Jim Bailey

President and CEO

Jim Bailey joined the Willdan Homeland Solutions team in January 2008. He is a retired U.S. Marine Corps intelligence officer with 20 years of military experience. While in the Marines, Mr. Bailey served in positions at both the tactical and the strategic levels, combating terrorism and international crime. Early in his tactical intelligence career, he was detailed to a regional special operations counterterrorism unit, Joint Task Force-129 (JTF-129). While serving with JTF-129, Mr. Bailey led teams deployed to the Caribbean to provide tactical intelligence support to real-world counterintelligence/counterterrorism operations. In 1994, Mr. Bailey was the sole Marine officer selected to participate in a three-year signals intelligence (SIGINT) apprenticeship at the National Security Agency (NSA). During his tour at NSA, Mr. Bailey provided SIGINT support to the Central Intelligence Agency’s Crime and Narcotics and Counterterrorism centers. Follow-on NSA assignments tasked Mr. Bailey to coordinate and lead three multi-service teams into Bosnia and Herzegovina (B-H) in support of Task Force Eagle force protection/counterintelligence operations.

Mr. Bailey also has an extensive background designing, developing, conducting, evaluating, and managing emergency preparedness exercises at the federal, state, and local levels. He is thoroughly familiar with all facets of exercise design, and has provided exercise support to over 120 exercises conducted in California, Arizona, Nevada, Alaska, and New Mexico. Mr. Bailey is a certified HSEEP trainer, with experience at the local and state levels. His work in San Diego County resulted in selection of the county’s exercise program as “2005 Best In Category” by the National Association of Counties.

He also has extensive project/program management experience; before joining Willdan, Mr. Bailey managed three offices that oversaw five programs totaling over $3 million.

Marc Tipermas

Director of National Programs

Marc Tipermas was appointed president of Willdan’s National Programs practice in May 2007. Dr. Tipermas has spent most of his 35-year career in the professional services industry, holding a variety of executive-level business development and operations positions. From 1981 to 1998 Mr. Tipermas worked at ICF Kaiser International, a global consulting, engineering, and program management firm with over 6,000 employees; he was named president and chief operating officer in 1997. He subsequently served as senior vice president for business development of Dynamac Corporation, an environmental consulting firm. He has also worked as an independent business development consultant to several nationwide engineering and consulting firms. Previously Dr. Tipermas worked at the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), serving as the first director of EPA's Superfund Policy and Program Management Office. From 1975 to 1977 he was an assistant professor of political science at SUNY/Buffalo.

John F. Walker
Vice President of Communications and Technology Solutions

John F. Walker supports the delivery of communication and technology solutions to Willdan’s corporate and public safety clients in the local, state, and federal markets.  With over 35 years of experience in the public safety community, Mr. Walker is an expert in communication interoperability, governance, and operations processes; implementation of local and regional communication systems; and compliance with the associated National Incident Management System/Incident Command System (NIMS/ICS) requirements. An experienced incident commander, SWAT commander, and manager of a large metropolitan public safety answering point, he was also a site manager for the Justice Department’s Office for Domestic Preparedness. In that role, he developed tactical interoperability cvommunication plans for urban metropolitan areas, including five Urban Areas Security Initiative (UASI) regions. Mr. Walker has written several articles for professional publications. He is a member of the International Association of Public-Safety Communications Officials International (APCO), and a life member of the International Association of Chiefs of Police (IACP).

Cary Ellis
Senior Vice President

Before joining Willdan Homeland Solutions, Cary Ellis served as senior vice president for Applied Marine Technology Inc (AMTI). After Science Applications International Corporation  acquired AMTI, Mr. Ellis became operations manager for the newly formed entity, overseeing approximately 750 staff and $250 million in annual revenue. While integrating this group into the new organization, Mr. Ellis spearheaded the development and implementation of effective growth strategies, and brought the operation into compliance with corporate and federal financial, security, and business policies.

In the course of his varied career, Mr. Ellis has started and operated several successful businesses. He has worked in numerous managerial and operational positions across a broad array of disciplines, including homeland security, emergency management, urban search and rescue, bioterror response, hazardous materials response, training, and exercises. Mr. Ellis is a veteran of the United States Army (Infantry).