Burton White

Co-Founder and Chief Executive Officer Excella

Last Reviewed: September 28, 2026

Executive Summary

Burton White co-founded Excella, an Arlington, Virginia technology firm, in 2002 and has been its Chief Executive Officer since November 2019. Excella builds and modernises software and data systems, mainly for federal agencies. Before becoming CEO he was a co-founder and Managing Partner. He took over as chief executive during a restructuring in which Excella spun off its training and internship business as a separate company, NextUp Solutions, led by the previous CEO and fellow co-founder Steve Cooper. Since then the firm has kept winning federal work and workplace awards, and White was named an EY Entrepreneur Of The Year Mid-Atlantic finalist in 2024.

Career Highlights

• Co-founded Excella in 2002 with Jeff Gallimore and Steve Cooper, among others.
• Became Chief Executive Officer in November 2019 when Excella spun off its training and internship division as NextUp Solutions; previously a co-founder and Managing Partner.
• Named an EY Entrepreneur Of The Year 2024 Mid-Atlantic Award finalist, one of 30 regional finalists.
• Named a Northern Virginia Technology Council Tech100 honoree in 2023, in the same year Excella was selected for the council’s Cyber50.
• Led Excella to the Arlington Chamber of Commerce’s 2025 Technology Business of the Year award, alongside Washington Post Top Workplaces 2025 and several Energage workplace awards.

Professional Journey

White co-founded Excella in 2002. It grew into an Arlington, Virginia technology firm that works mainly for federal agencies and non-profits in the Washington area. The company describes its work as Agile transformation, modernising legacy IT systems, and data and artificial intelligence solutions. Its contracts listed on its site include work for U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services, the Department of Homeland Security, the Department of Health and Human Services’ Office of Inspector General, the Office of Personnel Management and the Defense Department’s Joint Artificial Intelligence Center.

Until late 2019 White was a co-founder and Managing Partner, and fellow co-founder Steve Cooper was chief executive. That changed in November 2019. Excella moved its training and internship division, including a mentor-based internship programme run at Virginia Tech, into a new company, NextUp Solutions. Cooper became NextUp’s CEO and White became Excella’s CEO, while co-founder Jeff Gallimore stayed on as chief technology and innovation officer. White said the spin-off was “exactly the kind of success Excella was founded to create” and would let the consulting business “sharpen its focus” on clients using technology to transform their work.

In August 2020, his first year as CEO, Excella promoted five leaders into senior roles. White said at the time that “hiring and retaining exceptional Excellians, while creating meaningful solutions, is critical to our purpose and what we built Excella to do.”

He has been recognised outside the company. The Northern Virginia Technology Council named him a Tech100 honoree in 2023, and its announcement credited Excella with record growth under his leadership. In May 2024 EY named him one of 30 finalists for its Entrepreneur Of The Year Mid-Atlantic award, which covers Maryland, Virginia and Washington, D.C. In 2025 Excella was named the Arlington Chamber of Commerce’s Technology Business of the Year and won a Washington Post Top Workplaces award. White described the awards as showing that “our people and our culture fuel innovation.”

Education

No education record was found in a first-party or press source. See the verification notes for an unconfirmed claim that was not recorded.