Chameleon wins $54 million defense contract

Chameleon wins $54 million defense contract

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Chameleon Integrated Services, a St. Louis-based IT services firm, has received a $54 million contract from the U.S. Defense Information Systems Agency (DISA).

And it could be just the tip of the iceberg.

The contract, which calls for Chameleon to provide operational support capabilities required by DISA to operate, maintain and modernize its IT enterprise globally, is expected to help the company grow revenue by $10 million over the next 12 months to $35 million.

To support the project, Jeff Kelley, Chameleon’s CEO and co-owner, plans to hire 75 employees in St. Louis and in Maryland over the next three months. The company currently has 150 employees.

The deal is Chameleon’s first portion of a larger DISA contract awarded in 2013 worth $404 million. Chameleon, along with three other firms, was given rights to projects under the contract, which expires in 2019. Chameleon was able to bid on the contract because it is a minority-owned small-business contractor — Kelley is from Honduras.

Kelley said he expects Chameleon to receive the lion’s share of the contract “based on our record of performance.” He said Chameleon should end up with more than $100 million from the entire DISA contract when it’s completed.

The other companies vying for a slice of the contract include HighAction (Virginia), Soft Tech Consulting (Virginia) and NOVA Corp. (Pennsylvania).

Kelley said he expects to announce two additional DISA contracts within the month, though he said those details weren’t finalized yet.

Chameleon expects to finish the year with $25 million in revenue, Kelley said.

Located on Washington Avenue near Grand Center, Chameleon was co-founded by Kelley and President Drew Acree in 2003. Federal contracts account for 90 percent of the company’s business, with about 75 percent coming from the Department of Defense.

According to the Congressional Research Service, the Department of Defense spent more money on federal contracts ($285 billion) than all other government agencies combined — or about 8 percent of federal spending — in fiscal 2014. In Missouri, the Department of Defense spent $11 billion, the 12th most of any state, according to the Department of Defense.

Top Missouri Dod contractors

In fiscal year 2014

1. Boeing

$6.9 billion

2. Express Scripts

$671.1 million

3. Alliant Techsystems

$413.4 million

4. World Wide Technology

$164.2 million

5. Finmeccanica

$129.2 million

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