Making Headlines: Paladin, Babst Calland, CTC and BlackHawk

Concurrent Technologies Corporation Names Chris Hamilton as New President & CEO

Concurrent Technologies Corporation (CTC) is pleased to announce the appointment of Christopher J. Hamilton as its new President and Chief Executive Officer, effective June 29, 2026. Hamilton succeeds Edward J. Sheehan, Jr., who will retire on June 30, 2026, after 33 years of distinguished service to the organization.

The selection of Hamilton follows a comprehensive national search by CTC’s Board of Directors. The Board sought a leader who will build on the company’s strong foundation and drive its next phase of growth and innovation in support of complex customer missions.

“It is an honor to join Concurrent Technologies Corporation at such a pivotal time in its history,” said Hamilton. “CTC’s reputation for technical excellence, mission focus, and customer commitment is impressive. I look forward to working with the talented CTC team to build on this legacy of delivering innovative solutions to hard problems that address the challenging needs of our nation.”

“We are excited to welcome Chris Hamilton as CTC’s next President & CEO,” said Jeffrey K. Harris, Chairman of the CTC Board of Directors. “Chris brings a proven track record of strategic leadership and operational excellence in defense, intelligence, and national security. His experience, vision, and understanding of the opportunities for operational transformations driven, in part, by Artificial Intelligence will be instrumental to improving customer mission success.”

"I am pleased with the Board of Directors' selection of Chris," said Edward J. Sheehan, Jr., outgoing President & CEO of CTC. "He brings great skills, experience, and attributes to the position. I am confident he will lead CTC well into the future. I wish him much success."

Chris Hamilton is a 30-year industry veteran who has experience in large corporations, small companies, and academic research organizations. At Parsons Corporation, he led an advanced technology group developing solutions to protect client personnel and critical infrastructure from emerging threats. He was responsible for the development of a Counter-Unmanned Aerial Systems (CUAS) program including the establishment of the company’s CUAS Center of Excellence in West Virginia. Previously, Chris served as President and Chief Operating Officer of CMX Technologies, Deputy Director for a major research division at Georgetown University, and Vice President of Advanced Development Programs at Titan Corporation.

Former Federal Prosecutor Jeffrey Bengel Joins Babst Calland as Shareholder

Law Firm Babst Calland is pleased to announce that Jeffrey R. Bengel recently joined the Firm’s Pittsburgh, Pa., office as a shareholder in the Litigation practice.

Mr. Bengel represents clients in complex commercial litigation, government enforcement actions, and internal investigations.  An experienced trial attorney, he has tried numerous cases to jury verdict in federal court. His litigation practice spans a range of industries, including financial services, digital assets, shipping, export, food and drug, and healthcare.

Before joining Babst Calland, Mr. Bengel served for eight years as an Assistant United States Attorney in the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Western District of Pennsylvania. Most recently, he was Chief of the Economic, Cyber, and National Security Crimes Section, where he led investigations and prosecutions involving fraud, public corruption, money laundering, and other complex regulatory offenses.  In that role, he received awards for outstanding performance from his office and from the Law Enforcement Agency Directors of Western Pennsylvania.

“Jeff brings exceptional trial experience, judgment, and insight from years of leading complex federal investigations,” said Donald C. Bluedorn II, Managing Shareholder of Babst Calland. “His background as a federal prosecutor and his deep understanding of enforcement risk significantly strengthen the Firm’s litigation and investigations capabilities and the support we provide to our clients.”

Commenting on his move to the firm, Mr. Bengel said, “I am excited to join Babst Calland and to work alongside a highly skilled team of litigators. The firm’s reputation for handling complex legal and regulatory matters across a wide range of industries makes this an ideal fit for me.”

BlackHawk Data Reimagines Its Managed Services Practice, Putting Every Asset, Alert, Ticket, and Decision in One Place with OneVision

 BlackHawk Data, a woman-owned IT and cybersecurity services provider, announces the transformation of its Managed Services practice: a fully integrated portfolio that assumes end-to-end ownership of an organization's technology stack and surfaces all of it through a single platform BlackHawk Data OneVision. This iteration brings four technology pillars Intelligent Networking, Cybersecurity, Modern Datacenter, and Unified Collaboration together under 24x7x365 US-based NOC, SOC, and end-user support, all delivered through one real-time operational view.

