Richard & Teresa Helms
Backstraight Farms
Richard Helms is the founder and Chief Executive of Ntrepid Corporation. After a nearly 30-year career in the Central Intelligence Agency, he founded Abraxas Corporation. It was sold 10 years later but retained 145 engineers and product development lines going back years. Ntrepid Corporation was then formed to solve extremely difficult product challenges. Those product lines are now known as Ion, Passages, Nfusion, and Timestream.
In Nov. 2006, Richard won Ernst & Young’s National Entrepreneur of the Year award in Emerging Technology. A graduate of American University in Washington, D.C., he holds a master’s degree in national security policy and a bachelor’s degree in international relations and economic development policy. He serves on the Advisory Board of the Dean of the School of International Service. An avid aviator, Richard has built two experimental aircraft, owns a jet and a helicopter.
Richard and his wife Teresa moved to Ocala in 2010 and own Backstraight Farm where they raise horses, cows and donkeys.