The last time Apogee Chief Executive Frank Varga spoke with this newspaper, his company had perhaps 30 Beavercreek employees at 4031 Col. Glenn Highway, which offered about 2,500 square feet of space.
Today, that employee roster is closer to 100 employees, with plans to hire 150 more over the next three years.
“We have no shortage of requisitions” for new hires, Varga said.
The new office has 13,000 square feet of space, with the secure space that national security firms need.
In 2019, Apogee Engineering won a $135.9 million Air Combat Command Intelligence Directorate contract to begin work at Wright-Patterson Air Force Base in data science, machine learning and other fields.
That was the start of something good, Varga recalled in a new interview. Apogee has a nationwide presence, but over time, Dayton and Wright-Patterson became increasingly linked to the company’s success.
“We went on a pretty good run there and picked up Space Force and Strategic Command,” he said of the 2019 Air Combat Command contract win.
Credit: Apogee Engineering
Credit: Apogee Engineering
“I think Dayton is central to where the Department (of the Air Force) is heading, not only with Wright-Patt, but the services coming out of AFMC (Air Force Materiel Command) and LCMC (Life Cycle Management Center) and NASIC (the National Air and Space Intelligence Center),” he added. All of those missions are anchored at Wright-Patterson.
The company’s four main customers these days include the Air Force, the Space Force (which is part of the Department of the Air Force), the Special Operations Command in Tampa, Fla. and U.S. Strategic Command, which is responsible for the nation’s nuclear deterrence.
Moving to Commons Boulevard is a big bump up for Apogee, Varga said.
The space offers room for the firm’s Acquisition Transformation Center, a place for industry-recognized experts to share insights, a Science and Technology Development hub, and room for training in cyber and artificial reality (AR), dubbed the Consolidated Apogee Virtual Environment or “CAVE.”
“That is going to be a key component for us to centralize all of our expertise,” Varga said.
During an upcoming, invitation-only open house, guests can experience the Apogee training solution, which integrates AR into cyber-training platforms, the company said.
“For us, it’s about being agile,” Varga said. “We have to be adaptive. We are really kind of focusing in our service offerings to incorporate new technology, new ways of doing business.”
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