L-3's CFO and president to retire

Robert LaPenta, president and chief financial officer of L-3 Communications Corp., will retire April 1, the company said today.

LaPenta also will leave L-3's board of directors. Frank Lanza, the company's chairman and chief executive officer, will take over as president during an interim period. Michael Strianese will become chief financial officer.

LaPenta, one of the company's cofounders, was "instrumental in L-3's growth from a spin-off from Lockheed Martin Corp. with $650 million in annualized revenues in 1997 to an S&P 500 company with an estimated $6.8 billion in revenues in 2004 and a market capitalization of approximately $9 billion," Lanza said.

Strianese, one of LaPenta's protoges, has 25 years' experience in finance, including 15 years in the defense industry. He joined the company in 1997 as vice president of finance and controller, and was promoted to senior vice president of finance in March 2001.

Headquartered in New York, L-3 provides a range of technology-based services, support and products to federal, state and local governments and to the commercial sector. Its federal clients include the Defense and Homeland Security departments, government intelligence agencies and aerospace prime contractors. The company ranks No. 14 on Washington Technology's 2004 Top 100 list of federal prime contractors. It employs about 38,000 workers and had 2003 revenue of $5.1 billion.