Technology Security Associates executives, speaking during an On the Road visit by the St. Mary's County Board of County Commissioners, described work supporting Department of Defense programs, international cooperative agreements and local businesses while outlining recent growth and community partnerships.

Tom Jarbo, chief operating officer of Technology Security Associates, told commissioners the firm "has a facility security clearance here at the top secret level," and said that classification shapes what parts of the facility visitors may see. He said the company is ISO registered to meet international contract requirements and that it provides services ranging from acquisition-technology support and information assurance to export-control briefings and HIPAA compliance work for health-care clients and law firms.

The detail matters locally because the company sits near Naval Air Station Patuxent River, where large Department of Defense aircraft and sustainment programs are based. "We support the program offices in identifying the information and the technologies, and then we help them identify the appropriate protective countermeasures," Lee Bradshaw, president and CEO, said, describing the firm’s role in drafting program security documentation and contract language to ensure classified and export-controlled material is handled properly.

Bradshaw and Tom Davis, the firm's chief technical officer, described the company’s embedded role in the Harrier Joint Program Office and related international cooperative programs. Bradshaw said cooperative programs differ from Foreign Military Sales because international partners are treated as partners that share development costs and program information. He said the firm runs foreign-disclosure reviews and helps "scrub" publications so data may be shared with allied partners.

Gary (identified in the presentation as the firm’s squad leader) gave a field briefing that the company provides operational and sustainment support for deployed forces. "320 traffickers have been convicted in the last year, and production of the poppies in the opium field is down significantly, probably 40%," he said while summarizing coalition operations in Afghanistan and the Harrier force’s mission profile in theater.

Company officials described additional program activity including SBIR (Small Business Innovation Research) work to develop low-cost retrofit solutions for carrier damage-control situational awareness, a MOBIS schedule award the company received in 2005, and HUBZone and SBA 8(a) program participation at earlier stages of growth. Jarbo said the firm has about 20 employees and showed revenue growth from roughly $128,000 in its first year to about $3.5 million in the most recent year presented.

On commercial services, the company outlined managed IT services, encrypted data exchange, application integration with medical imaging vendors and spam-filtering tools it is marketing to small businesses. Jarbo said the firm applies government security practices to the private sector, with a particular emphasis on HIPAA compliance for health-care customers.

Jarbo also described local community work: an MOU with the Southern Maryland Chapter of the American Red Cross for training and disaster management, founding participation in the St. Mary's Hurricane Relief Fund (which the company said helped raise approximately $350,000–$400,000 for relief in Mississippi), and engagement with the Lexington Park Planning Commission and local workforce-development activities.

During a short question-and-answer period, an unnamed county official asked whether the company was overly dependent on prime defense contracts. Jarbo responded that Pax River-area programs produce multiple major ACAT-level programs and that cooperative international programs are increasing local opportunities. He added that Lockheed Martin and other large contractors are expanding local presence to support upcoming programs such as the Joint Strike Fighter.

The commissioners concluded their visit with thanks to the company for hosting the delegation and for its local hiring and outreach work.