Cheryl L. Barnett
Chief Executive Officer
Cheryl Barnett is Chief Executive Officer and majority owner of Essix Consulting Group. She retired from the Army National Guard as a Major after twenty years as a commissioned Signal Officer, including service as Brigade Signal Officer for a Sustainment Brigade, the primary staff officer reporting to the commander on communications readiness. Her civilian career spans federal and DoD program and project management, federal contract management, and systems integration, including ERP and AI-enabled solutions. At Essix she owns contracts, compliance, certification, and teaming relationships. Before program management she spent seven years in international education administration at Southern Illinois University, running operations across stakeholders who did not report to her, which turns out to be most of the job.
Shane M. Dixon, PMP
Chief Operating Officer
Shane Dixon runs delivery. He has built two enterprise PMOs from nothing: one inside a consulting firm from its sixth employee through ISO 9001 and CMMI Level 4 to 21 people, and one inside a 14-hospital health system in 26 weeks on a fixed fee, after which he held the interim AVP seat until the client hired its permanent leader. Before that, two decades leading programs to $200M and portfolios to $62M across manufacturing, IT/OT, utilities, healthcare, insurance, and federal environments. PMI Authorized Training Partner instructor. Marine Corps infantry, then seven years as an Army National Guard Signal NCO.
Jacob Neal
Executive Operations Manager
Specializes in executive operating rhythm, aligning stakeholders, tracking priorities, and driving follow-through on key initiatives.
