Washington Capital Area Chapter Board Candidates

Sean Wells is a cost analyst at Technomics, Inc. with over five years of estimating experience and is an active member of the WCAC community. Sean cut his teeth at the Newport News Shipyard working estimates for the Ford Class Carrier and Virginia Class Submarine programs, lending a unique OEM perspective that helps shape current work for the Canadian Department of Defense and the United States Navy and Marine Corps. Sean holds undergraduate degrees in Psychology and Foreign Affairs from the University of Virginia and a Master’s degree in Contracts Administration and Management from the Florida Institute of Technology, in addition to being CCEA certified.

Sean highly values ICEAA as an organization that promotes cost analysis as a career field with robust research and ample opportunity rather than as a day-to-day office function. This perspective has been critical to early career success and motivated the completion of three papers for the recent Atlanta conference. It was also instrumental in encouraging Sean’s joining of the WCAC board as the Outreach Chair in 2024, a role which has allowed him to continue learning about the needs and desires of the WCAC community. As Outreach Chair, Sean worked with other WCAC members on piloting the chapter advocate program; this entailed developing a set of business rules, streamlining and cataloguing membership data, and meeting with and providing guidance to the initial set of chapter advocates. The chapter advocate program now has members in several local firms and helped drive attendance at recent events and awareness of webinars.

As President, Sean would heavily focus on ensuring that the WCAC is bringing value to its members in terms of career development, learning, and networking. The cost community in the government-heavy DC area is on the front lines of a changing world of budget cuts, personnel changes, and AI application. Sean aims to balance the core cost knowledge in CEBoK and the interdisciplinary awareness necessary for cost analysis with a mix of more relevant events, speakers, and trainings. During the chapter advocate process and at the Atlanta conference, a consistent trend in feedback was an excitement for hearing from industry and government professionals and having forums to discuss current cost issues. As President, Sean would drive more of these opportunities for the WCAC membership.

Sean’s broad experience lends itself to three key skills that make these objectives feasible. First, Sean is a well-regarded public speaker within the ICEAA community and can represent WCAC well at events. Second, Sean has a strong track record of organizing disparate or vague goals into detailed plans of action, which will be particularly beneficial in a volunteer context. Finally, Sean’s experience in piloting the chapter advocate program created valuable peer connections and an understanding of the WCAC roster that will help make sure all WCAC members and needs are heard.
Overall, Sean has benefited greatly from participation in and dedication to ICEAA and would strive as President to increase enthusiasm, relevance, and dedication to the WCAC and broader estimating community.

George Bayer is an appointed board member of the Washington Capital Area Chapter ICEAA and has served as Programs Chair, promoting cost estimation, data analysis, and other new innovative educational topics for chapter members and prospective new members for the last four years. As Programs Chair, he worked with two WCAC ICEAA boards and committees to schedule and host 28 speakers on diverse topics, including:
• Software Cost Estimation
• Economic Analysis
• Data Science
• Statistics
• Shortfall Analysis
• Agile Software Development
• Project Scheduling.
Mr. Bayer wants to apply this experience and momentum to the 2025-27 chapter as an elected board member with outreach to private sector industry, Fortune 500 companies, and an ever-changing federal workforce. With seven years of corporate Finance experience at Fortune 500 companies (Disney, BP, ConocoPhillips, and NextEra), Mr. Bayer would continue to add value to the WCAC with membership growth, diversity, and sustainability for the Washington Chapter and ICEAA as a whole.
From his experience on the board and programs committee, selecting presentation topics aligned with membership interests and through his ICEAA engagement presenting eight times at workshops, Mr. Bayer can help stimulate ICEAA innovation and industry engagement for the Washington Chapter.

Relevant ICEAA Experience:
• Washington Capital Area Chapter ICEAA Board of Directors Programs Chair 2022-2023 and 2024-2025
• 2023 WCAC ICEAA Best Speaker of the Year Award
• 2017 Leadership/Management Award for the Washington Chapter of ICEAA
• Author of eight ICEAA papers presented at ICEAA Workshops:
• Discount Rate Impacts on Private and Public Sector Capital Investment Valuation (2025, Atlanta)
• Data-Driven Life Cycle Analysis to Optimize Cost, Risk, and Sustainability (2024, Minneapolis)
• Shortfall Analysis – Creative Approaches to Problem Quantification (2023, San Antonio)
• Sustainment Analysis Methodology for Cost Models and Business Cases (2022, Pittsburgh)
• Finding and Analyzing Data for Failure Analysis and Cost Estimates (2020)
• Measuring Portfolio Value for Government Programs and Initiatives (2019, Tampa)
• Using Real Options to Quantify Portfolio Value in Business Cases (2017, Portland)
• Bridging the Gap Between Capital Investment Valuation in Private and Public Sectors (2016, Atlanta)

Education & Certifications:
Mr. Bayer has a PMP certification from the Project Management Institute (PMI), a BS in Finance and English from the University of Florida, and an MBA from the University of Texas at Austin.

