By Calvin Biesecker
The Professional Services Council (PSC) and the Contract Services Association of America (CSA), the two leading trade groups that lobby in support of companies that provide a range of base support, consulting, information technology and technical services to the federal government, will merge at the start of 2008.
The combined entity will serve about 330 member companies. The PSC currently serves about 225 firms and the CSA about 135, with little overlap between the two.
The merger isn’t a cost cutting move, but rather a way to leverage the combined capabilities of both associations to provide a “single unified voice for the services sector, which will have a tremendous value,” Stan Soloway, president of the PSC, told Defense Daily. Soloway will remain at the helm of the PSC following the merger.
The PSC’s membership base leans more toward companies that provide IT services while the CSA’s base consists of firms that provide facilities engineering and base support. The priority issues, missions and objectives of both organizations are “virtually identical,” Soloway said.
Alex Chvotkin, PSC senior vice president, will be the executive vice president and counsel of the merged organization. Colleen Preston, CSA’s senior vice president for public polity, is expected to round out the leadership team.