corporate profile

About Us

Our goal is to provide excellent services at competitive prices, making ACEs the best value for both reliable service and low cost.

A Service-Disabled Veteran, Woman-Owned Small Business

We are a CVE-verified Service-Disabled Veteran and Woman-Owned Small Business with teams of dedicated, innovative and talented employees and a track record of providing the requisite multi-disciplinary capabilities to address our clients’ complex issues and needs. We work hand in hand with our clients, leveraging our combined strengths and resources to achieve their goals.

Advanced Concepts Enterprises, Inc. is committed to providing veterans and industry experts with extensive experience to provide continuity to our nation’s defense and mission success. As professionals, we continue to serve our country because we are genuinely interested in the defense of our nation and the direction it takes. ACEs provides administrative, engineering, C4ISR, logistics consulting, technical consulting, research and development, program and project management, facilitation, and training support services.

ACE's Standards of Business Conduct and Codes of Ethics

Advanced Concepts Enterprises, Inc. believes that ethical values establish the foundation for its business success. We strive to conduct our business activities consistent with the highest ethical standards as well as the many laws, regulations and policies that impact our business dealings. We believe our company and all of our stakeholders benefit when integrity is the cornerstone of our operations. Therefore, we take pride in the ethics program we provide for ourselves, our employees, and all who work on behalf of ACEs.

ACEs expects its employees to implement ethical values throughout their organizations. To facilitate this process, ACEs has established an Ethics & Compliance Program that is provided to each of our employees. In addition, a web-based Standards of Conduct & Code of Ethics Handbook is available to employees to assist them with day-to-day decision making. The handbook includes workplace rules, standards of business conduct, guidance on procurement requirements and intellectual property rights, among other information.
corporate governance

Officers

Advanced Concepts Enterprises, Inc. provides services and products to predominantly U.S. Government and Department of Defense customers. Our services and products are high quality at the most reasonable prices. Customer and employee satisfaction are high priorities for ACEs. ACEs also seeks continued financial stability and sustained growth.
president

Mary W. Blackwell

Mary W. Blackwell joined Advanced Concepts Enterprises, Inc. as President on October 1, 2008. She is a seasoned senior executive, financial planner and programmer, retired Air Force Intel officer who possesses a wealth of leadership, experience and knowledge.

Mrs. Blackwell has led the company to a position at the forefront of the industry. She strategically advanced the company's mission and objectives to promote revenue, profitability and growth and oversees company operations to insure efficiency, quality, service, and cost-effective management of resources.

Before taking on the role of ACEs' President, Mrs. Blackwell was a highly-respected U.S. Air Force Intelligence Officer responsible for intelligence support to air operations at the squadron, wing, group, Numbered Air Force and Joint/Combined Air Component Command levels in European, Pacific and Southwest Asian theaters. She is a Distinguished Graduate of USAF Air Intelligence Training Center; seasoned manager and supervisor; and a veteran of DESERT SHIELD, DESERT STORM, SOUTHERN WATCH and DESERT FOX.

Mrs. Blackwell received a bachelor of arts degree in history from the University of Maryland College Park. She also serves as President and Board Member to the League of Women Voters of Okaloosa County and Secretary, Okaloosa County Commission on the Status of Women.
CHIEF EXECUTIVE OFFICER

Rocky L. Blackwell

Rocky L. Blackwell founded Advanced Concepts Enterprises, Inc. on December 11, 2002 and served as President and CEO from that time until September 30, 2008. On October 1, 2008 Mary Blackwell, his wife, took over duties as President and he continues as Chief Executive Officer.

Rocky brought ACEs from start up to its current revenue size and infrastructure in a just five years. Under his leadership, ACEs has established a reputation for integrity, technical excellence and exceeding all customers’ expectations. As a seasoned senior executive with extensive military and commercial experience, Rocky manages multiple million-dollar, highly specialized and technical programs. He is a dynamic leader, who quickly identifies problems, formulates solutions, and directs appropriate action to ensure success.

