Shaunna Balady and Kelly Kunkle Join sbLiftOff as Senior SMEs

Firm Expands M&A Services in IT Services and Software

WASHINGTON, April 15, 2025 /PRNewswire/ -- sbLiftOff, a mergers and acquisitions advisory firm serving government contracting and founder-led businesses, announced the addition of two senior dealmakers known for leading M&A transactions in IT services and software.

"In both the government contracting and commercial segments many IT service and software companies are ready for their next business pivot given the tremendous demand for these type of capabilities – growing either through minority investments or a sale to strategics or private equity," says Sharon Heaton, CEO of sbLiftOff. "sbLiftOff is expanding to meet the future with the stellar deal team of Shaunna Balady and Kelly Kunkle."

Shaunna Balady has provided M&A leadership to global publicly traded and privately owned companies ranging in size from $5 million to over $100 billion in revenue. She has completed over 100 transactions totaling over $20 billion in enterprise value across 5 continents, primarily in the application software, IT services, and automation technology segments for well-known companies like GE, Rockwell Automation, and AVEVA/Schneider Electric. Balady also served as the Chief Operating Officer of a SaaS application software company which delivered systems to federal, state, and local agencies and realized a successful exit in 2023. Her expertise covers SaaS, Data Analytics, AI, Machine Learning and Natural Language Processing.

Kelly Kunkle, a veteran corporate change agent, brings nearly three decades of experience in software and technology, with a track record of success. Mr. Kunkle has served as Vice President of Strategy at AVEVA, and in Senior Director roles in AVEVA's Marketing organization, spearheading post-merger and post-acquisition integrations between major corporate entities. As an entrepreneur, Kunkle founded SuperQ Software Corporation, a Statistical Process Control (SPC) software and consulting company that served industrial automation and healthcare sectors. He had a successful exit seven years after launching the firm.

"sbLiftOff is known for its values based approach to mergers and acquisitions and deep knowledge of government contracting," said Ms. Balady. "Obviously the GovCon world is primed for an active M&A market in software and IT Services post DOGE given the pressure to increase efficiency, reduce costs, and enable fact-based decision making through greater visibility to data."

"I see tremendous value for strategics and private equity looking for quality acquisitions in software and IT services today," said Mr. Kunkle. "sbLiftOff is strategically placed at an important moment when good ideas are being sought not just by the federal government but by savvy commercial players."

sbLiftOff plans to advertise its new suite of software and IT M&A and consulting services broadly.

About sbLiftOff

sbLiftOff is a leading M&A advisory firm devoted to founder-owners in federal government contracting, software, SaaS, and commercial B2B services. A trusted advisor, sbLiftOff has closed transactions in a wide variety of industries, including IT, data analytics, logistics, biotechnology, facilities maintenance, cyber security and human capital solutions. 

Contact:

sbLiftOff Public Relations

April Umminger

[email protected]

703-340-6716

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SOURCE sbLiftOff