Leadership
To reach a member of the deciBel Research Leadership Team, visit the contact page.
JEFF GRONBERG, CEO
Jeff Gronberg is the CEO of deciBel Research. Jeff has over 20 years experience in the defense and intelligence industries. Prior to joining deciBel Research, Mr. Gronberg was Vice President, Aerospace Engineering at ASI and Director, Engineering Analysis at Teledyne Brown. He spent the first part of his career in commercial consulting working with a variety of companies such as E*Trade, The North Face, J. Crew, and Federal Express.
As past chair of the Huntsville/Madison County Chamber of Commerce, Mr. Gronberg gained an appreciation of our local and state needs for workforce and economic development. He also serves on the University of Alabama System Board of Trustees, Huntsville Hospital Foundation Board, Huntsville Committee of 100 Board of Directors, and Redstone Regional Alliance. He is past president of the Tennessee Valley Chapter of the National Defense Industrial Association.
Mr. Gronberg is a strong believer in giving back to the community and is active with the ALS Association, Multiple Sclerosis Society, and American Heart Association. He is the former board chair of the Heart of the Valley YMCA. Mr. Gronberg has been recognized with several awards and accolades in his professional life including the 2016 NDIA Kathleen P. Shridhar National Small Business Executive of the Year and the 2015 Huntsville/Madison County Chamber of Commerce Russell G. Brown Executive Leadership Award.
Mr. Gronberg received his Bachelor of Science and additional graduate studies in aerospace engineering from the University of Alabama. He also completed the executive development program at the University of Tennessee.
ERIC COCHRAN, CHIEF OPERATING AND FINANCIAL OFFICER
Eric Cochran is the Chief Operating and Financial Officer for deciBel Research where he is responsible for the management and leadership of the accounting, human resources, information technology, program control, and corporate administration departments. Mr. Cochran has over 20 years of accounting and business operations expertise and has been involved with the company in some capacity since its founding. Prior to joining deciBel Research, Mr. Cochran founded and operated a consulting company where he architected changes in his customer’s business processes and implemented a customized, automated billing and payment solution.
Mr. Cochran holds both a Masters and Bachelors of Business Administration in accounting from Auburn University.
DEBBIE AGARWAL, VICE PRESIDENT OF CONTRACTS
Debbie Agarwal is the Vice President, Contracts for deciBel Research. Mrs. Agarwal has over 25 years of cradle to grave contract management experience. She is currently responsible for all aspects of contract management including contract and subcontract management, purchasing, government property management, pricing, and proposal support.
Prior to joining deciBel Research, Ms. Agarwal held senior contracting positions at other defense contractors. She started her career as a contract specialist at the Marine Corp Systems Command. She is a member of the National Contract Management Association (NCMA) and was awarded NCMA’s 2014 Len Winter Volunteer Award and the 2010 NCMA Officer’s Award.
Mrs. Agarwal holds a Bachelors degree from University of South Alabama and a Masters degree from Troy State University.
JENNY NEILL, SENIOR VICE PRESIDENT AND GENERAL MANAGER FOR HUNTSVILLE OPERATIONS
Jenny Neill currently serves at an executive level within deciBel Research as Senior Vice President and General Manager for Huntsville Operations, where she is responsible for overseeing all programs in Huntsville. Ms. Neill has more than 30 years of experience in technical and management disciplines such as computer application programming, requirements development, interface development, system engineering and design, and program management.
Ms. Neill leads technical teams in the execution of modeling & simulation, test & evaluation, HWIL lab development and software engineering efforts. Ms. Neill is experienced in Agile software development methods including Scrum and Kanban and leads Agile development teams through the complete software engineering lifecycle. Previously, Ms. Neill served as the system engineering lead for the Mission Planning Tool (MPT) and Data Processing System (DPS) used by the intelligence community to achieve tasking and processing objectives for data collection assets. She has also previously served as the technical point of contact for deciBel Research’s suite of simulation tools and libraries, dBTools and dBLibs.
Ms. Neill holds a Bachelor of Science in mathematics from the University of Alabama in Huntsville and a Master of Arts in pure mathematics from the University of Alabama.
ALAN PUTERBAUGH, SENIOR VICE PRESIDENT AND GENERAL MANAGER FOR DAYTON OPERATIONS
Alan Puterbaugh is the deciBel Research Senior Vice President and General Manager for Dayton Operations. Mr. Puterbaugh oversees the design, development, and delivery of enterprise and technology-based offerings in support of defense and national security missions. Prior to joining deciBel Research in 2015, Mr. Puterbaugh worked in a number of senior leadership positions providing research, engineering, strategic planning, and organizational leadership to deliver value-added solutions for Air Force, Army, and Intelligence Community customers.
Mr. Puterbaugh has over 35 years of experience in the DoD market space and holds a Master of Business Administration from Wright State University and a Bachelor of Science in Business Administration from Ohio State University.
JILLIAN WAUGH, VICE PRESIDENT, HUMAN RESOURCES
Jillian Waugh is the Vice President, Human Resources. Ms. Waugh joined the deciBel Research team in 2015 and has over 25 years of experience in the Human Resources field including benefit administration, employment law, regulation and compliance, performance management, training and development, and employee engagement. She is a member of the Society for Human Resource Management (SHRM) and the North Alabama Society for Human Resource Management (NASHRM).
Ms. Waugh holds a Bachelor of Science in Business Management and a Master of Science in Human Resource Management.