FFRDC staff for whatever. As of November, MITRE's staffing levels matched MITRE work under the Biden Administration. The Trump Administration/DOGE/Palantir buddies/3025/... decided to trash a number of Federal IT programs with knock-on effects on MITRE work and, in some cases, explicitly targeted FFRDC funding. Result was a large number of MITRE staff with no work/no likelihood of new work in any financially absorbable timeframe. Other than RIFs as a tool to match staff to work, what precisely do you think Mark/CFO/... could have done?

What is Engenuity?

MITRE Engenuity is/was a not-for-profit that MITRE set up to monetize MITRE IP. E.g. Engenuity provided classes based on MITRE's cyber ATT&CK framework.

The problem with Engenuity is, of course, how are any MITRE FFRDC recommendations clearly independent of any attempts to monetization MITRE IP? It's a needle that can't be threaded.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:The recently departed Mitre CEO wanted to grow the company with non-FFRDC work, one guesses this was so he could justify a pay raise for himself. And the FFRDC work at Mitre was expanding at the same time he was doing this.

Jason took the FFRDC's for granted, which is why Mark was brought in.

Respectfully, brought in to do what? Reactive RIFs with the CFO, CEO & new VP of Ops? Anyone can do that

It seems like he was brought in to RIF people.

Agreed. In all orgs RIFs are easy to implement and bring immediate financial relief (CFOs love them). It's a quick fix where everyone (except the well-connected) is expendable.

Mark started Labor Day - several months before the election. If the Dems had won, modulo getting rid of the idiocy that was Engenuity, it's unlikely that any/most of the RIFs would have happened.

As far as quick fix, as an operator of FFRDCs, MITRE's staffing levels are nearly entirely dependent on Federal decisions to rely on FFRDC staff for whatever. As of November, MITRE's staffing levels matched MITRE work under the Biden Administration. The Trump Administration/DOGE/Palantir buddies/3025/... decided to trash a number of Federal IT programs with knock-on effects on MITRE work and, in some cases, explicitly targeted FFRDC funding. Result was a large number of MITRE staff with no work/no likelihood of new work in any financially absorbable timeframe. Other than RIFs as a tool to match staff to work, what precisely do you think Mark/CFO/... could have done?

What is Engenuity?

MITRE Engenuity is/was a not-for-profit that MITRE set up to monetize MITRE IP. E.g. Engenuity provided classes based on MITRE's cyber ATT&CK framework.

The problem with Engenuity is, of course, how are any MITRE FFRDC recommendations clearly independent of any attempts to monetization MITRE IP? It's a needle that can't be threaded.

Mitre should have setup a school to monetize their staff with education programming.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:The recently departed Mitre CEO wanted to grow the company with non-FFRDC work, one guesses this was so he could justify a pay raise for himself. And the FFRDC work at Mitre was expanding at the same time he was doing this.

Jason took the FFRDC's for granted, which is why Mark was brought in.

Respectfully, brought in to do what? Reactive RIFs with the CFO, CEO & new VP of Ops? Anyone can do that

It seems like he was brought in to RIF people.

Agreed. In all orgs RIFs are easy to implement and bring immediate financial relief (CFOs love them). It's a quick fix where everyone (except the well-connected) is expendable.

Mark started Labor Day - several months before the election. If the Dems had won, modulo getting rid of the idiocy that was Engenuity, it's unlikely that any/most of the RIFs would have happened.

As far as quick fix, as an operator of FFRDCs, MITRE's staffing levels are nearly entirely dependent on Federal decisions to rely on FFRDC staff for whatever. As of November, MITRE's staffing levels matched MITRE work under the Biden Administration. The Trump Administration/DOGE/Palantir buddies/3025/... decided to trash a number of Federal IT programs with knock-on effects on MITRE work and, in some cases, explicitly targeted FFRDC funding. Result was a large number of MITRE staff with no work/no likelihood of new work in any financially absorbable timeframe. Other than RIFs as a tool to match staff to work, what precisely do you think Mark/CFO/... could have done?

What is Engenuity?

MITRE Engenuity is/was a not-for-profit that MITRE set up to monetize MITRE IP. E.g. Engenuity provided classes based on MITRE's cyber ATT&CK framework.

The problem with Engenuity is, of course, how are any MITRE FFRDC recommendations clearly independent of any attempts to monetization MITRE IP? It's a needle that can't be threaded.

Mitre should have setup a school to monetize their staff with education programming.

https://www.rand.edu/programs.html

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:The recently departed Mitre CEO wanted to grow the company with non-FFRDC work, one guesses this was so he could justify a pay raise for himself. And the FFRDC work at Mitre was expanding at the same time he was doing this.

Jason took the FFRDC's for granted, which is why Mark was brought in.

Respectfully, brought in to do what? Reactive RIFs with the CFO, CEO & new VP of Ops? Anyone can do that

It seems like he was brought in to RIF people.

Agreed. In all orgs RIFs are easy to implement and bring immediate financial relief (CFOs love them). It's a quick fix where everyone (except the well-connected) is expendable.

Mark started Labor Day - several months before the election. If the Dems had won, modulo getting rid of the idiocy that was Engenuity, it's unlikely that any/most of the RIFs would have happened.

As far as quick fix, as an operator of FFRDCs, MITRE's staffing levels are nearly entirely dependent on Federal decisions to rely on FFRDC staff for whatever. As of November, MITRE's staffing levels matched MITRE work under the Biden Administration. The Trump Administration/DOGE/Palantir buddies/3025/... decided to trash a number of Federal IT programs with knock-on effects on MITRE work and, in some cases, explicitly targeted FFRDC funding. Result was a large number of MITRE staff with no work/no likelihood of new work in any financially absorbable timeframe. Other than RIFs as a tool to match staff to work, what precisely do you think Mark/CFO/... could have done?

Resign.

Which would accomplish ???

Mark had nothing to do with how MITRE got to this point.

A totally unrealistic but... clawing back Jason's bonuses would at least have some relationship to how MITRE got here.

Agree

All CEOs need to lead boldly and must stop appearing like sheepish technocrats overseeing the liquidation of their organizations. If they are over their heads, they should step aside. At that level, simply throwing people into the RIF fire, blaming the previous guy and hoping for the best is frankly sad