President and CEO: Braulio Castillo
As the President and CEO of Strong Castle, Inc., Braulio Castillo has over 20 years of extensive experience delivering IT products and services to the Federal Government.
Braulio received a Bachelor’s Degree, with honors, in Business Administration and Finance from the University of San Diego. He was the first in his family to attend and graduate from any college or university. Braulio also received a Master’s Degree in Business Administration from the University of Nevada at Las Vegas and completed the Executive Program in International Business Management at Georgetown University’s McDonough School of Business. Braulio received a congressional nomination to attend the United Stated Military Academy (West Point) from the Honorable Duncan Hunter of the “then” 45th District of California and attended the United States Military Academy (West Point) Preparatory School. Braulio was honorably discharged from the United States Army and received a service connected, disability rating from the Department of Veterans Affairs for his active duty service as an enlisted soldier in the US Army.
Braulio is a member of the National Society of Hispanic MBA’s (NSHMBA) and was an honorary cast member for the MGM Grand Resort’s “Roar Yes to Success” Program, an educational outreach campaign for the Clark County (Nevada). He also served as a mentor for Luther Jackson Middle School’s “Generaciones” Hispanic role model program for disadvantaged youths in the Fairfax County (Virginia) School District and volunteers in McLean Bible Church’s Kids Quest and the Rock Youth programs at the church’s Loudoun County campus. Braulio provides much needed financial support to numerous charitable organizations including: DayBreak Ministries in the Lincoln Heights neighborhood of Washington, DC; International Justice Mission (IJM); the Water Project where Braulio funded water wells in Burkina Faso and Sierra Leone, Africa; and Helping Haitian Angels. Braulio has also created an endowment scholarship to assist and recruit minority students at his alma mater, the University of San Diego.
In 2012, under Braulio’s leadership, Strong Castle, Inc. (under former name Signet Computers, Inc.) was named the IRS Office of IT and Treasury Departmental Offices (Main Treasury) Small Business of the Year, which in turn led to the nomination and subsequent award for overall Treasury Small Business of the Year.
Chief Operating Officer: Michelle Castillo
As the Chief Operating Officer at Strong Castle, Inc., Michelle Castillo is responsible for managing the company's day-to-day operations and ongoing business development initiatives. Michelle also directly supports Strong Castle’s community outreach efforts, such as DayBreak, a program that shares the gospel with under-resourced communities through nurturing children and strengthening families in the Lincoln Heights DC community. Michelle holds an MBA with a concentration in Masters of Global Information Technology from American University and earned a Bachelors degree from Mercer University.
Executive Vice President of Strategic Programs: Lauretta Brown
On June 1, 2012 Lauretta Brown joined Strong Castle as the Executive Vice President, Strategic Programs. Before coming to Strong Castle, Lauretta gained 35 years of experience in the public and private sector in the field of Information Systems Management, Program and Project Management, Business Development and Executive Leadership. Working for the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) for 30 years, she was a senior executive leader over major development, infrastructure and modernization projects, contact center operations, and telecommunications programs. Lauretta led over 1100 employees in one the largest government computing center operations in the country—responsible for the operations of all mission critical systems. Her experience ranges from the technical aspects of systems design, development, deployment and operations to setting the strategic direction of the agency. While at the IRS, she was honored with the Federal Computer Week TOP 100 IT Professionals. After the IRS, Lauretta served in business development positions for Lockheed Martin and Capgemini Government Solutions. Lauretta earned a Bachelors degree in Computer Studies from the University of Maryland, University College and an MBA from the University of South Florida. She is Project Management Professional (PMP) Certified.