Few sectors reward long-term thinking as directly as government contracting, where trust and track record carry as much weight as price. Margarita Howard built HX5 with that reality in mind, constructing the company’s capabilities layer by layer from its founding in 2004 to its current position as a firm with more than 1,000 employees spread across 34 states and 90 government locations.
Howard serves as sole owner and CEO/president of HX5, which delivers professional mission support services to the Department of Defense and NASA. The Fort Walton Beach, Florida company’s scope of work spans a substantial portion of the country, a reach that Howard credits to careful choices made during the company’s early years rather than rapid expansion for its own sake.
Learning the Industry From the Inside
Before launching HX5, Margarita Howard held leadership roles within the Tricare program, the Department of Defense’s health care management initiative. She advanced from area field manager to regional director, eventually overseeing seven states across the Southeast. “I was part of the Tricare implementation team when it was first introduced,” she has recalled. That background gave her a thorough understanding of how federal agencies operate and what they expect from contractors.
HX5 entered the 8 business development program early in its history, an experience Howard credits with helping the company get off the ground. Within a year of joining, the firm had been awarded four contracts. But Howard was deliberate about not becoming dependent on the program. She has observed that small businesses that relied exclusively on sole-source awards through 8(a) often struggled once the program ended, having never built the competitive muscle needed to win on the open market.
Margarita Howard also points to workforce development as foundational. Many of HX5’s senior leaders have stayed with the company for a decade or more, giving the organization a depth of institutional knowledge that newer competitors rarely match. Visit this page for more information.
Learn more about Howard on https://www.youngupstarts.com/2025/01/10/how-hx5-and-margarita-howard-stay-ahead-in-government-contracting-as-a-women-owned-firm/
