Mehul Sanghani

Mehul Sanghani is the Chief Executive Officer and Founder of Octo. Since launching the firm alone at age 30, he has grown Octo around the foundational belief that advancing customer missions matters most. Leading IT strategy and business transformation initiatives for corporations and Federal Government agencies, Mehul has guided Octo through tremendous growth, all while expanding capabilities and solutions that enable customers to solve complex problems and meet critical missions that impact the nation and the world.

Under his leadership, Octo has won several awards for innovation and has regularly been named a top workplace. Octo was recognized as the #23 fastest growing private business in the country by Inc. Magazine, received an Inc. Hire Power Award for job growth and creation, won a Vanguard Award from the Virginia Chamber of Commerce as the #1 fastest growing business in the Commonwealth of Virginia, was ranked the #2 business on a Washington Technology Magazine Fast 50 list of fastest growing Federal Contractors, won a Fairfax Chamber of Commerce award for GovCon Contractor of the Year, and has taken home dozens of other prestigious industry awards. Mehul, who has received his own share of awards personally, has worked hard to cultivate a unique corporate culture that has achieved widespread recognition. Octo was featured in Washingtonian Magazine’s “50 Best Workplaces” and was ranked the #11 best workplace in the Commonwealth by Virginia Business Magazine. The firm has been recognized by the Washington Post and Washington Business Journal’s as a top workplace six times combined.

Because Mehul believes in the power of supporting community and growing professionals capable of serving the Federal Government and the public, Mehul and Octo have been recognized for philanthropic efforts. In April 2020, Mehul and his wife Hema made an historic $10 million gift to their alma mater Virginia Tech; $1.5M of the gift was allocated to establish The Market at Virginia Tech, a first of its kind food pantry to combat student food insecurity. The gift also endows the groundbreaking Sanghani Center for Artificial Intelligence & Data Analytics at Virginia Tech’s Northern Virginia Innovation Campus. The center focuses on next-generation research, policy, and technology and received national recognition, as well as funding from DARPA and IARPA. The Sanghani family’s contribution also supplies scholarships for “Sanghani Scholars,” minorities and other underrepresented students in need who are pursuing graduate education in the field of Artificial Intelligence. With direction from Mehul, Octo itself maintains a thriving Corporate Social Responsibility Committee. The company has been a four-time finalist for the Fairfax Chamber of Commerce Corporate Citizenship Awards for philanthropy and was recognized by the Washington Business Journal as a Corporate Philanthropist of the Year for metro D.C.

Mehul earned three bachelor’s degrees from his alma mater: Industrial Systems Engineering, Finance, and Psychology. Appointed by former Virginia Governor Terry McAuliffe, he serves on Virginia Tech’s Board of Trustees/Visitors. Mehul also serves on the board for the Pamplin School of Business at Virginia Tech and is a Board Member of the Northern Virginia Technology Council.