Honoring Richard Gilbert’s Remarkable Career

After more than 27 years of dedicated service, we announce the retirement of Richard H. Gilbert, III, effective this week. Richard is truly ‘an original’, joining SMS in 1997 and quickly becoming the cornerstone of our network engineering capabilities. As SMS’ Route/Switch Technical Director, he led the Pentagon Renovation Program, rebuilding critical IT infrastructure and hiring top-tier engineers who strengthened SMS’ reputation for technical excellence.

Following the 9/11 attacks, Richard’s leadership was vital in relocating approximately 2,000 displaced Pentagon personnel to Crystal City within 72 hours, restoring mission-critical operations under extraordinary circumstances. His work also underpinned the Defense Continuity Integrated Network (DCIN), ensuring the survivability of the Pentagon’s Command and Control systems, an SMS project Richard managed for over 20 years.

Richard’s expertise extended to serving as technical liaison on the Mark Center construction and IT buildout, directly supporting 6,000 users connected to Pentagon headquarters. In this role, Richard provided comprehensive tenant requirement analysis, engineering, and developed key acquisition specifications for the program.

Richard then became a driving force behind the Joint Regional Security Stack (JRSS) program, helping consolidate global DoD network security operations. He coordinated Authorized Service Interruptions during migrations to the new architecture, managed ITSM Change processes, and served on the Engineering Review Board to uphold rigorous technical standards and operation processes across the JRSS architecture.

Over the last 3 years, Richard assumed SMS’ Quality Assurance Manager role, applying his extensive technical and process expertise to advance SMS’ ISO 27001, 20000-1, and 9001 certifications and CMMI programs. His meticulous standards and insistence on ‘doing it right’ transformed how we measure quality and drive improvement company wide.

Richard’s remarkable career left an indelible impact on SMS, our customers, and countless colleagues who’ve benefited from his expertise, candid advice, wry wit or one of his many infamous ‘stories’. His extensive technical insight, paired with an unwavering commitment to quality and integrity (often delivered with his signature sarcasm) made him a natural mentor and confidant. Richard is an SMS evangelist, often steering his boss ‘to make us better’ or guiding teams to build scalable, resilient systems, he is always eager to share his knowledge, elevating those around him

As Richard embarks on a well-earned retirement, we extend our heartfelt thanks for his decades of service, leadership, and friendship. Please join us in congratulating Richard Gilbert on an extraordinary career and wishing him all the best in this next chapter.