Industry Experience:
Mr. Bayer is a Senior Director at Cobec with over 20 years of Finance, operations research, and cost estimating experience and 10 years of leadership. At Cobec, he led shortfall and cost estimating teams for major Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) capital investments, designed complex economic analyses, and developed supply chain and life cycle analyses for major infrastructure programs. Prior to Cobec, Mr. Bayer was a business case lead for Investment Planning & Analysis (IP&A) at the FAA, evaluating more than 20 business cases.

In the private sector, Mr. Bayer worked in corporate finance roles leading economic analyses and developed Discounted Cash Flow (DCF) valuations for Power Generation projects at BP and ConocoPhillips and capital projects at Disney.

Mr. Kyle Ferris is a Cost Analyst at Tecolote Research, Inc. with 7+ years of relevant experience in cost estimating and data analytics work roles. For the past two years, Mr. Ferris has served the WCAC of ICEAA as Secretary, successfully facilitating major chapter activities. Mr. Ferris’ major accomplishments include his contributions to the successful planning, coordination, and execution of 6 Chapter Social events, 2 Chapter Achievement Award processes, 2 Chapter All-Hands meetings and 1 Chapter Election process.

As a result of Mr. Ferris’ direct contributions towards successful planning, coordination, and execution of chapter activities, the WCAC of ICEAA continues to provide important services in the form of regional events that connect and recognize DC area cost professionals. In the face of unprecedented challenges and opportunities across the acquisition industry and federal government at-large, these services are increasingly important towards bolstering professional development and networking.

As a Certified Cost Estimator/Analyst, Mr. Ferris’ professional leadership experience includes serving as the Cost Team Lead for his Marine Corps Systems Command customer as well as the Data Analytics Working Group (DAWG) Team Lead for Tecolote Research. In terms of professional accolades and accomplishments, Mr. Ferris was the recipient of the WCAC 2021 Junior Analyst Award and was a member of the FEMA-EDAMI Cost Team that received the 2021 Team Achievement Award.

Mr. Ferris is eager to leverage the knowledge earned from his first term as the WCAC of ICEAA Secretary to continue serving the chapter for a second term. As the elected WCAC of ICEAA Secretary, Mr. Ferris’ specific objectives for the calendar year 2025-2027 term include (1) facilitating widespread recruitment of Chapter Advocates and committee members to delegate chapter membership and outreach responsibilities, (2) increasing WCAC Achievement Award nominations/submissions for greater recognition of outstanding cost professionals and (3) implementation of an improved data collection/analysis process towards better understanding member demographics.

To address the above-mentioned objectives, Mr. Ferris will (1) leverage existing connections with member organizations – developed throughout his many years on the WCAC Board of Directors – to actively identify and recruit individuals that are willing to serve as Chapter Advocates and committee members, (2) collaborate with the WCAC Outreach Chair and Chapter Advocates to regularly interface with member organization leadership and encourage increased Chapter Achievement Award submissions, and (3) collaborate with the WCAC Membership Chair to establish data collection forms for iterative audits of member demographics and associated updates.

In conclusion, Mr. Ferris enjoys engaging with the WCAC cost community and aims to continue facilitating the execution of chapter operations and events that inspire members to grow within an educational, inclusive, and fun community of professionals. Likewise, Mr. Ferris believes a second term as WCAC of ICEAA Secretary will further strengthen his relationship with the local cost community – allowing him to better understand the needs and goals of the community and therefore shape the chapter to meet members where they are.

Mr. MacDougall has been an ICEAA-certified Cost Analyst and member of the cost community since 2017. As the current Washington Chapter treasurer, Austin has successfully navigated WCAC through a challenging fiscal environment while ensuring that the Chapter has the necessary resources to support consistent programming. As ICEAA made the decision to centralize its financial assets, Mr. MacDougall oversaw the successful closure of accounts and transfer of assets to eliminate redundant administrative burden and account fees.

In addition to his incumbent role as the WCAC treasurer, Austin also serves on the board of directors for the Conrail Historical Society, a 501(c)(3) organization that facilitates historical preservation and archival of the rail transport industry in the mid-Atlantic United States.

Austin wishes to continue building productive partnerships with the Social Committee, ICEAA representatives, and the rest of the WCAC board to promote an engaged membership. Additionally, he wishes to use his institutional knowledge of the board to mentor and motivate other rising members of the cost community. As WCAC navigates its transition away from a dedicated funding source, Austin is eager to formalize the process of requesting resources from the ICEAA Association to ensure consistent, defensible, and data-driven budget requests.

Austin possesses the key traits required for a WCAC treasurer: dependability, trustworthiness, and attention to detail. With the benefit of added experience and institutional knowledge, he hopes to support WCAC board efforts to improve the member experience in his second term.