The Fixer

For many children experiencing the dissolution of their parents’ marriage, the trauma of so many shifting realities can push them to a breaking point. Even those mothers and fathers who have inspired in their children a strong work ethic, a spirit of adventure, and firm values can nevertheless be consumed by the difficulties of separation, and their children can be left without the attention they need.

But for Babs Doherty, founder and CEO of Eagle Ray, Inc., breaking was not an option.  As a young teen in an environment of crisis, Babs didn’t just survive. Left to her own devices in the margins of her parents’ attention as they struggled with each other, she flipped the breaking point on its head and emerged with the resourcefulness, determination and drive that would one day lead her to great success.

“I was almost completely on my own to solve my own problems,” Babs says today. “My parents were focused on the divorce, and that became the epicenter of our home life.  It was because of this that I became such an independent person.” The youngest of three children, Babs watched her older brothers attempt to move on with their own lives, as she found herself very much alone.  “I had to be resourceful,” she continues. “I had to make sure I could get things accomplished and handle my own problems.”

Babs did indeed master these skills, but perhaps the greatest trait that evolved through the experience is one that focuses outwardly, to external problems. It’s an ability that has defined her personal and professional success, and that has become her core attribute: the power to take the skills she used to survive her own life, and translate them into skills that can identify and fix the problems in any system.  “The things I enjoy doing are the things I can fix,” Babs explains.  “Classically, you see in male-female relationships that the guy is usually a fixer, and the girl just wants to talk about it. In my case the roles are reversed. I’m the fixer. In all aspects of my life—at home, at work, and with my children—I fix stuff. And that is integral to my ability to manage programs. It’s a natural fit. It’s easy for me because I do it without thought. And I believe that’s the recipe for success when it comes to entrepreneurship. If you find something you are inclined to do naturally and without thought, success tends to follow.”

Success followed for Babs in many ways through an aggressive and adventurous career, and culminated in her decision to found Eagle Ray in 2002. “I saw a need in the government space to make management skills and methodologies teachable, thereby allowing more people to be successful in managing projects and programs.  I felt like these skills would be particularly vital with projects where you’re building and deploying software in high-risk environments, such as for our intelligence agencies and in homeland security.”

Throughout her career as a process and project manager, Babs saw individuals who were exceptionally talented in their field promoted to management roles, only to falter.  She became convinced that if those individuals were equipped with the right tools, they would excel. “Individuals with mastery of a certain skill can become excellent managers if they have the right methodology,” Babs says.  “So we develop standardized methodologies for IT organizations to define, build, test, and deploy.  In essence, we build a framework for building projects and moving them forward.”

For Eagle Ray’s customers, the program has proved to be an addictive service.  “We may handle just one part of process engineering or leadership and mentoring to start,” Babs says. “Then our clients want more and more, until we’re handling the entire lifecycle of project management—from the initial conception of a requirement, to defining that requirement, to actually supporting it once it’s built in.”

After eleven years, Eagle Ray has built a team of over one hundred employees and sees its annual revenues at almost $30 million. This year the company was recognized by the Virginia Chamber of Commerce as one of 2013’s 50 Fastest Growing Companies in the Commonwealth.  Babs, herself, is a 2013 SmartCEO Brava! Award winner, and Eagle Ray has also been recognized by Washington Technology’s Fast 50 list.

As a fixer, Babs has naturally developed a spirited character that eagerly meets any challenge, which is evident in the contracts her company takes on.  Its main customers are found in the intelligence community, including the Office of Naval Intelligence and the Department of Homeland Security.  “Our passion is the customers that provide mission critical products and services,” Babs says, “because we understand the importance of getting things done rapidly.  We like being in the line of fire because that’s an environment we really thrive in.”

While her parents’ divorce made her stronger instead of weaker, Babs’s character and ability were also influenced by the unique strengths of each of her parents. Indeed, her tenacity and drive to fix problems and processes would not have been nearly as formidable without the vital lessons and values that both her parents instilled in her.  “I saw in my father that work always comes first,” Babs says. “You have to get it done. You do your best, and that’s your responsibility.” Babs’s father, an Air Force pilot, also set an example of patriotism that shines through his daughter’s work today.

“On the other hand,” she continues, “my mom taught me the vital lesson of attention to detail, which has been essential to my success. She also taught me so much about socialization and how to be a human being in the world—that it’s important to get to know people and to understand agendas. In the professional world, just as in the personal world, you have to empathize and understand what is important to others. If you can foster genuine, mutually-beneficial relationships and help others get to where they want to go, you will ultimately succeed and get where you want to be as well. When those skill sets came together in my repertoire, they gave me a great balance between networking capabilities and the capability to follow through and get things done.”

Armed with these mutually-affirming strengths, Babs seized her independence by necessity and ran with it. Although there was no money for college, she achieved opportunities that few mere high school graduates could hope for. Living in Northern Virginia, she got an administrative job at the Naval Research Lab and cut her teeth on the Wang word processor, a primitive computer system that required her to learn basic programming skills to operate.  Between her early computer skills, her problem solving ability, and her gradual introduction to the classified intelligence world, doors began to open.  By her early twenties, Babs was traveling abroad through her work, and by the time she reached her mid-twenties, she began pursuing her bachelor’s degree through night classes. She learned the programming languages COBOL and FORTRAN and ultimately left the government to join private industry, where she followed role models and mentors to several small companies before landing at the last place she would ever work for someone other than herself: BTG, Incorporated.

