QinetiQ consolidation plan sparked Apogen CEO's resignation

Paul Leslie, who resigned last Friday as president and chief executive officer of Apogen Technologies Inc., said he decided to move on as parent company QinetiQ North America begins to consolidate its acquisitions.

"The timing was just good for me to leave," he told Washington Technology.

Leslie, one of the founders of Apogen in 2003, said QinetiQ North America has begun to integrate the several companies it has acquired in recent years, including Apogen, which operated virtually independent since it was purchased in 2005 for about $300 million in cash.

The U.K.-based defense contractor also acquired St. Louis-based Westar Aerospace and Defense Group and Foster-Miller, a Waltham, Mass.-based engineering and technology development company.

"I am assuming that by the end of the year all of the companies will pretty much be known as QinetiQ North America as it moves forward into the next calendar year," he said.

QinetiQ's integration plan was something "I just don't get a lot of energy from," Leslie added.

Leslie will take a few months off before deciding what to do next. "We built Apogen with private equity and we did it in a very short period of time. I still think there are those types of opportunities out there."

He plans to speak with private equity groups and some investment bankers in the area, as well as some companies he knows that are looking for help. "I'm hoping that by the fall I'll be ready to jump back in," he said.

QinetiQ North America is ranked No. 45 on Washington Technology's 2007 Top 100 list of federal prime contractors.