An Army veteran who rose to the rank of staff sergeant, Jennifer Rios translated her military experience into a technology and consulting enterprise serving federal, state and local government clients. As CEO of PSCI-LIA, formed through the April 2025 acquisition of Linkitall LLC by Pinnacle Software Consulting, she leads a 25-person firm delivering solutions to government agencies.
Rios holds a Doctor of Business Administration from Capella University and is a certified Project Management Professional. She chairs the Hispanic Chamber of Commerce of Prince George’s County and serves on Maryland Gov. Wes Moore’s Commission on Hispanic Affairs.
What is the biggest challenge facing your industry today?
Across information technology and management consulting, construction and facilities, healthcare support, and small business ownership, the most pressing challenge today is the same at its core: Doing more with less amid unprecedented uncertainty. Federal budget instability, DOGE-driven workforce reductions and shifting government contract priorities have created a climate where small businesses like ours must fight harder than ever to maintain the contracts we have already won.
At the same time, the cost of doing business continues to rise, insurance, labor, compliance and operational overhead are climbing, while margins stay thin and payment timelines stretch. For minority-, veteran-, and women-owned businesses, these pressures are compounded by a system that was not always designed with us in mind, from Small Business Administration regulatory processes that can take a year or more, to prime contractors who undervalue our contributions, to a persistent lack of access to the capital needed to scale. What keeps me focused is the knowledge that every obstacle we overcome as small business owners builds the case that we belong at the table and that the next generation of entrepreneurs watching us is counting on us to hold the door open.
What is the best advice you’ve ever received?
The best advice I have ever received is simple, but it has shaped every decision I have made as a leader: “Be the example, not the exception.”
Early in my military career, a senior, noncommissioned officer told me that the most powerful thing a leader can do is not talk about what is possible; it is to show it. As a Latina, a veteran and a woman building businesses in spaces that were not designed for people who look like me, that advice became my foundation. It pushed me to earn my doctorate, to pursue certifications, to build companies from the ground up and to hold seats at tables where our community was not yet represented, not to prove a point but to make a path.
Leadership is not about waiting for permission or ideal conditions. It is about showing up fully, doing the work with integrity and leaving every room, every contract and every community better than you found it. That is the standard I hold myself to every single day, and it is the standard I hope to model for every young woman, every veteran and every minority entrepreneur who is watching and deciding whether their dream is worth pursuing.
How do you define success?
Success, to me, is not measured by titles, revenue or recognition, though I am deeply grateful for all three. Success is measured by impact. It is the young Latina who sees my name on an award and decides that her dream is not too big. It is the veteran-owned small business that secured its first federal contract because I helped open a door. It is the employee who grows professionally under my leadership and goes on to lead their own team. It is the community that is stronger, more represented and better resourced because of the work Pinnacle, HCCPG, VARIDD, and Linkitall do every single day.
I spent 13 years in the United States Army learning that true mission success is never about one person; it is about the collective outcome, the team you build and the people you bring with you. I carry that lesson into everything I do as a CEO, a board member, a chamber president and a candidate for public office. When I look back on my career, I will not measure it by what I accumulated. I will measure it by what I built, who I lifted and whether the next generation of leaders, especially those who have been told the odds are against them, had a clearer, wider path because I walked mine without apology.
