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Brent Lillard (GovSmart, Inc.)

Executive

PPP · Other programs
Type
Person
Role
Executive
Programs
PPP, Other programs
Updated

The profile

Co-founder and CEO of GovSmart, a Charlottesville IT reseller that SBA paid $1.1 million to keep the Shuttered Venue Operators Grant system running and $17.8 million for Salesforce support on its Community Navigator pilot. GovSmart also took a $580,300 PPP loan of its own.

Identity and role

Brent Lillard is the co-founder and chief executive of GovSmart, Inc., a Charlottesville, Virginia firm that resells and integrates IT, tactical and advanced-technology products for government agencies and prime contractors. He co-founded it in 2009 with Hamza Durrani, whom GovSmart lists as co-founder and CGO. GovSmart is a HUBZone-certified small business.

Career

GovSmart's own pages say he grew the company from two employees to $388 million in sales in 2023, and list a George Mason University degree and an AFCEA 40 Under 40 listing. In a 2021 House Small Business Committee hearing on the HUBZone program, Lillard testified as GovSmart's CEO and recommended giving HUBZone firms more parity with other small-business programs, including a higher contracting goal.

Pandemic-relief role

GovSmart was paid to operate relief systems, not to decide who got relief. Both of its SBA awards were task orders under NNG15SD11B, a NASA governmentwide contract for IT products and services, which let SBA buy without a new competition.

The first came in the Community Navigator Pilot Program, which the American Rescue Plan Act created to connect small businesses with relief. SBA signed task order 73351021F0220, "Community Navigators Pilot - Salesforce Support Services," on September 28, 2021. USAspending.gov records $17,983,625.23 obligated and $17,847,472.64 paid, for work running to September 28, 2025.

The second supported the Shuttered Venue Operators Grant program. SBA's SVOG application portal ran on Salesforce and failed on its April 8, 2021 launch day; SBA blamed technical issues at the vendor. Navancio LLC built the grant system and Centuria Corporation, run by Kevin Burke, ran it. GovSmart's task order 73351022F0022, signed February 7, 2022, was the "follow-on for the Shuttered Venue Operators Grant (SVOG) solution operation & maintenance services," from February 10 to July 9, 2022. USAspending.gov records $1,102,036.12 obligated and the same amount paid.

Their own relief

The public SBA PPP dataset lists GOVSMART, INC., Charlottesville, with a $580,300 PPP loan approved April 14, 2020 and paid in full on May 21, 2021. The originating lender was Customers Bank. GovSmart is one of six contractors on SBA relief systems that took PPP loans of their own; the others include Central Research, Centuria and Goldschmitt & Associates.

Brent Lillard has not been charged with a crime, and we found no enforcement action against GovSmart over SVOG, the Community Navigator pilot or its PPP loan.

Since 2025

Lillard remains co-founder and CEO of GovSmart in Charlottesville. The Community Navigator task order's period of performance ended September 28, 2025.

Documents on this site

Original source documents and archived copies

Sources

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