Dale Turner was appointed as the VP, SMIC Network in April 2020 and was hired as Director, Western SMIC in April 2018. He manages the overall strategy, growth and operation of CESMII’s national network of Smart Manufacturing Innovation Centers (SMICs), which creates highly visible, credible, high-value ‘lighthouse extensions’ of CESMII. The SMIC network allows CESMII to have a national reach while maintaining regional attention to membership growth, satisfaction and retention.

Dale has over 31 years of experience in Department of Defense government operations and services. 18 years of experience at the senior executive level, with demonstrated revenue growth through the entire business development/sales lifecycle having a 83% win rate on capture efforts and an outstanding industry record for successfully winning and operating large-sale, high profile US Government contracts and programs across numerous DoD agencies totally a value over 12.9B for those wins and over 14 years’ experience as a highly successful entrepreneur in the private business sector.

Prior to CESMII, Dale was the Vice President and founder of the Camden Defense Business Initiative and Industry Consortium. A newly formed company located in Camden, AR, the defense contractor capital of the south-central U.S., the CDIC advises and partners many top U.S. Defense manufacturers with local and regional business owners. Mr. Turner’s vast experience and strong reputation within the defense industry has led to the creation of many rewarding alliances within the CDIC, sparking new economic growth and superior productivity within those regions. Having raised and saved millions of dollars for consortium partners with his own Win-Win strategy, Mr. Turner to expand this business model into other regions across Arkansas.

Mr. Turner also held the position of Sr. Vice President for Kratos Defense & Security Solutions leading up Business Development activities. Kratos Defense & Security Solutions is a leading provider of warfighter solutions in advanced engineering and information technology (IT) services, security and surveillance systems, (C4ISR), critical infrastructure design and integration services, military range operation, technical services, and weapons systems lifecycle support. Mr. Turner was responsible for Develop, integrate and manage corporate business development processes and procedures ensuring Kratos business units meet and exceed BD CMMI level 4 standards to ensure increase of revenue growth on win rates.