Clay’s path to TMST is an impressive journey of success.
Clay is a retired US Army Cavalryman and Aviator. A graduate of West Point, he holds a Master's Degree in Aeronautical Engineering from the Air Force Institute of Technology. He spent large parts of his career in technical positions, Aviation training, and as an Accident Investigator. His duties included writing reports, teaching requisite processes and math courses, and studying change management in aviation training programs, emphasizing Systems Safety Engineering. These positions required exacting attention to detail and dogged determination to gather information, quickly sift through less critical facts, and find the correct conclusions. Clay is exceptionally skilled at gleaming important facts, directly addressing requirements, and answering essential questions to the point.
He is a highly experienced writer and can tweak other authors’ inputs to ensure they respond correctly and forthrightly to a government request. His skills and experience in writing proposals and reviewing content written by others are without a peer.
Clay is highly proficient in reviewing and writing documents for government customers. He uses this skill to support proposal review teams, proposal writing, and ensure proposal compliance. He has demonstrated his ability to understand government requirements and requests. Clay possesses a critical eye for details and a masterful ability to shred a new RFP/SOW that results in a Compliance Matrix to ensure clients have adequately addressed each "shall," "will," and "requirement" of the solicitation.
After retiring from the Army, Clay spent 12 years in Industry, learning the details of the capture and business development processes from a corporate perspective. This experience also allowed him to grow contacts among Corporate and Government associates. Many of the Government and fellow contracting community were long-time acquaintances and friends, including Pete Marion. Pete asked him to join TMST and use his seasoned expertise and experience to assist clients.
For the past seven years, Clay has contributed immeasurably to TMST’s critical areas of support and expertise. He’s been a Proposal Manager, Book Boss, and provided volume support for customers who managed their proposals. As a Proposal Manager, Clay has never had a submission returned for failure to comply, and he has an excellent win rate. When writing a proposal, he believes the company’s in-house experts know their business and technology better than anyone else, and they know their company’s strengths, weaknesses, and modus operandi. They are the best writers of dynamic and complete proposals. Clay’s attention to detail and determination to critically review content skillfully supports Color Team reviews. He ensures customers take hard introspective looks at their capabilities and those of their competitors. He insists on building the words and paragraphs of proposals to show a government reader why they are the best at what they do. Clay considers Color Team reviews as mock Source Selection Boards, so the story gets written right and is the apparent selection for the government reviewer.
One of Clay’s fortes is his ability to see a challenge and, if needed, make connections to respond to those challenges to produce superior results. He understands the importance of TEAM and accepts that no one is the “be all know all” resource. He learned long ago that he is not the single point of assistance. He knows how to search among his contacts and acquaintances to find the right team of experts to get the job done effectively and efficiently. For example, pricing requires a financial expert. Clay recognizes the importance of getting a financial expert who will talk pricing with the same enthusiasm and forthrightness used on the rest of a proposal. Not to be overlooked, Clay greatly understands the basics of writing, grammar, and spelling.
Working for TMST is close to heart for Clay. As an old Cavalryman, the ingrained combative spirit lives on. He says it’s immensely gratifying working with teammates, subject matter experts, and customers to deliver winning products. The TMST team is wide-ranging, motivated, and unrivaled in their field. TMST’s consultants work together as long-time acquaintances, friends, and Classmates. That is what they are. The team members trust each other implicitly so that customers can trust TMST just as much. TMST promises and delivers excellence beyond expectation. As Clay says, “I am proud to wear the TMST logo over my heart.”