Prior to establishing ACEs, Rocky was a Division Chief at Science Applications International Corporation (SAIC) Command and Control (C2) Operations Support Division, Shalimar, Florida. He led a team of 44 engineers, analysts and consultants in the C2 and intelligence, surveillance, and reconnaissance (IRS) arena to satisfy a time-sensitive tasking from the USAF Chief of Staff, Commander of the Air Combat Command, Commander of the Aerospace C2 Intelligence, Surveillance, and Reconnaissance Center, and the Commanders of the C2 Technology and Innovation Group, C2 Battlelab and UAV Battlelab.

As a highly-revered U.S. Air Force officer, Rocky served as Flight Commander, Branch/Division Chief in USAF, Joint, and Combined Headquarters. He was responsible for doctrine development, modeling and simulation, and future Theater Battle Management C2 requirements to support campaign planning for air operations center operations. He supervised standardization/evaluation and certification functions for NATO Combined Air Operations Center and was the mission-ready Combat Plans Director in charge of wartime operational assessment. Rocky was responsible for formulating and managing the details of building Air Tasking Orders for Operations DESERT SHIELD, DESERT STORM and SOUTHERN WATCH and has over 1000 hours in tactical fighters and 150 combat hours as an ACE Director during Operation DESERT STORM.
chief operations officer

Steven A. Pepper

Steven A. Pepper rejoined Advanced Concepts Enterprises, Inc. as Chief Operations Officer on June 22, 2020 after an earlier stint working for ACEs from 2009-2015 as Project Controller and Chief Financial Officer. Mr. Pepper is an MBA graduate with over a decade of combined experience in both Industry and the Department of Defense acquisition, including expertise in quality management, program management, contracting, and finance.

Mr. Pepper’s certifications in Six Sigma quality management and Lean Manufacturing allowed him to design and implement ACE's registrar-certified ISO 9001 and ISO 14001 quality and environmental management systems in 2010. After initially departing ACEs in 2015, he became a Government-recognized SME in DoD acquisition (DAWAI Certification), completing the Air Force’s Copper Cap program and working for AFMC contracting at Eglin AFB on major weapon systems. During his time as a DoD contracting civilian (1102), he participated as an award-winning cost analyst, buyer, and negotiator for a number of programs, including the AMRAAM missile and Massive Ordnance Penetrator direct attack munition programs.

Mr. Pepper received a Master’s in Business Administration from the University of West Florida, where he also authored and published research papers and statistical models in academic journals in the field of Management and Decision Sciences.
points of contact

Mary W. Blackwell, President

Rocky L. Blackwell, Chief Executive Officer

Steven Pepper, Chief Operations Officer

Cindy Burke, Financial Manager

Thomas Clark, Corporate Program Manager

Darryl Gilley, Business Development Manager

Rhonda Coffey, Human Resource Manager

Ashley Clark, Facility Security Officer

Environmental Policy

ACEs is committed to protecting the environment and preventing pollution in all of our activities in accordance with customer and legal requirements. Our goal is to educate employees and others who work on behalf of ACEs about the importance of protecting the environment and supporting our customer’s environmental programs. We are also implementing internal programs to establish and meet environmental objectives and targets.

Impact

For each environmental aspect, the corresponding actual or potential environmental impact(s) has been identified. Example environmental impacts include but are not limited to:

• Impact to, or improvements to air/water/land/groundwater quality (pollution).
• Reduction or conservation of natural resources (resources).
• Depletion of, or conservation of landfill space (waste).
• Recycled material (recycling).

Training

All ACEs' personnel meet competency requirements based on appropriate education, training and/or experience to ensure:

• Awareness of the importance of conformity with ACEs' environmental policy, procedures, and the EMS.
• Awareness of ACEs' or the customers' significant environmental impacts, actual or potential, and the benefits of improved personal performance.
• Awareness of their roles and responsibilities in achieving conformity with the requirements of the EMS.
• Awareness of specified operating procedures and the potential consequences of departure from those procedures.

Training requirements for contract tasks, to include any required environmental training or expertise, are specified in the Performance Work Statement/Statement of Work and are tracked and verified using contract specific Quality Control Plans (QCPs).

Evaluation

Evaluation of compliance to all requirements is accomplished using internal assessments, including during any internal environmental audits. The goal of these periodic evaluations is to identify to any legal or other requirements and the extent to which they are being fulfilled.

Section 508

ACEs' products and services comply with Section 508 of the Rehabilitation Action of 1973.
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