Rich Kretzschmar
How long have you and your family been in Huntsville?
I moved to Huntsville in 1990, as a newly minted Aerospace Engineer, having accepted a position with Dynetics, Inc. I didn’t know much about Huntsville at that time, only that the people and companies here had played a major role in the early space programs. Dynetics was an excellent company with exciting opportunities and Huntsville was within driving distance to Auburn University, where my girlfriend (soon to be wife) Vicki was finishing her degree. Vicki joined me in 1993, and Huntsville has been our home ever since. Huntsville has provided all we could have hoped to raise a family: quality of life, career opportunities, and deep friendships. It has been fascinating to witness, and to actively participate, in Huntsville’s growth over the past 35 years. The community has built on its well-earned technological foundation and grown into a true seat of innovation across multiple industry segments, all while becoming one of the most desirable cities in which to live, not only nationally, but globally. Vicki and I have travelled to many cities and towns across our country and around the world and have discovered the attributes we Huntsvillians take for granted: the beauty of our surroundings; the cleanliness and order of our city; the entrepreneurial spirit and friendliness of our citizens; and the pride for and love of our community, are just not present in other locales to the standard we enjoy. Huntsville is truly unique, and we are proud to call it home.
Tell us about your team at i3 and the work you do.
I am fortunate to work with the brightest and most dedicated men and women in the defense and aerospace industry and am honored to be part of this dynamic group. I am proud of the breadth of offerings we have created at i3 and the “Excellence Wins” approach we employ in providing solutions to the complex challenges of our broad customer base. The innovation, creativity and passion with which this team delivers solutions for our customers is always inspirational and a true source of pride. Loosely binned, our focus areas include engineering and technical services; rapid prototyping and integration of weapon system hardware; autonomy and autonomous systems development; virtual training solutions; software product engineering; tactical architectures and networks; and IT/Cyber solutions. We are fortunate to work for dedicated customers that span all DoW services, the Missile Defense Agency, the Department of Homeland Security, the intelligence community, and NASA.
Your company is very active in our Best Places to Work® Awards, and you’ve won several times. What have you learned from this process?
Of the many wonderful services the Chamber provides to the community and its member businesses, the Best Places to Work® Awards is one of the most valuable. I love the spirit of the BPTW Award. It is remarkably competitive but in a healthy and good-natured way. The Proverb “iron sharpens iron” comes to mind in this context; competing with the other companies in Huntsville simply makes i3 better. Being recognized as one of the Best Places to Work® in Huntsville is always an honor both because there are so many worthy companies and because it validates the attention and dedication our team members put toward cultivating the culture at i3. While the recognition is an honor, the true value is in the feedback we receive from the surveyed team members. This “scorecard” provides invaluable insight into what are we doing well and need to keep doing, and where we must adjust fire to further improve the team member experience at i3.
Tell us a fun fact about yourself, Rich – something others might not know!
I am an apiarist. I originally explored the hobby nearly 20 years ago at the request of my son Will. Bee keeping has deep roots in my wife’s family, so I suspect he became intrigued through those ties. What started as an indulgence to a curious 7-year old, quickly turned into a fun family activity and now a lifelong curiosity. Bees are truly fascinating creatures and caring for them is always intellectually stimulating and cathartic. There is always a new technique or method to explore, or a new fact to learn about these amazing creatures.
What does i3 gain from its involvement in the Huntsville Regional Economic Growth Initiative (HREGI)? What would you say to other companies considering joining?
It is a reality that economic growth in our community is good for everyone, individual citizens, families and businesses. It is the mechanism that provides both the impetus behind and resources to enable all the magical activities that make Huntsville a thriving community. Like other stakeholders, i3 benefits from the expansion and diversification of our local talent pool, from the associated workforce development activities, and from the quality of life initiatives all enabled by economic growth. As a dedicated corporate citizen, it is our obligation to contribute to the activities that enable this economic growth. Involvement in HREGI makes this contribution simple and seamless. The initiative galvanizes all stakeholders, aligns and focuses activities to the highest priority opportunities and leverages the individual investments so the resultant impacts are multiplied manyfold.
This article appears in the January 2026 issue of Initiatives magazine, a publication of the Huntsville/Madison County Chamber.
