Dr. Anne Marie SuPrise, Director of the Navy's Best Manufacturing Practices (BMP) Program and Center of Excellence (COE), has retired after 32 years with the federal government. Her long and distinguished career includes increasing levels of responsibility with FEMA and other Department of Defense (DoD) agencies, culminating in her position with the Office of Naval Research's (ONR's) BMP Program where she served as the Program's deputy director from 1995 to 2000 and the Center's director from 2000 to 2007.

Dr. SuPrise leaves a rich legacy of distinguished accomplishments during her tenure with the BMP Program, most notably directing the BMP Center effort toward winning the prestigious John F. Kennedy School of Government's Innovations in American Government Award in 1998 honoring programs and policies that represent original and effective government initiatives at the federal, state, and local levels. In 2000, BMP Program won the Hammer Award presented by the Vice President's National Partnership for Reinventing Government to federal employees and their partners who have contributed to making the government work better for less by collaborating and sharing resources, technology, and information to eliminate costly duplicative efforts. The BMP Program is the only Navy program to have won the Innovations in American Government Award, a distinction it holds to date and an honor that can be attributed to the tireless efforts of Dr. SuPrise and her staunch advocacy of BMP's mission to empower the U.S. industrial base through its unique Survey Process, the heart of the BMP Program and the only service of its kind to promote the sharing of government and industry best practices.

Dr. SuPrise also directed the BMPCOE response for more than 12 Marine Corps programs in determining acquisition and manufacturing risks, providing unparalleled assistance in reducing program cost assessments of both prime and subcontractor manufacturing capabilities through technology readiness assessments, program schedule reductions, and assessments of both prime and subcontractor manufacturing capabilities. She directed the development of both the Science and Technology- (S&T)-to-Production Risk Assessment Tool (SPRAT), an automated tool to assist top-level decision makers in evaluating the risk associated with rapidly transitioning S&T projects directly into production, and SpecRite, an automated tool to assist government mangers in the preparation of contract specifications.

During her 12-year tenure with the BMP Program, Dr. SuPrise adhered to the standards of excellence that promoted the success of the BMP Program. The BMPCOE and its regional Satellite Centers will remain committed to fostering a cooperative effort to strengthen the U.S. industrial base among a wide range of customers that extends beyond the Navy acquisition community. To this end, BMP will maintain its standards of excellence to serve as both an “honest broker” for technology transfer and as a national forum that helps organizations identify risks, solve problems, and avoid duplication of efforts.