Gilligan departs SRA, launches IT consultancy

John Gilligan has left SRA International Inc., where he was vice president and deputy director of the defense sector. His resignation was effective mid-May.

"It just appeared time to look at new options," Gilligan said. "As I looked around and talked to a number of colleagues, most of whom were doing consulting work, I determined that at least for the foreseeable future that's what I would embark on."

Gilligan has formed Gilligan Group, a private consulting company seeking to provide expertise in government information technology. "The areas that I am most interested in, based on my background, are the cybersecurity area and acquisition program management," he said. "So those are the areas that I will gravitate a bit more to."

Gilligan has talked with colleagues about possible partnering relationships, "but that's still in the evaluation phase," he said. "I'll see whether that makes sense at the right point."

He also hopes to devote more time now to the numerous boards and commissions he belongs to, including the Cyber Security Commission, Army Science Board and Software Engineering Institute at Carnegie Mellon University in Pittsburgh. "I wanted a little more time to be able to participate in those activities than I was able to do at a company like SRA," he said.

Before joining SRA about three years ago, Gilligan held numerous senior-level positions during a 24-year government career, most recently as chief information officer at the Air Force and before that as CIO at the Energy Department.

SRA, of Fairfax, Va., ranks No. 32 on Washington Technology's 2008 Top 100 list of the largest federal government prime contractors.