WASHINGTON, DC (September 30, 2021) —  GovExec, the leading information services and insights company for government leaders and contractors, today announced the acquisition of Professional Development Academy (PDA), a well-respected professional development and training platform for state, local and federal leaders. The announcement was made today by Tim Hartman, CEO, GovExec. Terms of the transaction are not being disclosed. Peter Goldstone, Chairman of GovExec and Bob Dethlefs Chairman of PDA served as advisors. The deal was completed with financial support from mid-market private equity firm Growth Catalyst Partners (GCP). 

This acquisition continues the company’s series of highly strategic acquisitions announced over the last year that reinforce GovExec’s commitment to actionable intelligence and decision support tools for government leaders and contractors. As a companion offering to Government Marketing University, the training, skills development, and community platform acquired by GovExec in July, PDA will enhance many of the services needed by government leaders seeking career advancement and leadership growth, leveraging its unparalleled instructional design, programming and renowned stable of academics and thought leaders, including General Colin Powell and Dr. Marshall Goldsmith.

GovExec believes in providing public sector leaders with the full suite of tools they need to advance their careers and fulfill their government mission,” said Tim Hartman. “Professional Development Academy’s unmatched knowledge-based platform enables leaders to reach their full potential. By adding PDA to our portfolio, we see incredible growth potential for our professional development offerings. PDA’s deep engagement with its enrollees also gives us additional insights that fuel our rich business intelligence tools, expand the opportunities to provide knowledge-based training to state and local, federal and defense leaders, and build custom content that helps the entire public sector ecosystem level up and operate more efficiently.” 

Founded in 2014 by Bob Dethlefs and Tim Rahschulte, Professional Development Academy fosters collaboration, engagement and mentorship through a dynamic learning management platform that enables frontline and mid-level leaders to improve their own performance and drive higher value for their organizations and agencies. To date, there have been more than 7,000 users of PDA’s digital platform, ranging from local county administrators to Fortune 500 enterprise executives, and PDA has created thousands of hours of proprietary online learning content and hundreds of digital knowledge-based offerings. The innovative learning platform was intentionally designed with the executive in mind. It is practical and actionable, and participants can see their return on investment immediately. Dr. Tim Rahschulte will assume the role of EVP, Professional Development Academy and Bob Dethlefs will remain with the company in a senior advisory capacity. 

When Bob and I started PDA, we wanted to create a dynamic leadership learning platform that would help existing leaders get better and emerging leaders get ready,” said Tim Rahschulte. “With more than 80 percent of the workforce working as mid-level executives and emerging leaders, we see an incredible opportunity to reach an untapped workforce. GovExec is going to accelerate our ability to scale to even greater heights and expand into new public sector markets.” 

GovExec’s investment, marketing prowess and powerful state and local offerings, including The Atlas for Cities and Route Fifty, will bring added exposure and energy around PDA’s professional development offerings across the government community.

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About GovExec

As the market-leading information platform, for over fifty years GovExec has empowered the government ecosystem to engage and support government leaders as they work to achieve their missions across federal, defense, and state and local agencies. All powered by the largest and most sophisticated database in the public sector, GovExec’s platform services are three-fold—data that informs, media that connects, and marketing services that activate. Reaching 3.3 million government influencers each month, GovExec’s brand and platform portfolio includes Government Executive, GovTribe, Market Connections, Nextgov, Public Sector 360, Government Contracting Institute, Government Marketing University, Defense One, Military Periscope, The Atlas for Cities, Route Fifty, City & State New York, City & State Pennsylvania, and a strategic investment in Power Almanac.

About Professional Development Academy

Based in Portland, OR, Professional Development Academy provides market leading leadership development services and technology to leaders of government and corporate entities. PDA enables the exchange of best practices between executives to make existing leaders better and help emerging leaders prepare to address the myriad of challenges facing them today and in the future. Offering curriculums covering several leadership development areas, including High Performance Leadership, Enterprise Cybersecurity, Frontline IT Leadership, and more, the Professional Development Academy serves businesses, government agencies at the federal, state, county, and city levels. Today, more than two-thirds of counties across the U.S. rely on the PDA leadership programs for professional development among their existing and emerging leaders. PDA programs have been described as “Unprecedented,” “Transformational,” and “Must-have” for leaders addressing organizational and government issues today.

Media Contact
Liz Stein
lstein@govexec.com | (240) 461-3053