Bixal is very proud to announce that CEO and cofounder, Carla Briceno, has been named one of the two Industry Lifetime Achievement Award winners for the 2024 FORUM IMPACT Women in Leadership Awards. Selected from among more than 300 peer-nominated leaders for creating lasting impact within the technology and consulting communities for the federal health, federal civilian, and defense sectors, Carla will be one of three speakers at the Leading for IMPACT Women in Leadership Conference awards ceremony, to be held on October 17. 

Those who have worked alongside Carla are equal parts thrilled and unsurprised that she has received this much-deserved award. Known for supporting underrepresented voices and clients in our industry, Carla mentors women both in and outside of Bixal—as of this writing, 63.8% of Bixal’s team are women, including 58.7% at the director and above level—and organizes virtual events to inspire persistence in tech careers. In the 16 years since Bixal’s founding, she has ensured that the company builds and maintains a genuinely diverse workforce; over the last five years, Bixal has opened four international offices, more than doubled its team size, and increased revenue by 758%. Carla’s enthusiasm, for the work Bixal does but even more so for the people—the Bixalers—who do that work, is palpable and contagious.

“Ultimately, Bixal is more than an organization,” Carla says, “it’s a methodology. Every day, everyone at Bixal brings their life experiences to the table and draws on the inspiration we’ve gained from the countless wonderful people and perspectives we’ve encountered on our journeys. Bixal is a reflection of a desire shared across teams and areas of expertise to leave the world a better place than we found it.”

Carla’s dedication to service began as a Peace Corps volunteer in rural Guatemala. Driven by a passion for collaborating with communities to develop lasting solutions to their unique challenges, she and her husband, Jose Briceno, cofounded Bixal in 2008 to assist federal agencies in achieving transformative outcomes for the people they serve, both domestically and abroad. 

After her time in the Peace Corps, Carla went on to direct a nonprofit program for Latino immigrants, supported a broad range of international development activities in Latin America, and dove headfirst into technology as both a developer and digital project manager before founding Bixal. She studied political science with a minor in Spanish at California State University, Long Beach, mastered in international policy studies and advanced Spanish at Middlebury Institute of International Studies, and earned a certificate in business programming from the Chubb Institute.

Perhaps most tellingly, though, Carla knows that leaders are only as good as the people around them. “I feel so grateful that so many terrific people are drawn to Bixal. I work with a truly unparalleled group of strategists, innovators, and problem-solvers,” she says. “My most important job is to take care of our team members and our clients, to support and serve and uplift the team. If we don’t take care of each other, we can’t achieve or be what we aspire to do and be in the world.”

The FORUM IMPACT Women in Leadership awards are an initiative of FORUM, the leading platform in the government consulting ecosystem. FORUM advances the missions of both government and the consulting industry, creating community with innovative events, field-leading content, and awards that span every federal department.

“Working in this industry,” Carla says, “I’m endlessly inspired by the remarkable contributions of women like Samantha Power at USAID, Clare Martorana at OMB, Robin Carnahan at GSA, and Isabel Casillas Guzman at SBA, women whose dedication and transformative work are critical to building a better, stronger, more equitable world.

“Henry David Thoreau wrote that ‘If one advances confidently in the direction of his dreams, and endeavors to live the life which he has imagined, he will meet with a success unexpected in common hours’. I’ve found that to be true in my own life, and I will always encourage others to join me in advancing together toward our dreams.”