Lauren McCollum

Business Development and Legislative Affairs

Lauren McCollum is a government affairs professional with over twenty-five years of experience in legislative affairs, communications and advocacy for the defense industry. She is an Executive Vice President for Emerald Collaborative Partners (ECP), LLC which provides management, strategy, communications and new business consulting services.

Prior to joining ECP, Lauren served as Director, Legislative Affairs for Lockheed Martin’s Intelligence, Joint and Science and Technology Programs, where she represented the company’s intelligence, unmanned systems, cybersecurity and Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) programs before Members of Congress, Congressional staff and political organizations.

Lauren is currently a Member of the Board of Directors for the Association of Unmanned Aerial Vehicle Systems International (AUVSI).  She chaired AUVSI’s Advocacy Committee, which is responsible for developing industry-wide consensus on key legislative and regulatory issues affecting the unmanned systems industry.  Lauren was voted AUVSI’s 2016 “Member of the Year” in May of 2016.

Prior to Lockheed Martin, Lauren was Senior Manager of Government Relations for Raytheon Company, where she was the primary point of contact for Raytheon’s Space and Airborne Systems (SAS) business.  In this role, Lauren was responsible for developing and implementing key legislative priorities and providing analysis and insight on federal legislation related to airborne radar, air-to-air-missiles, electronic warfare, intelligence and Special Operations Forces (SOF) programs.

Lauren joined Raytheon from TRW Inc., where she represented TRW on key homeland security and emergency responder technologies and pursuits before state and local officials and political organizations.  She managed TRW’s political action committee and rebuilt the company’s grassroots mobilization program for employees and retirees.  Prior to that, Lauren was a Research Analyst at Northrop Grumman Corporation, supporting the Legislative Affairs team in research and communications efforts.

Lauren received a Bachelors degree in Government and Politics, and a Masters Degree in Public Administration (Public Policy Studies), both from George Mason University in Fairfax, Virginia.  She resides in Annandale, Virginia with her husband, Patrick, and her ten-year-old son, Ryan.