Executive spotlights are in-depth Q&A’s which ExecutiveBiz conducts with numerous chief and top-level executives in GovCon.
The intimate access afforded by these interviews provides insight as to how companies are acquiring new business, what the future holds and the personal side of corporate leaders.
This past week, ExecutiveBiz published a spotlight with John Thomas, chief strategic officer at Reston, Va.- based Leidos.
Thomas is a 33-year U.S. Army veteran who rose to the rank of major general and most recently served as acting president of SAIC’s National Security Sector.
Thomas held numerous roles in the federal government prior to his private sector career including commanding general of the U.S. Army Intelligence Center, chief of the Military Intelligence Corps, command general of the U.S. Army Intelligence and Security Command, associate deputy director of operations for the National Security Agency and deputy chief of the Central Security Service.
He spoke with ExecutiveBiz this week about his role at Leidos, veterans transitioning to the private sector and industry/government collaboration.
In regards to coming to SAIC from his Army role, Thomas said the company was active in areas of the government he had familiarity with already.
“During my transition, I talked with several companies and ended up talking to SAIC. There were a number of people here that I had known, that I had worked with before, and that I had high regard for. That was probably the thing that encouraged me most to come to the company,” he said.
Thomas also said Leidos is not just a business focused on government contracts.
“We’re still very heavily government, but we have a good commercial business, and it’s a business we’ve been in for a long time. We’ve been with it for 20‑plus years in both the health and engineering spaces,” he said.
For more executive spotlights, go to http://blog.executivebiz.com/category/executive-spotlight/.
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ExecutiveBiz is one of EM’s premiere websites and focuses on the news that executives need to know, including alerts on new contracts and industry reports, to conduct and acquire new business.