“I joined BTG as a task leader for a software job,” Babs says. “And before long, I met the owner, a gentleman named Ed Bersoff. It was the first time I had met the owner of a company of that size, about one hundred employees. This guy was different.”

At 6’5”, Ed’s physical presence was already intimidating to Babs. But as she had more direct contact with him through special projects, his influence on her professional development grew. “He would know the answer to our questions before we even asked,” she recounts. “Numbers would stream out of his head on demand. It was a validation of what I was learning in my classes about how a business should be run, and it left a mark on me. He would command the respect of those who worked for him, inspiring the team to bring their best skills and best selves to the table.”

Babs was working at BTG when she completed her bachelor’s degree. When she graduated, she was given two copies of her diploma—one to keep, and one to dedicate—and naturally, the honor of the latter went to Ed. “By then the company was over 300 people,” Babs says, “and he still didn’t know me very well at the time. But I set up a one-on-one meeting with him and presented him with my diploma. I said that whether he knew it or not, he was my inspiration to finish my degree and continue on my path of growth.”

Fifteen years after starting with BTG, Babs was finally ready to launch her own company.  Before she committed, however, she called Ed and asked for guidance. “He said it wasn’t the right time,” she recalls. “The economy wasn’t good, and there was a lot of uncertainty in the world. He suggested I come work with him at this other company.  I thanked him, hung up the phone, logged onto my computer, and incorporated my company right then and there. When I let him know, he invited me to dinner. We’ve met once a month since then, over the last eleven years, and today he’s Chairman of the Board at Eagle Ray.”

Since transitioning into a leadership role herself when her entrepreneurial dreams were realized, Babs has continued learning from her role models and mentors and has cultivated within herself her own leadership style. “Through little failures along the road, I have learned that my way is really just one way, and not the only way,” she remarks. “I’ve learned to find the right people for my team who have value systems similar to mine, but who may have different approaches to the same problem. The important thing is to end up at the same place, but if I allow someone to take their own way there, then we may pick up something extra along the way that makes our company even better. With this in mind, as a leader, I am finger-on, not hands-on.  I want to know what’s happening and to be a part of what’s going on, but I’m not going to tell my employees the exact way to do their jobs. My role is to provide the end vision and empower those under me to achieve that goal. People get stifled when they’re not allowed creativity and space. That’s what I’ve learned the most.”

For her own space to be creative and entrepreneurial, Babs has her husband, Dan, to thank. Married for seventeen years, his support has been fundamental to her professional success. “He was extremely encouraging when I set out to found Eagle Ray, and to this day he picks up all the slack at home,” Babs affirms. “He is definitely the rock that is holding down the house and the home so I can move forward with Eagle Ray and do the things we need to do, and I’m so thankful for that.” Through their teamwork, the Dohertys are able to contribute to society in other vital ways, giving generously to the Breast Cancer Society and the Lung Cancer Society. In the past, Babs was also President of the Board for Volunteer Fairfax.  The daughter of a military man, she donates to and volunteers for the Military Order of the Purple Heart, and every year around Christmas, Babs, Dan, and Eagle Ray adopt four to five families through Our Daily Bread.

Today, Babs and her company continue to thrive in high-risk, mission critical environments that demand results and capitalize on her trademark instinct as a fixer. The company’s name, however, alludes to the something that runs as deeply in her character as it does in the world: the ocean. Since being taught to SCUBA dive by her father when she was a young girl, the experience of diving has been something she cherishes not only as an adventurous activity, but also as a powerful metaphor.

“I have a real affinity for the ocean,” she avows. “It goes beyond the sport of SCUBA diving. My dad and I used to dive together, and I certainly hold those memories dear, but it seems as though diving permeates every aspect of my life in a deeper sense. My husband and my daughter are both certified divers because of me. My vacations are planned around whether I can SCUBA dive while I’m there. My longing is to be in water. Salt water is in my blood. And the very steel and smell of the tank—there’s something about it that’s relaxing and inspirational to me. When you think about it, oceans are a huge part of life. We spend all our lives above them, but I like to be a little bit below, just to see what’s underneath.”

In a sense, the solitude, clarity, and peace achieved when Babs dons a diving suit and disappears underneath the surface is a state of mind she brings to her clients each day. Reminiscent of the tremendous inner fortitude she cultivated amidst uncertain external forces as a young lady, she now dives with life-affirming enthusiasm into the unknown, confident in her silent skill as she confronts new terrain and submarine wonders. Like diving, her work through Eagle Ray—and her life itself—is an exercise in the expert handling of pressure that, to others, could be dangerous and disconcerting. But Babs, able to address such situations with a unique grace cultivated through years of rising to challenges of all kinds, wouldn’t have it any other way.

‍