Ed Barnabas
Vice President & Indo-Pacific CTO
Booz Allen Hamilton
Ed Barnabas is a Mentor Hawaii Cohort 10 mentor. Learn more about the program here.
About Ed
Ed Barnabas is Vice President and Chief Technology Officer for Booz Allen’s regional headquarters in Honolulu, Hawai‘i. In this role, he supports defense and national security clients in Hawai‘i, Alaska, Japan, South Korea, Singapore, Guam, and Australia. With over 25 years of experience, Ed focuses on guiding, scaling, and overseeing the regional innovation agenda across key areas such as AI/ML, cyber, infrastructure/cloud, immersive user experiences, and lean digital transformation. Together with his team, they work with clients to develop disruptive technologies and solve critical mission challenges. Before joining Booz Allen, Ed held leadership positions at companies such as URS, SAIC, and Acumen Solutions, Inc.
Outside of work, Ed is an ardent STEM advocate and serves as a board or committee member at Chaminade University, Hawaii Technology Development Corporation (HTDC), Technology Outreach Hawaii (TORCH), Cyber Hawaii, Hawaii Chamber of Commerce Technology Sector
Partnership, and ClimbHI. Ed received his MBA in Information Systems & Business Analytics from the University of Maryland Smith School and BA from the University of Maryland. He is also certified in AI & Business Strategy by the MIT Sloan School of Management.
Question and Answer with Ed
What is your preferred communication style when mentoring (in-person, video conference, phone, informal check-ins, structured meetings, etc.).
In-Person Meeting, Video-Conference, Meal, Informal Check-In, Structured Meeting, Activity
Why do you want to become a mentor in this program?
Mentoring is the most important thing a leader can do. Sharing perspectives from life experiences for the growth of our future leaders is not only highly rewarding, but an obligation as a good leader. Helping Hawai’i cultivate its next wave of leaders is critical to the future of our home as we see rapid change across the islands and region at large.
What specific skills, knowledge or experience can you share with your mentee?
Consulting, business development, business management, portfolio/program/project management, technology/innovation, AI/ML, org design, risk management, change management, client relationships, team building, team management, lean management
What are your expectations for a mentor-mentee relationship?
To help young professionals find their path as they start their journey in leadership. Meet a new colleague to join my network and build a lasting business relationship. Lastly, learn a few things myself!!!
How do you approach problem-solving and conflict resolution?
Communication and transparency is paramount, it starts there. Second is ensuring you have provided and will provide everything your team needed to be / will need to be successful. Lastly, you must have diverse voices when problem-solving and in conflict resolution. Looking at things from one view is not sustainable, you must have diversity.
How do you envision success for your mentee, and how will you measure it during the program?
At the end, both mentor and mentee genuinely learned at least one thing that we can apply to our work and daily practice/life that will have a lasting impact. It’s not how many things, it’s knowing we at least internalized one thing that will affect real change for the better!
