The Young Professionals branch of the Cobb Chamber held their August Marquee Monday event this week and named this year’s Next Generation Award Winners, Allison Giddens of Win-Tech Inc., and Andrew Dill from Lockheed Martin.
The Cobb Young Professionals (CYP) selected the winners from a group of nominees, all in the CYP age bracket, active within the community and known for leadership ability. Sponsored by the Credit Union of Georgia, it is CYP’s main honor.
Perhaps not so surprising from Cobb County, both honorees come from the aerospace industry. Giddens worked at Win-Tech for 14 years before buying the company in 2020. Win-Tech is a customer precision machine shop in the aerospace field, making parts per customer specification. Besides Win-Tech, Giddens also runs the Dave Krache Foundation, a non-profit that pays sports fees for local children in need – almost 1,000 children have been able to play sports with help from the foundation. She works with the Chattahoochee Technical College Foundation Board, Georgia Department of Education’s CTAE Advisory Board, the Cobb Chamber of Commerce, and LiveSAFE Resources on workforce development and industry programs.
Giddens has also continued the history of community work from Win-Tech the company which has long been supportive of education and other community-building programs. In the summer of last year, they introduced an Advanced Manufacturing Virtual Internship, working with 12 local high school students from the community to help teach them about manufacturing and introduce them to experts in the field. For her efforts in the program, Giddens received Marietta High School’s “Another Level Blue Devil” recognition in August of last year.
Dill may be familiar to InsiderAdvantage readers for his work in Senator Johnny Isakson’s office before moving into the government relations field. Now with Lockheed Martin for several years, he is the director of government relations there, representing the aerospace giant to federal, state and local officials across the Southeast. The company is among the largest in the state and one of the most critical government contractors for the military of the United States. With net revenue last year of more than $60 billion, the company is quite an anchor for Cobb County and continues to attract engineers from around the world. Its impact is almost incalculable to the local economy, with the number of direct or indirect jobs and numerous other partnerships, including recent work with Georgia Tech and its expanding aerospace engineering program. Dill is also the lead for legislative and economic development efforts for Lockheed Martin’s Air Mobility and Maritime Missions (AMMM) and the Integrated Fighter Group, serving as the external affairs lead for production facilities in five states.
Before moving to Lockheed, Dill was the director of federal relations for the University of Georgia, based out of Washington D.C. He was the university’s liaison to Congress, federal departments and agencies, in addition to numerous other groups based out of the nation’s capital.
