NaVOBA member Mark Klett, the founder, President and CEO of Klett Consulting Group, Inc of Virginia Beach has been named as the 2010 Virginia Veteran-Owned Small Business of the Year.  The competition, sponsored by the Virginia Small Business Development Center Network, is designed to recognize veterans who have made a significant contribution to their region’s economy and to recognize those deserving individuals who have made a significant difference in their communities by promoting a sense of duty, volunteerism and an appreciation of country, democracy and freedom.   The motto of this competition is “Veterans, Serving Their Country in War and Their Communities in Peace.”

Mark was selected from a group of five state finalists who were recommended by their respective regional small business development center directors.  The criteria for selection included, among others, the success of the business, demonstration of community involvement and the nominee’s military history, awards and achievements.

A graduate of the US Naval Academy who holds a Masters in Engineering Systems Technology from the Naval Post Graduate School in Monterey, he was able to capitalize this extensive education with his operational experience to fill a niche in system engineering to develop new operational capabilities.  Mark established himself as a Subject Matter Expert in Command, Control, Communications, Computers and Intelligence (C4I) and worked in providing the Navy and Joint organizations with enterprise solutions within the Global Information Grid and Network-Centric Operational Environments.  Since its  founding, KCG has consistently grown at a rate of over 80% per year in annual revenues and has supported the Department of Defense, and State Department all over the World, including: Japan, Hawaii, Bahrain, Kenya, Italy, and is currently registered to do business in seven states.

Mark is a strong supporter of the Service Disabled Veteran Owned Business Council as one of the founding members, which supports creating opportunities for service disable veteran owned small businesses in the local, state and federal markets. The Council recently teamed with ODU Procurement Technical Assistance Center office to win a grant from the Small Business Administration to open a Veteran Business Outreach Center at ODU.