Mike Bennis is the Director for Business Development at the American Business Development Group, an internationally respected, full-spectrum business development consulting firm, now representing a diverse list of over fifty prominent U.S. and international businesses. American Business Development Group enjoys a reputation as the largest business development firm in the United States which specializes in the re-equipping and modernization of the Reserve Component. The firm has facilitated more than $680,000,000 in “new found sales” for client companies in the last year and historically each year for the last four years.
Mr. Bennis has been in the business development and sales arena since moving to Washington, D.C. upon graduating from Indiana University of Pennsylvania in 1977. Mike began a sales and marketing career at Xerox Corporation in the telecommunications' area where he was responsible for sales to the commercial and congressional markets only to become a pioneer of the word processor for Xerox marketing to commercial clients and the U.S. Congress.
Recognizing that the telecommunications' industry was constantly changing, Mr. Bennis joined Northern Telecom of North America (currently NORTEL) as a National Account Representative in 1986. He was responsible for designing and marketing applications using the Meridian SL/1 and SL/100 telephone switches to the civilian government arena. Over a four year span, he successfully set-up in-house customer premise systems in the Department of Veteran's Affairs and the U.S. Air Force allowing for a more efficient communications network.
With the introduction of video conferencing into the business world, Mr. Bennis joined VTEL (originally Compression Labs, Inc.) focusing on the federal government marketplace during this technologies infancy. During the next 11 years, Mr. Bennis worked closely with the AT&T FTS 2000 team, US Sprint, and MCI, all network providers, to install video conferencing equipment in government agencies including the Department of State, DIA, CIA, NSA, The House of Representatives and the White House. Mr. Bennis also worked with the U.S Army's TRADOC (Training and Doctrine Command) which had the largest video training network with over 200 nodes installed worldwide.
After the disaster of 9/11, Mr. Bennis became a business development partner seeking intelligence and security entities and introducing them into businesses that could succeed with these many new applications and technologies. A major focus was with a division of Lockheed Martin working on a plan to secure bridges and tunnels in major cities in the U.S. and with a U.S. company that provided perimeter security to the U.S. Air Force.
In 2004, Mr. Bennis helped “found” a battery company specializing in lithium ion technology which is a battery that is lighter in weight and has more energy than the current technology. As the VP of Sales and Marketing, Mr. Bennis' customers included the U.S. Army, U.S. Navy, Lockheed Martin, and major industrial and automotive companies worldwide seeking an energy solution that would help these companies cut costs associated with fuel, i.e., an electric vehicle. In 2006, he was instrumental in helping this company raise over $25M investment capital which enabled them to grow the business into a domestic manufacturing facility employing in excess of 65 people.
Mr. Bennis and his wife live in the Annapolis Maryland area and enjoy boating and golfing.
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