Mitch Prust, a Senior Advisor with FOCUS Investment Banking, brings more than 30 years of experience advising and operating technology-enabled businesses serving the U.S. government and defense markets. His career spans sell-side and buy-side M&A, capital raises, and strategic advisory assignments, with deep domain expertise across the Department of Defense, intelligence community, homeland security, civilian agencies, and state and local government.

Prust has held senior executive and advisory roles including Chief Operating Officer, Chief Information Officer, Vice President, Managing Director, Technology Strategist, and M&A Executive. He has led and supported numerous acquisitions and integrations of defense-focused and government technology services companies (eg; WAM!NET/Netco Government Services, Near Space Systems, Multimax, L3Harris) across areas such as mission systems, cloud and infrastructure, cybersecurity, data analytics, AI, and managed and professional services. His experience includes operating within complex GovTech environments involving contracts, task-order driven revenue, small-business and 8(a) considerations, and performance-based contracting structures.

A technologist, Prust has played key roles in the capture and execution of large-scale, fixed-price and outcome-based federal contracts, including participation in a $10.5 billion managed services program supporting the U.S. Navy and Marine Corps. He also holds an extensive portfolio of technology patents related to secure data access and distributed systems, many of which have been licensed or adopted by leading technology providers.

At FOCUS, Prust works closely with founders, boards, and investors to position his clients for successful transactions, helping articulate differentiated mission value, navigate diligence complexity, and align with strategic and private equity buyers active in the commercial and govtech market.

Prust holds a Bachelor of Arts in Information Technology Management from Concordia University and a Master of Engineering in Electrical and Computer Engineering with a focus on Information Assurance from Iowa State University. His graduate studies included cybersecurity, information warfare, cryptology, and computer and network forensics.