FORUM Names Bixal CEO Carla Briceno to the 2026 IMPACT 150 Women in Leadership

FORUM has named Carla Briceno, cofounder and CEO of Bixal, to the 2026 IMPACT 150, a peer-selected recognition of the 150 most impactful women in the GovCon industry. Honorees were recognized on October 8, 2026, at the 9th annual IMPACT 150 Women in Leadership Gala at MGM National Harbor in Oxon Hill, Maryland.

How are IMPACT 150 honorees chosen?

Honorees are nominated and selected by their peers for the leadership, innovation, and impact they bring to federal contracting. The 2026 class includes leaders from across government, industry, and small business, celebrated under this year’s theme, “Unstoppable: Women Redefining GovCon.”

This is Carla’s second FORUM honor in three years. In 2024, FORUM named her one of two Industry Lifetime Achievement Award winners. She was also named a 2026 Engage Federal Citizen Services 150 honoree alongside other leaders advancing federal service delivery.

What does the recognition mean for Bixal’s team?

For Carla, the recognition reflects the work of the whole Bixal team.

“When we started Bixal, we set out to work with organizations solving problems that matter in people's lives, and that hasn't changed, even as the federal market has,” Carla says. “This recognition belongs to the Bixalers who show up every day for the agencies we support and the people they serve.”

From the start, Carla has made sure Bixal is a “People First — Always” company. That standard guides Bixal’s culture, its work with government agencies, and the services it helps them deliver. The Bixalers who live that standard share in this recognition.

“Technology only gets you so far. You have to keep the people it’s meant to serve at the center.”

— Carla Briceno, cofounder and CEO of Bixal

Who is Carla Briceno?

Carla Briceno is the cofounder and CEO of Bixal, a woman-owned digital services company based in Fairfax, Virginia. She and her husband, Jose Briceno, incorporated Bixal in 2001 and began building it into the company it is today in 2008, focused on helping federal agencies achieve lasting outcomes for the people they serve. She became CEO in 2019. Today, Bixal designs government services around the people who use them and builds systems that agencies can own and improve long after launch.

Her commitment to public service began as a Peace Corps volunteer in rural Guatemala. She went on to direct a nonprofit program serving immigrant communities, support international development across Latin America, and work hands-on in technology as a developer and digital project manager.

“I’ve always wanted my work to make a real difference in people’s lives, which is what pulled me into public service right from the start,” Carla says. “When I saw how technology could make government work better for the public, I wanted to put it to use. But technology only gets you so far. You have to keep the people it's meant to serve at the center, and that’s how we work at Bixal.”

Carla holds a BA in political science from California State University, Long Beach, an MA in international policy studies from the Middlebury Institute of International Studies, and a certificate in business programming from the Chubb Institute.

Congratulations to Carla and to all of this year’s IMPACT 150 honorees. Carla was recognized at the gala on October 8, and on October 16 she joins OrangeSlices’ CEO Perspectives panel to discuss leading a woman-owned business through a changing federal market.

The IMPACT 150 Women in Leadership Gala is presented by FORUM, a platform for events, advisory services, and media serving the government contracting community across federal health, federal civilian, and defense sectors.