Baroni departs as head of Unisys federal

Greg Baroni, who has led Unisys Corp.' federal government business since 2001, has left the company.

Unisys announced today that Edward "Ted" Davies was named president of Unisys Federal Systems.

A company statement said Baroni left to pursue other interests.

Davies has led Unisys's civilian government business for five years, winning contracts with the Justice, Health and Human Services and Agriculture departments. He is a former executive vice president with TeleConsultants and a partner at Booz Allen Hamilton Inc.

Baroni joined the company in October 2001 after working for what was then known as KPMG Consulting for 20 years.

Unisys Federal has struggled with some high-profile contracts in recent years, most notably its work with the Transportation Security Administration's information technology infrastructure contract.

Unisys won the original $1 billion Information Technology Managed Services contract to built the infrastructure in 2002. It won a bridge contract that extends the work through the end of 2008.

Both TSA and Unisys, however, have come under fire from Congress and the department's inspector general.

Unisys lost an early round of competition this year for the recompete when it failed to make the cut as a bidder during the down-select process. It was reinstated as a bidder after it protested TSA's decision. The agency is expected to award the $2 billion IT Infrastructure Program contract by the end of the year.

Baroni's departure comes at a time of transition for Unisys. The company's chairman and chief executive officer Joseph McGrath announced that he will resign by the end of the year as the company searches for a new leader.

In a statement, the company said that McGrath and the board of directors agreed that a "change in leadership would best enable Unisys to move forward."

Unisys has been under attack by MMI Investments LP, a New York investment firm that holds about 9.1 percent of Unisys Stock. The investment firm has criticized the company since 2007 for "the seemingly continuous stream of management, operational and financial missteps," the Wall Street Journal reported.

Also this year, Unisys retained Goldman Sachs & Co. to investigate alternatives for maximizing shareholder value. McGrath said in July that he expected results of the investigation to be announced by the end of the year.

Unisys ranks No. 26 on Washington Technology's 2008 Top 100 list of the largest federal government prime contractors.