ManTech, BAE and SAIC shift executive positions

If the government market were the NBA, the shifts in the executive suites among three major government systems integrators would be seen as a series of blockbuster trades.

First, ManTech International Corp. announced that it was hiring Lawrence Prior as president and chief operating officer. Prior was the COO of Science Applications International Corp.

Two weeks later, BAE Systems Inc. said its chief executive officer, Walt Havenstein, was resigning to become CEO of SAIC. One catch with Havenstein’s joining SAIC is that because of his contract with BAE, where he also was COO of the British parent company, he will not begin work there until September.

BAE is now searching for his replacement. In the meantime, retired Marine Corps Gen. Anthony Zinni, a member of the BAE Systems Inc. board, is acting president and CEO of BAE. Not a bad player to bring off the bench.

SAIC kicked off the round of high-level openings as the company's mandatory retirement age for its chairman and CEO forces out Ken Dahlberg, who will turn 65 in the next year. Openings also were created by the departure of ManTech COO Robert Coleman, who left the company in April to form his own company, Six3 Systems Inc., which made its first acquisition in June.