About Us
Our watershed event was the decision to exit the garage and lease “real” office space at our current location in Chesapeake in the spring of 2003. At this point, we were just two full time teammates but we were confident enough to embark on a significant expansion, which would peak at 16 full time teammates at year's end. By then we had several projects on the books and were building a solid reputation based on superb technical capabilities, outstanding performance and dedicated customer service. We were surviving but also growing and maturing.
Through 2004-2006 many of the acquisition programs in which we were involved hit their strides, and our roles grew accordingly. A common phrase in the office, “Good Work gets New Work”, became our mantra, and we observed it in action as our loyal clients gave us votes of confidence for jobs well done. By the end of 2005 we had 38 full time teammates. Our corporate skill set now included most shipboard technical domains, and our business acumen had evolved as well. We were deeply involved in most ship acquisitions and had added chem/bio, combat system elements, and USMC Test & Evaluation to our scope of services.
In the spring of 2007, AVW marked our 5-year anniversary. We took a deep breath, looked around, surveyed the landscape and charted our course for the next half decade. By now we had 51 teammates, had instituted a first-rate teammate benefits package that included medical/dental/disability/life insurances, 401K program and profit sharing. With this success however came an increasing responsibility to our team to be smart in how we managed the corporation and reinforced our brand as a skilled provider to the nation's armed forces.
Entering our sixth year and through year seven we added to our corporate philosophies. “Minimize speculation”, “seek small, sustainable expansion”, and “don't lose what you have, and replace what you've lost” became our daily words to live by. As our business lines were taking shape so was our structure. We had evolved into a thin but wide organization with only three layers in the chain of command, and equally lean in the staffing of individual projects with many needing three or less fulltime teammates. Back office support became more critical but this afforded us some level of risk mitigation since we were not beholden to any single contract that could break us if it was lost.
The fall of 2008 saw our first major competitive win, our first multi-year Seaport-E effort supporting COMOPTEVFOR in the conduct of CVN-78 OT&E. This allowed us to operate with an increased level of cautious security and confidence, as well as a level of validation within our professional community. Through 2009 and 2010 we were able to secure two additional multi-year Seaport-E efforts supporting COMOPTEVFOR in the conduct of DDG-1000 and AEGIS BMD OT&E. Now into our third five-year plan, we are ready for whatever the market brings.
AVW is a very fortunate organization. A conservative business approach coupled with a team of skilled professionals has proven to be a successful combination. Our corporate philosophies, superb technical services and outstanding customer service have enabled us to establish a solid foundation that can weather any economic upheaval. We're like a steamroller, slow & steady, undeterred in purpose.
Directions to AVW HQ