Board of Directors
Mehul Sanghani
CEO
Octo
Mr. Sanghani is the Founder and Chief Executive Officer of Octo – a nationally recognized, award-winning technology solutions provider located in Northern Virginia and serving the federal market. Octo specializes in solving the Federal Government’s most complex technical challenges with Artificial Intelligence (AI), Blockchain, Agile DevSecOps, Cloud Engineering, Open Source, Cybersecurity, and Data Science solutions. The firm specializes in building the software and delivering the solutions that empower government missions across the Intelligence Community and Health Care, National Security, Defense, and Federal Civilian sectors.
Since founding the firm alone at the age 30, Mr. Sanghani has guided Octo to an astounding 71.4% compound annual growth rate in its 15 years in operation. The firm now boasts over 1,200 employees nationwide and over $310 million in annual revenue.
Since being founded in 2006, under Mr. Sanghani’s leadership, the firm has been recognized by numerous independent publications for its extraordinary growth and vision. Recognition includes being named the #23 fastest growing private business in the country by Inc. Magazine; receiving the 2012 Inc. Hire Power Award for job growth and creation; winning the 2011 Vanguard Award from the Virginia Chamber of Commerce as the #1 fastest growing business in the Commonwealth of Virginia; being ranked the #2 business on the 2011 Washington Technology Magazine Fast 50 list of fastest growing Federal Contractors; winning the prestigious 2012 Fairfax Chamber of Commerce award for GovCon Contractor of the Year; winning the 2013 NVTC Hot Ticket Award for the Hottest Emerging Government Contractor; and winning the 2015 Fairfax Chamber of Commerce Award for GovCon CEO of the Year.
In addition to winning Octo numerous awards for growth, Mr. Sanghani has also worked hard to cultivate a unique corporate culture that has earned Octo widespread recognition as one of the top workplaces in the country for technologists and numerous accolades for its community engagement and activism. Octo was featured in Washingtonian Magazine’s 50 Best Workplaces, was ranked the #11 best workplace in the Commonwealth by Virginia Business Magazine, and has been recognized in both the Washington Post and Washington Business Journal as a top workplace a combined total of six times.
From a corporate social responsibility perspective, under Mr. Sanghani’s leadership, Octo has been an active and visible voice within its communities, spearheading targeted community outreach and offering resources to important engagement efforts. Specifically, Mr. Sanghani sponsored the creation of a Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) Committee reporting directly to C-level leadership. The CSR Committee organizes outreach and community sponsorship efforts. The firm has served as a headline sponsor making substantial charitable contributions to the annual National Institute of Health’s Children’s Inn Gala, the Wounded Warrior Foundation, and the Future Fund gala supporting afterschool programs at local schools, among numerous other charities.
Mr. Sanghani and Octo have been recognized for these and other philanthropic efforts numerous times including being a four-time finalist for the Fairfax Chamber of Commerce Corporate Citizenship Award for corporate philanthropy; being recognized by the Washington Business Journal as the 2014 Corporate Philanthropist of the year for metro D.C.; and receiving national recognition for philanthropy and innovative corporate social responsibility initiatives as a finalist for the National Jefferson Awards – a nationwide award for corporate community activism and engagement.
Mr. Sanghani has also invested his time and energy in several board roles and philanthropic efforts that support under-represented communities, helping them gain access to higher education through scholarships, advancing future technologies like AI, and battling hunger/food insecurity. Having earned three separate bachelor’s degrees (Industrial Systems Engineering, Finance, and Psycholog) in 1998 from Virginia Tech, Mr. Sanghani now serves as a Board Member on the prestigious Northern Virginia Technology Council. In 2015, Mr. Sanghani was appointed by then Virginia Governor Terry McAuliffe to serve on Virginia Tech’s Board of Trustees/Visitors. Mr. Sanghani also serves on the board for the Pamplin School of Business at his alma mater.
In April 2020, Mr. Sanghani and his wife Hema achieved national recognition for an historic $10 million gift to Virginia Tech. $1.5 million of the gift was allocated to establish The Market at Virginia Tech, a first of its kind food pantry dedicated to combat food insecurity and hunger issues within the local community of Blacksburg, Virginia (Mehul’s hometown) and amongst college students that studies show suffer from food insecurity at an alarming rate.
The gift also endows the groundbreaking Sanghani Center for Artificial Intelligence and Data Analytics. The Sanghani Center will be a cross-cutting academic research center at Virginia Tech that focuses on next generation research, policy, and technology in the area of AI. The school’s center has already received national recognition for its groundbreaking research and funding from DARPA and IARPA to seed its efforts. More notably, the multi-million gift from the Sanghani family will go toward funding scholarships for aptly named “Sanghani Scholars.” These scholarships will be given to under-represented minorities and other students in need toward their graduate education in the field of AI. The Sanghani Center will be the first research center to be housed in the newly established Virginia Tech Innovation Campus primed to be located in Northern Virginia adjacent to Amazon’s HQ-2 in 2025.