Most providers bolt together point solutions and leave clients managing a maze of disconnected dashboards. At BlackHawk Data, we take a different approach. We integrate the entire stack into OneVision, creating a single source of truth for your IT environment.

Metrics, alerts, tickets, assets, vulnerabilities, compliance checks, and even hardware orders all flow into one centralized platform. No more wondering who to call or where to look. With complete visibility at your fingertips, the answer is already there.

"Our clients don't have a data problem they have a visibility problem. They're paying for a dozen tools and still can't answer one simple question: what is happening across my environment right now? OneVision answers that on a single screen, and our team acts on it before most organizations even know something is wrong." - CTO and Co-Founder Jason Caparoso. Read the entire release.

Paladin Advances U.S. Expansion to Scale Domestic Processing, Critical Materials Recovery

Paladin Envirotech (“Paladin”) today announced a major expansion of its U.S. operations, advancing new investment to scale domestic processing capacity and strengthen critical materials recovery infrastructure. As part of this expansion, Paladin has newly acquired a shredding and mechanical processing facility in Phoenix, Arizona—marking its entry into the Southwest and bringing its total global footprint to nearly 600,000 square feet—and recently opened sites in Columbus, OH; Dallas, TX; and Lacey, WA.

The Phoenix facility adds approximately 93,000 square feet of processing capacity and will serve Arizona, Nevada, Southern California, and New Mexico, anchoring Paladin’s mechanical processing capabilities in the Southwest. Columbus, OH site will add 40,000 sq ft as a core processing center while Dallas, TX and Lacey, WA will add 15,000 sq ft each to Paladin’s footprint, both operating as regional collection hubs, alongside its Laurel, MD site announced in February.

Combined, the site expansion means the company now has national reach to capture, process, and retain high-value materials domestically. This distributed model helps close the gap between asset retirement and recovery—particularly in the fragmented “last mile” of e-waste, where material is still routinely lost to low-value or offshore channels.

This expansion comes as control over critical materials—especially rare earth elements used in defense systems, AI infrastructure, and energy technologies—becomes increasingly tied to economic resilience and national security. At the same time, the U.S. remains heavily dependent on foreign sources for rare earth elements and permanent magnets, while domestic mine development timelines stretch decades. In this context, recovery from existing equipment represents one of the only near-term pathways to access these materials at scale.

“Scaling domestic processing capacity is increasingly recognized as critical to keeping high-value materials within U.S. supply chains,” said Bill Vasquez, COO of Paladin. “Across industry and government, there’s a growing focus on building resilient, onshore infrastructure—and that starts with solving for the last-mile of e-waste, where too much material still leaks out of the system, and supporting domestic hyperscalers in meeting their ESG goals. This expansion is about turning end-of-life equipment into a strategic resource that ensures all materials remain part of the domestic economy.”

Through its REcapture initiative and joint venture partner Critical Minerals Recycling, Inc. (CMR), Paladin is enabling the recovery and advanced recycling of rare earth materials from end-of-life electronics at usable quality, creating a secure and auditable pathway for hyperscalers, manufacturers, and regulated industries. The processes are built on patented technology developed in partnership with the Critical Minerals Institute at the U.S. Department of Energy’s Ames National Laboratory Iowa State University Research Foundation, using an acid-free dissolution method to efficiently extract elements including neodymium, dysprosium, praseodymium, and terbium. Designed to work across multiple feedstocks—from hard drives to industrial scrap—it creates a domestic, low-impact pathway to convert retired assets into usable, traceable critical-material inputs.

“Organizations are increasingly recognizing that their retired assets are not waste—they are a source of strategic materials,” said Luke Wray, Vice President of Critical Materials and Defense at Paladin. “Building the systems to recover that value domestically is critical to reducing exposure to global supply disruptions and strengthening long-term supply security.”

Paladin’s expansion is expected to create new jobs across its U.S. footprint, including approximately 50 roles in Phoenix in the next twelve months, and 30 jobs in Columbus, 25 jobs in Dallas and 10 jobs in Lacey in the next six months, as the company continues building the infrastructure needed to keep critical materials onshore and in circulation.