Riverside Research announces the promotion of Alka Bhave to Chief Operations Officer. In her new role, Ms. Bhave will oversee the company’s corporate operations and drive transformation in services and capabilities.
She will also provide executive leadership of the company’s Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion (DEI) initiatives.
“I am thrilled to have Alka in this critical leadership role at Riverside Research,” remarks Riverside Research CEO Dr. Steve Omick. “She is uniquely suited to engage and transform our workforce and she will be a force in establishing Riverside Research as an industry leader in DEI. A natural outcome of Alka’s leadership will be increased employee retention, engagement, and satisfaction – all part of our journey to be a destination company.”
Ms. Bhave joined Riverside Research earlier this year as Vice President and Chief of Staff, and advanced to the role of Chief Operations Officer in December, highlighting her ability to implement strategies that support the organization’s mission.
“I am honored to take on this expanded role to lead the company’s operations in the best support of our programs, customers and their missions, further strengthening Riverside Research as a destination company,” Ms. Bhave remarks. “DEI is a critical element of this strategy. Our success and our customers’ success will be further accelerated by fostering an environment that results in the most innovative, inclusive, and productive workforce.”
Prior to joining Riverside Research, Ms. Bhave was Vice President of Performance Excellence at Perspecta and Peraton, where she led an independent organization driving program management, quality, and governance best practices into the company’s programs and business operations.
With over 25 years’ experience in systems engineering, IT integration, program and project management, and continuous improvement, Ms. Bhave specializes in Agile and Lean systems, human-centered innovation, strategy development, government partnerships, and performance optimization.
Her prior experience includes contributions to the development and integration of complex space and ground systems for the IC, DoD, FAA, NASA, and DHS customers. Ms. Bhave is a certified Lean Six Sigma Master Black Belt, Scaled Agile Framework (SAFe) Agilist and Project Management Institute (PMI) Project Management Professional (PMP) and industry thought leader in mission process transformation. She has successfully led dozens of high-impact improvement initiatives for IC and DoD customers, resulting in millions of dollars of cost aversion, increased efficiency, and accelerated value delivery to mission.
Ms. Bhave holds a B.S. in Electrical Engineering and M.S. in Telecommunications from the University of Maryland, College Park. She actively serves as an advisory board member on the University of Maryland Material Sciences & Engineering Board of Visitors.