Remembering
Richard Hollis Helms
Innovator, Visionary Leader
1949-2024
Richard Hollis Helms poured his heart into Ntrepid and its people. His passion and vision set the course for who we are as a company and what we have become. His legacy extends far beyond his professional accomplishments; it is woven into the very fabric of our corporate identity. Through his visionary leadership and commitment to excellence, Hollis transformed challenges into opportunities and inspired those around him to reach new heights of success. These traits shaped the very essence of our organization, leaving an indelible mark destined to resonate for years to come.
“It’s all about the people. Imagine developing and releasing software products for such demanding customers and important missions like we do at Ntrepid. It can only be accomplished with a curious, creative, and collaborative workforce. I cannot think of a more exciting time to be doing what we are doing. I know of no other company so focused or group of people so talented and therefore better positioned to build the capabilities we believe will make a difference for the community we are privileged to support.”
Transforming Challenges into Opportunities
After nearly 30 years of service with the CIA, Hollis entered the private sector where he experienced a rigid corporate structure in which he felt stifled and unable to achieve the vision and ideas he had for a better world. After 9/11, he founded Abraxas Corporation which earned him the 2006 Ernst and Young National Entrepreneur of the Year Award for Emerging Technology. 10 years after it was created, he sold Abraxas and started Ntrepid Corporation which is still successfully developing mission-critical solutions for the national security community.
A View From Above: Driven to Innovate
Whether it was from a never-ending pursuit of technical discovery or soaring above the earth in his beloved plane, Hollis was the type of person who could anticipate what was coming and how to get there.
Hollis was passionately committed to delivering products that enable our customers in the national security community to stay steps ahead of adversaries in the information domain. Through heavy investment in R&D, he ensured our innovations made a significant, positive impact in the real world.
“In my career, I was never satisfied that those responsible for delivering technology to me really understood my need, for surely if they had, they would have worked harder to deliver what seemed to me to be the obvious. I remember being told, ‘If you don’t see it on the shelf, don’t ask for it.
That guidance resulted in an erroneous assessment that all needs were being met because no one was asking for anything other than what was on the shelf. Soon, nothing worthwhile was on the shelf. But while the first principal of technology development must be that it is essential to have the right people, the second is insuring institutional things do not prevent the right technologists from achieving their goals. I am fortunate in that many of those things that prevented technology from reaching me no longer apply. Ntrepid benefits from over $91 million in investments in new technology, people and insights. No one is telling us to live with what is on the shelf. Unfortunately, now I have few excuses for not delivering technology that can make a difference.”
Products of Magnitude
“Ntrepid exists to make products of magnitude which we define as products that significantly improve our customers’ performance. We are not waiting for a customer request for information or a proposal to start thinking about and engineering solutions. We are not building products solely on specifications provided by our customers. And when we build products we are not walking away from them without finding an alternative solution if the mission need remains. Ideally, we are building products for which we have identified a need before a customer understands a technical solution is achievable.”