Services
How we serve our clients.
Strategy and Advisory
For owners and executives seeking a clearer strategy, better use of technology, and a stronger organization.
Software and Applications
For businesses that need secure, reliable software, designed to fit their operations and grow with them.
Defense and Policy Research
For institutions and agencies that need rigorous, independent analysis of defense and foreign policy.
About
Guardian of the island
From the Old Norse hólmr, an islet, and vǫrðr, a guardian.
Holmvard Group is a private advisory firm based in New Jersey. We advise business owners, professional practices, and institutions on strategy, operations, technology, and policy, and we build the software and analytical tools that their decisions require.We take on a limited number of engagements so that each receives our full attention, and we hold every one in confidence. Whatever the question, we bring the same rigor, candor, and discretion to the answer.The name, Holmvard was formed on the pattern of historical Norse names such as Hallvarðr. It reflects how we see our role: to stand watch over the interests entrusted to us. Our motto, Consilio et Fide, means “by counsel and good faith.”
Our method
How an engagement proceeds.
Inquiry. Every engagement opens with a period of inquiry. Before any view is offered, we examine the organization’s structure, people, records, and obligations, and we establish the decision at issue, the constraints upon it, and what stands to be gained or lost.Assessment. We test the question against the full record: governing documents, financial and operational data, the relevant regulatory framework, and, where warranted, quantitative models constructed for the purpose. Where the established instruments are inadequate to the question, we build our own.Counsel. Our conclusions are delivered in writing, together with the reasoning and sources on which they rest. Each finding is designated as documented, contested, or projected, so that the client may weigh it accordingly and decide with a clear view of what is known and what is not.Stewardship. Counsel is measured by its execution. We remain engaged through implementation, whether in policy, in training, or in the systems and software that carry a decision into practice, and we stay available to the client as circumstances evolve.
The founder
Alyssa I. Agard founded Holmvard Group and serves as its principal. She brings to each engagement an uncommon combination: the discipline of a researcher, the judgment of an advisor, and the practical command to build the systems her recommendations require. Clients engage her because she sees a problem whole, in its institutional, financial, regulatory, and technical dimensions, and because she carries the work through to its result.She has advised law offices, small businesses, and private and special education schools in New Jersey. She also founded and leads Agard Research Associates Inc., a nonpartisan public policy research institute, which she built from its inception. She established its governance and operations, and directs its research, fiscal and regulatory analysis, and professional training for employers and schools.She is formally trained and experienced in economic and financial modeling, simulation, quantitative and qualitative analysis, negotiation, and mediation. She works fluently across Microsoft 365 Enterprise, Azure, and Google Workspace, and in the languages and tools of analysis and development, including Python, R, SQL, C++, JavaScript, TypeScript, Power BI, Tableau, and GIS software.She designs and builds software now in production use by organizations. Her research on defense and foreign policy has been published and recognized by leading defense institutions, including Marine Corps University Press and the U.S. Naval Institute.
Contact
New inquiries
We welcome inquiries by email or through the form below, and we respond to each one personally and in confidence.
